Post Reply - The Great Collection Rediscovery

Album: Anthems of Rebellion

Old Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: Arch Enemy were among the first extreme metal bands I discovered all those years ago and it was the song Silent Wars from this album that I first heard from them, although the first album I actually bought by them was, I think, Doomsday Machine. Initially I was drawn to bands like them and Trivium, who were using harsh vocals (the local term among fledgling headbangers was 'guttural' - it was many years before I ever encountered the term death growl/grunt), through their guitar work. I found these bands through the magazine Total Guitar after all and TG had a real thing about these two bands - actually, for a magazine that was meant to focus on the guitar players they sure made a real big deal out of Arch Enemy having a female vocalist. I suppose in extreme metal that was less heard of back then, but they were still supposed to be a guitar magazine. One particularly cringeworthy article I recall being decorated with the tagline: A girl with balls. 

These days, I return to Arch Enemy much more often than Trivium, but I look back on them as a rather patchy band full of ups and downs. Anthems of Rebellion is, in my view, a pretty decent album, but I can never bring myself to change it's rating higher than it already is, because I know that when this band is at their best, they make an absolutely killer melodic death metal record. And that doesn't describe Anthems of Rebellion, although it's also far from their weakest record. 

New Rating: No Change.