Rise Of The Tyrant (With Bonus DVD)

After a Doomsday Machine and some Anthems of Rebellion, Arch Enemy is back to full strength for the Rise Of The Tyrant, their fourth album with Angela Gossow and seventh as a band. As the alarm sounds for Blood On Your Hands, it's clear that the band is confident about their latest offering and why shouldn't they be having achieved a co-headline role with Machine Head on the Black Tyranny tour of America and a slot on the Black Crusade tour of Australia and Europe all before the albums release. Having moulded the melodic death metal sound over the past 10 years, the band seems to be perfecting that sound on ROTT. With Gossow's voice still as ferocious as ever she has controlled her vocals to a steady scale and is finally free of the effects featured on the likes of I Am Legend - Out For Blood on Doomsday Machine. Musically, everything has stepped up, although some may think the band could be mellowing their sound, they have in fact give a whole new dimension to Arch Enemy. The… more »

After a Doomsday Machine and some Anthems of Rebellion, Arch Enemy is back to full strength for the Rise Of The Tyrant, their fourth album with Angela Gossow and seventh as a band. As the alarm sounds for Blood On Your Hands, it's clear that the band is confident about their latest offering and why shouldn't they be having achieved a co-headline role with Machine Head on the Black Tyranny tour of America and a slot on the Black Crusade tour of Australia and Europe all before the albums release. Having moulded the melodic death metal sound over the past 10 years, the band seems to be perfecting that sound on ROTT. With Gossow's voice still as ferocious as ever she has controlled her vocals to a steady scale and is finally free of the effects featured on the likes of I Am Legend - Out For Blood on Doomsday Machine. Musically, everything has stepped up, although some may think the band could be mellowing their sound, they have in fact give a whole new dimension to Arch Enemy. The keyboards at the start of I Will Live Again doesn't make them sound like Children Of Bodom as many pessimists of the album would like to say but pushes the Arch Enemy boundary of old. The Last Enemy, possibly the albums best song is a far cry from Nemesis or We Will Rise but instead it has something far more exciting in its 100mph riffs and thunderous drums. Without doubt the album is their mildest to date and although the twin guitars of the Amott brothers are to perfection they have definitely have a much more accessible sound. Revolution Begins is a soft song until just before the chorus where you'll find the best excuse to head bang as ever offered before but the song itself doesn't experience anything else worthwhile and even more depressingly goes into a chant like close, similar to a certain Trivium song. The Day you Died, has a soft rock structure to it, which Lacuna Coil or Atreyu could easily call their own and in all honesty, the sheer brutality of Angela's voice overpowers the song itself and seems out of place. Unsure whether it's a good thing or not but also included is an intermission - Intermezzo Liberte, something right out of Avenged Sevenfold's back pocket, that does nothing for the albums tempo at all. The penultimate song of the album The Great Darkness, is a memorable one, with some gothic choir work placed perfectly throughout however after 40 minutes another solo and a pretty basic one at that just seems frustrating purely due to its lack of substance. To close, Vultures opens with some amazing neoclassical riffs that Arch Enemy often contribute throughout the album however the following five minutes fails to grasp you and is easily forgotten once the CD has finished.
All the songs have been written for the big stage and not the small clubs that Arch Enemy would have once experienced. They're literally all crowd pleasers and if you were at the Black Crusade unaware of Arch Enemy and they're set featured most of ROTT, you'd happily listen however if a young Trivium fan had to experience Dead Eyes See No Future or Web Of Lies, they could be having a few nightmares and may not hang around for long. The album does reach some awesome highs and for a metal sound slightly different than you usual you've got it but soon you may have to look somewhere else as Arch Enemy's sound slowly starts to replicate rather than innovate.