The members of Arch Enemy were previously in bands such as Carcass, Mercyful Fate,Carnage, Spiritual Beggars, Eucharist and Armageddon which means Arch Enemy is considered to be a metal super group. The idea originates with Carcass guitarist Michael Amott and Johan Liiva. The band has gone from strength to strength over its career and has released ten studio albums to date, the first 'Black Earth' was released in December 1996.
The early albums only achieved commercial success in Japan, yet the fifth album 'Anthems of Rebellion' charted across Europe whilst the sixth 'Doomsday Machine' appeared on the US Billboard. They toured extensively worldwide to support each of their releases, with a large amount of tours in Asia due to the early success they enjoyed there. They filmed a live DVD 'Tyrants of The Sun' in Tokyo and headlined the Melon AX Hall in Seoul, South Korea.
Their highest charting US album is 2014's 'War Eternal' which reached #44 on the Billboard charts. It also appeared on numerous charts across Europe as well as being their eighth chart appearance in Japan. Lead vocalist Angela Gossom left the band in March 2014 and took over the role as manager instead. Long term guitarist Nick Cordle also left the band in 2014 during the North American tour which was in support of the release of 'War Eternal'.
Their name is derived from the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, often referred to as Black Dahlia, one of the most prolific crimes of the 20th century. This seems to match the melodic death metal that the boys create which is inspired by groups such as Judas Priest, At the Gates, Darkane, Metallica, Darkthrone, Morbid Angel, The Haunted and Iron Maiden. The quintet met in 2000 and cemented the line up of TBDM by January 2001. The group released their demo 'What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse' along with a four-track EP, 'A Cold-Blooded Epitaph', the latter of which the group released on Lovelost Records. After playing high profile slots at the likes of Milwaukee Metal Fest, The Black Dahlia Murder signed to Metal Blade Records in 2003.
It took the band a while to gain the commercial recognition to match the cult following they were receiving whilst touring around the States. Their debut album 'Unhallowed' which was engineered by the Walls of Jericho's Mike Hasty failed to chart in the US. However the follow-up 'Miasma' made it into the Billboard top 200 and sat at #5 on the US indie charts which was a huge improvement and was met positively by critics.
The next release 'Nocturnal' broke into the US top 100 which was a huge success for the death metal group, they announced they would be touring the US with Cannibal Corpse to promote their new album Nocturnal and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Metal Blade Records, they invited fellow record mates The Red Chord, Aeon, The Absence, and Goatwhore along too. The next three releases all continued the successes of this release, with the 2011 LP 'Ritual' remaining the bands highest peak at #31 in the US. Despite several line up changes, the band's sound has remained a solid constant and they have toured tirelessly, playing prolific events including Hevy Festival, Vans' Warped Tour and Mayhem Festival.
There's nothing like an Arch Enemy concert. I was worried that Alissa wouldn't be able to fill the shoes of Angela (who could?), but she was incredible. There's an energy that Alissa has that I haven't heard from the band in a long time.
Arch Enemy has always been one of my favorite death metal bands to see live. A lot of them just can't put on the kind of performance that lives up to the albums. Arch Enemy has no problem doing that at all. It's a shame that Angela left the band, she's been one of my favorite vocalists in the metal scene, but Alissa definitely puts on a show. Hearing her sing "We Will Rise" was incredible, and the stuff from the new album was great too. War Eternal doesn't disappoint, and the band does it justice live. Nick does a killer job.
I'm going to be honest - I was really worried when I heard that Angela and Christopher had left the band. I hadn't heard about Chris leaving until I found out about Angela, and I was freaked out. The new album was great though, and then this concert? Amazing. I shouldn't have been worried. Definitely go see them live if you get a shot. Best concert of the year, so far.
The Black Dahlia Murder, a death metal five-piece from Michigan, have been going for about 13 years now, undergoing a few personnel changes along the way. Not being a person who follows the death metal scene too closely, some friends of mine who are more knowledgeable in the subject mentioned to me that TBDM got a lot of flack from the more purist metalheads round about the time they were starting out, and were dismissed as simply following the current trends. Watching their show at Bloodstock, Derbyshire, a few years back, was really refreshing (I say this as an outsider to the death metal scene). A topless Trevor Strnad bounds around the stage, sweating, showing his pasty, portly and tattooed torso, yelling out encouragement to the crowd before ripping into ‘I Will Return’ with his scorched-earth growl, which made my hairs stand on end. Shannon Lucas, the then drummer, is a machine - he almost sounds programmed, but there’s a blistering intensity to his playing, as well as actually being quite melodic and supportive of the onslaught of riffs played by Ryan Knight and Brian Eschbach. The crowd moshed like crazy. Very intense, very liberating, it made me glad to see the metal scene is alive and well.
The death metal and gothic metal shows are not for the fainthearted, but if you’re willing to get a bit sweaty and pushed around a little bit, a Septic Flesh show will be one of the best concerts you’ll ever go to. Although the band have broken up and added new members over the years, their reformation and current set up provide what I think is a fresh and exciting spin on their sound, stopping the music from going stale from being dormant over the years.
The show opened with a huge projection of the band’s name on a screen behind the stage, followed by an image of them all in costumes, to which they ran out on stage, arms in the sir, shouting out to us in the crowd. From the first chord that Christos Antoniou struck on his guitar, the whole band were totally immersed in the theatrics of the show, with Spiros speaking directly to the audience to get us hyped for the show.
They played a great selection of tracks, and when they sand Prototype, they had everyone create a circle in the middle of the floor and run towards and around each other, dancing like crazy. All the while, the band were playing incredible tracks to amazing standards whilst dancing intensely themselves. Their stamina and talent is astounding, and it really was one of my favourite shows.