Author: Primož Novak
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Venue: Cvetličarna, Ljubljana
Concert date: September 17, 2017
Ticket price: 24€/27€/32€
Arch Enemy, the renowned melodic »death« metal outfit, have finally made it to Slovenia for a headline show of their own. So, at last, a club gig from a band that has already played the well-known festival in Tolmin a few times, where of course they won everyone over every single time.
No gig without support acts, of course. But this time there was basketball on the bill too. In the covered outdoor area, the final between Slovenia and Serbia was being shown on a projector, so the general euphoria was off the charts.
Despite the game, plenty of people backed the opener Jinjer, who played their set during the match. They’re young Ukrainian metalheads who mix groove metal with hardcore, and supposedly they also have a soft spot for prog, though you couldn’t really tell. Nothing new, but the band got solid support. They served up songs from both albums, and the spotlight was mostly on singer Tatiana Shmailyuk, whose vocals recalled Otep and Guano Apes, so this isn’t just another singer who does nothing but growl. You could hear the influence of all sorts of things in the music, from nu metal to technical metalcore. Promising, but not convincing enough yet.
The euphoria grew by the minute. Slovenia took the lead in the basketball, and the stage was already booked for Arch Enemy, who waited until the very last minute of the game, and right after the final buzzer the intro of the new album rang out and the band hit us with the fresh hit The World Is Yours. It didn’t take Arch Enemy long to prove their top form, which has lasted for more than ten years, even though the band swapped out a few members along the way. The set logically emphasized the last two albums, which feature new vocalist Alissa White-Gluz; the band did touch on earlier albums too, but noticeably too little. The only surprise was that they put the song Dead Bury Their Dead from the legendary album Wages of Sin back in the set. The rest was of course pretty predictable. With songs like War Eternal, My Apocalypse, The Eagle Flies Alone, No Gods, No Masters , We Will Rise, Arch Enemy made it clear that older fans can pretty much kiss their hopes goodbye. Although the band is often labeled an extreme metal act, with this selection of songs it showed it doesn’t differ all that much from commercial metal bands that lean on standout choruses and cliché melodies. The only thing that’s different here is the vocals, which are supposed to be in line with death metal ideology. So, not all that extreme.
The band’s performance is definitely worthy of praise. The theatrics were at their peak, and none of the members came across as taking the show with a grain of salt. Front and center was the bouncy Alissa, who fired up the crowd brilliantly, though her between-song banter was a bit weak, not that the band even needs it, since the crowd was visibly into it. The guitar chemistry of the Amott/Loomis duo was exceptional. Loomis even pulled out a few interesting tricks in his soloing, but nothing close to what he did in Nevermore. The D’Angelo/Erlandsson rhythm section maybe didn’t stand out as much as the guitars, but it held its own to the end. Before the break the band also played Avalanche from the album War Eternal, where Alissa uses clean vocals too, which came across as forced and unnecessary live. A break followed, after which Jeff Loomis came out first and carried the set on with the instrumental Snowbound, then the rest of the band joined him to see everything through to the end. The song Nemesis from the album Doomsday Machine has been a staple of Arch Enemy’s concerts since 2005. Nothing unusual there, since the song has varied melodies and a distinctive chorus the crowd can belt out. To close, the band played part of Fields of Desolation, where Amott and Loomis soloed together one last time.
Arch Enemy definitely delivered with a tight, epic performance that never felt like routine. But the over-the-top theatrics, on the other hand, made it clear the band no longer always puts the music first. Kitsch and clichés take center stage, and as for innovations, there isn’t a trace.
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