Arch Enemy

I respect them, and I highly respect Angela Gossow, aside from the fact that she's a great vocalist and excellent frontwoman. They're cool to watch live and all, but I just find their music boring.

A good gateway for younger kids getting into extreme metal though. Bands like Arch Enemy are needed.
 
they have some good songs on stigmata and burning bridges. but the vocals on those albums are actually worse than angela's. the latest album had a couple songs that i liked but nothing i would play over and over. i liked seeing them live last year in philly. wasn't the best concert ever, but they are entertaining enough. amott bros are talented.
 
Used to really like them when I was like... 16? Saw them live in December 2005. They were really good, but SYL were in support and blew them off the stage, tbph.

I agree on them being a fun band, without much substance. I like, never listen to them anymore.
 
Fun melodeath. They were really great on Ozzfest -- better than I expected, and I was impressed with Angela, actually. Only own Burning Bridges and Stigmata, and in the end, I mostly listen for the solos.

Michael ought to hook up with Jeff Walker again, imo...
 
more like just a carcass reunion would be nice.

but to be honest i think one of the unique factor's in arch enemy's sound was indeed johan's vocal delivery. he was different from every other swedish melodeath band at the time, who all were basically trying to be tomas lindberg clones. he had that sort of sincere, but theatrically apathetic aproach you heard in older death/thrash bands (which stefan86 already made mention of), and frankly i thought he added a nice and fresh timbre to the music that way. angela sounds like most other vocalists in this genre...regardless of having tits or not, that doesnt command respect to me. not to mention that factor coupled with the songwriting being COMPLETELY watered down and rehashed upon her entry for the most part...doesnt bode well for the band. long story short...they were once entertaining for me...now i could care less. its no mystery why Christopher left in my eyes. Sharlee is a bass whore and goes where the money is, mike is attached at the groin to angela, daniel is trying to compete with his obviously far more successful brother, and that pretty much wraps it up in a nutshell.
 
haha. spiritual beggars have some very solid tracks, but they can certainly be hit and miss. ad astra and demons are my 2 favorite albums by them at this point. mantra and on fire left me discontent. and i miss spice being the frontman, i must say.
 
I'm definitely with you on Spice as the superior frontman! All I have by them is "Ad Astra" and the s/t reissue (my favourite!). I've heard a lot of people (IoftheStorm is one poster I remember in particular) touting Ad Astra as some kind of classic-for-the-ages hard rock album, but no matter how many times I listen to it, muddy production and just plain average songwriting confuse me as to where all this praise is coming from.
 
well, id have to say he did overrate it then. also check out firebird...bill steer's (carcass) band after he left the metal genre and decided to do old school hard rock. not quite as "catchy" as spiritual beggars, but arguably more sincere and legitimate sounding.
 
I just like this kind of music to have that "room to breathe" quality to it... something Ad Astra definitely lacks.

I think I checked out Firebird... but to be honest, I have enough exploring of actual 60s-70s hardrock to do before I venture much further into the throwback bands.


edit: on that note, I almost picked up High Tide "Sea Shanties" yesterday, but it was $27.99+tax. Fuck that.
 
Demilich said:
I just like this kind of music to have that "room to breathe" quality to it... something Ad Astra definitely lacks.

I think I checked out Firebird... but to be honest, I have enough exploring of actual 60s-70s hardrock to do before I venture much further into the throwback bands.


edit: on that note, I almost picked up High Tide "Sea Shanties" yesterday, but it was $27.99+tax. Fuck that.
Click to expand...


thats a hefty price tag for that album, although it is quite good. high tide is still one of those bands that never gets much chatter around this forum...or any forum for that matter. but that album is a good starting point. try ebay, maybe you can snag a used copy for cheap.
 
I've had that album downloaded for quite some time, and I must say, that is some quality shit! If I lived down where you did, I'd be making great use of places like Aquarius Records to pick up all this retro awesomeness that I have to order (often for astronomical prices!) off the web.

I'm so jealous! Btw, how is Amoeba's stock on this kind of music? If I'm ever down in your neck of the woods again I'll *HAVE* to hit at least one of their locations again.
 
Hubster said:
I respect them, and I highly respect Angela Gossow, aside from the fact that she's a great vocalist and excellent frontwoman. They're cool to watch live and all, but I just find their music boring.

A good gateway for younger kids getting into extreme metal though. Bands like Arch Enemy are needed.
Click to expand...

I think that's a little bit unfair. There's too much implied here that it's music for "beginners", and while it may be much easier to latch on to than say Gorguts, they aren't trying to do anything like Gorguts. I realized some time ago that these "gateway" bands are still great bands, and it's pretty lame to imply that because they are easy to like, they aren't doing anything important. I swear that once people learn to appreciate less intuitive things in music, they completely lose the ability to recognize talent in more widely recognized areas. Classic snobbery. I know i was bad for that, and sometimes still am, but it's unwarranted.
 
Demilich said:
I've had that album downloaded for quite some time, and I must say, that is some quality shit! If I lived down where you did, I'd be making great use of places like Aquarius Records to pick up all this retro awesomeness that I have to order (often for astronomical prices!) off the web.

I'm so jealous! Btw, how is Amoeba's stock on this kind of music? If I'm ever down in your neck of the woods again I'll *HAVE* to hit at least one of their locations again.
Click to expand...


www.aquariusrecords.org
www.freakemporium.com
www.mellotronen.com

i actually dont frequent amoeba all that often, but their selection on progressive and psychadelia is pretty good actually. not complete by any means...for the most complete selection i definitely recommend the freak emporium link i posted above.
 
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