|
|
||||||||||||
|
||
|
When Wages of Sin was released in 2001, the vocals of one Angela Gossow were highly suspect, as was the possible future of the band… until you actually listened to the album. What “Wages” was can only be described as heavy metal mastery. The riffs explode off the album, the solos are a pleasure to listen to and the rhythm section is perfect. The Amott brothers are truly a pair of the best guitarists out there and Angela has one of the most unique and powerful voices in all of thrash/death metal. Every song merits multiple listens, while having its own unique flavor that sets it apart from the rest of the album. Wages of Sin is as close as you can get to thrash metal perfection in this reviewer’s opinion and set a new benchmark for the band. Well in 2003, it was time for AE to record their sophomore effort with Ms. Gossow and prove to the world that Wages wasn’t just a fluke. Well, I can say that the results weren’t all that bad. Where Wages seemed like more of a cry for help, with very introspective lyrics and driven by highly technical guitar work, Anthems of Rebellion comes off as more of a straightforward power album and lyrically a slap in the face to authority. It stands as a strong metal album with a number of great songs and is a good war cry for metal fans against war, politics or just anyone above them in general. Is that to say that this isn’t a technical album? No, it still has its number of melodic riffs and excellent solos, but overall it feels a bit dumbed down since Wages of Sin. It still stands alone as a great metal album, but it doesn’t quite push AE to the limits of what they’re capable of. Essentially, it’s a bit more accessible to a larger audience than their former efforts, but AE’s hardcore fans still can appreciate it. The reason I can say this is because Anthems is essentially the album that got me into AE, and is a good starting point for anyone interested in the band. It’s a very aggressive, well-played, well-produced album with enough of an edge to appeal to a wide variety of metalheads. Death Metal fans will appreciate the heaviness and power of the album, while more progressive metal fans can enjoy the melodic riffs that the Amott brothers can bring forth. Overall, this album has a little something for everyone, but not quite everything for anyone. The main problem with this album is that it can be very inconsistent. You can listen to one song and appreciate it for its originality, melody, solos and everything else, and you hope the next song will have the same quality. More often than not, the next song will fail to impress. While a good number of songs are excellent, towards the end of the album it feels as if it’s beginning to fall apart. Therefore, unlike its nearly flawless predecessor, Anthems of Rebellion has a few too many pitfalls to make it an overall excellent album. Anthems starts off on an excellent tone. The opening march of “Tear Down the Walls” is enough to get any metal fan excited about what’s to come, and is immediately followed by “Silent Wars”. A riff-happy, aggressive song that immediately lets you know that this is an Arch Enemy album. The lyrics are very fitting for the message that the album is trying to get across, that we’ve had enough of our normal lives and are left with nothing but anger. It serves as a good springboard for what should be quite a ride through the rest of the album. “We Will Rise” is one of the true highlights of the album and a fine example as to why Arch Enemy is one of the finest metal bands today. A catchy yet admirable main riff, meaningful, deep lyrics and overall excellent songwriting pull this awesome track together. This song should be the lead anthem for a new legion of metal fans. What Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” was for angsty British kids in the late 70’s is what “We Will Rise” should be for metal fans in 2000’s. What AE has here is a powerful song with a message that should energize metal fans to not be afraid to embrace the genre they love and say “fuck you” to the rest of the music industry. To stand up and proudly preach their appreciation and fandom of metal, in hopes that they will be heard and put and end to all the apathy, normalcy and mediocrity in the popular music scene. Cap the song’s great main riff and poignant lyrics with some great solo work from the Amotts’ and we have one of the best metal songs of the 2000’s. Not to be outdone, “Dead Eyes See No Future” continues to emphasize AE’s struggle for perfection in their craft. Aggressive progression combined with a beautiful-sounding music with a refrain screamed as only Angela Gossow can. As the military drums arise along with the beautiful light guitars burst back into the refrain towards the end of the song, it becomes quite apparent that this is another big feather in AE’s cap. This is probably my personal favorite song on the album, one of my favorite AE songs overall and I think gives a nice example of how power and melody can be interwoven to create one awesome product. However, “Instinct”, the next song, is where the album’s inconsistencies begin. Up to this point, the album has been spot-on, but here’s where it begins to slow down a bit. A nice interweaving of a techno line and a guitar riff begins the song good enough, but problems arise as it goes on. The instrumental work on this song just doesn’t quite feel up to the previous tracks, and neither do the lyrics. It’s not to say that this song isn’t good, it’s quite catchy and after a couple listens you’ll find yourself screaming along with a few lines, but overall it just doesn’t quite live up to what you’ve heard so far. “Leader of the Rats” is where the album picks up steam again. Once again, the song starts off with more great riffing work, which are soon complimented perfectly by the sharp, biting lyrics. The song is a tough, striking and occasionally soaring feat, reaching great heights with few negatives. It serves to put the album back on track. Yet, where this gives hope, the next track takes away. “Exist to Exit” is just a slow and overall uninteresting track. It really doesn’t stand well with a few of the previous tracks. It’s not that Arch Enemy can’t do great songs. “Savage Messiah” from Wages serves as a great example of what AE can accomplish in their slower songs, but this song "Exist to Exit" just can’t stack up with other tracks on this Anthems album or that they’ve done before. It almost serves as the beginning of the end of what should’ve been an overall excellent metal album. Aside from “End of the Line”, a nice heavy piece which displays some interesting backing vocals and a nice mix riffs, the rest of the album is pretty lackluster. The rest of the songs on the album really aren’t that bad, just disappointing. Arch Enemy is a band that is talented enough to make every song a great song, but these last few tracks on the album just don’t live up to the high expectations that listeners should have for this band. The short instrumental tracks of “Anthem” and “Marching On a Dead End Road” I think do more justice to this band’s talents than songs like the uninteresting “Dehumanization”. Overall, when this album shines, it gleams among some of the best recordings in metal. Yet, it's where it lacks its luster that the major problems stick out. Not to say that this is a bad album, or even has any songs that are particularly terrible. It’s just that Arch Enemy is a band that is capable of keeping listeners hooked onto an album from beginning to end, and this just isn’t one of those albums. For the first few songs, this album ROCKS! I love listening to the first couple songs. And while the latter songs are still very good when compared to other thrash and death metal that’s out there, it just leaves listeners feeling that there could’ve been more. I’m sure there are people who love the latter songs on the album, but I just don’t think they do justice to the true talents of this band. It’s an album which consists of an uneven balance excellent moments and missed opportunities. I would still recommend this album as a good starting point. For those who may not be so technically savvy, the later songs may serve as a nice relief from what seems to be AE’s longing to fit as many notes into a song as possible. This album can appeal to a wide variety of metal fans because it does consist of a wide variety of styles in its songs. I still recommend this album because the songs on this album that ARE great are great enough to merit its purchase, and it’s because of those songs that I still have a great amount of respect and love for this album. Arch Enemy is capable of great things, and this album certainly showcases some of their greater skills. It’s a good display of what they can do, what they should stay away from and a hope for what they will do on their next album. If Wages of Sin is a 10, then Anthems of Rebellion is somewhere a little below an 8, and in this reviewer’s book, that ain’t too bad.
Arch Enemy is…
|
||
