ARCH ENEMY — Anthems of Rebellion (review)

ARCH ENEMY — Anthems of Rebellion album cover Album · 2003 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Anthems of Rebellion" is the 5th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Arch Enemy. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2003. The album features the same lineup that recorded the preceeding album "Wages of Sin (2001)" but introduces producer Andy Sneap.

If you are familiar with Andy Sneap´s professional metallic sound productions, it´s no surprise how "Anthems of Rebellion" sound. But actually the sound on this album doesn´t differ much from the sound production on the Fredrik Nordström produced "Wages of Sin (2001)". And it´s the same with the songwriting and general sound and style of the music. The band still play melodic vers/chorus structured death metal. There´s an emphasis on melodic guitar leads and themes, a solid rythm section and the processed growling vocals by frontwoman Angela Gossow.

Out of the 13 tracks on the 43:26 minutes long album, only very few tracks stand out, so even though the songwriting is professional and streamlined, the tracks lack variation between them. The album is in dire need of more tracks like the "hit" "Dead Eyes See No Future", that I´m actually able to remember after the album ends. Also why make an album that sounds almost exactly like a carbon copy of the last album? If you´re gonna do that at least make damn sure that the carbon copy is either fully on par with the original or preferably better, which "Anthems of Rebellion" isn´t.

Overall there´s no denying that "Anthems of Rebellion" is a very professional sounding melodic death metal album and I´m sure fans of the genre will enjoy the album with fewer reservations than I have, but compared to the band´s preceeding releases this one simply lacks bite and an original sound. It sounds uninspired and calculated. And to top it off I have to endure almost 45 minutes of the soulless growling by Angela Gossow. She is not able to convince me of her vocal qualities on this album either.

"Anthems of Rebellion" comes off as a very "safe" album release by Arch Enemy, but as the sound production is professional, the songwriting ditto and as the musicianship are strong (except for the monotone vocals), I would probably be out of line calling this a bad album. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is therefore warranted.
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