Arch Enemy

By Júlio Valada on Apr 18, 2011 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: Khaos Legions
Label: Century Media
Tracks: 14
Release Date: May 30th
Lenght: 54′ 57″

Riff Score: 4.0/10

The Amott brothers are back, signaling 15 years of the inception of Arch Enemy with the presentation of their eighth album. The band that Michael Amott formed after leaving Carcass has been through ups and downs but has always maintained some standards. The arrival of Khaos Legions marks the end of that.

I have to admit that I’m a big sucker for melody. Ever since I’ve listened to Wages Of Sin and the likes of “Enemy Within” and “Burning Angel”, I’ve been hooked to this band called Arch Enemy. I’ve been a fan of the band and subsequently of Mike Amott for the past ten years, having started with Angela already fronting the band. I’ve grown to appreciate both eras but I have to say that my favourite albums are the earliest, namely Stigmata. That being said I like the albums with Angela, even those that are usually described as their worst. Their last effort “Rise Of The Tyrant” hasn’t fully convinced me though, so a new album after four years could mean that they had enough time to write some great new songs.

Unfortunately it seems that the band spent so much time on the road touring endlessly and releasing compilation albums, along with re-recordings of old songs, that they eventually forgot to write some A-grade material to this new album. In fact when I hear Khaos Legions I get a feeling that this is more like a B-side compilation released wrongly under the banner of a new album. What happened guys? Have you lost the guts to make good music?

The intro is pretty lame, especially the spoken word sample heralding “the coming of the Khaos Legions”…So original! The advance single for the album “Yesterday Is Dead And Gone” begins the hostilities very much in the fashion of Anthems Of Rebellion and Doomsday Machine, with some melodic riffs and leads very reminiscent of that era in terms of composition and style. So nothing new here, maybe “Bloodstained Cross” brings something more interesting to the table. Nope, just more of the same half-assed recycled riffs. They dismantled the awesome “Ravenous” for this one, ripping its main riff into pieces that now show little of its past glory. The pre-chorus tremolo picked progression is the best part of the song, but then the chorus is really poor and it just ruins an already not so good song. Ok I’ll give it another shot, maybe this is it. The following, “Under Black Flags We March”, starts with a cool bass line and then another familiar riff, none other than a slowed down version of the main riff of “Dead Bury Their Dead”. The song plods along at a mid-paced rhythm and offers nothing more than a few leads, although I have to say that Sharlee shines on this song.

So they just destroyed two of the best and heavier songs on “Wages Of Sin”, what else do we have here? They sure can’t make things any worse now can they? Well, just listen to “No Gods, No Masters”, strip it of its harsh vocals and you’re left with the next Within Temptation single! Seriously, I’m not joking! This song is horrible, hideous, an abomination, and definitely the worst song the band ever wrote. The chorus is childish and ludicrous and the way that Angela tries to sound both harsh and cute makes me sick. Oh dear maybe this is just a small bump in the middle of the road and the other half of the album is better. It can’t all be that bad!

The next songs surely try to bring a bit more quality to the table, but when you have a great drummer like Daniel Erlandsson playing at the speed of Lars Ulrich something just doesn’t work. The Amott brothers also fail to impress as they churn out nothing more than harmonizing leads and chugging groovey riffs that do nothing for me. Most songs plod along never increasing the pace much, and that’s a real shame because I know these guys can play much faster and much better than this. The beginning of “Through The Eyes Of The Raven” shows Arch Enemy trying to sound like the Stockholm bands, which is the most obnoxious paradox. Especially when the rest of the song just dwells in Gothenburg melodies! Another example of how this album fails are the instrumental tracks on this album. Arch Enemy always had amazing instrumentals like “Stigmata”, “Snow Bound” or “Marching On A Dead End Road” that just made you indulge in air guitars because of how cool they were. The ones on this album offer absolutely nothing at all. The chorus of “Cruelty And The Beauty” is another absolute low on this album with its nauseating synths. Did I mention that the beginning of “Cult Of Chaos” is the same as the one in “Nemesis”, but just a scale down and with a different distortion? The last few songs bring a bit of increase in both tempo and aggression, providing for a riff here and there that’s actually interesting. But alas the damage has already been done, and by this point in time there’s no turning back to the evidences.

To put it bluntly Arch Enemy released the worst album in their 15 years of existence as a band. Khaos Legions isn’t original but worse than that, it comes off as an album full of reused riffs and melodies, which is pretty bad. Add to that the lack of cohesiveness the album shows with songs glued and stitched together as a poor girl’s rag doll and you’ve got yourself an album full of clichés, bad songs and horrible choruses. Some songs even sound like they could belong in a pop/rock album if it wasn’t for Angela’s voice. And this isn’t coming from a detractor of the band but rather from an assumed fan. This album is pointless and probably a contractual obligation with Century Media because there aren’t any ideas here, just random thoughts after almost four years on the road.

This is a huge disappointment, but more than that it’s something that could have been easily avoided. Arch Enemy stand as one of the most famous bands alive, probably that got to affect them eventually. Maybe Century Media demanded an album from them and they collected some random songs and presented it as a full-length to them. But at the end of the day this is just an inexcusable release from a band that can do much more and much better. My advice is to avoid it as it’s simply not worth it!

Track List

By: Júlio Valada