Arch Enemy – Khaos Legions (Century Media Records, 2011)
Arch Enemy is one of those bands that you either love or hate. The Swedish melodic death metal band is one of the most polarizing bands from the last couple of years. While plenty of fans consider vocalist Angela Gossow a disaster, there are plenty that consider her as the best thing since sliced bread. Every single album since Angela joined the band has been worshiped by many while hated by plenty. So, having this in mind, their new album “Khaos Legions” will be no exception. Those who have hated them will continue to hate them, but the fans that loved them will love them even more, as “Khaos Legions” is one of the best albums with Angela onboard.
First, “Khaos Legions” is their most melodic album ever. But being melodic does not means they dropped their heaviness as this album contains some of their heaviest and fastest stuff of their career. The albums production is just flawless, no doubt that this is their best sounding album ever. Every instrument is perfectly audible and Angela’s vocals sound, well like Angela, no big difference, a slighter raspy tone perhaps. The best thing on the album aside from the production: the guitar solos from the Amott brothers. It’s in the “soloing” where I found the most melodic stuff in this album, and it is awesome indeed.
“Khaos Legions” is also very varied, I can say it’s Arch Enemy’s most varied album of their career, which is a good thing as there is no way this album will offer you any kind of monotony. As for the album highlights, the first single “Yesterday Is Dead And Gone”, a track that has every of the elements that make Arch Enemy loved (or hated), “Under Black Flags We March” (“We Rise” déjà-vu?), “City of The Dead”, “Cruelty Without Beauty”, and “Cult Of Chaos”, all very different songs from each other but equally great.
Arch Enemy didn’t reinvent themselves with “Khaos Legions”, but they offered us 11 solid tracks and 3 instrumental intros, for a total of 14 tracks. With such a long album you might think that there are plenty of fillers, but no, this is a solid album from beginning to end with absolutely no fillers. With “Khaos Legions” the band will continue their raise to stardom, while keeping their haters busy as well.
“Khaos Legions” is due to be released on May 30th in Europe, and on June 7th in the USA. It can be preordered via Amazon or by visiting the label’s webshop at http://www.cmdistro.com.
HMT Rating: 8/10
Heavy Metal Thunder 