Arch Enemy – Khaos Legions (6.5/10)

Death metal…  Brings to mind lots of growling, with aggressive, chugging guitar riffs.  The Swedish death metal band, Arch Enemy’s latest album titled Khaos Legions brings much of the aforementioned musical tendencies.  The album

took off with a bang, and instrumentally it hooked me immediately.  Some say that death metal needs to be minimalist, and raw to be true death metal.  You won’t find raw sounding instrumentation on this album.  The guitars were full and crunchy, and the drums were crisp and booming.  As a matter of fact, they were some of the best guitars that I’ve heard in death metal in a long time.

But then the vocals came in, and I cringed.  Not that you can really tell, but Arch Enemy is female fronted by Angela Gossow.  (Then I learn that she’s a hot German blonde… Oi.)  She belts out the gutteral growls all over the album, but I feel that this band would benefit from a different vocalist.  I found myself listening through the vocals and concentrating on the instrumentation.  It seems that the music scene has brought more and more instances of standout instrumentation or excellent vocals, but it’s few and far between where bands are able to mesh the two.

Instrumentally, the album gets a 9.  Vocally, a 4.

Track of Choice:  Bloodstained Cross

- Train