ARCH ENEMY - Rise of the Tyrant

Produced by Frederik Nordström and Michael Amott.

Released: 2007

After Doomsday Machine I feltthat Arch Enemy were really going to have to come up with something special to remain relevant as being a pretty decent band with a sexy vocalist isn't enough to sustain a band forever. With Rise of the Tyrant, they could well have done it. The time they spent apart seems to have re-honed the Amott brothers' songwriting and there's no doubt that Christopher's return has re-injected something into Arch Enemy.

Rise of the Tyrant rips from the opening seconds with a truly savage guitar sound and a rawer, more convincing vocal attack. Angela Gossow still has weaknesses in some areas of her technique but this time she's bravely gone without the double-tracking and layering thatwas all over the last album. If there's a distinctive flaw it is that the rhythm section is buried under the merciless wall of guitars, and when you have a rhythm section like this band, that's a bit of a crime. As killer a drummer as Daniel Erlandsson is however, one of the main reasons people listen to Arch Enemy is for the Amott brothers' twin guitar onslaught, and the soloing on Rise of the Tyrant is insane. Anyone who's got any sort of plans to be a shit-hot heavy metal guitarist needs to listen to this album at least a hundred a times because the shredding that's all over this is totally mind-blowing in places. "Blood on Your Hands", "Revolution Begins" and the title track should really be included in a primer on metal lead guitar playing because this is among some of the finest fretboard blazing you'll find anywhere.

Arch Enemy has also returned totheir best in the riffing stakes, in the energy and seeming immediacy of the delivery andin their ability to write killer songs. Everything here is a mammoth improvement on the last two albums, although there is still a tendency to recycle a pattern here and there but at least now they're nicking them from songsoff older albums and not from two tracks previous like they did last time around.

The production makes this a ridiculously guitar-heavy recording at the expense of Erlandsson and Sharlee D'Angelo, but in all other respects Arch Enemy has finally made another album that can stand next to their first four.

1. Blood On Your Hands
2. The Last Enemy
3. I Will Live Again
4. In this Shallow Grave
5. Revolution Begins
6. Rise of the Tyrant
7. The Day You Died
8. Intermezzo Liberté
9. Night Falls Fast
10. The Great Darkness
11. Vultures
    
    

Rating: 82%