They will come: ARCH ENEMY confirmed!!!
Anthems Of Rebellion, the new masterpiece by Sweden?s leaders of extreme modern Metal ARCH ENEMY, can easily be described as one the most frenetically expected albums of 2003.
ARCH ENEMY had already gained considerable media attention and underground acclaim for their three previous full-length albums before last year?s Wages Of Sin burst on the scene. This marked a new era for the quintet led by the guitar-wizard-brothers Michael and Chris Amott as they introduced a new secret weapon - their amazing new German female singer Angela Gossow. Her untamed vocal brutality and
outstandingly savage stage-presence immediately catapulted the band to a new level of recognition and kicked off a hectic year which turned out to be ARCH ENEMY?s strongest to date. Having already generated unprecedented success for both album sales and touring in Japan, ARCH ENEMY gathered forces in 2002 to conquer new ground and fully establish the band on a global scale. It began with a sell-out UK-tour with Opeth and festival appearances across Europe then headed over to
North America for a 6 week trek with Nile and Hate Eternal followed 2 months later by another tour in the US, this time headlining and supported by God Forbid and Sworn Enemy. By the end of 2002, ARCH ENEMY were back in Europe playing headlining shows in several countries before heading back to Japan to take a major slot at the Beast Feast festival alongside Slayer, Hatebreed, Soulfly and Motörhead, just to mention a few. On the way back from Japan they briefly stopped on US ground for a number of west coast headline shows before Christmas and then finally they once again took to the road for their debut headline shows in Scandinavia at the end of January 2003.
With the touring schedule finally over ARCH ENEMY were able to finally get stuck into the recordings for Anthems Of Rebellion with producer Andy Sneap ( Machine Head, Testament, Kreator, Nevermore, Killswitch Engage, etc.), who had already taken care of the mixing duties for the ground breaking Wages Of Sin. Andy was now on board as fulltime producer for the complete process of pre-production,
recording, mixing and mastering of the 13 new compositions on Anthems Of Rebellion. The result couldn?t be described any better than in Michael Amott?s own words: ?There?s an absolute abundance of heavy riffs, thick harmonies, ripping solos, frantic drumming and sick screaming ? all over this album! ?Anthems Of Rebellion? has got every type of feel and emotion that we want to have in our music? it?s beautiful and it?s ugly. And it?s very fucking metal.?
Without doubt ARCH ENEMY have managed to come up with their catchiest and most modern piece of songwriting yet, whilst never betraying their brutal edge and extreme roots. The smoothly incorporated keyboard layers courtesy of Spiritual Beggars? Per Wiberg (who also appeared on the Burning Bridges and Wages Of Sin albums) and the atmospheric melodic background vocals by Chris Amott have added a
whole new twist of variety and intensity to ARCH ENEMY?s uniquely lethal combination of the best elements of classic Heavy Metal, relentless Thrash/Death Metal outbursts, bewitching melodies and an impressive overall modern brutality of performance.
Currently, ARCH ENEMY are presenting the new material at several high profile festivals throughout Europe (Download, Rock Hard, Fields Of Rock, Graspop, Tuska, etc.) and will perform as support act for the mighty Iron Maiden in Norway at the beginning of July, before sparking off a massive touring schedule worldwide with the album?s release. Once again it will be packaged with first-class artwork created by the outstanding skills of Niklas Sundin. The first pressing of the album will be available as a 2CD version including a bonus-disc with special live tracks from the 2002 Wages Of Sin Tour as well as Dolby 5.1 Surround mixes of songs from the new album.
Be yourself, be an individual, shake off the foul dust of uniformity and convention ? this is 2003, it?s high time for Anthems Of Rebellion!
