ARCH ENEMY - Wages of Sin CD review

ARCH ENEMY - Wages of Sin CD
label: Century Media Records
released: 2001
track listing:
1. Enemy Within
2. Burning Angel
3. Heart Of Darkness
4. Ravenous
5. Savage Messiah
6. Dead Bury Their Dead
7. Web Of Lies
8. The First Deadly Sin
9. Behind The Smile
10. Snow Bound
11. Shadows And Dust

COMMENTS:

Wages of Sin might start off with some nice piano on the opening cut "Enemy Within". But by the one minute twenty-five second mark, after the guitars have burst forth. The face and sound of Death Metal, Swedish Melodic Death Metal, would change forever. You would have to be a misogynist, a homosexual or a complete utter fool (aka: a disgruntled AT THE GATES fan) to disregard the fact of what happens at that 1:25 minute mark on this CD. Because it's there that Angela Gossow enters into the picture and things would never be the same afterwards.

We all know the story. Arch Enemy was brought together in 1995 by guitarist Michael Amott after his previous band, CARCASS split up. He already had his stoner rock band SPIRITUAL BEGGERS but wanted something a little more on the Death Metal side of the musical spectrum. The original bunch of musicians that accompanied Michael Amott were his brother Christopher Amott (guitar), Daniel Erlandsson (drums), and ex-CARNAGE vocalist Johan Liiva. In 1996 this band released their debut album Black Earth. As the years passed there were some line-up changes and more releases. In 1999 their Burning Bridges release garnered the band high praise but for Michael Amott it wasn't enough. The one major problem was Johan Liiva who was not willing to go all out as a participant in the band. Despite what some modern day eager young assassins of musical revisionism would have you believe, the guy was not into doing long tours. So out went Liiva and in came a replacement who surprisingly became the German blonde Angela Gossow. Like I said earlier, things changed.

ARCH ENEMY were already a good Melodic Death Metal band displaying fast yet intricate guitar work by the brothers Amott. Along with that you had the very impressive drumming by Daniel Erlandsson. So with Angela Gossow on vocals they became a great band which over the past few years has only gotten better which each release. But it all started here on a release where at first people didn't believe it was a woman doing the vocals. Even today I've played ARCH ENEMY to people not in the know and they have a hard time believing it. Once they realize it they are intrigued by the whole band's sound. Gossow's vocals whether it's her guttural growls, raspy screams or that sinister semi-whisper were far more exciting than the man she replaced. Sound-wise this release was not much of a jump away from their previous work. The music on Wages of Sin was all written before Gossow joined the band with the exception of some lyrics. But still with her vocals this release really twisted the traditional Gothenburg sound. Which by this time was pretty
boring and in need of some excitement. Some people were happy with the repetitive circle jerk sound which was bleeding out of post Slaughter of the Soul Gothenburg. Thankfully ARCH ENEMY were ready to expand.

Wages of Sin is far from being a pure Swedish Melodic Death Metal release which to me is a good thing. At times it comes off like Thrash with excellent soloing by the brothers Amott. There's also some NWOBM influence (IRON MAIDEN especially) in the melodies/solos that threw some Melodic Death Metal purists back in the day. Actually they're still thrown by it and I refer you back to my first paragraph for an explanation why. Gossow's ability to use varied vocal styles, while still keeping things harsh, was also a needed change. And yet it never once went to the pathetic examples of today. I'm talking about this modern day singing with death growl vocals on one verse then switching to normal vocals for the next one. The bottom-line here is that Wages of Sin is/was/and will always be a release that still kicked ass. Strangely enough there are some that still cry about being kicked in the face. WELL GOOD!

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Yeah well what more can I say. This is a Metal album for people who actually like Metal. One thing I mentioned earlier is that each of the band's following releases did get better and better. That's true I'm even a huge fan of their last one Rise of the Tyrant. To me all of the Johan Liiva versus Angela Gossow shit is childish. To still cry like a baby about it all these years later proves one thing. You're a ignorant loser. Michael Amott did something you are incapable of doing, taking a huge chance to be successful at your craft. The past few years have proven him right and all of the detractors so miserably wrong. What is it like to be miserably wrong all the time? Could someone please explain how it feels because I sure as hell wouldn't know.


WEBSITES:
http://www.archenemy.net
http://www.myspace.com/archenemy