Doomsday Machine

Right off the bat the question at this point, after a sixth Arch Enemy release and given the somewhat obvious nature of their music, is necessarily the following: is this going to be a rehashed version of the previous record; more radio-friendly melodeath; or is the band actually going to make an effort to come up with a fresh feel to 'Doomsday Machine' ? The answer is the second, surprisingly. It still sounds mainstream, but it's different enough from 'Anthems' that it deserves an ear. This is 2005 and the band had already conquered enough territory and won their pivotal battles thus expanding their notoriety and sphere of influence, from a young audience to the more seasoned metal listeners. They were an already well established force in the field and had crossed over to the relative mainstream, as metal music exactly around the time the previous 'Anthems of Rebellion' came out was starting to reach outside its niche audience and started converting a few non-metal individuals into casual metal listeners.

Music like mid-2000's Arch Enemy was highly melodic, had excellent sparkly production not far from that of actual radio music, and this band in particular had a female lead vocalist with intelligible and tolerable screams rather than a fat old male guttural growler. The straightforward songs were structured simply enough for the mainstreamer to have no difficulty following and enjoying the plot (although not purely patterned on verse/chorus/verse/chorus), and those compact songs rarely made it way past 4min in length. There was also now little dissonance, all-out prog or experimental going on, so the songs had that obvious development and punchline to them.

So back to this one here: oddly enough, the band don't just give in and produce an Arch Enemy pop record. The songs are now a bit longer, the album contains a couple of instrumental tracks including one that's very fusion-sounding and full on prog, and although this is hardly underground metal by any stretch, what it does manage to do is sound authentic and like it's got a spirit of its own. It wouldn't be fair to call this album a lifeless formulaic template-filling release as the effort to make this a distinct sounding record with its own momentum is definitely there. Not on every single song, but it's there for the most part. The various tracks mostly sound distinctly separate and bring a different dynamic to the whole.

The opening instrumental intro is engaging and epic sounding in its own right, and the first full song 'Taking Back my Soul' doesn't reinvent the wheel but lets the listener understand this is going to be well-written trademark Arch Enemy but not just an extension of 'Anthems'. This is new material and it sounds fresh. Next, 'Nemesis' is the single off the album and is cheesy as hell all the way through but somehow still listenable (if one can block out the lyrics on the chorus). 'My Apocalypse' sort of comes out of nowhere with its well thought out odd arrangements (the recurring submarine sample) and its most peculiar flavor for an Arch Enemy song; notably a rare slower doomy groove for a verse, a full dedicated clean part in the middle with a practically psychedelic-inspired feel (even some flanger on the drum overheads). Now 4 tracks in, just when one might think this is turning generic again, 'Carry the Cross' comes on and it's some of the most inspired the band had been in a while with a genuinely strong main melody, a well worked steady buildup from the shady verse to the more intense and sorrowful pre-chorus before the chorus comes on, full-on double kicks and that nice sinister main melody comes on again. Behold, 'I Am Legend' which after its riffy metal anthem intro actually packs...a blast beat section, as lampooned as it sounds. 'Skeleton Dance' is along with 'Nemesis' the best example on the album of what Disney-ready Arch Enemy catering to an audience outside metal would sound like, with its sexy/dancy tune. Ironically past the second instrumental ('Hybrid of Steel') the tracks are honestly decent in quality but at this point, who's still there paying full attention ? The listener will feel like he's done after 8 tracks of this. What's more, two of those last three are 6min and 5min respectively, among the longest on here.

It's clear what this album could've done to improve itself: cut out a lot of it, 49min and 11 tracks of this is just too much and nobody's going to listen through the whole thing with enthusiasm, and instead spend more time enhancing the first 8 or so tracks. There are probably by anyone's standards too many solos here, which spontaneously raises the question of why they're there in such quantities: are the guitarists just deliberately jizzing all over their own riffs solely for personal gratification (glorification ?), or are there fans who seriously want to listen to combined minutes per track of generic bluesy/harmonic minor shredding and redundant phrasing ? Not clear at all. Perhaps they thought it was a selling point for younger, more naive and easily impressionable fans. Getting rid of the absolute cheese found in a couple of full songs, and in parts in other tracks, would've been nice but it's understandable why it's there. Realistically, had the album just been Tracks 1 - 2 - 4 - 5 - 8 with the rest being a patchwork of the better moments from the other existing tracks; forming about 3 songs from that; this could've really been a pretty damn good album by any standard for metal music.

The band would naturally go on to become more and more mainstream, releasing trendy albums in a trendy era and becoming a sort of SMB/family business hiring an even sexier and more current screaming front-lady to replace the aging Angela Gossow who would become sort of the band's manager. As far as the brains and motors of the Arch Enemy sound, the song-writers Amott brothers probably had come to a point of saturation anyways, at least as far as producing new Arch Enemy music. The band's real lifespan was arguably 5 albums and a bit less than a decade (starting with 1996's Black Earth) and this album 'Doomsday' here might've been one album too many, or perhaps only just the very limit. Arch Enemy managed to create a style over the years that was strongly popular for quite a while, but seemed to have not been able to adapt to the modern era without "selling its soul to the Devil" so to speak, and demonstrated poor durability and a quite brief shelf-life. From the albums that we do cherish, the band came up with some of the better Swedish melodeath from that time, and although they undeniably tasted prominence in that field, they arguably never quite reached greatness on those albums. Fell short of it every time. This is Arch Enemy's own Doomsday. So long Arch Enemy.

I knew 2 things about Arch Enemy by the time I got my teeth into this album. 1. They played death metal (I was more than a little ignorant of the distinction between death and melodeath back then), which was clearly too heavy for a kid like me. 2. Their singer was a fucking terrifying German woman who sort of impressed me in a weird sexy/not sexy see-saw. With the years, I've grown used to Arch Enemy, and that extreme heaviness that I initially identified with the band has been replaced by other feelings. I do remember thinking that, on first listen, Doomsday Machine was not nearly as much of a challenge as I had thought it would be (not nearly so difficult as Celtic Frost's 'Morbid Tales' that I bought alongside it) and feeling a little underwhelmed by the whole phenomenon.

Nowadays, my death metal virginity in tatters, I would place Arch Enemy at the heavier end of melodeath, but I would also label them as one of the catchier and more dynamic of the Swedish brethren. These guys have never been afraid of slowing things down, nor have they ruled out the potential advantages of sounding groovy alongside their meanness. Perhaps the least thrash influenced of the '90s crew, Arch Enemy truly brought their pace down a step and injected a modern "crushing" sound on Doomsday Machine. There's an image on the back cover of a skull being squashed by the pressure of heavy machinery that perhaps represents the band's intention with this new style of death. In some places, like the sinister chug and crawl of 'My Apocalypse' or the thuggish down-tuned chorus of 'Carry the Cross', this is exactly what the band achieve, but I would argue that their embracing of this brutal aesthetic isn't complete enough to mask the lack of genuine speed and aggression on the album.

For starters, there are only 2 songs that are particularly fast - the melodic thrash workout of 'I Am Legend/Out for Blood' and the absolute shred-fest that is 'Nemesis'. Neither of those songs are fast for their whole length either, because there is the atmospheric breakdown and melodic solo of the former, plus the annoyingly lacklustre chorus of the latter that spoils the perfection of an amazingly tight and furious song. I guess, having tuned the guitars down to C, the Amott brothers reckoned they had better make use of the earth-shaking power of their instruments and to be fair they do have a great rhythm tone, but slow melodeath is like odour-free cheese - who the fuck is satisfied with that? Besides, sometimes the riffs crush and sometimes they just become tedious, without enough excitement to propel the songs forward. For 2 guys with the chops the Amotts possess, you might have expected them to come up with something better than "let's rely on a really heavy tone". Maybe medium-pace would be more successful if Angela Gossow was able to inject some edginess into her vocals, which she quite simply isn't capable of. Having long got over the stage of "So it's a lady?" I've come to realise that Gossow has exactly the opposite problem to her predecessor Johan Liiva: whereas he had very little natural talent and a poor technique, Gossow sounds extremely proficient yet puts almost nothing into her performance but technique, leaving her contribution largely uninteresting, especially considering that she has an even greater lack of urgency than the band. Also, the lyrics are super dull on Doomsday Machine.

Our friend Daniel Erlandsson on drums is trying to keep things lively, but he doesn't have an awful lot to work with and in fact makes a few bad choices, playing too precisely with the stuttering guitars and being unable to make much individual impression because of the dominance of the guitarists. Sharlee D'Angelo is often a rather quiet figure in Arch Enemy, and here, because the guitars are tuned low, his impact is also lessened, though when we do hear him he plays in a remarkably catchy style that gives the album some of its groovy flavour. The only point where the album really triumphs is in its catchiness and with the frequent solos that the Amotts introduce with such flair and care. This makes a song like 'Machtkampf' one of the highlights, since it fires off several short solos at key moments, has a simple chorus melody (we're not exactly talking 'Silverwing' here) that hooks it into the listener's memory, and includes a key change that any idiot could have thought of yet is precisely what is required.

I'm going to agree with a previous reviewer and say that the band have overthought and underthought various parts of this album, resulting in the release sounding great physically, but ending up short on quality songwriting and hooks. Sure, a few songs slay for much of their runtime, my preference going to 'Nemesis', 'My Apocalypse', and 'Machtkampf', while others stand as decent or slightly better. However, certain decisions seem glaringly awkward: Angela Gossow, whatever her reputation, does not have the voice to support clean guitars in the verses of 'Carry the Cross', nor do the band have enough common sense to make use of some great individual musicians and the combined sound they can create. Maybe that's why Doomsday Machine includes 2 instrumentals - the band just couldn't find a balance between their respective gifts.

'Doomsday Machine' is regarded in many different ways and is very much a 'love-it-or-hate-it' album. For the most part, more people seem to hate it than love it. Once again I show my taste in music as being different from most other human beings on the planet as this 'Doomsday Machine' is among my very favourite albums.

Really, I don't see what's lacking with this album. You have the likes of 'Mechanical God Creation', a slow and powerful song with great variation in the way the guitars are used, then you have the likes of 'Nemesis' that feature high-paced drums and heavy riffs in the verses and the most beautiful chorus you will likely ever hear. Not to mention every single other type of track in-between.

I can see why it's not for some people, of course. That reason for a lot of people is Angela Gossow (in particular people that liked Arch Enemy when Johan Liiva was the vocalist). And to be honest, her voice on this album is one of the very few things that I don't like about it. On every single other album her vocals are solid and you can tell that they've not been tampered with in the editing process, yet for some reason on 'Doomsday Machine' they decided to do exactly that. For the most part they just sound off (sometimes nearly even robotic) and there are very few parts on the album where we hear her real voice. Considering how complete the album is, this is particularly frustrating.

Aside from Angela's voice, there are a couple of other niggles I have with the album. One of them is the whole of 'Hybrids Of Steel', one of the two instrumentals on the album. I don't know why, but the whole thing just sounds like one big mess of randomly strung guitar chords. Now, I like a bit of variety in my music, but that track doesn't quite fit the bill. The other thing is that a few of the songs get a bit samey after a while (which is not generally a problem unless you intend on listening to the album from cover to cover multiple times).

Everything else on this album is nearly complete perfection. From the Amott brothers and their epic solos (and playing in general), to Daniel and his spectacular drumming (particularly on the faster songs) and even Sharlee's bass-work (when you can hear it, which - as ever - is not too often). The number of different styles of death metal these guys can play on one album is incredible. The place the Amott brothers contribute most to on this album is probably on 'Nemesis', while with Daniel I'd say it was 'Machtkampf'. Sharlee's work is harder to say, but he does get a noticeable solo on 'Skeleton Dance' and he does play extremely well to keep time on the faster tracks.

My personal favourite song on the album is probably 'I Am Legend / Out For Blood' (although with the number of great songs it's nearly impossible to choose). The track is a kind of average pace, but is also one of the heaviest songs on the album. The guitar work is excellent, a wonderful mixture of fast riffs and melodic hooks as well as a great solo to top it all off. The drums are fast and pounding for the most part, keeping in time with the guitars, but there are several parts where Daniel just decides to add a little bit of excitement and play an almost solo-like section of a few seconds. On this track as well I don't seem to mind Angela's voice as much, although that might be because of everything else that is going on.

So to conclude, I really don't see what people are talking about when they say this album is "a fail" or "completely boring". I found it (and still do find it) one of the most varied and one of, possibly even the most enjoyable melodeath albums to listen to.

My excursion into the world of Arch Enemy has brought me to a rather surprising revelation. Evidently, the 2004-2005 slumps that hit a number of my favorite power metal bands was not unique to that part of the metal scene alone, but also hit a number of established melodeath and a handful of folk bands as well. The same sort of “where the hell is this coming from” moments just ooze out of this very confused album that boasts itself of being some sort of “Doomsday Machine”. Somewhere between the tried and true format that this band has been going by since the mid 90s of archaic melodic metal influences spliced with a heavier guitar sound and a pissed off guttural bark reminiscent of Chuck Schuldiner and John Tardy, something got lost in the translation.

The two primary albums that come to mind when listening to this are Amon Amarth’s “Fate Of Norns” and Suidakra’s “Command To Charge”, both of which express a similar sense of hesitation and lack of fulfillment. A good amount of pop/rock influences that are more in line with the recent output of In Flames also comes into the equation, particularly with the plodding “My Apocalypse” and the sloppy, semi-fast, full of fits and starts mess that is “Taking Back My Soul”. At times it’s difficult to tell whether the Amott brothers were trying a little too hard, or not hard enough, in large part because one song will sound over-developed or unnecessarily varied while the next will come off as dumbed down. This is actually not a terribly uncommon thing when a band tries to pander to a wider audience while trying to hold on to its base, and more often than not it fails in the latter while sometimes also in the former.

However, unlike the somewhat infamous Suidakra flop mentioned previously, this is still something that can be identified with the band that put it together. There are even a couple of fairly bright spots on this somewhat uneven album, such as the chunky thrasher with lots of detailing “Skeleton Dance”, which keeps from resorting to too many contradictory ideas and does well to avoid having Angela Gossow exaggerate her vocals to the point of sounding like Anders Fridén’s whinier modern character. “I Am Legend/Out For Blood” also kicks up the overdrive something fierce and pummels the ears with some punchy thrashing riff work. There’s also the usual barrage of technical soloing courtesy of the Amott brothers, even on the less than stellar songs. It’s too bad, but unfortunately metal does not live by solos alone, otherwise this band would have a perfect discography.

Most of what I know about Arch Enemy thus far is contained to the current incarnation, and of it, I’d argue this is the weakest of the Gossow era, and probably the weakest of anything that Michael Amott has ever put his name to. The best way to describe it as a book that continually builds up a certain character as being important, and then just suddenly kills it off for no reason whatsoever, leaving the reader more pissed off at the author for wasting his/her time than anything else. However, this is the sort of album that has a handful of songs that can be qualified as obligatory, but the rest is very skip worthy. It would be a bargain at $5, and highway robbery at pretty much any price above that.

Arch Enemy have been creating melodic death metal since their first release in 1996. Many fans consider the addition of Angela Gossow to be the downfall of the group. I've only heard Black Earth with Johan on vocals and judging by Doomsday Machine those people seem to be right.

The first thing I noticed when listening to this album was the vocals. God they are awful. Its not that the vocalist is female, iIts that Angela’s vocals are so ridiculously processed and layered it just sounds terrible! It comes off mechanical and fake and totally ruins that part of the band and their music.

Secondly, I have to point out her lyrics. They are extremely shallow and it sounds like they were written by a pissed off 6th grader. She takes lyrical immaturity to a new level.

Still if you get passed the bad vocals and lyrics there is still some good music to be found here. The album starts off with an instrumental called Enter the Machine. Nothing real special but it does have a certain charm to it as it musically builds throughout the song.

The second track is Taking Back My Soul. This is a heavy number and the solo work by Christopher Amott is breathtaking. The actual verse riff isn’t half bad itself but it’s the riff during the chorus where the Amott brothers make it really work. The bridge isn’t too bad either and guitar chops are shown through a rather impressive group of solos.

After Taking Back My Soul is Nemesis. It starts off at thrash speeds but tapers off to a mid pace during the majority of the verse. This song especially showcases the awful lyrics and it becomes painful during the chorus. Once again the best of the music is during the chorus where Michael Amott can be heard playing a melodic little piece while Christopher keeps the rhythm going layered under his brothers guitar.

Its with the songs after the next track, My Apocalypse, that the quality kind of drops off. This song itself isn’t too bad and is a slower song but is quite enjoyable. There is an electronic sound that pops up throughout the song, like a radar ping on a submarine going off that sounds alright. Halfway through the song there is a sort of softer interlude with clean guitars being played and it’s a nice change of pace. There is also a nice slower solo played here as well. The next song, Carry the Cross isn’t that annoying but nothing really to speak of, it does have a strong chorus but its also VERY slow through the majority of it.

The album’s drumming isn’t too bad, Daniel plays quick, slow, whatever the song requires. He is a very competent drummer and its easy to see why he was chosen to replace Ken Owen after Carcass decided to reform (allowing him to play with his current band mate Michael Amott who is also in their lineup).

The rest of the tracks are kind of “meh”, nothing special. Seems the first half of the album isn’t actually all that bad, and depending on how you like your metal you might even enjoy the second half. But for me its just too difficult to get over the sad vocals and juvenile lyrics. This is a case where one person can single handedly ruin an otherwise alright album. So in summary, first half of album isn’t too bad in spite of the shitty growling and bad lyrics because the songs are pretty good themselves but after that I kind of kept checking my watch wondering how much longer I'd have to listen to this.

Originally reviewed by me at http://abaddonsmetalshop.blogspot.com/

Arch Enemy have always been an above average melodic death band. Not as powerful as Dark Tranquility but still not as watered down as Soilwork or new In Flames, you can count on them for several decent songs every album. Contrary to what the elitists say, they have not been in steady decline ever since Wages of Sin, since that was not really an amazing album to begin with. Anthems of Rebellion had simpler song structures, flatter riffing, less impressive drumming and a slight mallcore feel to it, but was not a major step down from Wages.

The aggression thankfully returns in Doomsday Machine. The rhythm guitars have been amped up, the solos are more intricate, and Daniel Erlandsson’s drumming is much more varied. The vocal effects on Angela Gossow are a bit overdone, and her lyrics are laughably lame as usual (although the atypically violent ones on “I am Legend/Out For Blood” could almost fit into a Cannibal Corpse song). But she is still a strong death metal singer, far from the chick add-on gimmick the detractors like to claim.

The first six tracks on this album are solid, with the highlights being the speedy “Nemesis”, “My Apocalypse” (complete with a melodic interlude) and the aforementioned “Out for Blood”, another fast track with blast beats that should be listened to from 1:20 on. The instrumental “Hybrids of Steel” has interesting tempo shifts and lead work, while the chorus and power chords in “Mechanic God Creation” are catchy. The rest of the songs aren’t horrible but are generally filler and quickly forgettable. But overall, this album is very solid and rivals anything they have done in the past.

Arch Enemy may have openly admitted years ago to making their sound more accessible, but since this entire subgenre of metal is experimental by nature, the sellout cries should not be taken seriously. Having just listened to their latest and equally aggressive album, Rise of The Tyrant, it’s clear that this band has not compromised their artistic integrity. And until the band amplifies the Anthems mallcore style or Angela starts breaking out into Anders Friden-style metalcore whining, I won’t be convinced otherwise.

The slow but steady decline of Arch Enemy since its inception (or, arguably, since the arrival of one Angela Gossow on the scene) is consistently one of the most depressing yet banal stories in the metal scene today. From their original height (above average melodic death metal), they've taken a dramatic turn for the worse over the years, culminating in a string of post-Axelsson albums that, shall we say, leave much to be desired. While when I had purchased this album I knew full well that it was going to be no tour de force, nothing had prepared me for the entirely new level of odium I was about to experience.

Is this a joke? Really, is this a joke? Are we supposed to take this cluttered collection of half-baked concepts, littered with the remains of b-side metalcore riffing and melodramatic vocalizations seriously? Jesus, what exactly happened here? While describing Gossow-era Arch Enemy as brilliant would be a dramatic stretch at the best of times, they were certainly able to string a few decent songs together per album ('Silent Wars', 'Ravenous', etc.), but here they seem completely and utterly devoid of all the talent that they had expressed in their previous albums, leaving them a bitter, shrunken shell, a Gothenburg husk, if you will, of what they used to be.

Starting off with the tepid instrumental 'Enter The Machine', the album doesn't seem utterly terrible at first glance; just dramatically uninspired and lacking the asskicking propensity of previous releases. But hey, it's just the first song, correct? While 'Taking Back My Soul' is pretty bad, we can't always have a 'Silent Wars' to tide us over for the meat of the composition, can we? Well, 'Nemesis' should quickly shatter any dreams you had of using superlatives such as 'decent' or 'mediocre' in conjunction with this album. Let us look at the stunningly introspective lyrics at work here: 'One for all/All for one/We are strong/We are one'. Masterful, to be sure, but I think it falls just short of, I don't know, 'Get low/get low get low get low get low get low get low'.

The album, of course, continues roughly in the same vein. Gossow's growls are particularly kitten-like on this album, the Amott brothers' guitarwork, while somewhat technical, fails to inspire even the slightest bit of emotion or power in the listener, despite the overtly slick and defined production here. Really, this album seems poppier and more accessible than anything they've done before. While attributes such as this are something that certain bands are able to pull off without seeming cheesy, not in this case: the half-riffing that fills 'My Apocalypse', with its weird, bleepy high chords followed by predictable E string chugging will prove that nicely. Drumming in similarly binary in nature; rock beat, rock beat, double bass, ignore. There's really not much more to it at all. Surely a disappointment for Arch Enemy that I fear they may never recover from.

Avoid.

Listening to this album is so painful for me. This is not because the album is very bad or anything, it's just that it should have been just so much better than it is. There are so many good points about this album, but after you listen to it you just feel like something in it is missing. This is also the case with the individual songs. As your listening to them you feel like you should love them, but for some reason you just don't.


Now not all the songs are lacking on this disc. There are a few that are really good all the way through. "Taking Back My Soul", and "Nemesis" are two great songs that both display the melodic, yet brutal force that the band have shown on earlier releases. The riffs are very good on these songs. The vocals are still more or less the typical Gothenburg vocals, but they nonetheless are good. Another notable song is the epic Machtkampf. This is easliy the best song on the entire release. Great guitar, sick vocals, and some kick ass soloing. So songs like these show the capability of the band.


Some of the songs, on the other hand, are just flat out bad. They are steaming piles of shit with no redeeming factors at all. Usually these songs are the slower ones on the album. Arch Enemy may think there being original by mixing slower tempos in to the songs. But they aren't being creative at all. All they are doing is providing painful songs that drag on and never go anywhere. When I say this I point my finger at the songs "My Apocalypse", "Carry the Cross", and the beginning of "I Am Legend". These songs are the main reason why I give this album a 60.


Now for the songs that sound like they should be good, but in the end don't really amount to anything. These are instrumentals or the songs with very long insturmental breaks in them. As I sit and listen through these songs I think this should be kick ass. This should be a kick ass record, but it is definately not. This I think is really just because I have heard this stuff so many times before. Whether it was done by Iron Maiden or another Gothenburg band,I have heard this stuff so many times that I can't find any real enjoyment in these long instrumental sections.


Also the other really big problem with the album, more specifically the long instrumental breaks, is that this band has barely any rythem section. Everything is focused on the guitar. The bass does absoulutely nothing. I can't hear it the whole album. The drums don't do much either. And this is fucking Metal. In Metal the drums have to be great to be any good at all. These drums might work in like a Punk band or something, but not in a Metal band. They barely even double-kick. The rythem section does almost nothing on this album.


So in the end this is not a very good album. It's decent, nothing more than that. When your done listen to it you feel a weird feeling like there is something lacking in it. This is due to unoriginality, and the lack of a good rythem section. There are a few gems to be found on this album, but most of the stuff is very forrgetable, or just complete crap. Only buy it for $8 or under. I made the mistake of buying it for $15. There is much better Melodic Death Metal out there.

Arch Enemy have set the bar really freakin' high for themselves. Their albums with Johan Liiva (Black Earth, Stigmata, and the legendary Burning Bridges) are among the best melodic death releases ever, and Angela Gossow's debut (Wages of Sin) is WAY better than the more elitist types would have you believe. Then came Anthems of Rebellion, which was so bad by comparison that one had to wonder if the Amotts & Co. were running out of ideas. Thankfully, Doomsday Machine shows signs of promise and has a few killer tracks. This is not even half as bad as some would believe - it's quite good, really - and there's no signs of selling out (it's hard to sell out with death grunts, but not everyone seems to get that idea).

How about the songs that own on here? One word: "Nemesis." Easily among the best Arch Enemy songs ever, it rips just as hard as their older material but still has melodicism for days. You can also tell that they're better songwriters now, because the transitions in this song are seamless (unlike the jarring verse-chorus shift in the classic "Silverwing," for example). "Taking Back My Soul" isn't quite as good but still rips, in addition to featuring Gus G. on an excellent guest solo, which is something the Amott brothers never do. And then you have "Hybrids of Steel," which is a quirky instrumental that really doesn't sound like any other guitar piece I've heard due to its odd scalar patterns; it's also supremely cool.

Then there's the parts that are kinda frustrating. "My Apocalypse" signals the shift to a more industrial sound typical of the blander tracks, but it's actually a pretty cool song. I didn't care much for it at first, but it's sort of addictive after awhile and has one of the band's better solos near the end. Considering it's one of their more experimental departures, this is way better than "Burning Bridges" or the God-awful "Instinct" (from Anthems), but not quite up there with the awesome "Savage Messiah" (from WoS). "I Am Legend/Out For Blood" is also one of the better tracks on the album, but it's not very well-paced. The Legend intro is great but should be 15 seconds shorter, and the Blood half isn't that special (beyond being fast) until the synth interlude morphs into an all-out blastbeat and closes with just the right mix of string shredding and rhythmic power.

The Amotts don't seem to have as good of riffs as usual on Doomsday Machine, but at least the guitar solos are typically ridiculous. In fact, everyone here is playing out of their minds except for Gossow, who simply can't growl quite like she used to and won't be able to hide that with all the computer effects in the world. Don't get me wrong; I like her a lot and think she's one of the best in death metal when she's on it (her diction is perfect, and she has tremendous stage presence). But it's hard to say how long this band can keep going without getting somebody with less wear on their vocal cords.

The most surprising track of all - and the one that offers the most insight towards the band's future - is "Machtkampf," which opens like a Beneath The Remains-era Sepultura song and keeps the old-school sound more predominant than usual throughout. Arch Enemy seem to be rediscovering the death side of their melodic death sound, which is hopefully for the better rather than the worse. There's no promises now that Christopher Amott has left the band, but Mike is still a legend and should be able to make plenty more ripping metal with Sharlee D'Angelo and Daniel Erlandsson rounding out one of the tightest modern rhythm sections out there.

Arch Enemy are a very skilled band and they have proven it in the past. The first three records along with Wages of Sin, Angela's Gossow's debut, were a breath of fresh air in an oversaturated Gothenburg scene. The Ammott Brothers can shred with anyone and the whole band is extremely talented, but the last couple of albums have been disappointments.

On this record the band tried to concentrate on their chops, and achieved so with great ease. However, somewhere along the way the songwriting quality was affected. It seems the band has decided to slow down the tempo a little bit and go for a more mainstream metal sound.

Some riffs on here are absolutely killer and there are some tracks such as the single "Nemesis" that smoke. But this record can kind of get boring after a few spins. The song structures are generic and Angela's vocals are disappointing at times. The days where we were all impressed by a female death metal vocalist are over now and the vocals are actually one of the weaker points of this release.

Now, this record is not ALL bad. The guitar solos are awesome, the drumming is very clean and the band is supremely tight. The first song "Taking Back My Soul" is pretty intense as is the aforementioned "Nemesis". "Carry the Cross" is a slow headbanger with an anthemic feel to it. "Hybrids of Steel" is an interesting instrumental with very strange notes and scales.

The main problem with this is that it is generic and the songwriting lacked passion and intensity. However this is not a throwaway. It simply doesn't quite match their previous material.

Due to the vast amount of crappiness in metal today, I was hard-pressed to find bands that featured fast, technical guitar work. I had heard the Amott Brothers were some of the best in the business, and I was interested to see what a female death vocal would sound like. Thus I purchased Doomsday Machine on rave reviews from the press.

Sadly, (or maybe not so), it is impossible to truly know what female death growls sound like on this album, as Angela's vocals have computer effects added to them. The guitar riffing and soloing is there, but it doesn't really measure up to their earlier stuff. The riffs are simplified, as are some of the leads. Chris tears it up on the first solo in Nemesis, but really that's the only super-fast solo on the entire album. Most of the rest are more melodic, or else they are boring and do not add anything to the song. "Skeleton Dance" has a simple but effective 7-string riff, and "Machtkampf" has some decent melodic leads, but suffer from the terrible growling. The only two songs that are faultless for the most part are "Nemesis" which has guitar work that equals Arch Enemy songs of old, and the combination of "Enter the Machine/Taking Back My Soul," the first half being a fantastic instrumental, the second half being a better-than-average melodeath song. One of the biggest detriments to this album are the vocals. Johan Liiva, for all his faults, was still one of the better death growlers out there. Angela's stuff doesn't add anything, and for the most part it actually hurts the songs. Some of the good melodies that the Amott Brothers think up are ruined. One wonders whether her contributions are positive or a detriment to the band. Also the lyrics are terrible, but they really aren't any worse than any of the other crap that Arch Enemy has put out over the years, and in a genre of shitty lyrics, I've almost come to expect choruses like "All for one/one for all/we are strong/we are one."

If you can believe it, even with all of its faults, this is probably the best Arch Enemy album with Angela. That being said, this does not come close to "Black Earth" or any of the other albums with Liiva. This was a tossup for me whether to recommend this album for purchase or not, but now I'd say that this warrants a cautious purchase. But do not go into listening to this album with high expectations, for like I said before, this is no "Black Earth" and you will certainly be disappointed.

Arch Enemy seem to be settling into a comfortable niche for themselves, both a good and a bad thing. While this is a strong album with teeth all the way through as well as plentiful dynamics, there is an overwhelming "been there, done that" feel to it. For any other band this would be generic and unimaginative; by Arch Enemy's standards this is good but not great, rather like "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" was for Morbid Angel.

Of course, Rickard Bengtsson's production job and Andy Sneap's mix is stellar, adding the usual clear speaker-cracking tones to a solid release--though Sharlee's growling fuzz bass is not as prominent in the mix as usual--no complaints there. And as always, the Amott brothers crank out an impressive array of well-placed licks and well-constructed riffs with beautiful tone over Adrian Erlandsson's ultra-precise drumming assault--again, no complaints. Angela sounds as mean and angry as ever, albeit enunciating even a little more clearly this time around. It's the fact that much of the material on hand settles into a mid tempo rut, rather like Bolt Thrower has for the last 14 years or so. I appreciate that AE are trying to write catchy and memorable songs and they do a good job at it, but a little more variety for my taste would be good. That said, this is still an highly enjoyable album, and here are my favorite tracks from it:

"Nemesis": Classic AE approach here; catchy opening riff and lightning-fast double bass drumming exploding into a chunky verse riff, flowing right into a memorable chorus that has anthem written all over it. And it works well, as only they can do it.

"I Am Legend/Out For Blood": The first part of this is a bombastic and ominous instrumental that sets the tone for an all-out thrasher that even features the first blast beat AE have played in years. And they set up that part very nicely, too, leading into it with ease and perfect flow--it doesn't feel at all gratuitous. And the first half of the title also indulges Michael Amott's SF fanboy nature, as it references the classic novel of the same name.

"Carry The Cross": Another great opening riff--the Amotts seem to have the market cornered on those--with some of the more creepy riffing the Amotts have written on the chorus and Angela spitting contempt over the lot. And another catchy chorus, to boot.

"My Apocalypse": Midtempo all the way with even a little bit of pseudo-operatic vocals in the backgound, a real pounder this one is.

As far as lyrics go, Angela wrote the majority of them this go-round and does a good enough job. She's not as good at it as Michael is, but give her time, she will catch up quickly enough. I am totally behind Angela and I think she can do it.

As previously mentioned, this is a good, solid release and is not what I'd call crappy (like what I've heard of the new Exodus CD--I am NOT feeling that one, sad to say). It's just that I think AE need to bust out of this rut and start really shredding and stretching out beyond the parameters of their well-established sound by now. Safety is good but sometimes you have to throw it all to the winds and do something radical, and I think that AE's time to do that has come. Otherwise they will come down with "Bolt Thrower Syndrome" and start releasing the same album with different titles every year and a half or so, and they're too talented to do that, I hope!

Arch Enemy continues to be referred to as "melodic death metal," though their music is much more melodic than death metal. The soaring guitar parts might turn off death metal purists, but to those willing to accept variety, they make the album more engaging to listen to. The drums bring the death metal aspect to the music with blastbeats. The vocals aren't extremely low as in most death metal, but are still harsh enough to add agression. In some songs (like "Carry the Cross") the vocals sound as if there are effects on them. This makes them a bit more powerful, but the feel is less authentic.

The lyrical theme of social decay and rebellion is carried on from Anthems of Rebellion into Doomsday Machine, but some songs on this album do have different themes. The lyrics are rather simple and uninspiring. There are random rhyme schemes thrown in here and there, and the occasional "big word," but nothing really hits hard.

The track on this album most likely to become a sing is "Nemesis," a fast and almost thrashy song addressing social rebellion. It is hard-hitting and intense on the first listen, but as one listens to it more, it becomes somewhat boring. On the other hand, "Carry the Cross," is slow and rather unagressive. It takes several listens to really appreciate the power of its bridge and chorus.

I would not recomend this album to die-hard death metal purists, or people who are easily bored. (Even though the songs aren't excessively long, they do get boring during the sometimes-dragging instrumental parts.) If you have the patience to listen to the album several times, though, and you have an open mind, you will probably grow to like this album.

When Angela first came into the band they released "Wages of Sin" which was a decent album with a lot of melody, some memorable moments with a few decent riffs and some great solos. "Anthems of Rebellion" with the exception of 2 or 3 songs was basically typical melodic death metal with typical melodic death vocals from the singer Angela. They were a decent band that earned my respect, certainly wasn't one of my top 5 bands but they scored points with me in the past with songs such as "Enemy Within" and "Dead Eyes See No Future". I was certainly curious to see what the new album would be like.

In a way you could say I am surprised because of how the album turned out. Their theme, doomsday, also surprised me although I do have to say I like the album cover. The album starts off with an intro "Enter the Machine". The tunes on there are similar to typical Arch Enemy so no surprise there. A decent intro that could be enjoyable the first few times. What happens later with "Taking Back My Soul" surprises me. The first part of the song is definately solid with a lot of death metal riffs which were quite good, and the drums were also pretty fierce. I was almost thinking I was listening to Morbid Angel for a while there. Then after about 2 minutes the song goes back to melodic death metal with a lot of great melodic solos from the great guitarists, the Ammot brothers.

"Nemesis" stays with the melodic death usual. It is a bit heavy and less melodic than previous albums with some heavy riffs and lots of heavy drum beating. However you still have melodic guitars and guitar solos so that keeps you thinking you're listening to regular melodic death and not plain death. Its not a bad song however the last few minutes of the end are just atrocious with some weird ass noise that sounds like a fucked up train engine. This should have been totally taken out of the song.

"My Apocalypse" goes back to the death metal feeling with heavy guitars and great but rather heavy and less melodic riffs. Even Angela's vocals get much, much deeper so at times I'm convinced I'm listening to a guy singing. Overall, when she tries making her vocals sound more death metal-ish it doesn't sound too great. Once again about half-way through we get some melodic acoustic guitars and a solo and we go back to the usual melodic death feeling that we're all used to from this band. The song is still however one of the most boring and poorly done on the album even though they went back to their melo-death roots.

"Carry the Cross" is typical melodic death on the start and then shifts to more heavy melodic death, I can't call it death metal because even though the guitars and drums as well as the vocals get heavier and darker, they are still rather melodic and I must say the two genres don't mix that well. The section around 2:25 is great though when for a few seconds they go back to the original melo-death and we get some quick but memorable melodic riffs. Around 3:30 we get some solos before going back to a mix of melo-death and death.

I'm not going to describe the rest of the album song by song because I would just be repeating myself. Overall I don't like it very much, some parts are melodic death, some parts are death, and some parts are both and the two genres unfortunately don't mix very well. While there are some very decent riffs the riffs that follow it just don't equal up so eventually even the good riffs don't sound good because there just isn't good structure to support the better ones. Also there are a few well done solos in the beginning of the album, however as the album trends on the solos seem to deteriorate. Another problem I have is the vocals, Angela I think was trying to make them sound more dark, growly, and in effect more death metal like. This does not sound very well as her voice seems even more muffled and distorted than before. At some points they even remind me of Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir. The album is also repetitive with some riffs and solos towards the end of the album sounding very much like the ones in the beginning.

Out of the past 3 albums this one is definately the worst. I say stop experimenting which this definately sounds like what they're doing and choose one. I have to admit that some of the death metal sections sounded very good and almost like bands like Morbid Angel as stated before, so I wouldn't mind them doing a death metal album either but when you combine the two it just sounds silly.

Good luck with your next effort because this just doesn't cut it for me.

Arch Enemy released the album 'Anthems of rebellion' which met a general wall of frosty silence from the scene. The band who unleashed the venomous 'Wages of sin' had suddenly wrote an album that was just average melodic death metal, with very little in the way of standout marks.

So how does 'the Doomsday machine' stand up? Well the first you notice is that the band seem to have gone a lot heavier, some songs sounding in places like classic death metal, but overall the Melodic death metal influence is very much still in place.

Opener 'enter the machine' is a simple two minute intro-instrumental, which leads straight into 'Taking back my soul' This song begins with a very tribal drum style and seems oddly reminiscent of a 'machine head' song, however once the scorching leads come in the song changes. Angela's vocals seem an attempt to go more death metal, sadly on this song they do not work. It's overall a decent song, with some good lead work from the ammot brothers. A solid start

Next song "Nemesis' begins in a way that totally tears your face off, sounding alot like early 90's death metal. For 2 minutes the song is a true face shredder but then... It gets repetitive, the leads slow down and the chorus of 'one for all...' is repeated a tad too much, had this been cut down by 30 seconds to a minute this song would be a new 'Ravenous', a missed opportunity but none the less a very good song.

'My apocalypse' is a very dull song, extremely pedestrian and it goes nowhere, I'd use the term filler but it is too early in the record for that, so I'll simply call it crap.

Following this is the song 'carry the cross' this is a very slow song by the standards and its lyrics are quite obvious from the title, all about the burden of society. It has some nice clean lead and somehow avoids being boring, with a clattering chorus that keeps the listener interested. But like 'Taking back my soul' it suffers from seeming far too inconsistent, dropping in places to the later era of bands like In Flames.

The double titled 'I am legend/Out for blood' Begins with a slow lead intro that goes on for far too long (80 seconds!) However after this it suddenly explodes into a real shredder, sounding not too unlike 'Morphing into primal' by IN flames, but with a faster vibe (including some blast beats midway through) and a guitar tone that is alot sharper. One of the few songs that really tears through you until the end once it gets going, shame they decided to play that intro for so long, had it been merely 20 seconds this could have been one of the best Arch Enemy songs ever penned.

The bizarre 'Skeleton Dance' begins with a nice dual lead backed by some odd whispering noises and laughter. Once it begins it has a fast and powerful vibe to it, kind of reminiscent of 'dead bury their dead' from wages of sin. But as the vocals come in it goes into its slow pedestrian mode again, with the only hint of innovation being an odd guitar technique that sounds like a screeching soul. This song overall feels more metalcore than their usual material, though thankfully avoiding the trademark dullness that goes with metalcore.

Instrumental 'Hybrids of steel' s a very guitar driven piece starting with a stadium rock esque tone and rhtyhm. But once it begins the listener is treated to some lovely leads that are constantly slaloming between the Amott brothers, it is not a fast paced instrumental in the vein of say 'Urotsukidoji' by Testament, but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in its inventive lead structure, with solo after solo coming out over the top of an ever changing tempo. Somewhat an odd choice for an eighth track (where the filler usually ends up) but an interesting piece none the less.

'Mechanic God Creation' is, I guess, the album's epic clocking in at just shy of 6 minutes. The intro is a very clear guitar piece that is slow and brooding backed by drums that slowly build up to a pace. However this song is one of those stop-start songs that gets boring, the only real injection of pace coming in the last 90 seconds or so, by which time it is too late to save the song, even with a nice set of leads and solos. Bit of a waster really, feels almost as if they have fused two sets of left overs into one long piece that simply does not gel at all.

'machtkampf' begins with a drum intro that sound similar to 'rust in peace...polaris' by Megadeth before the guitars kick in right away to stop the rip-off chants from exploding. The sound of this is a very melodic death style but Angela supplies much more throaty vocals that give it a more death metal punch, while again the amott brothers supply a good set of leads that are often slalomed over the top of by Angela. The pace of the track is swift and agressive and has a real headbang beat to it. Almost an odd fusion of late 80's thrash and mid-90's melo-death. But it works, it fuses well and is genuinely one of the better songs on this disc.

'Slaves of yesterday' rounds off my version of this album with a slower pace than the last track, yet again the use of early leads and solos supplies a good vibe throughout the first few bars of the song. But it then becomes a rather a boring riff and beat that throws more nods to 'the burning red' era machine head than the death metal gloryness of yore. Just over 2:30 in things change again with a nice lead that builds in volume and pace as the track goes on before ending with a set of sharp leads that tickle the listeners ears, but just as you think a speedfest is about to happen we are harked right back to the slow MH-esque groove geats once more, though oddly Amott slaloms over this with a classic metal lead, the result is messy and not very consistent. After this it returns once again to those slow beats and fades into nothing, signalling the curtain for this album.

So what does 'Doomsday machine' offer to the fans of arch enemy or to the newcomers? For the fans it offers many reminders of their ability to write some very feral and guttural music, yet worryingly it seems to show them in a 'fusion' light often melding musical genres that simply don't mix. For the newcomers it has an accessible sound, but is not as light or weak as 'Anthems' was. This sounds very much like the difficult progression record and leaves hope that the next will be a much tighter and darker unit. The whole doomsday theme itself is a surprise after the last albums theme of taking control and moving upwards.

IN places this is a great slice of regression but it is hampered often by the good parts suddenly ending, being replaced by watered down bits for an age, and then the good parts returning before a sudden end. Also repetition seems a key theme on some songs and many of these could have been cut don by at least a minute. In essence this would have made the songs much tighter and the album then would have had a much more cohesive feel to it. As it 'Doomsday machine' is an album that will satisfy the fans and newcomers alike, but it is by no means a metal classic and severely unlikely to feature in any 'album of the year' polls.