Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Arch Enemy
Label: Century Media
Release: 2011
Length: 54:41
Rating: 3/5
After battling sins, anthems of rebellion, a doomsday machine and the rise of a tyrant, Arch Enemy aren’t slowing down, and they grind on, taking no prisoners, with their eighth studio album, Khaos Legions. It’s hard to believe four years have passed since Rise of Tyrant, but the label and the band clearly struck while the iron was hot and in the meantime put out the live record Tyrants of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan, plus a not-so-successful compilation of re-recorded old songs, The Root of All Evil. So I put on the new record with low expectations, and its goofy title (why, oh why, do so many metal bands lately love to name albums with bad grammar!?) and a cover that looks like the box art of a PlayStation game (the inspiration being the famous Eugène Delacroix painting Liberty Leading the People… of course) didn’t promise anything earth-shattering.
The truth, once again, lies somewhere in between. Ever since Wages of Sin, Arch Enemy have been betting their best cards on an ultra-modern, crystal-clear production, which has all too often turned the music into clinically sterile, modern, melodic death metal. Far be it from me to say that every album with Angela Gossow sounds bad, but Arch Enemy haven’t hit that rawness, unbridled aggression and fantastic fusion of technicality and melody in a good while. Khaos Legions is a similarly tough nut to crack, because the album is by no means bad, it’s just that far too much melody and softness occasionally drags it down like a weight. The new Arch Enemy record shows up in an even lighter, softer light, since most of the songs could sound completely power metal if you stripped away Angela’s roaring vocals. Try to mentally cut out the vocals in No Gods, No Masters and it’ll quickly remind you of something like Stratovarius (admittedly in their golden age). After a boring, mindless intro with an unbelievably clichéd speech, Arch Enemy plunge us on the first half of the album into a mid-tempo march, in which the crushing Bloodstained Cross stands out most, faintly recalling Testament riffs. Once again, the Amott brothers are naturally front and center, putting on real fireworks on guitar. You can’t stop marveling at this duo’s technical chops, and in this band the brotherly rivalry spews out at full steam. Michael and Christopher trade supersonic solos, aggressive arpeggios and sweeps like clockwork, and more than once it looks like they’re blatantly competing over who can pull off the better, more demanding solo. The pyrotechnic pair shine most of all in the harmonies so typical of Gothenburg metal, which the Amotts take to a whole other level. Sadly, this duo too seems to be slowly running out of ideas for good, catchy riffs, because after the occasional generic “chugga-chugga” pattern, you can hardly wait for the wizards to once again smash out gymnastic exercises up and down their guitar necks. The lion’s share of the blame for this weakness goes to the production, which gets more sterile and polished to exhaustion from album to album. Guitars tuned to “C” should roar like helicopter blades, but the crystal-clear modern production has stripped them of every shred of rawness, aggression and danger. And that’s not the end of the weak spots, because the one-dimensional vocal of Angela Gossow is once again a sore point, sounding pretty processed, plastic and artificial. The organic feel of her solid but somewhat monotonous growls is also spoiled by heavily overdone vocal lines. On top of that, Angela serves up quasi-anarchist lyrics that would make even Russian anarchists, with Bakunin at the head, blush and shuffle awkwardly. The old Arch Enemy glory only bubbles to the surface toward the end of the album, above all with the spectacular guitar intros to Cult of Chaos, Thorns in My Flesh and Vengeance Is Mine, and the higher speed the band shifts into in this trio is also extremely welcome.
Khaos Legions has a few extremely bright moments, for which the Amott brothers’ guitar wizardry is chiefly responsible. Still, Arch Enemy painfully obviously strive for ever simpler, radio-friendly tunes. True, the growls are still raw and aggressive, but the choruses and the lines beneath them are at times so simple it hurts. I don’t know whether this is a deliberate move to widen the fan base, but the band sounds more and more like a playground for the Amott duo to show off their guitar muscles. The uncritical masses who love ear-friendly “death metal” will of course swallow anything the band serves up, while Khaos Legions at times sounds so washed-out that you could put the album on during the evening news with the family and grumble about the fate of the world over the dim-witted rebel lyrics.
Lineup
Angela Gossow – vocals
Michael Amott – guitar
Christopher Amott – guitar
Daniel Erlandsson – drums
Sharlee D’Angelo – bass
Production
Rickard Bengtsson and Arch Enemy
Tracklist
1. Khaos Overture
2. Yesterday Is Dead and Gone
3. Bloodstained Cross
4. Under Black Flags We March
5. No Gods, No Masters
6. City of the Dead
7. Through the Eyes of the Raven
8. Cruelty Without Beauty
9. We Are Godless Entity
10. Cult of Chaos
11. Thorns In My Flesh
12. Turn to Dust
13. Vengeance Is Mine
14. Secrets
