Arch Enemy: Rise of the Tyrant (2007)
www.archenemy.net
www.myspace.com/archenemy
Genre: Death Metal
Track List
Blood on your Hands (4:41)
The Last Enemy (4:15)
I Will Live Again (3:32)
In This Shallow Grave (4:54)
Revolution Begins (4:11)
Rise of the Tyrant (4:33)
The Day you Died (4:52)
Night Falls Fast (3:18)
The Great Darkness (4:46)
Vultures (6:35)
Overview
The latest piece of original work from Arch Enemy (with their newest album ‘The Root of all Evil’ comprising of previous works) had to live up to big expectations following the hugely popular album ‘Doomsday Machine’. The sound has changed quite a bit from then, replacing Doomsday Machine’s darker sound with one of real aggression and often very fast tempo. Angela Gossow (vocals) always seems to step up the intensity of her screaming with every new release, and this is no exception. Her ability at delivering maximum volume and yet keeping the lyrics audible is almost unparalleled. Backed up by the brilliant skills on the Amott brothers on guitar and it’s a recipe guaranteed for success.
Highlights
The album gets off to a strong start with ‘Blood on your Hands’, with the rhythm guitar tearing out an intense tune comparable to many of the other songs. A song with lots of tempo changes with the real focus being on the guitar, a nice solo creeping in towards the end. It also gives us a taste of Angela’s vocals, which are powerful as usual, although they will become more so later in the album. The next song I’m going to mention is ‘In this Shallow Grave’, an extremely fast paced song and is one of Angela’s strongest vocal performances. The brutal riffing really is something to behold and it just seems to get heavier as the track goes on.
The video single from this album ‘Revolution Begins’ is an odd one. On paper it doesn’t really look that good, with the song focusing almost entirely around the chorus and one slightly changed verse. However, it really is good to listen to, and the guitars work well together to provide a melody that stays in your head for ages. It’s also a song where you can almost perfectly make out every word, which is unusual for a death metal track, especially as it doesn’t compromise on the growling. The only shame is that one of the two solos (the one towards the end) can go unnoticed if you don’t listen for it as it’s partly in the background.
The album’s namesake ‘Rise of the Tyrant’ begins with a 45 second clip from the 1979 film ‘Caligula’ which I tend to just skip over as it’s not really part of the song, so we’ll just ignore that for the purpose of this review. The song features some of the heaviest vocals on the entire album and these are very much the focus backed up with some heavy riffs. ‘The Day you Died’ is also an interesting one as it’s clearly inspired by a real life incident (in case you didn’t guess it’s about losing a loved one). It carries a poignant feel to it as well as being a good song, and one of the slower tempo ones to make for a change. Lastly, I have to mention ‘Vultures’, with the beginning being one of my favourite intros of any song. The lead guitar begins with a nice build up before the drums lead the way passing the buck onto the fantastic rhythm guitar and then Angela’s amazing vocals. It’s a long song, but one of the best on the album, with every member of the band contributing extremely well. The chorus in particular is very good.
Lowlights
Some of the songs are very forgettable, notably ‘The Great Darkness’ and ‘I Will Live Again’. The first just seems to completely disappear from your mind after listening to the album, although it’s not a bad song. The latter merely feels like a worse version of ‘The Day you Died’ and definately suffers from having this track overshadow it. ‘Night Falls Fast’ is an interesting one, as it’s a song the band themselves seem to like a lot using it on their tours often. It’s good, but for a song as heavy as it aspires to be, it feels like it should be a faster tempo. ‘The Last Enemy’ is the final track I will mention here, which is a good song apart from the chorus, which I really am not a fan of. It feels quite poorly constructed as it really doesn’t fit in with the extremely speedy guitar preceding it.
Conclusion
A nice album capturing all of Arch Enemy’s strong points (vocals and guitar) very well. None of the songs are bad, but at the same time none of the songs are great, only varying levels of good. My personal favourite song is probably ‘Vultures’ although I only came to this realisation after a fair few listens. ‘Revolution Begins’ is certainly memorable and definately the right choice for the album’s single. The whole album has a distinct feel to it and thats always a good thing, although ‘Revolution Begins’ feels a little bit out of place compared to all the others which fit in very well with each other. Theres something for people who enjoy both slow and fast tempo, lead and rhythm guitar, but definately nothing for those who enjoy the lighter side of metal.
Rating: 8/10
