Arch Enemy
War Eternal

Sometimes we write pretty lengthy reviews here on Hallowed, perhaps a bit too lengthy sometimes to be honest. But for once I'll try to keep it short, note how I said try - I'm pretty sure I'll fail but let's see. The reason why I'll try is that I don't feel I have to spend a lot of space describing Arch Enemy - their prior albums and success should be enough for everyone reading Hallowed to know what they do and that they always do it well.

However, there has been a few changes within the band for this tenth album. Guitarist Chris Amott has handed his guitar to Nick Cordle and Angela Gossow has left the growling to another broad - Miss Alissa White-Gluz. Still in the band is of course Michael Amott and his band of rhytm keepers, but 3/5 seems to be enough to maintain the course they've headed in for a while now and 'War Eternal' gives minimal amount of surprise value for your money and not much in the change department either.

The question I hear you asking is if White'Gluz can growl as great as Angela did on the six albums she did and shoulder her role? Well, if you're familiar with her work in The Agonist you know she too has a demonic breath and if anything I think her voice is clearer and can do a wider spectra of vocals. And I feel the band has taken the challenge to prove they haven't lost any firepower by replacing Chris very serious too, as they seem very keen to demonstrate their guitar work in best Yngwie Malmsteen manner - the "look at me and how great I am" way, doing both a very technical intro and then concluding the album with a 3 1/2 minute long guitar show in Not Long For This World.

As far as I can tell, though, 'War Eternal' is mostly old news. Not in a way that it's washed out, heard-before-and-not-interesting old but they've tried it before and does what they know works, somewhat different - like slightly modernized (like it use to be with these guys). If it ain't broken - why fix it? It's not like they're a broken record and keeps repeating the same thing over and over because even if it sounds like it usually does, it's definitely a new album and new songs.

Even if Arch Enemy has kept the surprises short on this "welcome to the band" album, I think they've succeeded with what they've done. Last time out they got a 6/7 and even though I think they've done a good job on this one I don't feel this one has that kind of wow-factor. I think they fall short on overdoing the guitar demonstrations and growling thing. It just doesn't sound as uniform and cohesive as it normally does with these guys but that doesn't mean it's bad - the individual performances are pretty much world class!

'War Eternal' is a very good album with melodic death metal of the technical kind. A well executed continuation with the new members fresh in the band. I'd say it's top five in the genre as of 2014 and fans of the band have no reason to fear - this will be a constellation to remember.

HHHHHHH