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It might be due to my typically old-fashioned approach towards music, but despite everyone trying to pass these Arch Enemy off as geniuses, I can't seem to find anything good in the Swedish band.
The group formed in 1995 in Halmstad, Sweden, where they started gaining experience by proposing music that over the years progressively moved away from death metal, adopting decidedly more melodic tones, simplifying the offer and making it accessible to an increasingly larger audience: this evolution (or regression) ends in 2000, when the already not-so-great screamer Axelsson is replaced by the beautiful yet bland Angela Gossow, a sort of "furiously angry" Barbie, who with her image manages to skyrocket the band's listenership until it becomes one of the most important and followed bands in the melodic death metal scene.
That's how after "Wages Of Sin," "Anthems Of Rebellion," and "Doomsday Machine," Arch Enemy returns in 2007 with this latest "Rise Of The Tyrant," which honestly marks the lowest point in the career of these five musicians: out of eleven tracks, ten sound disarmingly flat, not only presenting a large number of melodies already heavily exploited by thousands of other groups, but there's also a further simplification in the dynamics of the songs, all structured similarly and presenting the classic verse-chorus-solo scheme more than once.
Terrible is the attempt to grab an even larger audience with the embarrassing lead single "Revolution Begins", a musical base more suitable for groups like Evanescence or Lacuna Coil rather than a death band (moreover, the juxtaposition of the melodic base with Angela's growl voice really clashes).
In this boundless valley of banality, there lies an instrumental piece of great charm, I'm referring to "Intermezzo Liberté", which could help forget a bit all the junk listened to up to that moment, if it weren't that it falls back into crudeness with pieces like "Night Falls Fast" or "The Great Darkness".
There's no need to beat around the bush, if already with the previous "Doomsday Machine" Arch Enemy missed the target, here it seems that our guys didn’t even aim for it, and not even a production costing thousands of euros or excellent execution (the Amott duo has always been synonymous with great technique) can hide evident compositional flaws and lack of ideas.
Failed from every point of view... or almost.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Blood on Your Hands (04:41)
You were born
Your brother's keeper
Why can I see
Blood on your hands
You became
Your brother's slayer
Embrace again in death
At the end
Of all this hatred
Lies a deeper hate
Their darkness
Has defeated you
Your lifeline
Running backwards
Remember
Sins of our fathers
A requiem
For the countless dead
Blood is on your hands
The wages of sin
Future's eyes closing now
Soul eclipse taking place
Laments rise
Tears of the dead
From the other side of the grave
You were born
Your brother's keeper
Why can I see
Blood on your hands
Their darkness
Has defeated you
Your lifeline
Running backwards
Remember
Sins of our fathers
A requiem
For the countless dead
Blood is on your hands
The wages of sin
-Solos-
Future's eyes closing now
Soul eclipse taking place
Tears of the dead
From the other side of the grave
The other side of the grave
Blood is on your hands
The wages of ..SIN!
04 In This Shallow Grave (04:54)
Who is your god
Is he not mine?
Who is your devil
Are we the same?
What makes you worse?
What makes me better?
Never to trust again
How long have I got?
In this darkened maze
They keep me awake
They scream at night
Screams at night
Who is the master?
In this shallow grave
Born to die for a lie
I have no soul
I have no pride
Genocide
Where is justice, in this hell
Where is liberty, I paid the price
My life blood runs dry
Slowly drained from me
Never to trust again
How long have I got?
In this darkened maze
They keep me awake
They scream at night
Screams at night
Who is the master?
In this shallow grave
Born to die for a lie
I have no soul
I have no pride
Genocide
Genocide!
-Solos-
Screams at night
Who is the master?
In this shallow grave
Born to die for a lie
I have no soul
I have no pride
Genocide
Alone
In this shallow grave
I die
05 Revolution Begins (04:12)
Since the day that you were born
The wheels are in motion
Turning ever faster
Play your part in the big machine
The stage is set
The road is chosen
Your fate preordained
We are watching you
Every step of the way
Never too late
To stand your ground
Revolution begins
In you, in me
Revolution
Once lost, lost in the game
Mental chains, breaking now
Set yourself free
Who are they to tell you what to do?
This stage is not set
The road is not chosen
Your fate not preordained
They are losing control
Every step of your way
Never too late
To stand your ground
Revolution begins
In you, in me
Revolution
-Solos-
Never too late
Too stand your ground
Revolution begins
In you, in me
Revolution
Revolution
-Solo-
11 Vultures (06:35)
Breathing life into these mares
Where enemies turn into flesh
This is the abyss I fear the most
I feel their eyes staring at me
Waiting with
Carnivorous patience
The memory is timeless
For all they know
I must succumb sometime
A solemn cry
Rises to the sky
As heavy wings blacken out
The morning sun
With infinite darkness
Am I dreaming or am I dead
Waiting with
Carnivorous patience
The memory is timeless
For all they know
I must succumb sometime
In search for my heart
Lost in this hell
The vultures are soaring above
Tearing me apart
In search for my heart
Lost in this hell
The vultures are soaring above
Tearing me apart
Screaming voices in my head
A sudden pain in
The deadly silence
Devouring the remains
Of my heart
I can feel it dying
Waiting with carnivorous patience
The memory is timeless
For all they know
I must succumb sometime
In search for my heart
Lost in this hell
The vultures are soaring above
Tearing me apart
In search for my heart
Lost in this hell
The vultures are soaring above
Tearing me apart
Picking at the
Bones of my soul
Left me dead inside
The more I gave
The more they took
Left me dead inside
Left me..
In search for my heart
Forever lost in this hell
The vultures are soaring above
Tearing me apart
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Other reviews
By OzzyRotten
"This album sounds damn good and doesn’t tire upon listening."
"Arch Enemy copy is true. But they copy from their own catalog, and being able to do so, they don’t care, constructing a technically excellent album, tasteful in its content and polished in every part."
