Metal Reviews

...and it's a welcome surprise! They kinda returned to the "Wages Of Sin" era, with big melodic refrains and A LOT of melodic guitaring (not just the pretty dumbed down riffing of the last 2 albums). The solos are their best, every song featuring smoking guitar works from the Amott brothers. The production is very polished, crystal clear (a little bit to "cold" for my taste). The songs are accesible, nothing very intricate, but are very well written and performed, getting directly to the point. The album has some acoustic parts and interludes, a very nice instrumental "Intermezzo liberte" and some kind of half ballad (with Angela growling through and through). For me a 85/100, on par with their best!

Finally Arch Enemy has forgotten the American market and delivered a sincere, true album.

Eh. Wages Of Sin wasn't even that good...

If they did something similar to Burning Bridges, THEN we might be getting somewhere.

Eh, it sounded pretty poor when I listened. I'll try it again probably, but it sounds too much like a collection of crap songs with a few very catchy melodies chucked in. I'm sure they're all stolen from classic songs.

This album proves that melodeath is still a pissed-on carcass.

Not even Dark Tranquillity can save it!

DT has always saved Melodic DM besides the mighty Insomnium.

Just checked out Above the Weeping World. For not being a fan of most melodic dm besides at the gates, this album is pretty good. I would recommend people to try it even if they don't like melodic dm.

That's debatable.

Listened to this again last night. It's not awful, another so-so release, overall.

Only melodeath band that's still releasing albums that I like is Arsis, the rest sound like they need to listen to some actual death metal to put some aggression back into their music. Evocation are sweet but their album was written for the most part 15 years ago, so I dunno if they count... Insomnium are solid too, although a little too mid-paced for my liking.

Well, of course it is. You find me a better band in the Melodic DM genre, playing it better than Insomnium. Dense, Heavy, Melancholic, excellent structured music. Not to mention the lyrics which are beautifully written.

It'll take a while, but I'll find one...

A lot of melodeath isn't agressive enough for my liking. I also dislike the trite electronics shoved in melodeath these days, and the completely plastic sounding production. It's strange really, as I'm a sucker for some twin harmonies, so I should love melodeath.

exactly, i even like switches between clean vocals and growling but melodeath bands know how to fuck that up more often than not too

This album is completely shit awful.

This band doesn't exist for me anymore after DM.
Listen to the new The Absence album... (Riders of The Plague)

The Absence, a good band nonetheless, has been overrated in gigantic proportions.

Really? I didn't even know...

They're pretty good it's just once someone mentions melodeath that band automatically seems to get plugged.

What happened to Axxelson or what has he been up to? I'd kind of like it if he came back.

I've heard Husker say it was the best metal album of the 00s but that's about it

It's in all the other metal sites.