"ARCH ENEMY welcomes Jeff Loomis as their new guitarist"

[Traxan]

Yes, I'm mad. Mad that one of the best guitarist that ever lived is such an egoistical money-hungry douche-bag.

That's not a nice thing to say about Yngwie.

Jeff has been likely been starving on the indie circuit playing tiny clubs with bands like 7 Eyes 7 Horns or whatever, and doing in-store appearances funded by Schecter. I seriously doubt Conquering Dystopia is paying his mortgage. Would you not be happy until he's forced to take a job at a Guitar Center?

Seriously, what the fuck do you want him to do? It's not like he joined Anthrax, who also need a lead guitarist. (they are borrowing the Shadows Fall guitarist for now) He's not slumming it for some pop whore, like Nuno Bettencourt did with Rihanna. He's in an underground, non-mainstream band and I seriously doubt he will make much bank with this gig.

 

[~Lynn~]

Oh look, John posted.........

































You don't even like the guy for never sharing a word with him and now he's the best guitarist bla bla bla.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

Just another bipolar post. Ignore him. Maybe he ignored me like he said he was going to, so he may not read this haha.

Fuck man, I am shocked as well. My favorite guitarist going to what used to be one of my favorite bands. Remove the girl from the equation, take a step back and just look at the lineup. Loomis and Amott on the same stage? The potential is pretty much insane. Mike's melodic playing with Jeff's unorthodox riffing could prove to be something special (if they decide to record together). Good for Jeff for playing in front of more people and probably making a buck. I don't expect him to water down at all. If anything, I expect his ability and aggression to rub off on Amott. If they decide to record together then musically speaking it could be an absolute monster of an album. If they just got rid of that fucking girl...

 

[Dead Winter]

If they fired the singer and got Johann back, then it would be epic. Loomis with the old Arch Enemy would be beyond epic...I daresay it would be better than a NM reunion.

I don't care how "metal" female singers may be in an extreme metal band, the music ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS gets watered down in order to sell the hot singer chick image. Even if the music isn't watered down at first, it will be eventually as the record labels try to squeeze every last dime they can from what they consider to be the perfect cross of metal and sexuality in an ever-shrinking market. The band knows this as well and used Angela in the beginning to grab everyone's attention. I remember the promos for Wages of Sin with Angela's hot (at the time) body in a bikini without a head in an Arch Enemy advertisement in Metal Maniacs or some such mag. The band has always cashed in on Angela's looks and they're trying to do it with this new singer as well because they know that no matter how awful their album may be, it will still sell better with a hot female fronting the band than some old, sweaty, smelly dude.

Arch Enemy hasn't been a melodic death metal band since Burning Bridges. Since Wages of Sin they've been a metalcore band, and aside from a few decent tracks here and there, there's absolutely no reason to get excited about anything from Arch Enemy post-2001. There are a few moments of nostalgic epic-ness in Anthems of Rebellion, but they're fleeting. Khaos Legions has some great riffs but it quickly gets generic and Angela's voice is just grating after a while, even for death metal.

AE used to be a sort of diet Carcass, but now it's more like Faygo, juggalos and all. People don't realize just how important a singer's timbre is, that if he or she doesn't have that timbre to go with the music it's not going to work. Timbre and presence will outshine perfect notes any day of the week. Johann had that scathing, barking, rabid-sounding timbre in his voice that these two girls just don't have. Warrel isn't a perfect singer but he's a great singer because he has presence and a great timbre. People preferred Matt Barlow to Ripper Owens because of his timbre even though Owens can sing circles around Barlow. Same thing works for all styles of metal.

 

[Dreadful]

Sometimes you guys make it out to be like ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS HAVING A HOT CHICK fronting the band...and that they still aren't having fun making new music? Yeah the album blows compared to the older Johan Liiva days and Wages of Sin...it's very generic...but I still think there's some musical integrity left in the band. They just don't sound nearly as good as they used to.

 

[lorinc]

Sometimes you guys make it out to be like ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS HAVING A HOT CHICK fronting the band...and that they still aren't having fun making new music? Yeah the album blows compared to the older Johan Liiva days and Wages of Sin...it's very generic...but I still think there's some musical integrity left in the band. They just don't sound nearly as good as they used to.

I really hope they have more fun and it's not only for the better visibility. But seriously, I would never have trade the aggression of Liiva's vox for a complete generic vox, bikini or not.

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

I'm to lazy to quote the post about me but here are my responses.

Maybe there will never be another Nevermore album. It saddens me, because I met a lot of you on here and made some of the best friends I could have asked for.

As long as Warrel balances his solo albums with Sanctuary.

About pretty boy Jeff Loomis, yes he is one of the best guitarist. I don't care what Yngwei does, his music sounds like shit. ALL of my favorite metal bands are from Norway or Germany, except Nevermore. Jeff is nearly as technical as Yngwei at times, and usually sounds good when doing it.

I hate him because he changed Nevermores sound after DNB. They should have renamed the band to "Nevergood", with a handful of exception songs. It was never like DNB and POE where every song ruled.

Lastly, what could Jeff have done?

1.Fix things with Warrel, and go back to E flat tuning.
2. Join Testament? Anything but fucking Arch pop losers.
3. Make his own band. A new band, that is not a technical show-off for him. Get Paul Kuhr or Chuck Billy to sing on it. Shit, even Ripper Owens.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Lead singer is probably blow banging the whole crew, and Jeffrey wanted to get in on the action.

 

[craptastic]

I'm to lazy to quote the post about me but here are my responses.

Maybe there will never be another Nevermore album. It saddens me, because I met a lot of you on here and made some of the best friends I could have asked for.

As long as Warrel balances his solo albums with Sanctuary.

About pretty boy Jeff Loomis, yes he is one of the best guitarist. I don't care what Yngwei does, his music sounds like shit. ALL of my favorite metal bands are from Norway or Germany, except Nevermore. Jeff is nearly as technical as Yngwei at times, and usually sounds good when doing it.

I hate him because he changed Nevermores sound after DNB. They should have renamed the band to "Nevergood", with a handful of exception songs. It was never like DNB and POE where every song ruled.

Lastly, what could Jeff have done?

1.Fix things with Warrel, and go back to E flat tuning.
2. Join Testament? Anything but fucking Arch pop losers.
3. Make his own band. A new band, that is not a technical show-off for him. Get Paul Kuhr or Chuck Billy to sing on it. Shit, even Ripper Owens.

Hey brah, you HATE him? You should settle down with that stuff, maybe...some would be less put off by you if you did. A simple "I don't like the direction he went after DNB".

Anyway, I agree with 1/2/3. Just not Ripper.

I don't understand what Jeff is doing here. Nevermore truly had something special (aside from your thoughts on everything after DNB) & touring clearly generated enough revenue for them to not have to work full time jobs. That's awesome. Truly is. I think Jeff thought he could stand alone better than he really could. Truth is, outside of a guitar clinic, Jeff Loomis' solo music is NOT going to put asses in a club. I've seen him 3 times since he went solo and guess what, he was standing in the crowd, amongst us all watching the opening acts with no more than 200 people. Hell, it was fun and awesome to literally stand shoulder to shoulder with the guy bullshitting about total nonsense at 2 of these shows, but with 5 bands playing, less than 200 people in the places, I just don't see how anyone was making any money worth their while. I was paying I believe $25 bucks and there was less than 200 people each time, just for arguments sake that's 5,000... promoters cut...5 bands & you aren't even the headliner.....yeah....goodluck surviving on that when you used to play festivals with Nevermore.

Compared to the 5 Nevermore shows I've attended, where these clubs were way over capacity and if you farted, you farted on the guys balls behind you or you were breathing down the neck of the dirty slob in front of you & when the pit got going, you couldn't breath.

I don't know, I don't get how differences couldn't get settled, especially considering how insanely respected the bands efforts were and the draw they had.

I'm glad Sanctuary is going well....I just wish Jeff pulled his head out of his ass a long time ago and stuck with Nevermore. He's going to bank with AE now, but IMO he couldn't have gone much lower other than to tour with Slipknot or some other insanely fucking lame band. I majorly dislike these gimmick bands and for someone with his talent and song writing capabilities to join in....yikes.

 

[nckissfan]

I am sure a lot of this decision is monetary. Makes you wonder how much, though. I would like to see a return to Nevermore, and wont rule it out, but not real likely.

Hopefully, Warrel will get Jeff to come do a song or two on the next solo record, and it will spark that interest again. That will be the key to this, I think.

 

[Dead Winter]

Sometimes you guys make it out to be like ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS HAVING A HOT CHICK fronting the band...and that they still aren't having fun making new music? Yeah the album blows compared to the older Johan Liiva days and Wages of Sin...it's very generic...but I still think there's some musical integrity left in the band. They just don't sound nearly as good as they used to.

It's not necessarily what the band cares about as much as it is what their label cares about. They do pretty well for themselves, at least for a death metal band. They're from Sweden so they don't need day jobs and the little money they make is more than enough to keep them from washing dishes for a living. They'll never buy Ferraris but they probably don't want to.

You simply cannot say with a straight face that getting ANOTHER female singer who just happens to be quite easy on the eyes played absolutely zero factor in choosing the best death metal frontman. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who would wipe the floor with her, it's just that she's going to draw more people because of her death metal tits. I heard Peter Dolving isn't doing anything besides whining and complaining that he has to work for a living now...he would've been a better fit.

They're getting old and they're not gonna be doing this for much longer, so it would make sense to make as much money while they can so they can move on to other things comfortably later.

But come on, WTF is this mid-paced, limp-dicked faggotry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y-J7sBT_no

Her vocals are awful, even for a death metal band.

Even for a female-fronted death metal band.

She sounds like the average screamo girl who wants to play death metal dress-up, whose looks outshine her talents by a mile.

 

[~Lynn~]

She does need moar tits.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

If they fired the singer and got Johann back, then it would be epic. Loomis with the old Arch Enemy would be beyond epic...I daresay it would be better than a NM reunion.

I don't care how "metal" female singers may be in an extreme metal band, the music ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS gets watered down in order to sell the hot singer chick image. Even if the music isn't watered down at first, it will be eventually as the record labels try to squeeze every last dime they can from what they consider to be the perfect cross of metal and sexuality in an ever-shrinking market. The band knows this as well and used Angela in the beginning to grab everyone's attention. I remember the promos for Wages of Sin with Angela's hot (at the time) body in a bikini without a head in an Arch Enemy advertisement in Metal Maniacs or some such mag. The band has always cashed in on Angela's looks and they're trying to do it with this new singer as well because they know that no matter how awful their album may be, it will still sell better with a hot female fronting the band than some old, sweaty, smelly dude.

Arch Enemy hasn't been a melodic death metal band since Burning Bridges. Since Wages of Sin they've been a metalcore band, and aside from a few decent tracks here and there, there's absolutely no reason to get excited about anything from Arch Enemy post-2001. There are a few moments of nostalgic epic-ness in Anthems of Rebellion, but they're fleeting. Khaos Legions has some great riffs but it quickly gets generic and Angela's voice is just grating after a while, even for death metal.

AE used to be a sort of diet Carcass, but now it's more like Faygo, juggalos and all. People don't realize just how important a singer's timbre is, that if he or she doesn't have that timbre to go with the music it's not going to work. Timbre and presence will outshine perfect notes any day of the week. Johann had that scathing, barking, rabid-sounding timbre in his voice that these two girls just don't have. Warrel isn't a perfect singer but he's a great singer because he has presence and a great timbre. People preferred Matt Barlow to Ripper Owens because of his timbre even though Owens can sing circles around Barlow. Same thing works for all styles of metal.

I agreed with all of that until about half way through. Maybe you should go back and revisit WOS. It's a ferocious record and one of their best. The music was all written before Angela come on board, as far as I remember. She didn't even write the lyrics. Anthems of Reb. is where they really started going downhill. Like you said, it has some good tracks, but it was their first appeal to the mainstream with "We Will Rise". But yea man, WOS is awesome. Perhaps give it another listen.

 

[Shpongled]

I love you, DW.

 

[~Lynn~]

Who cares who he goes out and plays with. If perhaps he needs an income, which is not a bad thing, the only one he has to please is himself. Being on stage is better than pooping off on your ass at home doing nothing.

 

[lorinc]

I agreed with all of that until about half way through. Maybe you should go back and revisit WOS. It's a ferocious record and one of their best. The music was all written before Angela come on board, as far as I remember. She didn't even write the lyrics. Anthems of Reb. is where they really started going downhill. Like you said, it has some good tracks, but it was their first appeal to the mainstream with "We Will Rise". But yea man, WOS is awesome. Perhaps give it another listen.

Completely agree (although I prefer the Johan Liiva epoch).

 

[neal]

ok look, a band of this 'status' needs a 'famous' guitar player to join up. 'famous' guitar players with no job need a job. 'old' AE + 'old' Loomis could potentially be something really interesting, but that's not what this is and it probably wont turn into that. everybody's gotta make a living. i have absolutely zero interest in a 2014 AE setlist, regardless of who's playing it, but i wish them well.

 

[Dead Winter]

I agreed with all of that until about half way through. Maybe you should go back and revisit WOS. It's a ferocious record and one of their best. The music was all written before Angela come on board, as far as I remember. She didn't even write the lyrics. Anthems of Reb. is where they really started going downhill. Like you said, it has some good tracks, but it was their first appeal to the mainstream with "We Will Rise". But yea man, WOS is awesome. Perhaps give it another listen.

Wages of Sin was a good album, I didn't mean to insinuate that it wasn't. I'm just pointing out that it is the starting point of their decline. You can immediately hear the difference between Burning Bridges and WoS, and not just because of Angela. Still, it's a good album and may very well be their best with Angela. It's got some killer riffs.

 

[craptastic]

ok look, a band of this 'status' needs a 'famous' guitar player to join up. 'famous' guitar players with no job need a job. 'old' AE + 'old' Loomis could potentially be something really interesting, but that's not what this is and it probably wont turn into that. everybody's gotta make a living. i have absolutely zero interest in a 2014 AE setlist, regardless of who's playing it, but i wish them well.

But there was issues between Jeff and WD apparently and a desire to do solo records and do his own thing. Now he's in a rather mainstreamish shit band playing someone elses music, not even his own.. Paycheck....okay...but their certainly had to be better options out there with opportunities to record?

 

[replicated]

Seriously, the whole Jeff bashing thing is getting old. Sure, his solo stuff is just a bunch of wankery, but I think it's pretty damn clear where each one of us stand on this issue and we can probably make a good guess who is gonna say he is selling out (not that he is necessarily making enough to 'sell out').

So in short, I will say "Congrats, Jeff. glhf".