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Arch Enemy is so generic you can't tell which album is good or bad. True ? Let's try to sort them a bit
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1.
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Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine
2005 / Doomsday is my favorite album because it features the most intricate riffs and song ideas. Listen to the groovy riff of 'My Apocalypse', and its surprising break mid-verse. Or which of 'Skeleton Dance', oddly syncopated... the fully instrumental yet vivid Hybrids Of Steel, the thrashy 'Out For Blood', the so dynamic 'Machtkampf', the instantly recognizable 'Nemesis'. This album is nothing groundbreaking, but is merely efficient. Its prelude 'Enter The Machine', combined with the intro of 'Taking Back My Soul' is breath-taking, and leads to a whole piece of music which never loses one's attention and is amazingly enjoyable. |
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2.
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Arch Enemy - Wages Of Sin
2001 / First album with Angela Gossow, and a pretty hard punch in the face. Most of the songs off it are unforgettable Arch Enemy classics, such as 'Heart Of Darkness', 'Burning Angel', 'Dead Bury Their Dead', 'Ravenous' or 'Enemy Within'. The album pace is generally fast and forthgoing, that carries a feeling of power all along. My only reserve on this album is 'The First Deadly Sin', too redundant of Black Earth, and lacking blow for me not to feel a little bored. |
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3.
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Arch Enemy - Stigmata
1998 / Amongst the Liiva albums, Stigmata stands as the most achevied one. It was churned out with the good old Gothenburg tricks, and can recall the first records of In Flames or Dark Tranquillity. Some dirty unfriendly tremolo riffs, with melodic breaks for choruses, and mighty solos. 'Stigmata', 'Sinister Mefisto', 'Black Earth' and 'Dark Of The Sun' are good examples. It's fun to hear - as in Black Earth and Burning Brigdes - the faint traces of Arch-Enemy-like composition signature. |
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4.
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Arch Enemy - Will To Power
2017 / What ? Will To Power on the 4th place ? Well, know what, it may be once again a generic Arch Enemy album wasting their authors' talent and listeners' time, but I have to say I fairly enjoy it. As for War Eternal, they gave a special attention to the sound (synth, distorsion, effects, mixing...), which helps to forget about the past records. Alissa's singing to me is far more impressive than before, and now equals Angela in terms of power and versatility. I'm not fan of her clean voice, but I'm glad it's at last featured on an AE album. Some songs really make it. I actually like 'A Figth I Must Win' and 'The Race' a lot ! ...But of course little haters, let's feed you with reasons to complain about this album. The picture of Earth setting by Moon, at the beginning of 'The World Is Yours' MV. It makes me think of 'Lunar Strain' by In Flames, and it bothers me a lot to see AE quoting this album which is so much more interesting than theirs. Away my personal gripe, the lyrics of Will To Power are particularly vain, cheesy and vapid. I mean, more than the other albums, which is astonnishing already. I'd like to address one issue with AE's composition : Ascending/Descending Scales. Amott seems to like that a lot. For both solos and riffs. It's been done along the whole discography, but now results into the riff of 'The Eagle Flies Alone'. That is not acceptable. Is this what "melodic" is about ? shame. |
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5.
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Arch Enemy - War Eternal
2014 / My analysis will be close to which for Will To Power. They surely showed more inspiration for this one, and after the albums of 2007 and 2011, it felt like fresh air. For once we could stutter out that they experimented a bit, with sound and melody. Although fairly enjoyable, my problem with this album is the amount of songs I can't stand until the end. Like they are very tiresome ('As The Pages Burn', 'Down To Nothing'...). |
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6.
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Arch Enemy - Burning Bridges
1999 / This one is like a mix of Stigmata and Wages Of Sin, and makes a really good bridge between the two (no pun intended). It's not my cup of tea, as I prefer Stigmata for the Gothenburg side and Wages for the "modern" Arch Enemy style. |
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7.
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Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion
2003 / This album is often quoted as the best AE release, and I definitively see why. It has a certain musical commitment, in the way riffs are written, and also Angela's voice which is higher pitched than usual. I don't like it at all, but I respect it. At least we have there an AE album that stands apart and have its own colors. It's also with this album that Arch Enemy's themes became closely related to rebellion. As opposed to pre-Anthems albums, the songs from then tend to revolve around defiance, egocentricity, atheism, anarchy, and that's part of the reasons I don't like the latest albums this much, it feels demagogic a lot. |
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8.
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Arch Enemy - Black Earth
1996 / Many of the songs don't make it for me, like 'Bury Me And Angel', 'Cosmic Retribution', 'Demoniality' and 'Transmigration Macabre'. Let's pretend it's because it's the first album. But notice how 'Fields Of Desolation' sounds like a "modern" AE song, with this kind of typical melodic breaks. |
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9.
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Arch Enemy - Rise Of The Tyrant
2007 / Now for the true culprits of musical offense, responsible more than every other album for Arch Enemy bashing. The root of the problem : ugly cover art. (joking). The root of the problem : brainless heartless application of recipes proved working before. Once again we are granted drum patterns, melodic breaks, fast licks, anthem-like choruses, rebellious lyrics, but it's now purely academic, and genuine by no means. This leaves us with bland songs, somewhat catchy but running short, that you believe having already heard before. I can't tell I don't enjoy some of the moments in this album, but that the matter. They are moments, very short. And the rest is relatively painful to listen too, by an exhausting effect. I talked already about nonsensical lyrics and Amott's mania for ascending/descing scales, but if you've read this list in order this is where it should really strike you and become irritating. |
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10.
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Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
2011 / Basically, in my mind, Khaos is the same as Rise Of The Tyrant, but twice as worst. Even more uninspired, boring, nonsensical, pretentious, generic... etc. So this album and the previous one threw AE in the pitfall, because for the first time accusions of the band being only in business for the money and not for music, nor the fans, highly gained credibility. It also added generic songs to the songpool, making it harder for new songs not to induce dejà-vu. |
Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
[ More lists by Ansercanagicus ]
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