It has been a while since Arch Enemy last issued a record or toured, and many changed were happening within the band since the last time we had heard from them.
Since the release of their 2011 album Khaos Legions (Century Media), the band had gone through some lineup changes. Longtime guitarist Christopher Amott departed in 2012 and was replaced by former Arsis guitarist Nick Cordle.
Entering the release of their latest recording, War Eternal, a bombshell was dropped over the news of longtime vocalist Angela Gossow leaving the band. A statement was issued online prior to the debuting of their first single of the title track.
So when did the band learn of her intentions of departing? Guitarist Michael Amott explained how the conversation started: “It was a long time coming. The writing was on the wall. We kind of knew what was up. When she finally broke it to us, we sat down and talked about it last year. It wasn’t such a huge surprise or came out of nowhere. It was the position that was quite difficult. I was writing the new album together [with her] but at the same time I didn’t have a singer. We’ve had the same team for a very long time, but you also fear the worst. The shit would be very difficult – all kinds of stuff pops into your head at that point.”
Strangely the conversation took an odd turn when Gossow suggested their newest member as her replacement – former Agonist vocalist Alissa White-Gluz.
“The transition wasn’t as bad as I expected,” he said. “At the same time, she’ s stepping down and moving on. She urged us to continue with Arch Enemy, and she also suggested Alissa. She said she obviously couldn’t pick a singer for you but she thought Alissa would do a fantastic job with Arch Enemy. [Alissa’s] name came into the mix almost immediately a lot of things going on. We established contact [with Alissa] and flew her to Sweden. We worked on new music with her, and collaborated with her on the new stuff. We did demoed with her on the new stuff and rehearsed with the whole band, playing plenty of the old stuff from our catalog. We did a lot of work for a month. By the time she left Sweden and went back home, we felt like there is a future for this band and can move forward and Alissa’s the most likely the one to do it with.”
Amott admitted that White-Gluz was their only candidate for the position and a formal audition process never happened.
“To be honest with you, we didn’t really consider anybody else. It all happened very quickly. We had time to figure it out and Alissa was the one. We weren’t rushed into it so we had plenty of time. We thought ‘ let’s see what it’ s like to work with her here’ and that was very promising. It felt great so we didn’t consider anybody else.”
He said he was familiar with White-Gluz from her prior band, but he wanted to make sure that her abilities would work well within Arch Enemy. After putting her through multiple testing sessions, she passed with flying colors and won the band over.
“I knew of her from her former band. We also didn’t know what she would sound like in Arch Enemy with our style of songwriting and production…our approach is different than her former band. We could always imagine what it would sound like but you never know for sure. It was one of those situations where we had to meet up and try it. We jammed the old stuff and recorded it. At the end, it was a perfect match.”
Both Cordle and White-Gluz were involved with the writing of War Eternal, where she wrote lyrics for five songs and Cordle co-wrote and co-produced the record with longtime drummer Daniel Erlandsson. Then they brought in Jens Bogren (Opeth, Paradise Lost) to mix the record.
Bringing in the two newest members injected a new energy into Arch Enemy, helping them expanding their horizons. Plus the two members being in their 20s, it also helped sparking a youth movement within the band. “Probably yeah,” he said, laughing. “I find that very inspiring as well. I mean if you’ re playing with the same kind of people that have the same ideas all the time, then you’ re not gonna come up with something new. There are a lot of examples of that on the album where I’m co-writing with Alissa or Nick and I welcome their new ideas. I think some of it didn’t fit but some of it was like “wow.” If I put my songwriting style together with their new fresh ideas, we’ re reaching a whole new level of writing and it’s something different. I love that. I think that’s what music should be about.”
Like past releases, War Eternal definitely captures Arch Enemy’ s trademark melodic metal sound. Without missing a beat, the first two singles (‘War Eternal’ & ‘You Will Know My Name’) demonstrated what the new record sounded like with White-Gluz on vocals.
“There are two singles out there now and those are fairly traditional Arch Enemy songs. I think our record label (Century Media) picked those because they sound like Arch Enemy! They lean towards the safe songs in a way. I love the first single (‘War Eternal’ ). I think it’s fantastic. It’s a really strong Arch Enemy song, but it features a lot of my personal trademarks in songwriting. You can definitely tell it’s Arch Enemy. I think it was perfect for the first single. It’s already over two and a half million views on YouTube.”
“If you go deeper into the album, there’s a lot of really interesting things going on. This album features the fastest song we’ve ever recorded. It’ s also features the slowest song we’ve ever recorded. It’ s an interesting dynamic. It’ s all over the place. There’ s a song called ‘ Time Is Black’ which is easily the most progressive song we’ve ever worked on. It was the first song we started putting together and the last song we finished. It was a pain in the ass to put together. It was driving us crazy. I couldn’t get it right. At the end when it came together it was rewarding. That song ‘ Time Is Black’ alongside another one called ‘ Avalanche’ and another one called ‘You Will Know My Name’ and also the intro of the album, those four songs feature a real orchestra. We worked with a conductor and an arranger who helped us put it all together. That’ s also another new element for the band. We’ve always had a lot of keyboards on our albums. There are keyboards on the new album as well, but those four songs are with a real orchestra. That’ s something new for the band as well. It sounds really heavy. It’s not like symphonic metal, but it adds so much atmospheric to the songs.
Amott praises his two newest members, but considering being North American based, their musical influences have leaned more European flavored which suited the band well.
“With Nick and Alissa, I think they like a lot of the European stuff. Especially Nick, who I’ve been co-writing a lot of the music with, is a big European metal fan, being Emperor or the classic Judas Priest. I think it’s a lot of the European sound. We definitely have a European sound. It’s not very American sounding. That’s just who we are. I like a lot of American music as well. It’ s just when we write music, it comes out very melodic and very European sounding.”
Some wondered with the addition of White-Gluz if she would incorporate her clean vocal stylings into Arch Enemy. While past vocalists never attempted this, a bit of curiosity opened up about the possibility for future material.
“I don’t know. It’s too early to say. I think Alissa has said herself that Arch Enemy has a style that’s established, needs to be respected, and carried on. But that’s for the future. There’s a little bit of her clean vocals on the new album here and there, but you have to really listen for them. It’s not like it’s in your face. Sometimes people might think it’s keyboards but it’s actually Alissa’s clean voice. She really is an amazing talent. I called her a songwriter’s dream. There’s not a lot she couldn’t do with her voice. She’s a very talented singer.”
“This is our ninth studio album. There’ s a lot of changes going on within the band now. We did a fair amount of experimentation on this album as it is. As far as future albums, I don’t know. I don’t really want to put a limit on myself and say “no I’ll never do that.” Never say never. The way we write these parts, the guitars are doing a lot of the singing.”
“It’ s also what the song and music calls for. I don’ t think these songs call for it. When you look at the band as musicians, there’ s a lot of styles we could do on guitars, drums and bass that we could do, but we don’t just throw everything we can into the music. We have a certain style and whatever keeps the flow going. Then it’s Arch Enemy. When we start writing, it automatically starts going into this unique sound that we have. I think everybody’s in tune. Alissa’s very in tune too. Her first metal CD that she bought was Wages of Sin. It’s kind of a full circle for her.”
As for the band touring, the band is covering the Euro Festival circuit at press time, and a forthcoming North American tour with Kreator, Huntress and Starkill for this autumn.
REI NISHIMOTO
