There are a few bands in metal that can guarantee you that you will have a great time at their concerts, if you like their music that is. Whether their albums are masterpieces or something less it is irrelevant. I believe that Arch Enemy is one of these bands. Whenever they announce a live, it ’s a sure thing that they will be great performance-wise and that the fans will have fun. Their last release, “Khaos Legions”, may have received mixed reviews, but the fact that the band will take a long break after their tour is finished, made many metalheads run to Gagarin last Friday.

The time was about 20:15 when Insidead came on stage. Having only one full-length album on their back-catalog, but having performed live many times, Insidead appeared to be very comfortable on stage, full of energy and in good communication with the audience, which wasn’t very big at the time. Their setlist was based on their album, “Chaos Elecdead”, but we also heard two songs that will probably be in their next album, coming out some time around April, and of course the traditional covers. Around the middle of the set, it was time for Metallica’s “Blackened” and for the first mosh pits of the night. I have to say that I was quite surprised by the response of the fans. The majority was headbanging right from the start, some even knew the lyrics of Insidead’s songs, and when the band played “In My World”, they formed a wall of death. After 45 minutes, Insidead closed their set with another cover, “Blood And Thunder” by Mastodon, and a small part of Pantera’s “Domination” as the cherry on top. So, Insidead did their job really well. Not only they warmed us up, they almost burned us. And we would have enjoyed the songs even more if the sound wasn’t that average.

Gagarin was now almost full, and everybody was waiting for tonight’s headliners. At 21:30, “Khaos Overture” started playing and we knew it was time. Arch Enemy hit the stage and the first thing I heard was some guys shouting “Marry me, Angela!”, or “Strip!” (or something less polite) and the answer they got was “I hear you guys shouting and I don’t understand what you’re saying, but if you’re asking me to strip, you’re a bit unlucky tonight”!! So, after that the set started powerfully with “Yesterday Is Dead And Gone” and “Revolution Begins”. It was clear that we would listen to many songs from the last release, but we also heard many songs from “Wages Of Sin”. After the third song, the sound was top notch, and I was amazed by how good Angela’s growling was live (maybe Michaels Amott’s guitar should be heard a bit more clearly). The band was in a very good mood, and Angela didn’t stop headbanging and running up and down the stage, not for a minute. And she spent quite some time talking to the fans about the crisis and other stuff, prologuing this way every song. “Ravenous”, “Enemy Within” and “My Apocalypse” were next and the crowd responded with crazy headbanging and mosh pits. When the band left the stage, it was time for Daniel Erlandsson to demonstrate his skills in a crazy drum solo, a nice break for everybody’s necks. The headbanging started again with “Under Black Flags We March”, and there was Angela waving a big black flag, and continued with “Dead Eyes See No Future”. This time, the band left the stage once again and the two remaining were the Amott brothers on guitars. Christopher Amott’s guitar solo turned into “Intermezzo Libertè” by Michael Amott. It was a truly beautiful moment. “Burning Angel”, “No Gods, No Masters” and “We Will Rise” followed. The third time the band left the stage was for the encore. Yes, the crowd wanted more, and Arch Enemy granted them with “Snow Bound”. During “Nemesis” the fans went totally wild, and the set closed with “Fields Of Desolation”.

All in all, Friday night was great. I had fun and so did the majority of the people that was there. Some might have wanted to hear something from the Liiva era, but that didn’t happen. Arch Enemy gave us exactly what we expected. There were no surprises, but the good performance along with energy between the band and the fans made sure that no one would regret his being there.

Report: Stella Papaspyropoulou.
Photos: Stella Papaspyropoulou.

Khaos Legions moves to almost the same motif of the band’s previous studio albums but also “heads off” a step further, fulfilled with preponderance of flashy leads, melodeth elements, and Angela Gossow’s dark, evilish growls. She is unquestionably evilish and vicious in this one as in other band’s previous releases, with a more mature vocalistic appearance. As already mentioned while we experience a few “heavy” songs, the monotony ceases and we end up listening power metal with death vocals – this can be clearly noticed in “No Gods, No Masters”.

Opening with “Khaos Overture”, you are bombarded with the melodic guitar work of the Amott brothers, followed by a vicious voice introducing you the Khaos Legions. The album’s first official single, “Yesterday is Dead and Gone” proves the valuableness of the band, the intense catchy melodic hooks and the definitely memorable guitar solos. In this album the Swedish “Melodeaths” do experiment without renouncing death metal. They have become more atmospheric, produce melodic diversity, Amott brothers flirt with their solos and with their guitars that deliver to the crowd razor sharp tunes. They also borrow power metal elements combining all the above together, with an outstanding result….and, indeed, they not only kick serious ass but make us believe that they need to progress even more, and they are not afraid to test their ability and challenge us to “follow” them.
Moving on, “Bloodstained Cross” has a Slayer feel to the riffs and has a somewhat slow, melodic chorus. “Through the Eyes of a Raven” has a catchy riff and reminds us of the Viking style of Amon Amarth.
A pure melodic death “headbanger” song of the album, unquestionably is “Vengeance is Mine”, trash beats, fiery guitars and great drum thrusting, making it one of the best tracks that stand out from Khaos Legions.
Khaos Legions also includes 3 instrumentals to enforce the acoustic work of the band.

If someone, though, asks me about the album’s artwork, I would definitely refuse to even gaze at it again, it is lame, in my point of view, compared to that of their previous release, “Rise of the Tyrant”. I do not know why, but is seems that is a last minute work.

Overall, closing this melodeth journey, guys, I can say no more than to check it out, I am sure you will be delighted and it is worth listening. Khaos Legions thrilled me, and it is a fact that we are dealing with a band that is not afraid to break the boundaries and discover another dimension, experiment and endorse to musical diversity. The album has hypnotic melodies, memorable songs that will keep you going all day long and it has definitely the sense of aggression and rebel-ism that the band pushes out to its crowd!
Hell yeah, that was refreshing!

Standout tracks: ” City of the Dead “, ” Thorns In My Flesh “, “Bloodstained Cross”, ” Cruelty Without Beauty “,”Vengeance is Mine “.

In a 2001 interview with Metal-Rules.com, Gossow stated about the ARCH ENEMY fans’ reaction to her joining the band, “99 percent [of them] reacted very positively — most of them didn’t know about my gender when they heard the [initial audio samples] first. We revealed my identity later. Many [described it as] a mixture of Jeff Walker [CARCASS] and Anders Fridén [IN FLAMES], [so] they were shocked when reading my name. I got many excited mails and great feedback on our comment site online.”

ARCH ENEMY’s new album, “Khaos Legions”, will be released on May 30 in Europe and June 7 in the U.S. via Century Media Records. The CD marks the band’s return to new, original material, after the release of the “Tyrants Of The Rising Sun – Live In Japan” live DVD/CD (2008) and the re-recordings album, “The Root Of All Evil” (2009). The effort was tracked at Sweet Spot Studio in the south of Sweden with engineer Rickard Bengtsson (who produced 2005’s “Doomsday Machine”).

Source: www.blabbermouth.net

, dubbed “Global Connections”. Check out the segment featuring the countries Sweden and Malaysia tonight at 10:00 p.m. CET (local broadcast times vary per territory). Singer Angela Gossow’s appearance will air around 10:40 p.m. CET and will subsequently be available online at this location.

ARCH ENEMY was originally scheduled to perform in Maldives on July 23, but the concert ended up being pushed back to the next day due to bad weather and strong winds, organizers said.

According to MaxLevel, LeCute RockStorm Chapter 3 – Awake your Senses, the show was postponed after several pieces of equipment — including the sound tent — were blown away by strong winds on the morning of July 23.

“The only pending work was sound testing. When a band like this performs, they personally test the sound. But our equipments were damaged in the strong winds [Friday] morning,” Mohamed Rasheed, MaxLevel Managing Director, said, according to Haveeru.

Rasheed said the damaged lights were adjusted and repaired and assured the fans that the show would go ahead the following day.

Source: www.blabbermouth.net

On the occasion of Arch Enemy’s live shows in Greece, Metalpaths visited the band at their hyper-luxurious hotel. Sharlee D’angelo who has been also a member of bands such as Mercyful Fate and Dismember in the past, welcomed us and in a really great mood talked about “The Root Of All Evil”, what makes Japan so special for Arch Enemy, the future palnds of the band and also about Gus G., the new Megadeth and Slayer albums and the partnership that he had with King Diamond. You can either watch the video interview or read it below.

Video Interview:

So, here we are with Sharlee from Arch Enemy at Metalpaths.com. How are you Sharlee?

Fine, what about you?

I’m fine. So, “The Root Of All Evil” is your latest release featuring re-recorded songs from your first three albums but with Angela on vocals this time. How did this idea came out?

Well, it’s something that we’ve been toying with for a while, just because a lot of people have been asking for some of the old songs as well. But then again when we included them in the set, the reaction wasn’t the greatest, because as far as the majority is concerned “Wages Of Sin” was our first album and they really know from that era of the band. So we thought why don’t we try to re-record some of them and release them again, just to make the songs a bit more up to date and actual. We’ve been talking about this idea and lot of people thought it would be a good thing to do. So that’s the main reason for doing it.

Did you enjoy recording all of these old songs again in the studio or it was a little bit boring maybe especially for the older members of the band that have already done all of this again in the past?

No, not really, we all enjoyed doing it. Especially for me, I joined on the third album and most of the bass on the previous albums was done by Michael and Christopher and some of the production wasn’t the best either. So it’s good to re-present it with a better package. It was fun going in and recording an album without the long process of actually writing it first, and I think that’s the thing that makes people want to do a cover album. We also did a little bit of rearranging, but not very much, so we kept it quite true to the original thing.

Was it difficult to distinguish which songs to re-record? What were your criteria?

There was a lot of arguing about that, because everybody has their one favorites. I mean there are some songs that are very obvious to do. There are so many of them you know, a couple of mine didn’t make it on the album. We debated over this for a long time, boiled down 12-13 songs that we could do, so that everybody would be happy with. I think it’s a pretty good selection, and if we had more time we could have made a double album instead (laughs). There’s a piece of some of the most important songs, as most are part of live sets. It’s fun because some of these songs haven’t been played live before, like “Demonic Science” which we did for the first time in Japan and I think tonight will be the second, let’s see how it goes (laughs).

There is also another CD out on stores, a compilation one called “Manifesto of Arch Enemy”. What about this?

We have nothing to do with really, if we had put together a compilation, it would be a more extensive package. It’s just something our label put out, they’ve done it with several of their bands. It’s something like a “greatest hits”, all of them have the same type of cover, it’s something to make people more familiar with our music, a way to get younger people buy CDs, like a promotional tool.

So what are you doing in this period of time? A lot of touring I guess?

We just finished a run with Asia, Australia and New Zealand and now we’re starting off from here Thessaloniki, do a little European tour up until Christmas basically. We have a couple of weeks off, and then it’s the US and then some European things lined up again.

As we are talking about live shows and countries, your relationship with Japan differs from the other countries. What makes Japan so special for Arch Enemy?

Well, they were the first country to embrace us with open arms back in 1997, which was great, because up until 2001 or something we didn’t really tour much of the world, except some US and European tours. Japan was always there, we have quite popularity there, so they remain special for us. It’s something about the way Japanese people listen to music I think. There are a lot of fans there that listen to music the same way that I do, but except for the passion they pay attention to details a lot more than the rest of the world. They can go crazy during a song, but as soon as someone starts talking, the others are like “pay attention”, which is why they can also go a bit quiet in between songs. They are a different type of crowd, Japan is a wonderful country, and I’m glad I’ve been able to go there so many times and make a lot of friends.

Getting back to the music, are you going to release a new album in the near future?

Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of loose ideas that gradually come together as songs every time we rehearse. For example when we rehearse a live set, we get bored halfway and start playing new stuff instead (laughs). We have little pieces of music, there’s a constant writing process, but we just need a period of time and concentration so that we can actually turn them into whole songs.

Can you tell us some words about how is it going to be or what could the fans expect from the new album?

It’s too early to tell, because there are so many different ideas and what’s going to turn into songs or be left behind. There are always ideas that we try to incorporate into songs and sometimes they don’t make it. A couple of albums later though, someone says “what about that riff?” so these ideas may come out of the drawer because they fit perfectly to a new song. They are small but still alive.

When do you think this new album will be out?

It’s very hard to say. A wild guess, I hope it will be out probably in early 2011.

Recently, Gus G., that you have been partners with some years ago, joined Ozzy Osbourne. Would you like to comment on this?

It’s great. I think he’s the perfect guy because he’s not only a good lead player, he’s also an extremely good rhythm player, which is needed if you’re the only player in such a guitar-driven outfit as Ozzy’s. Ozzy had always legendary guitar players, so Gus has pretty big shoes to fill, but I think he’s absolutely perfect for it. He’s one of the few young, aspiring guitar heroes that we have in this world. He has many roots, and if you consider his age and listen to what he has played, you’ll definitely think he is twice that age. He’s really good, we are very happy that he could help us out when we needed it, he did a great job, we also had him out in the US last year, but he always had his focus on Firewind.

Megadeth and Slayer recently released an album. Have you listened to them? Would you like to tell us your opinion?

Actually, I’ve only heard three songs of the new Slayer so far. I like it because it has a bit of an old school vibe in it. I need to sit down and listen to it more though, which is strange, because usually whenever a new Slayer album is out, I’m over it like a hawk. For some reason I’ve been busy and I wasn’t able to sit down and listen to it, but I hope I’ll finally pick it up one of these days and listen to it closely. The new Megadeth is good I think, It has brilliant production. David Mustaine is the perfect guy for them. Megadeth together with Slayer are bands that influenced Arch Enemy the most.

We are a few steps before the end of 00’s and our webzine is working on a big tribute about this. I would like to ask you how productive were this decade in your opinion for metal? Do you notice any highlights? Which are your favourite releases and bands of 00’s?

There are a lot. The weird thing is that if you ask me about the 70’s, the 80’s or even the 90’s it would be so much easier to do it, because this has been the decade when I’ve been the most busy myself with music. It’s a bit of a blur in that sense. Of course there are highlights. I think especially the year 2000 was really good for metal. Nevermore released “Dead Heart In A Dead World”, a fantastic album and The Haunted released “Made Me Do It”, which was also absolutely amazing. One of my favourites is Spiritual Beggars’ “On Fire”, but that was the year 2002 or 2003, I can’t really remember. God, it’s almost 10 years of music and it’s really hard (laughs). As you can tell, the ones I’ve mentioned are from the beginning of the decade. After a couple of years it will be easier because you start to think about it. For example the 80’s, you’ve had a few years to boil it down and figure which albums meant the most to you and things like that. This decade is still too new (laughs).

Could you compare the 00’s decade with the previous one of 90’s? What differences can you see? Do you think that in comparison with the past the things are better or worst nowadays?

Well, it is different, because in the 90’s the focus was still on selling albums. Nowadays, that’s not really happening. The albums are almost dead. We might still be able to sell music online, but people just get it for free or just pick songs. We’re fortunate to play in a crowd where people still care about owning a physical product, which I think is good, they still have special interest in music.

We are during a world financial crisis. Do you think that the crisis have a negative effect to music as well? Many labels are talking about abolishing physical cds and replace them with digital albums. What’s your point of view?

I’m old school. I mean when I grew up, at first there was vinyl. So, for me it was a step down going to cd as well and get used to that. Now, having nothing is not really for me, but I understand how young people listen to music through a concept with their phones basically (laughs). Then is the deal that bands spend a lot of time in the studio, making albums perfect, the way they want them to sound, which is little redundant nowadays because people listen to music through the phone speaker, so what’s the point of producing an album (laughs)? There are many different ways of seeing that, but for that, times change and you’ve got to go with it, but for me I like the physical product.

You have played in many bands in the past. What was so special about Arch Enemy and you fit so perfect the last 10 years?

I had the opportunity to play with really great bands, but I think I was just playing there. Finally you find a place to call home. It’s like having a few girlfriends or boyfriends before you find the one to get married with, it’s the same process I think. Especially the lineup we have in this band is just so definitive. You’ve noticed that Chris disappeared for a couple of years, we’ve had Gus and Fredrik Åkesson as well, both really great guitar players, but there was a little piece missing. As soon as he got back it was like “oh that’s it, that’s the thing” you know. Everything it’s about personal and musical chemistry.

A few words for your old partner King Diamond?

I’ve had a few really great years in Mercyful Fate and I’m really thankful for that opportunity, because I was a long time fan as well. In the beginning it was like playing in the world’s greatest cover band with original members, it was fantastic (laughs). I got to make a bunch of albums with them and it’s also the band where I learned the ropes of the business and everything, a valuable lesson. It was good fun and great guys to play with. It was also a cool thing to see what they did for Guitar Hero.

Thank you for your time Sharlee. Is there anything you’d like to add, a message for the fans in Greece or whatever?

Hail Satan (laughs).

Interview by: Karagiannidis Panagiotis
Translation by: Thanasis Gatziouras.

The concert began a little later than scheduled, since there were warnings for people not to smoke, as Angela was not feeling that good, so she had to keep her voice maintained for the show. She later thanked the crowd for the patience and she really did her best. ”The Immortal” was the ideal opener, especially when everyone expected a new one, headbanging, sweat and moshing set the stage of what was to follow. ”Revolution Begins” was next, and the Arch Enemy revolution has really began for a lot of years now. ”Ravenous” was the first to cause yelling and maniac reactions with its complex riff and the pounding drumming of Daniel Erlandsson.

”My Apocalypse” followed with a lot of groove and Angela, despite her health issues being the battering ram of the band. They had won the battle with the crowd for good, and playing ”Demonic Science” from ”Burning Bridges” was nothing else but a right move in the right time. Without delay, when it was over, ”Dead Eyes See No Future” made Block 33 roll over, a tremendous song with the changes in rhythms working out better in a live situation. A drum solo by Erlandsson was the prequel to ”I Will Live Again” (which i’d prefer not to be played but i won’t start nagging). Soon after its end, the great riff of ”Dead Bury The Dead” was at place, a great surpise from ”Wages Of Sin”, the first album with Angela. She told us that the next was a song of unity, so we understood it was time for the ultimate hit ”We Will Rise”.

Reactions can’t be described, even the girls took part on the moshpit and this continued as soon as the riff of ”Blood On Your Hands” destroys the silence caused after the previous blow. The band leaves the stage and returns with ”Snow Bound” instrumental feeling the gap for ”Nemesis”. Again the place goes up and down and the final riff of ”Fields Of Desolation” tells us that the show is over.

In overall, it was a great show as long as it lasted. But on the other hand, it was 75 minutes, counting the solos out it was approximately one hour of playing only. I really understand the problem with Angela but in their place, i wouldn’t do the show at all, it was too short for people who paid 30 euros and the promoters did their best to keep order inside the club with the smoking issue. I don’t say that it was on purpose, but it surely left mixed feelings to the fans.

Finally, I have to state that my back and neck are in tremendous pain since then, the band was energetic and I hope next time we will have our payback. I’ll see them in France on summer and i’ll tell you more details then.

Report: Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.
Photos: Karagiannidis Panagiotis.

Germany: #84
Sweden: #69
Japan: #7 (international artist chart)
Japan: #21 (combined chart)

“The Root Of All Evil” sold around 1,500 copies in the United Staes in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It features re-recorded versions of songs from the band’s first three LPs — “Black Earth” (1996), “Stigmata” (1998) and “Burning Bridges” (1999). Acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, EXODUS) mixed and mastered the CD, which was recorded at a few different locations in Sweden and produced by ARCH ENEMY with Daniel Erlandsson and Rickard Bengtsson handling the engineering.

The Japanese edition of “The Root Of All Evil”, which was made available on September 30, features five bonus tracks, including cover versions of “Wings Of Tomorrow” (EUROPE) and “Walk In The Shadows” (QUEENSRŸCHE).

ARCH ENEMY will embark on a European headlining run in December with support from DESTRUCTION, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS and TRIOSPHERE.

Watch the live video for “Dark Insanity” here.

Source: www.blabbermouth.net

For many Arch Enemy fans, especially the ones who got to know them before Angela joined forces with them, ”Black Earth”, ”Stigmata” and ”Burning Bridges” are three phenomenal albums. One incident that made them even better, was Johan Liiva (now on Hearse). A charismatic vocalist who sung with such passion, like he felt each note inside his soul. So, Mrs. Gossow had a really difficult tusk, trying to fill Liiva’s shoes. She has gained experience of course these eight years she is in the band, having sung most of these songs numerous times. But that doesn’t mean of course that she can do it the same well. You can’t blame her for lack of effort, passion or brutality. Entering Arch Enemy, brought her and the group tremendous success, that they might have never had if Liiva stayed in the band. Also, it is rumored that back in the past, many problems occured inside the band, something that seems now to have been solved in the most possible way. What I have objections for, is the fact that some orchestrations have changed in some songs. As example, ”Transmigration Macabre” sounds so lame in this release… It is such a pity for such tunes to lose enough of their initial power.

”The Root Of All Evil” contains brutal, fast, melodic and mid tempo moments of the band’s former days, there can’t be complain about variation here. Also, as a gift, they give us three live bonus tracks of old songs, with ”Bridge Of Destiny” being a cool surprise. I can’t convince even myself to take this release seriously. Not that i don’t enjoy it, but to be honest, having had some listenings to it, i am sure i will rarely get into it in the near future. Michael Amott is a man whose past has revealed some great moments, whatever he has done is characterised by quality. This time makes a fault i think. Having lately released a dvd, this movement shows that ”The Root Of All Evil” was made just to fill the gap until the next full album of the Swedish metallers. How many will get enthused by this move, I can’t really tell. But I can tell you one thing for sure, don’t blame me for past lover or anything else.

This time, I really missed Johan Liiva more than ever. Some things you can’t return. And some others you just can’t change them.