Dead Eyes See No Future

What a fucking transparent cash grab this is, and I bought it. To be fair I bought it because I'm a completionist, but that's really no excuse because there's no reason for anyone to be listening to Arch Enemy after the age of fifteen or so. I feel myself getting worried about geometry class already.

So this CD stitches together a random song snatched from 'Anthems Of Rebellion' (and not even a good one)- the track 'Dead Eyes See No Future' is a perfect example of the listless rock/melodeath that Arch Enemy would master later in their career- followed up by three live track that are essentially indistinguishable from their studio counterparts apart from a little bit of crowd noise and a production job even flatter than on the album. Oh, and you get to listen to Angela Gossow's always cringe-inducing stage banter. What a joy; 'Burning Angel' is one of the worst songs from the otherwise tolerable Gossow album, 'We Will Rise' is pretty still and bland, and 'Heart Of Darkness' follows suit- why were none of Arch Enemy's actual heavy tracks used? Do the fans hate those now.

After that is what a lot of people probably bought the CD for: a set of three covers, each more embarrassing than the last. 'Symphony Of Destruction', not a good song to begin with, is made even more embarrassing and bland due to Gossow's voice and the listless instrumental performances of the rest of the band. Similarly, 'Kill With Power' is almost murdered by Arch Enemy's dedication to generic performances, but the song is powerful enough on its own to withstand even them. 'Incarnated Solvent Abuse' doesn't fair as well; Gossow's simply not cut out for a song like that and neither is the rest of the band (ironically enough), making for a disappointing conclusion to an already ill-advised EP.

Yeah, this sucks like the rest of this era of Arch Enemy. Don't buy it; it'll only encourage them to release more shitty music.

As one of the elite and most recognized acts at the forefront of the Swedish battlelines, Arch Enemy have played an immense role in refining and defining the shape of melodic death metal as we know it today. With an ever evolving sound, the band took another bold step in 2001 by introducing the new female voice of Arch Enemy. Despite much controversy, Angela Gossow's first outing with the band, Wages Of Sin, went on to receive worldwide praise. The ex-Devil In The Details vokillist crushed any and all doubts that a 'girl' could front the legendary Arch Enemy with a brutal performance that went beyond that of Johan Liiva's harsh verses on previous albums. And so a new chapter began...

Now, Arch Enemy is highly respected throughout the world, but none, however, admire them quite as much as the Japanese. To pay tribute to their fan base in Japan, the band dedicated an entire live recording to them whilst on the Burning Bridges tour in 1999 that would be the pricey, hard to find Burning Japan Live. More recently, while on the road promoting their 2003 album Anthems Of Rebellion, the Enemy felt it was necessary to honor Japan once again, this time in the form of an EP. Assembled with the next single, "Dead Eyes See No Future" in mind, the mini-disc was compiled from latter day Gossow rarities, including two live cuts from an earlier Paris show, and three of the band's own renditions of well known metal classics. Fans outside of Japan sat in teary eyed dismay as the Japanese pointed and giggled. Neener! Neener! Neener!

The day that both American and European fans alike have long been hoping for is among us. The Japan only issued Dead Eyes See No Future EP has finally seen worldwide release. No longer will the ravenous such as myself be duped into purchasing shamelessly overpriced copies from auction sites like Ebay. Century Media has opted to seize the opportunity of demand and allow everyone access to the disc. Now everyone stare at the angry Japanese kids as we drive away. No disrespect intended here, but, Neener! to you! Isn't it just about a hoot and a holler being nine years old all over again?

So, shall we discuss the content of the EP in more detail? Yes, lets! As previously stated, Dead Eyes See No Future features live clips of "Burning Angel" and 'We Will Rise", recorded in Paris, France. Every aspect of these tracks are flawless and not far off from their studio counterparts, with the exception of audience participation, of course. On Arch Enemy's remake of the classic Manowar opus "Kill With Power", they take power metal cheese and convert it into their own killer style, slaying the original in every meaning of the word. Examining Michael Amott's memory banks in depth reveals his roots in Carcass. "Incarnate Solvent Abuse" is a blistering heap of putrefied pulverization that runs the risk of lobotomizing the listener. By the end of this ripping number you will surely be indecisive of which version you prefer more. Both slice through your aural senses with surgical precision. Onward, we uncover my only disappointment in Dead Eyes See No Future, and it is very minuscule. With Megadeth's "Symphony Of Destruction", the band's musical performance is right on track, however, when it comes to the vocals, Angela seems to lack feeling in the rhythm enunciations, as if she was singing to a song she had never heard before that day in the studio. Despite that minor issue, the track really rocks!

For the fan's sake, I would hope that Century Media pressed plenty of copies of Dead Eyes See No Future to go around for all Arch Enemy enthusiasts to get their greedy little hands on. This is a priceless addition to any metal collection. Whether you're in America, Europe, or Japan, get yours today. LITERALLY!

This EP starts off with an album track from their latest full-length. Unfortunately, since Angela joined the band, any song that Arch Enemy have written has been rediculoulsy boring, and this is no exception. It doesn't have the feeling of a song, more like a collection of instruments played, while Angela does her worst growl possible over the song, and they try to make as much money as possible. This is all good and well, but Arch Enemy are part of a stagnating genre, and aren't doing anything to help the situation.

Now, the live songs. Arch Enemy sound very much similar live as they do on CD. The riffs are generally well constructed, and as they should be, seeing as who's in the band. But Angela's voice is just even worse than on CD. It really does sound like she's using some sort of distortion on her voice to make it sound as 'death metal' as possible, instead of creating the vocals herself. Of course, these are Arch Enemy songs, and they're still as boring as they are on CD, it's just now we have a live crowd chanting along sometimes. Great....

And we come to the covers. First we have Megadeth's Symphony Of Destruction. A well-respected song, which Arch Enemy managed to completely butcher. Angela's voice is worse than ever before, and it now does sound so much like she has to use voice effects. The instrumentation is well crafted, and re-performed by the band, despite seeming to be pointlessly heavy, and the bass has an annoying tone. They could've not released this song, and still been an average band in my mind, but with this, they ruined all reputation they had. Awful.

Now, why would Arch Enemy even think of covering a Manowar song? Well, I have no idea, but at least they don't make such a bad job of it. Angela's voice doesn't seem to have the crappy distortion it had before, but it's still an awful voice. Again, the instrumentation is performed well, and this time it doesn't seem to be pointlessly heavy. This is probably the best song on here, as performed by Arch Enemy.

And, the last cover is Carcass. Why, God? Why? Which member of the band thought that it would be a good idea to cover this song? Most likely Angela, as she's admittedly a huge Carcass fan. She would've been an even bigger Carcass fan if she'd never have butchered this song, as this is awful. Utterly awful. There is no other words for this. The instruments sound awful, Angela's voice sounds awful. They make the song sound awful. I have no idea how they managed to make a legendary Carcass song sound bad, but they did.

Seriously, this is something to avoid, as goes from bad to absolutely fucking awful. Please, whatever you do, don't buy it. It's not worth it.

It is usually hard to find tour edition CDs unless you are able to track the band down to an area near you. Some people will shell out loads of cash just to obtain these rare gems. But sometimes, you simply have to ask yourself if they are really even worth it.

Like a usual EP, Dead Eyes See No Future features the track that it is named after, straight from the album it's on (namely Anthems Of Rebellion in this case), and the token live tracks and cover tracks. In this case, there are two live tracks, and it is funny to know that while "Arch Enemy" has pretty much kept themselves clean, the new vocalist let's the obscenities flow on stage.

First on the chopping block of the cover songs is 'Symphony Of Destruction' (a "Megedeth" cover), which isn't all that impressive. It's decent to say anything. Then along comes the smoking cover of the "Manowar" track 'Kill With Power'. That one, and the "Carcass" cover 'Incarnated Solvent Abuse' essentially make up this EP.

Sure the song the EP is based on is good, and the live tracks add to the value, but the only really good thing about the album are the last two cover tracks. Aside from that being the main reason to track this CD down, it's just another average EP for everyone.