“I think we took a ‘more is more’ approach to this record.”
So says ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott when referring to “Khaos Legions,” the band’s latest
platter of mayhem. Not that they’ve ever tackled any aspects of their career with a half-baked
attitude, but the approach was particularly important after four years of creative silence.
“Khaos Legions” was well worth the wait. A solid 14 tracks – 11 songs and three instrumental
passages – it is an album that immediately recalls “Anthems Of Rebellion” (2003) and “Doomsday
Machine” (2005), considered by many to be ARCH ENEMY’s two strongest outings to date. Loaded
with the Amott brothers’ trademark guitar shred, spearheaded by vocalist Angela Gossow’s
instantly recognizable hell-hath-no-fury delivery, all backed by the Sharlee D’Angelo / Daniel
Erlandsson bass / drum high energy stomp, “Khaos Legions” features the band’s trademark
extreme metal execution coupled with some eyebrow-raising surprises along the way.
Eight studio albums and 15 years into their career, “Khaos Legions” is ARCH ENEMY’s iron “You
are here!” stamp that hits like a ton of bricks.
Simply put, no diehard ARCH ENEMY fan should go away dissatisfied. The tracks ‘Yesterday Is
Dead And Gone,’ ‘Under Black Flags We March,’ ‘Thorns In My Flesh’ and ‘City Of The Dead’ are
examples of the five-piece wrecking crew people have come to expect. ‘Bloodstained Cross’
features Michael and Chris Amott exploring new shred-head territory, while ‘Cruelty Without
Beauty,’ ‘Cult Of Chaos’ and the scathing ‘Vengeance Is Mine’ feature some of the most
aggressive work from the band to date.
‘Through The Eyes Of A Raven’ is easily the band’s most adventurous song in years, progressive
and dark, and with what Amott describes as having “a Scandinavian feel to it, with a melancholic
Nordic thing going on in the chorus.” It is certainly a different side of the band, yet they retain
every ounce of trademark aggression.
The biggest surprise is the bordering-on-death-rock ‘No Gods, No Masters,’ a definite echo of
ARCH ENEMY’s anthem ‘We Will Rise’ that is guaranteed to raise the ire of some fans as it is
embraced by others.
Press all over the world hailed “Khaos Legions” as one of the best metal albums of 2011, and the
band was featured on covers including Terrorizer (UK), Metal Hammer (Germany), Aardschok
(Netherlands), Rock Hard (France), Burrn (Japan), Inferno (Finland), Close-Up (Sweden) and many
more.
Since the release of the album, ARCH ENEMY have played the biggest European festivals –
including Graspop (Belgium), Sonisphere (UK, Sweden and Spain), Tuska (Finland), Summerbreeze
(Germany) and more – and did an extended US tour (supported by Devildriver, Skeletonwitch and
Chthonic) followed by a European tour (supported by Warbringer and Chthonic). They’ve toured
the world in support of “Khaos Legions”: Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and
many other places you wouldn’t expect a metal band to go.
In between, ARCH ENEMY found time to support Amnesty International and Peta2 with special campaigns that clearly show that they stand 100% behind their message – because action speaks louder than words.
In early 2012 ARCH ENEMY amicably parted ways with guitarist Christopher Amott. Christopher Amott was a member of ARCH ENEMY between 1996-2005 and again between 2007-2011. His replacement was found in 26-year-old American guitarist Nick Cordle from the US band Arsis. Michael Amott comments: “Nick was my first choice as he ticks all the right boxes for Arch Enemy with his musicality and technicality as well as his personality and dedication. Looking forward to having him join us on stage, the rehearsals have shown we have a devastating twin axe attack going on!”
Nick Cordle made his official recording debut in the latest ARCH ENEMY video for “Under Black Flags We March.” Said Michael Amott: ” We had a our new guitarist Nick Cordle throw down a
little lick on the song and had audio master Andy Sneap remix the song a little… So, a few minor tweaks here and there to make it something special for this visual/sonic assault!”
The KHAOS continues with more live activities in 2012, leading into a special DVD project to be announced soon.