Arch Enemy: Rise of the Tyrant (2007)

1. “Blood on Your Hands” – 4:41
2. “The Last Enemy” – 4:15
3. “I Will Live Again” – 3:32
4. “In This Shallow Grave” – 4:54
5. “Revolution Begins” – 4:11
6. “Rise of the Tyrant” – 4:33
7. “The Day You Died” –4:52
8. “Intermezzo Liberté” – 2:51
9. “Night Falls Fast” – 3:18
10. “The Great Darkness” – 4:46
11. “Vultures” – 6:35
12. “The Oath” (Kiss cover) – 4:16 (Japan Bonus Track)

This is a full two years late, I know, but for some reason, I never got around to listening to Arch Enemy’s seventh and latest offering, Rise of the Tyrant. Arch Enemy are an interesting Melodic Death metal band; they aren’t a traditional melo-death band in the same vein as old In Flames, Dark Tranquility or At the Gates. They are one of the many bands lumped into the rather large and varied Melodic Death metal genre. They were always known for their very aggressive and thrash-influenced music, but what caught my eye from the beginning was first, the maturity in their songwriting (most thrash-influenced melo-death is complete crap), and second, the thing they are perhaps most known for: their eyebrow-raising technicality.

Arch Enemy is not such a showy band as the likes of Necrophagist or John Petrucci, they aren’t as fast as Cryptopsy or Nile, and they aren’t as experimental as the likes of Meshuggah. They are, however, fun. They are lots and lots of fun. Their technicality lies in their intricate dual guitar work. They write catchy and interesting riffs and melodies that abuse that playing style to hell and back. However, despite that, the music is never uninteresting and has kept my attention since I first saw them live at Ozzfest 2005.

Rise of the Tyrant is a much more melodic album than I can remember of any of Arch Enemy’s previous albums. The songs are all rather formulaic and somewhat predictable, but that is part of the charm of this album, in my opinion. Now I love innovation, progression and weird experimental shit as much as anyone else, but that does not mean music needs to incorporate those things in order to be good. A band can release something done before and still be held in high regard, in my opinion, as long as they meet two requirements: first, they can’t have just bluntly and crassly ripped it off; the music must have its own charm, and second, they must do it well.

Rise of the Tyrant does what has been done before with the trademark Arch Enemy aggression and lyrical/aesthetic themes. They also do it very, very, very well.

The songs on this album go back and forth between heavy thrash-influenced, aggressive riffs and epic sounding melodic lines. This doesn’t sound very original, does it? Well, it really isn’t. As I said before, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, even by Arch Enemy themselves. However, what really catches the ear is how tight everything feels. The melodic sections really bring together the aggression and anger you feel from the (relatively) amelodic parts and show you what the song is saying, what it’s doing. It isn’t just heavy heavy, then catchy melodic; there’s a sense in which the two contrasting types really work together to bring forth the lyrical and thematic concept of the song.

This may all sound rather dumb, overly artsy, and pretentious, but keep that in mind while listening to the songs, and you’ll be able to see what I mean. The sense of balance in the songs is something that makes them listenable many times over.

I think this is perhaps Arch Enemy’s strongest offering by far. The guitar work is very tight, the drums stick out a bit more than they did before (they were boring as hell in previous albums, I thought), you can actually hear the bass on this release, and the vocals, as per usual, bring shame to men. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes fun music to get pumped with. It isn’t the best release ever, it isn’t the most thought-provoking or the most innovative release ever, but it shines in its own right by virtue of its familiarity. We (fans of metal) at one point or another loved this kind of sound, and Arch Enemy brought it back with full force like a brick to the face. Let the Revolution Begin.

Stephen’s mostly inane and irrelevant rating:

**** 4/5 Stars.