Reviewing EVERY Arch Enemy Album!

[@KingArthas]

I've been following this band since Doomsday Machine and I agree with pretty much every single album review you gave! Rise of the Tyrant and Anthems of Rebellion are my favourite records with Angela on vocals while Will to Power made me fall in love with Arch Enemy again! I'm so fucking jealous that you have already listened to Deceivers because I'm actually counting the days for the release! Awesome video, Robert, keep up the good work!

[@squ1d.meta116]

Johan: *has bad vocals* Chris Barnes: You call that bad? EEEEEEEEE!

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Barnes undeniably the king of shit vocals

[@squ1d.meta116]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial Chris Barnes 2.0: Hold my bEEEEEEEEEEEEr

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

@@squ1d.meta116 Like for real, I feel like, at this point, you'd have to go out of your way to do something worse than Barnes lmao.

[@volkankinaci1623]

Johan Liiva & Chris Barnes; both are legendary fantastic death metal vocalists.

[@MarceloZ2]

@@volkankinaci1623 which is why is ironic that Liiva’s first major records with Arch Enemy and Barnes’ latest stuff with Six Feet Under are as bad as they are when it comes to their vocals. Liiva’s stuff after Arch Enemy is way better than any of the three records he partook in and, while not my personal cup of tea, the Barnes era of Cannibal Corpse is legendary.

[@mntsmelody2577]

Omggggg i requested this video when you posted about reviewing every the dillinger escape plan albums, i mean nobody liked my comment or anything but seeing this makes me soooo happy, thank you soooo much

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Happy you're happy bud, cheers 🍻

[@AngusMacThrasherMetalReviews]

Ha ha, I only discovered Arch Enemy on the War Eternal album and it actually hooked me in. Looks like I’ve got a bit of listening to do!

[@chidorisnake22]

That's the deal with me. Back in 2014 while I was still in high school, I stumbled upon their song "You Will Know My Name". As a kid that listened to mostly power metal, early thrash and traditional heavy metal, I was blown away that something so heavy could simultaneously be so melodic and damn near cinematic as well. Definitely helped me down the rabbit hole of melodic death metal and extreme metal as a whole.

[@jmalinjapan7786]

Thanks for this! You’ve inspired me to go off and listen to some of those mid-period albums now. I will definitely go back and check out Burning Bridges as well.

[@scottlowry6857]

Great stuff as always, Bobby! With the awesome bill of Amon Amarth, Carcass, Obituary and Cattle Decapitation coming to Toronto later in the year, it would be cool if you did the album rankings for all four of those awesome shits. I know the new Amon Amarth left a lot to be desired, but hey, plenty great shit before that! Keep it up either way!

[@billcowan5539]

Your list is pretty much spot on dude👍 I am a big fan of Arch Enemy and I can’t wait to hear the new album 🤘🤘

[@loganc1158]

I’ve just started getting into Arch Enemy recently. I don’t care all that much for the first few, but everything after that I really enjoy

[@Mungotox]

Pretty good synthesis of Arch Enemy’s discography. I agree with most of it. The Root of all Evil is indeed a great record and with Angela, the old songs sound MUCH better. For me, Wages and Doomsday are the best with Anthems in third position. Great video!!

[@AnnieBonnie-01]

I agree with the point! and I prefer Angela had a voice, staging! strength .. the band lost a lot with the departure of Ángela , the current vocalist is not enough for my taste .

[@blackwaterrust476]

Good vid I’ll go check out Rise of the Tyrant and the other albums you gave good reviews to. Arch Enemy imo are worth the 2nd chance.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Hell yes my dude. They're corny as shit but the non-stop tasty riffery of Michael & Christopher Amott is more than worth it.

[@blackwaterrust476]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial Welp Good News I really like Wages of Sin now, 3.5/5 at least . So yeah I will check out more. I’m way more accepting of cheese music these days compared to 5 Years ago where I was a relatively close minded snob towards cheesy metal which in hindsight was very hypocritical since I still loved Children of Bodom back then (Was a fucking Idiot 5 years ago, oh well, all you can do is learn and move on lol)

[@st3929]

Hopefully seeing them at Knotfest here in Finland next friday

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Nice man. They put on a good live show. Saw them with Amon Amarth and At The Gates a few years back, good shit.

[@slipknotmfkrlocust8843]

Hope you can see them, they are great live!

[@darrelladams4886]

Johans vocals were definitely hit and miss and a recognized issue by the band. Apparently he had issues with maintaining his voice and really struggled live. Even though he sounded like he found his style on burning bridges and put in his strongest performance it always sounded like he was being asked to do something he wasn’t comfortable with. Many great vocalists have rough beginnings but you can’t help but hear some songs off the first two albums and feel like he wasn’t very confident, rehearsed and forcing it

[@vanzylalberts5552]

I love the first three albums! In fact Stigmata and Burning Bridges are my favorite Arch Enemy albums. I got into Arch Enemy when Stigmata came out. Was fortunate to catch them live on tour in London. Everything after Burning Bridges just didn't appeal to me. It wasn't for a lack of trying. I didn't enjoy the direction that the music went into. Also I thought Angela's vocals was boring and one sided. The reunion tour (2016/2017) and live show in Japan of the original members performing as Black Earth was amazing! 🤘

[@NicRadGaming]

great vid personally i love doomsday machine a lot but haven't quite finished they're discography yet so might shuffle a bit when I'm done listening to it all

[@chidorisnake22]

Hey Robert, have you ever considered doing an "every album" review of some power metal bands out there? I think reviewing every Symphony X album or every Stratovarius album would be cool since they've changed sound quite a bit over their respective catalogues.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Ehhhh maybe. Of all the metal subgenres, power metal is the one I care for the least. Love me some old school Blind Guardian and Helloween mind you.

[@chidorisnake22]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial That's fair. Of all the subgenres, power metal is definitely the cheesiest, but it's the amount of Gouda that makes it lovable to me. 😂 With that said, there are also some power metal bands that do break that mold (no pun intended), like Powerwolf and Unleash the Archers.

[@w-james9277]

I actually got my Deceivers CD one month ago. Literally 12 hours after I pre ordered it and it's pretty great!

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

God damn, how'd you get it SO EARLY? I didn't even get my advance copy until like a week ago lmao

[@w-james9277]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial It must have been an error but im not complaining 😁

[@ApocalypseRider]

I would give "War Eternal" much higher score, because it has killer songs other than them singles. "Time is black" and "Avalanche" for example. And I have got much more used to Johan's vocals over the years, so I really dig his delivery on "Beast of a man" or "Silverwing" etc... But great review anyway! :D

[@harvesterofstorms4932]

I got into Arch Enemy when Doomsday Machine came out and instantly loved them. I pretty much love all the Angela Gossow albums. I didn’t mind Alyssa joining because at the time I thought The Agonist was a decent band. I thought the first few albums she did with them were ok but I am enjoying Deceivers so far. One thing always bringing me back to Arch Enemy is Mike Ammott’s shredding. Jeff Loomis joining doesn’t hurt at all.

[@nelsonshuchmacherendebo7688]

Interesting video, Robert. Considering your spot-on reviews on generic bands/records in the last year or two, I am surprised at the ratings here. Cool you dig their discography. As usual, I think the perspective changes considerably depending on when you started with this band. I started with Burning Bridges. To me, Arch Enemy is a classic example of the law of diminishing returns (like Amon Amarth!). Granted, Johan Liiva's voice was awful and hampered the records he was on, but composition-wise, those tunes are solid. Wages of Sin is by FAR their best album. When it came out, I had it on all the time. Stellar metal record there. I was super pumped about Anthems of Rebellion, and it came out with a ton of hype. I thought it was good but not exciting. Every single record after that got progressively worse, less inspired, more cookie-cutter, corny, by the numbers metal. And the lyrics and PR are so clean, so tidy, so goddamn corporate. Band is insanely stacked with talented, no doubt, but I cannot understand how anyone can give their more recent records the time of day. Kudos to them for becoming a huge band playing this style of music, but the music they are making now is just not good.

[@GlennHubbins]

Their best albums are with Angela

[@darrelladams4886]

When I look at albums I often pay attention to when it came out and what was going on at the time musically. Sometimes that context gives new meaning to an album and what it actually achieves. I mean taking it at face value on the surface is still important cause either you like something or you don’t but looking at the when can help you better understand it’s significance or lack of. That and I often hate when some young guy shits on 80s thrash and metal classics cause it doesn’t compare in their eyes to some current band

[@christopherbarker1048]

I fucking love War Eternal. It's what got me into Arch Enemy. I also own Wages of Sin. A fucking beast of an album

[@HCmetal022]

Are you gonna do a behemoth one when you’re 12 studio album comes out

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Maaaaaybe, we'll see. Depends on how busy that whole week is, lots of big records coming out in September.

[@gojira_0797]

Really enjoy this band even if some of their stuff does feel uninspired. Demonic Science is their best song though. The solo is beyond incredible.

[@darekzmarek1842]

Deceivers it's solid 7.5 on 10, love it \m/ \m/

[@necrodamus5481]

Say when you do a "Reviewing every album by this artist" ordeal. What criteria should it meet? Ive always noticed you went for albums by bands that consistently release albums and their mid years works may have been experimental or drove into different genre territory.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Honestly there's no 'criteria' per say. I just pick bands that I wanna talk about and have interesting discographies. Generally I do try to talk about bigger bands that have multiple albums though, and I try to stay away from bands whose albums all sound really similar (cough cough Motorhead, Cannibal Corpse. Love em but DAMN Id run out of shit to say quickly talking about their full discography).

[@necrodamus5481]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial Ah i can understand that. Me and my friends talked about the Ramones the other day on how we'd rank their albums through the 70's-90's and i found ourselves not being able to say much other than production may have hindered this album, it just wasnt that interesting or really nothing new.

[@cevikmetalcovers]

Good review thank you ! About Johan "barking" as you said, i was feeling the same the first time, even the later 20 Years of Dark Insanity Japan Tour 2016 i was very disappointed too. But if we make abstraction of the texture and focus on the attitude, he is good IMO. I'm not fan of the new singer: it's not even barking, it's vomit in stereo without reverb to my ears you know, like being surprised by a loud volume on headphone. Burning Bridges is my all time favorite.

[@DamnableReverend]

Arch Enemy always had a heavy influence from 80s heavy metal and guitar masters. Their first two albums end with tributes to Randy Rhodes and Jason Becker, respectively. I don't think Johan Liiva is terrible but yeah, he sounds more like a hardcore vocalist than your typical Swedish melodeath guy. I stopped listening to them after Wages of Sin. Nothing against Angela, I think i just sort of put them aside for other music. Since coronavirus I've kind of gone back to check out the albums from bands I forgot about, put aside or dismissed after a certain point. Perhaps it's time for Arch Enemy to get another shot. Interesting video, man.

[@christerolausson2702]

Do check out the “Alissa Era”. Both “War Eternal” and “Deceivers” are great! Not a big fan of “Will To Power”…

[@slipknotmfkrlocust8843]

1. Rise Of The Tyrant 2. Anthems of Rebellion 3. Doomsday Machine 4. Wages of Sin 5. War Eternal 6. The Root of All Evil 7. Black Earth 8. Will to Power 9. Stigmata 10. Burning Bridges 11. Khaos Legions And everything from Root to Rise I love to adore, nice to see someone else love it, although even Khaos Legions i dont hate, more of just find majority of it quite boring.

[@chidorisnake22]

This is a fair ranking. I agree with most of this, though I would rank Will To Power a bit higher.

[@SadashiFox]

Johan definitely sounds best in the other Arch Enemy band Black Earth. He actually screams and uses wider range.

[@dmphax]

Khaos Legions is honestly my favourite album, for the guitar melodies alone. Also the last with the great Angela on vocals. Edit: Anthems is my #2, fuck yeah!! I find it is often overlooked but it is so incredibly good! Instinct and Dehumanization are my favourites here.

[@slipknotmfkrlocust8843]

While khaos legions is my least favorite AE album, i wholeheartedly agree with you on Anthems of Rebellion, especially Instinct and Dehumanization, dehumanization is my favorite on the album

[@mindful2864]

Very interesting review of each Arch Enemy album. Here would be my rating for each album: Black Earth: 7.5/10 Stigmata: 7/10 Burning Bridges: 8.5/10 Wages of Sin: 9/10 Anthems of Rebellion: 8/10 Doomsday Machine: 8.5/10 Rise of the Tyrant: 7.5/10 The Root of All Evil: 8/10 Khaos Legions: 6.5/10 War Eternal: 6/10 Will to Power: 5/10 Hopefully, Deceivers will be a better album than the last two.

[@123abcDamion]

The Johan era has some classic music if you get pass the vocals, and the production. Just listen to bury me an angel, the beast of men, diva satanica, and of course the classic sliver wing.

[@Heavymetalaidan24]

awesome band awesome ranking been a huge fan since 2007 so 15 years now since i was 7 years old my favorite arch enemy albums burning bridges 1999 black earth 1996 stigmata 1998 wages of sin 2001 anthems of rebellion doomsday machine 2005 thone that got me into arch enemy rise of the tyrant 2007 my least favorite arch enemy albums khaos legions 2011 the root of all evil 2009 war eternal 2014 will to power 2017 hopefully the new album decievers will be good i love johan and angela gossow

[@jmalinjapan7786]

Speaking of shitty re-recordings of classics, Gorgoroth’s Under the Sign of Hell 2011 is VASTLY inferior to the original. I know some people hate the drums on the original but I fucking love them. They’re vicious and nasty as fuck.

[@donmcglothlin841]

I break arch enemy albums by vocal era In the Johan era I love Stigmata and Burning Bridges the best, but Stigmata wins for me because of Bridge of Destiny. My least favorite overall album is Black Earth. Eureka and Fields of Desolation absolutely kill though. Angela era? I’m all about Rise of the Tyrant, but they’re all fantastic Alissa era, I’m really digging Will to Power and the songs that showcase Jeff Loomis the most, like Avalanche or Dreams of Retribution. My favorite overall song is on War Eternal, No More Regrets. Arch Enemy is like King Diamond. At their worst they’re still better than most bands at their best.

[@FaustianSpirit1997]

When it comes to Arch Enemy i'm only interested in the Johan era and the first three albums with Angela. Then they slowly started to follow a more commercial direction and i started to lose interest, although it was never as monotonous as Amon Amarth or as pornographic as In Flames. I'll still going to listen to the new album but Doomsday Machine is the last effort of them i'd throw money down for.

[@metalcoffie]

I don't care what anyone says, the Johan trilogy fuckin' slams! (Though the Angela era is clearly best.)

[@123abcDamion]

I'm the exact opposite of you. I pretty much hate every project doing Angelas' era. I couldn't ever get into her vocals, and they change their sound too much and pretty much turn into a generic death metal band with boring melodies, and boring hooks, "expect for Nemesis and Ravenous." The Alissa era has been pretty good though. I love her vocals, and they started to focus more on melody again which is a plus.

[@stevearno9726]

Anthems of Rebellion.. the only album I completely ignore. Apart from Dead Eyes and We Will Rise the rest of the album is corny cheesy, loses the bassy edge and heaviness. On another note, Burning Bridges is my joint favourite along with Will To Power. Also it's Jeff God Loomis

[@zoranbl1990]

Doomsday Machine is the best album they have ever made. Its obvious dude

[@godetonter4764]

Never heard anything with the Blue Haired girl, but I didn't like the pre Angela Arch Enemy. I couldn't stand Johan's Judas Priest and Europe covers of which he talked his way through the songs like an auctioneer. I just didn't know where to obtain the Blue Haired girl Arch Enemy albums. Anthems of Rebellion is my favorite, and Rise of the Tyrant is also good. I haven't listened to Arch Enemy for a few years now. I own all of them up to Chaos Legions, which was a big reason I didn't jump at the chance to pick up their next album with the blue Haired girl on Vocals. Chaos Legions was a disappointment so Arch Enemy lost me ,not that I will ever be missed

[@sebastiankirby5159]

No sound

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

No, there is

[@thegermanmetalhead]

Prog Metal Bullschit, Dream Theater ist my Favorite Band. Thats a Joke 🤣

[@tanything26]

my dude there's no sound

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

No, there is

[@tanything26]

​@@themetalmeltdownofficial nice, also I like your Joy division shirt

[@paulg930]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial Linking the nowadays presence of a certain Jeff Loomis in AE, I'm looking forward for the flawless NEVERMORE ranking

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

@@paulg930 I'd be down, but don't expect that for a bit. Been a long time since I even jammed a lot of Nevermore stuff.

[@davidburns6284]

The first few albums with Angela on vocals were pretty good, but this new stuff I'm hearing is pretty awful. The songwriting is just too straightforward and boring for my taste. The new vocalist does sound good, I just would like if they went in a more extreme direction and weren't so cliche.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Honestly I kind of like how they're just fully embracing power metal cheese and bombast nowadays, and this is coming from a guy who typically does not like that AT ALL lmao. But I feel ya. It'd be pretty cool to see them just go full blown old school Swedish death metal, but I also cannoooot picture that happening anytime soon.

[@davidburns6284]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial You're correct. The cheese will continue.

[@aroncarey]

Switched off video when you gave Anthems 5/5. Dogshit record. That album was the start of the pandering to kids with the fake rebellion lyrics and uniforms on stage. Angela's lyrics make Robb Flynn look like Phil Lynott.

[@themetalmeltdownofficial]

Good thing I didn't give it a 5/5 then

[@aroncarey]

@@themetalmeltdownofficial I stand corrected. 4.5 still way too high though 🙂