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Published: 01 December 2021

Who’s ready for more music? Check out the cover for our new upcoming song "House Of Mirrors" – out Dec. 9th!

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Published: 22 November 2021

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Published: 18 November 2021

Here is a little BTS clip of our music video for “Deceiver, Deceiver”! We're still so grateful for all your support!

Listen to the song & watch the video now ▶️ https://archenemy.lnk.to/DeceiverDeceiver-Single

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Published: 31 October 2021

Over 1 MILLION VIEWS on the official video for our newest song "Deceiver, Deceiver" since its release last week! WOW, we're absolutely blown away by your support! Thank you SO much! ????

Listen to the song & watch the video now ▶️ https://archenemy.lnk.to/DeceiverDeceiver-Single

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Published: 25 October 2021

Super excited to announce that we'll be playing #ReloadFestival, Germany 2022! Get your tickets at www.reload-festival.de and we'll see you there!

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Published: 21 October 2021

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Published: 21 October 2021

Our new single "Deceiver, Deceiver" is out now!
▶️https://archenemy.lnk.to/DeceiverDeceiver-Single

Watch the video premiere with us today at 6pm CET on our YouTube channel! We'll be joining you in the chat!

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Published: 15 October 2021

We're super stoked to announce that we'll be playing Summer Breeze Festival, Germany 2022! Get your tickets at www.summer-breeze.de and we'll see you there!

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Published: 23 September 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary we're bringing you a strictly limited (only 150 available!) and SIGNED #AE25 poster! Only available at @bravado_de and only while supplies last! Get yours now ➡️ https://archenemy.bravado.de

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Published: 21 September 2021

We're super excited to announce that we'll be playing Knotfest Finland 2022! Tickets are on sale now via https://www.lippu.fi/artist/knotfest/! See you there!

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Published: 20 August 2021

We’re deeply saddened to announce that „The European Siege“ Tour 2021 with @BehemothOfficial, @CarcassBand & @UntoOtherspdx has been postponed due to the ongoing global situation. All tickets will remain valid for the new dates, so keep them safe. See you all in 2022!

Michael Amott comments as follows: 

"Nobody’s more disappointed than us about this, that’s for damn sure. But it is what it is, and we’re already looking forward to getting back to it in 2022! Stay healthy, stay Metal!" 

THE EUROPEAN SIEGE 2022

With Arch Enemy, Behemoth + Support by Carcass & Unto Others

Tickets: www.archenemy.net/tour

27.09.2022   IE - Dublin, Olympia Theatre

29.09.2022   UK - Glasgow, O2 Academy Glasgow

30.09.2022   UK - Manchester, O2 Apollo

01.10.2022   UK - Birmingham, O2 Academy Birmingham

02.10.2022   UK - London, O2 Academy Brixton

04.10.2022   FR - Paris, Le Zénith

05.10.2022   FR - Toulouse, Le Bikini

07.10.2022   PT - Lisbon, Coliseu de Lisboa

08.10.2022   ES - Madrid, Palacio Vistalegre

09.10.2022   ES - Barcelona, Palau Sant Jordi

11.10.2022   FR - Lyon, Le Radiant

12.10.2022   IT - Milano, Alcatraz

14.10.2022   DE - Berlin, Columbiahalle

15.10.2022   CZ - Prague, Tipsport Arena

16.10.2022   HU - Budapest, Barba Negra

18.10.2022   AT - Vienna, Gasometer

19.10.2022   PL - Katowice, Spodek

21.10.2022   DE - Ludwigsburg, MHP Arena

22.10.2022   NL - Den Bosch, Mainstage Brabanthallen

23.10.2022   BE - Brussels, Forest National

25.10.2022   CH - Zurich, Samsung Hall

26.10.2022   DE - Frankfurt, Jahrhunderthalle

28.10.2022   DE - Munich, Zenith

29.10.2022   DE - Düsseldorf, Mitsubishi Electric Halle

30.10.2022   DE - Hamburg, edel-optics.de Arena

31.10.2022   SE - Gothenburg, Partille Arena

02.11.2022   FI - Helsinki, Ice Hall

04.11.2022   SE - Stockholm, Annexet

05.11.2022   DK - Copenhagen, Forum

06.11.2022   NO - Oslo, Sentrum Scene 

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Published: 09 August 2021

The 25 Years Collection - Only available at Bravado (while supplies last)! Get yours now: www.archenemy.net/EUShop ??

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Published: 02 August 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. Here’s WILL TO POWER, which comes with a signed card! Get your bundle now: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy the last part of our series “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"After having a very exciting (and long!) run with the “War Eternal” album, we were kind of wondering how we could top that. But ultimately, you can’t really think like that…you just have to try to write the best songs you can, one by one, and hopefully end up with something that is kick ass in the end.

We always write a lot of material and keep circling back around to songs, constantly improving on them. The first song we wrote for this record was “The World Is Yours”, which was already there in demo form while we were still out on the “War Eternal” tour. We had accumulated a fair amount of music, fragments of songs…sometimes just a melody or a riff. But everything needed a lot more work.

In order to get away and focus on putting it all together, and hopefully come up with some new cool stuff as well, Daniel and myself rented a house in Mexico for a two week songwriting session. I know that might sound crazy but “The Eagle Flies Alone” was written by the Gulf of Mexico. I guess the Scandinavian darkness is deeply embedded in our hearts and souls - we don’t actually need to be physically there to create the music that we do. After these two weeks of intense writing sessions (with a few margaritas thrown in for good measure) we had amassed most of the material that became “Will to Power”! 

Once we had the instrumental demos finished, Alissa and myself wrote lyrics and discussed vocal arrangements etc. This process was smooth as well. 

We basically decided to repeat the exact same recording and mix procedure that had yielded such great results three years earlier on the “War Eternal” record. So we went about recording in various studios on the southwest coast of Sweden and once again mixed and mastered in Örebro by Jens Bogren. 

On the song “A Fight I Must Win” we once again got an exquisite orchestral arrangement and recording courtesy of Ulf Janson and Stockholm Session Strings. Legendary Swedish keyboard player Jens Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen, Stratovarius etc) graciously accepted our invitation and played beautifully on “Dreams of Retribution”, “The World Is Yours” and a few other things. Always a pleasure to have guests come in and add their spices to the dish, so to speak. This was also Jeff Loomis’ recording debut with the band after touring with the band for a couple of years. What a great guitarist and dear friend, Jeff has really enhanced the stability and harmony within the band.

We shot two videos with director Patric Ullaeus ahead of the album release. Both “The World Is Yours” and “The Eagle Flies Alone” got an astonishing amount of YouTube views. Especially “Eagle” has taken on a life of its own and become quite the anthem for us. 

We did a lot of press, promoting the album as much as we could, and that, along with the relentless touring we’d done seemed to pay off in a big way actually. Will to Power was/is our most successful album to date, and how many bands can say that this far into their career? 

We hit the road hard, as usual. It was our biggest and most ambitious tour to date and this time we could really feel that Arch Enemy had reached another plateau. I guess you could say it is well-deserved (depending on your perspective obviously)…one thing is for sure though, it certainly wasn’t an overnight success! 

Looking back. I wouldn’t change a thing. There’s been highs and there’s been lows. All valuable lessons that we’ve taken something from and grown. It’s been an absolutely incredible journey so far, and we’re all very excited about the future and the new music we have for you (coming soon!). "

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Published: 26 July 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. Who’s here for WAR ETERNAL?! Get your bundle now: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy part 9 of “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"The last show on the “Khaos Legions” tour was in Mexico City on December 6, 2012, a special “Wages of Sin” set celebrating what was then the 10th anniversary of that record. Little did we know that this would be our last show with Angela on vocals. We had decided to take a year off the road and focus on writing and recording a new album during 2013, and that’s exactly what we did in early 2013. However, as the month of May rolled around we were faced with some devastating news. 

As most of you will know, this is the point were Angela resigns from the band and we were faced with the heavy question if we should keep the band going or call it quits. 

I remember that Daniel, Sharlee and myself had a meeting and discussed our feelings and options. We came to the conclusion that we should keep it going and at least finish the album we’d started working on, release it, and see what happens. We “just” needed a new singer…

Angela recommended her friend Alissa from Montréal, Canada and we liked her voice a lot - so why not give it a shot? As soon as she arrived in Sweden, Alissa quickly proved that she would be a fantastic addition to the band. While jamming the old songs in our rehearsal space, or writing new stuff and recording demos - it all felt really comfortable and sounded killer.

Once again we recorded the album locally in Halmstad, Sweden, engineered mostly by the band, with additional assistance from engineers Staffan Karlsson and Rickard Bengtsson for vocals and guitar solos. We collaborated with Ulf Janson on the orchestral arrangements, that was something new for us, to hear the orchestra instruments playing our music – recorded in ABBA-Benny’s studio in Stockholm nonetheless!

We took what we’d recorded over to mixing engineer Jens Bogren in Örebro, Sweden and working him for the first time was also a great experience - the record came out sounding really fresh and awesome…this was indeed ARCH ENEMY 3.0! 

The artwork was our first collaboration with Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu, and the results were really dark and interesting. We shot three videos in just as many days in the Gothenburg area with video director Patric Ullaeus.

We’d kept the singer change under wraps and now it was time to reveal this news and the music we’d been working on to the world. The first single and music video "War Eternal" was released on March 20, 2014 and it was nerve wrecking of course! We were overjoyed to see all the positive reactions, the video and single blew up fast and we started gaining confidence that this just might work out.

We booked a summer tour in 2014 and debuted the new ARCH ENEMY lineup at Turbohalle in Bucharest, Romania on May 23, 2014 and it fit like a glove from that first moment. Perfect.

I would say is that for me personally this was one of the most exciting times in ARCH ENEMY’s history. Starting over in a way and having to prove ourselves again was a thrilling challenge that I embraced. I think we all realised what was at stake here, everything we’d worked so hard for all these years was on the line. These emotions are even reflected in the lyrics to the albums title track, “Back against the wall, in danger of losing it all, search deep inside, remember who you are”. That’s the spirit I certainly embrace. don’t let anything stop you from achieving your dreams. 

Through a lot of hard work on the road and an extremely determined mindset amongst the band and our team, we reestablished ARCH ENEMY in the scene and actually exceeded all expectations and goals. At the end of the “War Eternal” campaign we found ourselves on a much higher level than ever before. It truly was a magical time for us and we are deeply grateful to the fans for their support. "

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Published: 19 July 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. Happy 10th anniversary to “Khaos Legions” (2011)! Get your bundle now: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy part 8 of “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"Rise of the Tyrant” was released in 2007 and then we didn’t put out a new studio album of all-new material until 2011. This was an untypical longer gap between releases for us, but we actually did stay busy in those years in-between. We mixed and released the “Tyrants of the Rising Sun” (Live in Japan) DVD/CD/Vinyl set in 2008 and that same year I was a part of the reunion of CARCASS, which for me lasted up until the summer of 2010. I had recommended Daniel for the drummer position in that group as well, so we were touring intensively around the world during a couple of years there outside of ARCH ENEMY.

In 2009 we went into the studio with ARCH ENEMY and re-recorded a selection of songs off the first three albums, with Angela on vocals and Andy Sneap mixing. I am not a huge fan of re-recording older music, but somehow we had agreed to do this and we went ahead and got it done. We named the project “The Root Of All Evil”, and lo and behold - it becomes a huge seller in Japan, and also did well for us around the rest of the world and we ended up touring extensively on what is essentially not a “real” album.

The thing was, we had recently parted ways with a manager of 10+ years and become essentially self-managed with Angela doing most of the managerial tasks. In fact, the separation with our old manager became lyrical for inspiration the song “Thorns in my Flesh”. All this upheaval turned out for the best in the end, as we quickly realised that we got a lot more opportunities and were able to really make a lot more out of it in this new DIY business setup we had created, so in that way this was a positive and exciting time for us.

During this period I also wrote and recorded a SPIRITUAL BEGGARS album (2010’s “Return to Zero”) and we played a few shows in Europe and Japan. So I was actively playing with three bands between 2008 and 2010, we’d even sometimes be playing the same festivals - so that meant pulling double-duty and in some cases I even performed with all the three bands at the same festival. It was a little intense and of course something we couldn’t keep up forever.

The CARCASS reunion touring was a lot of fun and certainly successful, but I also knew we had to get back to ARCH ENEMY at some point and continue our work.

At this point I was also eager to write and record new music. I remember that we did a lots of full band rehearsals with ARCH ENEMY, preparing for this album in Sweden. Angela wrote some powerful lyrics as usual and Sharlee contributed to the music writing on a few songs, which was something he hadn’t done in a long time.

Although some really killer stuff came out of these sessions, it was quite strenuous to be honest. I think we were pulling in different directions at this point and in hindsight I can see that there was no way we could keep this version of the band going much longer. That’s how bands are, it’s relationships - and most relationships don’t last forever. 

We recorded the “Khaos Legions” album at Sweetspot Studio, close to Halmstad, Sweden - a place we’ve used a lot of the years. We had Rickard Bengtsson engineer and co-produce the album with us, the same situation as on the “Doomsday Machine” sessions a few years earlier.  

A couple of the members were becoming a little less enthusiastic during this time - which was frustrating for the rest of us, but we got on with it and hoped it was a temporary slump and they’d get more motivated once we‘d hit the road again. We brought in a few guests on the album, most notably ex-Mercenary singer Mikkel Sandager adding some melodic vocal parts and our friend Per Wiberg made a welcome return on keyboards.The mix was done by Andy Sneap in the U.K., once again we initially had different plans to mix in Sweden but that didn’t work out and Andy graciously stepped in and saved the day once again. He’s good dude, that one! 

There’s a lot of music on this record and we had a few really awesome tunes on it like  “Yesterday’s Dead and Gone”, “No Gods, No Masters”, Bloodstained Cross” and “Under Black Flags We March”. These are all songs that have seen a lot of action in our live show since they were first released on the “Khaos Legions” album. 

I enjoyed working with talented artist Brent Elliott White on the album cover, the image of the band members as post-apocalyptic freedom fighters was inspired by Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People.

During the early days of the tour that followed, Chris quit the band for the second time. Although disappointing of course, it wasn’t unexpected. This however didn’t slow us down, we quickly found a younger American guitarist who came in and did a great job helping us finish up the touring we had booked as we went around the world once again.

To be honest, it was a moderately successful time for the band. At this point we were comfortably cruising along, but not breaking new sales records or even musical ground. I didn’t like to admit at the time - but it had become a little stale. Had we reached the end? "

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Published: 12 July 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. The exclusive merch bundle for RISE OF THE TYRANT (2007) is OUT NOW - get your bundle here: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy part 7 of “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"After wrapping up the “DOOMSDAY MACHINE” tour in Latin America we headed home to Sweden and made the sudden decision to bring back Chris on guitar. It was with mixed feelings we let Fredrik Åkesson go, as he had been a great addition and nothing but cool to work with during the two years he toured with us. After his departure Fredrik quickly landed on his feet as a member of OPETH, I was delighted when I heard that news. Anyway, Chris wanted back in, and it seemed like the right thing to do for the band and the fans at the time. Myself and Daniel had been writing and demoing a lot of music but when Chris came back into the picture we still had time to develop some of the songs even further with his input.

After making a few albums with Andy Sneap in the U.K., we thought it could be interesting to go back to Fredrik Nordström and try to capture some of the vibe we had with him twiddling the knobs on our first records - and in some ways we succeed in doing so! The studio had moved to a new location in the countryside so the atmosphere was not the same as before in that regard, but Fredrik hadn’t changed! I really liked his approach to producing Angela’s vocals and he was always great with guitar tones. It was a pretty straightforward and easy album to record. In the end though, I remember we were not entirely happy with the mastering, but I just listened back to it now for the sake of writing this and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like how wild and guitar heavy it is!

The two videos we shot for “Revolution Begins” and “I Will Live Again” marked the first time we worked with director Patric Ullaeus, a relationship that has lasted to this day.

The spoken intro to the title track is taken from the controversial cult film CALIGULA (1979), with actor Malcolm McDowell as Caligula proclaiming himself a god in front of the Roman Senate. We licensed the rights to use that sample from Penthouse Magazine for a few hundred bucks.

Another movie reference can be found in the song “The Day You Died”, with the lyrics being inspired by the Japanese animated war tragedy film “Grave of the Fireflies”(1988).

We enlisted Niklas Sundin to do the artwork, Niklas had been responsible for designing a lot of artwork for us including the “Wages of Sin” and “Anthems of Rebellion” album covers, and he created another one of my favourite artworks this time. We once again had Per Wiberg come back in and play some keyboards on the album, although we actually forgot to credit him on the album (!).

Upon the album's release we toured with MACHINE HEAD in the USA, Australia and Europe and then went off on our own to Japan and China (our first show there). We continued touring and in March 2008 we returned to Japan again for a full Japan tour and filmed the “TYRANTS OF THE RISING SUN” (2008) concert film at Studio Coast, Tokyo. I’m glad we have that moment in time immortalized with that DVD/CD/vinyl release, The setlist at that time featured a lot of songs off “RISE OF THE TYRANT”.

Even if the “RISE OF THE TYRANT” album maybe didn’t spawn any big “hits” for us (although it was a major record for us in Japan), I have to say it’s a special one as far as guitar moments are concerned. I think some of our best riffs, solos and melodies are featured here. “Intermezzo Liberté" is an instrumental piece I enjoy playing live on tour to this day, and after revisiting this album I now wish we’d play more songs off this record again in the future.

So, in 2008 everything was seemingly running smoothly for ARCH ENEMY now but there was yet another dark cloud on the horizon…"

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Published: 05 July 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. It’s time for one of YOUR favorites: DOOMSDAY MACHINE (2005) - get your bundle now: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy part 6 of “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"I remember the writing sessions for this album being really good and our joint efforts spawned some strong material, songs like “Nemesis” and “My Apocalypse” flowed out us during the sessions in our rehearsal room and we eventually felt confident that we were ready for the next studio album.  

After recording our previous effort in the U.K., the idea we had for this one was to record close to home in Sweden around our local area in the south west of Sweden with a local engineer/producer, Rickard Bengtsson. For the mix, we booked someone in Stockholm that had mixed RAMMSTEIN records. I have to say that I was personally a little skeptical about the choice of mixing engineer, but the rest of the guys were really into the idea so I went along with it, got to stay open minded about these things! The recording process was a little chaotic as it all took a lot longer than it should have and we ended up using three different studio locations simultaneously, in order to get it all done. Basically, for various reasons, it was just a complicated album to record - but we got it done in the end! 

 Adding to the stress, Chris informed us that he was leaving the group. This was not completely unexpected, but there’s never really a good timing for these things. Anyway, halfway during during the mix in Stockholm we realised that this particular engineer wasn’t able to get what we wanted AT ALL and we ended up scrapping that version of the album and gave Andy Sneap a panic call...and oddly had time to mix it for us, lucky! Andy did a phenomenal job on the mix and really salvaged the “Doomsday Machine” album for us, to this day it still holds up and sounds great. 

The album cover was made by Joachim Luetke, German artist, it’s one of my favorite covers we’ve had – then again I’m obsessed with skulls! At a festival in Spain a year later I met Peavy Wagner from the band RAGE and he told me he is the owner of the actual skull on our album cover, he explaind he has a very large collection of human skulls and bones… He’s the nicest guy though, I swear!

The search for a new guitarist had lead us quickly to Greek player Gus G, who signed up for the upcoming Ozzfest tour in the USA that was coming up and he also threw down a guest solo on “Taking Back My Soul”.  Great guy and a fantastic player, we had some fun times on that tour! Gus couldn’t commit to the massive touring campaign we had lined up after Ozzfest, so I had to search for yet another guitarist and some people recommended Swedish guitarist Fredrik Åkesson from Swedish melodic rockers TALISMAN (since many years now he plays with OPETH). I already knew him a little bit and made the phone call. Fredrik came down to jam with us in the South of Sweden and proved to be great fit, very aggressive player with cool attitude. With this new lineup we started touring like maniacs around the planet. We did quite a few US tours in 2005/2006 including the Ozzfest and Megadeth’s Gigantour runs as well as a few headline and co-headline tours of our own. ARCH ENEMY had become a heavily touring band, spending less and less time back home in Sweden.

All the hard work we did on the road along with the efforts of our team at the label and management eventually payed off as it became one of our most sold albums, certainly in the North America. The last thing we did on the “Doomsday Machine” campaign was out first longer tour in South America, which was just really awesome and very wild! 

Upon our return to Sweden we however had some tough decisions to make, as well as write and record the next album…"

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Published: 29 June 2021

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Published: 28 June 2021

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Published: 21 June 2021

In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we’re bringing you strictly limited merch bundles for every studio album we've ever released. Get your “Wages Of Sin” (2001/2002) bundle now: http://bit.ly/AE25Years!

Enjoy part 4 of “Arch Enemy 25th anniversary - random fun facts & memories with Michael Amott”!

"We started putting songs together for the “Wages of Sin” album around the tours we did on the “Burning Bridges” cycle. That’s how we do it in ARCH ENEMY, the writing process and collecting of ideas never really stops - it’s a continuous thing. Around this time it had become increasingly clear that Johan was not able to make touring around the world with ARCH ENEMY a priority in his life. Johan will be the first one to admit that he prefers to do music as hobby, fitting it in around his day job. That’s totally fine, music IS a fantastic hobby for a lot of bands and people… But the rest of us were eager to explore how far we could really take the band - we enjoyed the touring lifestyle and spreading our music as much as possible. And to be honest, we didn’t have a whole lot else going on in our lives – this is what we wanted to do, all the time. Parting ways is never easy and it was sad to see Johan go, possibly more for myself than anyone else, him being one of my oldest and dearest friends, (something that remains true to this day). But I knew in my heart that the decision was for the best - for everyone involved - in the long run. 

The story about how we found our singer Angela Gossow has been told many times - it’s so well documented that there’s maybe no real need to repeat it once again here? However I can say that this was a pretty radical choice of singer at the time…it was practically unheard of back then to have a female singer growling and screaming, at least coupled with the notoriety, musicianship and songwriting skills found in a band like ARCH ENEMY. After the initial rehearsals with her we felt that this was an exciting direction musically, Angela had a really killer voice and undoubtedly a striking look to match it - but little did we know how much of an icon and influence Angela would become in the Metal scene. I’m glad we didn’t know actually, it might’ve added a little too much pressure to the whole thing. Instead we just enjoyed putting the music and lyrics together, crafting the songs for what would become “Wages of Sin”. 

In December 2000 this new ARCH ENEMY lineup entered Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden once again. The studio had now moved to a new and much bigger location. Fredrik Nordström had also switched over from analogue 2” tape to Protools at this time, so this was our first all digital recording. Per Wiberg came down from Stockholm and added various keyboards, including the now iconic piano intro to opening track “Enemy Within” and the Mellotron on “Snowbound”.  We had decided that we wanted to mix the album in U.K. with Andy Sneap, and I remember Fredrik being a little sceptical about that, as well as not being too keen on our decision to hire a new singer. A lot of things were changing at this time in ARCH ENEMY and I don’t blame him for wondering what the hell we were doing! 

The recording process must’ve run smoothly though as I don’t recall any problems or issues. We knew we had a strong collection of songs going in, but as we kept adding instruments and parts to the album we began to sense the power of the album that we were creating. This feeling increased tenfold during the mix with Andy at his old Backstage Studios facility in Derby, U.K., Andy had an incredible talent for making everything super clear and punchy and hearing ARCH ENEMY in this way was super exciting. We had kept identity of Angela under wraps but once we completed the album, we had to start thinking about how to approach announcing the news to the world. We decided to make some samples of the new music available online, without revealing the identity of our new vocalist…obviously this started a huge guessing game amongst the fans about who it was. A lot of interesting names came up, however nobody even guessed it was a female singer. This was quite a source of amusement for us at the time…

Eventually we delivered the album to our Japanese record label. A release date and promotional tour was booked and put together. Upon its release, “Wages of Sin’ immediately outsold our previous records in Japan, they accepted the singer change and loved the album. The Japanese fans had supported us since day one in a big way, so this was a huge relief for us.

But we had run into some other problems… Our management company at the time had a big disagreement with our record company Century Media, leading to a delay of the European and U.S. release by almost a full year! Consequently, we were just sitting around at home waiting around for things to get resolved while there were many thousands of “Wages of Sin” CD copies imported and sold out of Asia to the rest of the world during those 12 months. We were frustrated and definitely believed this would hurt the release outside of the Japanese market - but if it did, we never noticed. Once the album received a worldwide release in March 2002, it was like an explosion of enthusiasm and activity unlike anything we had previously experienced with the band. “Wages of Sin” catapulted us into a whole other level, and it was amazing to be a part of it. We started touring like maniacs around the world and I think we almost forgot what our homes looked like - be careful what you wish for, right? 

 “Wages of Sin” is a very special album in ARCH ENEMY’s discography - it defined our sound as a band moving forward into the new millennium and in many ways set us on the path that we’re still on to this day…"⁠⁠

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