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Arch Enemy: Anthems of rebellion
04/10/07 || The Duff
When choosing which Arch Enemy album to review, I initially thought of “Burning Bridges” and “Stigmata”, two of melodeath’s finest albums, before getting to think of the new album, heralded by the band as a return to form, and how underwhelming I thought it to be. And so I decided to review one of the two albums post-“Wages of Sin”, both of which have been stated as being mediocre (or was it “tame”? Can’t quite remember) by Angela Gossow herself, to see how it would stand all these years after its release. Statik had already covered “Doomsday Machine”. Simple enough? Sure. “Anthems of Rebellion” didn’t disappoint me upon its release, nor did it blow my balls off into oblivion, and so continues my review…
Things don’t start so hot with the not-so-almighty intro – it’s shit, pointless, and I needn’t say more. The next track, “Silent Wars”, opens with a couple of pretty simple riffs that ain’t gonna win any “Metal Riff of the Year” awards, but the drumming is neat-o, and Angela’s very Schuldineresque vocals are catchy as well as delivered with passion and some venom, so it isn’t all bad; the days of “Wages of Sin” are long gone, though. The Carcass-inspired bridge is sweet, and the solo(s) shows why the Amott brothers are still thought of as leaders of the sub-genre.
So how’s the rest compare? Meh. That’s right. This isn’t a pitiful effort though, not by a long shot. The band has started to evolve somewhat for the worse, providing a lot of focus on Angela – a talented vocalist to say the least, who knows how to bring catchiness to a song, thereby reducing attention to the very obviously watered down guitars. She also doesn’t have a penis, so I don’t know what the fuck’s going on there. It’s not as though the guitars are so bad on “Anthems of Rebellion”, there are some riffs, just nothing that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.
In short, the musicianship is grand, the music not so grand, and the album definitely not worth your money. This is, after all, Arch Enemy’s worst album – I would definitely recommend “Doomsday Machine” over “Anthems of Rebellion”. But then there are a few good tracks to be found here, so maybe you should give this a spin or two as something that shouldn’t be taken seriously, and as such enables you to pump your fists in the air, play air guitar and fuck your pillow to the sounds of Angela’s pessimistic lullabies about the fate of humanity without being labeled a bit of a tit.
6 anthems of mediocrity, I can do anythings out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.archenemy.net
- Band
- Michael Amott: guitars
- Angela Gossow: vocals
- Chris Amott: guitars
- Sharlee D’Angelo: bass
- Daniel Erlandsson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Tear down the walls
- 02. Silent wars
- 03. We will rise
- 04. Dead eyes see no future
- 05. Instinct
- 06. Leader of the rats
- 07. Exist to exit
- 08. Marching on a dead-end road
- 09. Despicable heroes
- 10. End of the line
- 11. Dehumanization
- 12. Anthems
- 13. Saints and sinners
