ARCH ENEMY ANTHEMS OF REBELLION
Century Media - 2003
By Rodrigo Escandon
Anthems of Rebellion marks the second album with Angela Gossow at the vocals and now that the buzz is all gone about having a female vocalist in a melodic death metal band, it was time to see if Arch Enemy could follow the success that came their way after Wages of Sin. Their attempt to do that is Anthems of Rebellion and unfortunately this album fails to keep the success going.
Musically, the band has streamlined their sound in a major way. For the most part, the leads, solos and intricate guitar work that the Amott brothers brought to the band are nowhere to be found and when a solo is played, I cannot shake the feeling that sometimes they just feel out of place as if forced. The only one that feels really good is in We Will Rise but with the repetitive main riff played throughout the song, it just loses the effect. So most of the time you get repetitive riffing, that just gets old and stale after repeated listens to the album and that hurts the rhythmic team of Sharlee and Daniel. They are both excellent players at their particular instrument but they are not given much to back up.
The other big problem I have is with Angelas singing. The feeling I got from the music is that a deep growling voice would work a lot better to carry the songs, something that Johan could have easily done. But Angelas higher pitch and range just does not feel right and then there is the fact that she definitely sounds female, something that was not the case with Wages of Sin. Maybe if she had sung the way she did with that album, then I would have enjoyed her performance better. Oh and what is up with the attempt at clean singing in the background of End of the Line and Dehuminazation? That is just not working at all.
This album feels rushed and with a lot of filler. Tear Down the Walls and Anthem are less than a minute, Despicable Heroes is just over 2 minutes and the instrumental Marching on a Dead End Road is over 1 minute. It would have been better if they would have kept only one of these songs and my vote would have been for the last song I mentioned.
With a good deal of great melodic death metal releases, Anthems of Rebellion is just not a worthy challenger to the better albums. Arch Enemy just seems to be cruising here with no attempt to challenge themselves and I wonder if it wasnt for the fact that they have a female singer, would anybody care about them? Not with this type of release.
Century Media Website
Arch Enemy Official Website
Century Media - 2003
By Rodrigo Escandon
Anthems of Rebellion marks the second album with Angela Gossow at the vocals and now that the buzz is all gone about having a female vocalist in a melodic death metal band, it was time to see if Arch Enemy could follow the success that came their way after Wages of Sin. Their attempt to do that is Anthems of Rebellion and unfortunately this album fails to keep the success going.
Musically, the band has streamlined their sound in a major way. For the most part, the leads, solos and intricate guitar work that the Amott brothers brought to the band are nowhere to be found and when a solo is played, I cannot shake the feeling that sometimes they just feel out of place as if forced. The only one that feels really good is in We Will Rise but with the repetitive main riff played throughout the song, it just loses the effect. So most of the time you get repetitive riffing, that just gets old and stale after repeated listens to the album and that hurts the rhythmic team of Sharlee and Daniel. They are both excellent players at their particular instrument but they are not given much to back up.
The other big problem I have is with Angelas singing. The feeling I got from the music is that a deep growling voice would work a lot better to carry the songs, something that Johan could have easily done. But Angelas higher pitch and range just does not feel right and then there is the fact that she definitely sounds female, something that was not the case with Wages of Sin. Maybe if she had sung the way she did with that album, then I would have enjoyed her performance better. Oh and what is up with the attempt at clean singing in the background of End of the Line and Dehuminazation? That is just not working at all.
This album feels rushed and with a lot of filler. Tear Down the Walls and Anthem are less than a minute, Despicable Heroes is just over 2 minutes and the instrumental Marching on a Dead End Road is over 1 minute. It would have been better if they would have kept only one of these songs and my vote would have been for the last song I mentioned.
With a good deal of great melodic death metal releases, Anthems of Rebellion is just not a worthy challenger to the better albums. Arch Enemy just seems to be cruising here with no attempt to challenge themselves and I wonder if it wasnt for the fact that they have a female singer, would anybody care about them? Not with this type of release.
Century Media Website
Arch Enemy Official Website
