ARCH ENEMY's MICHAEL AMOTT Hasn't Forgotten His Roots: 'It's Cool To Reach More People, But I Grew Up In The Underground Metal Scene'

By David E. Gehlke

The clean vocals from Alissa White-Gluz found in the chorus on "Illuminate The Path", a song from ARCH ENEMY's new "Blood Dynasty" studio album, would historically generate a rash of message board and social media chatter regarding the band's supposed tilt toward selling out. But when taken into the broader context of ARCH ENEMY's career, it's really nothing out of the ordinary — the longtime melodic death metallers have ever so carefully altered their sound over 30 years while staying true to their beginnings. As such, White-Gluz busting out some tried and true singing should be taken in stride.

There's hardly a secret formula to ARCH ENEMY, just good, well-executed songs that lean heavily on twin guitar action and now White-Gluz, who, in her fourth album with the band, is every bit as formidable as her predecessor, Angela Gossow. Guitarist and founding member Michael Amott has seen pretty much everything at the helm of ARCH ENEMY, yet his ongoing fondness for the metal underground (don't forget: he was first in CARNAGE, then CARCASS) continues to be the guide for his band. With "Blood Dynasty" on the way, BLABBERMOUTH.NET snagged the affable Swede for a round of questions.

Blabbermouth: You've been on Century Media Records for quite some time. Has a relationship of this length been stabilizing?

Michael: "It's probably been a stabilizing factor. We haven't had to deal with the stress of moving around and things like that. At the same time, there have been a lot of changes to the label. They've gone through more lineup changes than ARCH ENEMY. [Laughs] Honestly, I don't think there's anyone left from when we signed with them. I signed the first deal with them in 1997, right after our first album. It's one of those situations that has been renewed many times. It's a licensing agreement, and it has had so many different versions. But it's great. We have a fantastic team now. They were acquired by Sony a while ago. They operate out of the Sony offices in Berlin, and we've been down there a few times, working out of that office for press events. You're right, though. [Laughs] My experience with other labels isn't extensive. When ARCH ENEMY was looking for a deal, I remember receiving offers from Nuclear Blast and Century Media. For some reason, we decided to go with Century Media. The offers were identical at the time. It's been a long-running process. I think there's been some turbulence; things are always changing, but overall, the music business has evolved so much. God, every time we release a new album, we sit down with them, and everything changes again. [Laughs] It's like, 'Okay, cool. Let's go.'"

Blabbermouth: Do they let you do what you want at this stage?

Michael: "Pretty much, yeah. They license the music, and that's it. Everything else is on us. I think labels, nowadays — and this isn't news — rely on bands to do all the work. The bands getting signed are those with a big social media following. This is what I hear. You've got to have all that stuff in place. We have one foot in the old world and one in the new, so to speak. We sell a lot of physical copies; we sell tons of vinyl and CDs. Then, we're doing the whole streaming game. For us, this relationship has worked out very well. I wonder how Century Media feels about it!"

Blabbermouth: Moving over to "Blood Dynasty", how much was Jens Bogren involved on the record? He's known to be a pretty hands-on producer.

Michael: "He's mixed a few of our records. He did 'War Eternal' and 'Will To Power'. He's always shown interest in becoming more involved and producing us. He built a brand new studio in Örebro, Sweden, purchasing a plot of land and constructing a studio from the ground up. It's an incredible place. For the first time in a long while, we recorded everything in one location. We've been moving around between different studios a lot. We do the vocals here, the drums over there, the solos in another studio, and then we record the rhythm guitars in yet another one before putting it all together for the mix. This time, we started recording the drums and stayed at Jens's studio until the very end for the last overdubs. Then, everything was mixed and mastered there as well. It was all done in-house. He was genuinely passionate. [Laughs] Which is great. Then, it's like, 'Hey, at least he cares!' [Laughs] Some people just hit 'record' and say, 'Yeah, you guys know best.' He was really advocating for his ideas and got quite intense about things, which I saw as a positive. He believed there was something that could be improved. I enjoyed the process. He does so many productions. He does a lot of different things running at the same time. We were in his residential studios, so I was living there. At one point, AT THE GATES were there, and Mikael [Stanne] from DARK TRANQUILLITY was there."

Blabbermouth: It's like the old Gothenburg gang back together.

Michael: "I was like, 'What's going on?' I was thinking if you're a real die-hard of those kinds of bands and walked into the little sort of kitchen area while we were drinking coffee and talking to each other, that would be a trip. [Laughs] It was fun."

Blabbermouth: With that said, how protective are you with your songs with a guy like Jens?

Michael: "Oh, very!"

Blabbermouth: That's what I was wondering. How do you handle Jens saying, "Well, Michael, I don't like this transition here. Let's do something about it"?

Michael: "I tried to stay calm. [Laughs] It was tough for him as well. We create so many versions of the demos, experimenting with different tempos, transitions and key changes. We've circled these songs for so long while working on them. Sometimes, he'd suggest an idea, and I'd reply, 'We tried that and decided to go with this instead.' We're very well prepared when we go in, which can be a bit frustrating. One of our previous producers, Andy Sneap, mentioned that we were very well prepared as a band. I hear from my producer friends that some bands come in with an album that's maybe sixty percent complete, relying on ideas they develop in the studio. With ARCH ENEMY, we don't operate that way."

Blabbermouth: There are certainly benefits to being spontaneous in the studio. For a band like ARCH ENEMY, it doesn't sound like that process would work.

Michael: "It's different. I had another band, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS, where a lot of improvisation happened in the studio. There were big open spaces where we'd jam and create things on the spot. That was cool, too. ARCH ENEMY has more tightly arranged music, so to speak. These are different methods of working. It was a positive experience with Jens. It's really cold in that part of Sweden. There was snow. I don't know the Fahrenheit, but it was minus 20 Celsius. So that was intense. That's exactly what the fans of Scandinavian metal want to hear: We were snowed in."

Blabbermouth: Can we get into your new guitarist, Joey [Concepcion]? How's he working out so far?

Micheal: "He's doing really well. I always knew he was a talented player and a cool guy. He's a big fan of ARCH ENEMY and told me he bought his first ARCH ENEMY CD when he was 12. [Laughs] That's pretty hardcore. He's a fantastic player, of course. There were some connections, like he played with my brother [Christopher], who lived in the States for several years. That's how I first learned about him. My brother said, 'There's this kid who can play all of the ARCH ENEMY songs.' That ended up being useful for him!"

Blabbermouth: How did the damn break on finally having Alissa doing predominantly clean vocals on "Illuminate The Path"? It's probably the furthest you've gone with them.

Michael: "We've experimented with clean vocals with her since she joined. On 'Will To Power', there was a song, 'Reason To Believe', which was a ballad and quite extreme for us. That song was mostly sung clean in the verses, at least. There have been other songs, like 'Handshake With Hell'. Now, this one features clean vocals right in the chorus. I'm not really opposed to them. If it sounds good, then it is good — that old cliché. You have to think, 'We want to stay true to the core sound of the band, but at the same time, we want to introduce a few curveballs.' There need to be some interesting elements happening on our 12th studio album. We aimed to keep it interesting for ourselves. It's not about what others might think; if it's fun for us, like, 'We don't have anything like this; it could be cool.' I have a lot of respect for bands that play the same thing year in and year out and stick to a formula. There's strength in that. With ARCH ENEMY, the sound of the band has evolved."

Blabbermouth: "March Of The Miscreants" is your ode to ARCH ENEMY fans. Along those lines, would you ever be okay with the band going a little further out of the underground and into the mainstream?

Michael: "I wouldn't mind commercial exposure, but I don't want to go 'commercial.' We do the music we do. We have that core fanbase. Then, there's a grey zone, then a white zone, like people who know who we are. They go to a show and have one song on their playlist for the gym. There are all kinds of levels of people and how they engage with the band. It's cool to reach more people, but I grew up in the underground metal scene. It's a subculture. It's a little bit what I'm talking about in that song. I have a lot of fondness for the underground, and the fact that it isn't music for everybody is why people are attracted to it in the first place."

Blabbermouth: That probably puts the upcoming 30th anniversary of "Black Earth" next year in perspective. Plus, the touring infrastructure from when you started is so much different. Things are a lot more professional.

Michael: "Oh yeah. We did a co-headline with IN FLAMES in Europe. We played sold-out arenas in Germany, like eight or nine thousand people a night, which is crazy. For this kind of noise? I think it's crazy. I'm proud of it. We're going to do a similar tour this fall in Europe at the same venues but with ARCH ENEMY headlining and support from AMORPHIS, ELUVEITIE and GATECREEPER. It's exciting to bring this music into arenas. We've done it on our terms. We've never had to…what do you call it?"

Blabbermouth: Compromise?

Michael: "That's when it becomes lame, and you start losing the essence. Of course, there are a ton of bands that are more extreme than ARCH ENEMY. I love some of those bands. I'm very comfortable playing this style. We were never a pure death metal band. We were never anything like that. It was always this hybrid of different things. I have been in death metal bands, but ARCH ENEMY isn't a death metal band."

Blabbermouth: What would the Michael Amott of 1990 say to himself when learning you'd be playing arenas 35 years later?

Michael: "'I can sell out.' [Laughs] No. That's going to be the Blabbermouth headline now, fuck. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: No, we won't go that route here. [Laughs]

Michael: "I could never have imagined that scenario. When I started in bands at age 14, I never thought it would turn out like this. It was never my goal to make money from the band or avoid a regular job; I never considered it. Back then, everything felt so underground. I would see bands come through, and I thought, 'Yeah, I have several albums by this band, but they're playing in this basement with barely a hundred people here.' Those were the bands I adored. In my mind, they seemed huge. I didn't realize they arrived in a van. [Laughs] I didn't see it as a career, but I wanted to do it anyway. I loved the music and the whole experience surrounding it — the entire subculture, the fanzines, the tapes, the camaraderie, the shows and everything. For me, it's vital to remain connected to that. Speaking from a personal standpoint, it's essential for me to stay in that mindset and to remember it."

Blabbermouth: You mentioned it briefly, but would you ever reactivate SPIRITUAL BEGGARS?

Michael: "We did an album in 2016. We did a European tour and a Japanese tour. That was it, really. We haven't even talked about anything since then. ARCH ENEMY just got so busy after 'War Eternal', then into 'Will To Power', then the pandemic and 'Deceivers' and everything. I'd like to do more stuff. Those guys are great. Per [Wiberg] is great. Apollo [Papathanasio]. They are all great people, musicians and good friends. I'll take the blame for it. I started the band. It's a lot of work. It's a lot to write material, record it and promote and tour behind it, then go right back into ARCH ENEMY. I never had any time off when flip-flopping between both bands. I'd go straight into the next thing. I'd end a tour on a Friday, then go into pre-production on a Monday. I kept that pace for a long time. I've made over 30 albums, I think. I was very busy for a long time. Now the tours become longer and longer with ARCH ENEMY. It's difficult to keep up."

Blabbermouth: You did the guitar on CANDLEMASS's 1998 "Dactylis Glomerata" album. Do you have any fond memories of that time?

Michael: "That was really cool. I was super busy around that time, actually. We did a SPIRITUAL BEGGARS album, 'Mantra III', and we signed with Music For Nations. Then I recorded 'Stigmata', the second ARCH ENEMY album. After that, I got a call from [CANDLEMASS bassist/founder] Leif [Edling] asking if I wanted to play guitar on his new album. I was like, 'Yeah! Of course.' That was really fun. It's kind of a different album for him. I was really into CANDLEMASS, starting from the first album in '86. It was quite an adventure to go up to Stockholm. The first time I went there, we hung out with Yngwie Malmsteen all night. He was in town promoting an album. I was thinking, 'What is going on?' The next day, I went into rehearsal with the drummer we were collaborating with, and Ian Haugland from EUROPE was there. I had never met those guys before. It was a fun recording, but it was very brief and fast-paced. Those were Leif's songs, and it was a huge honor. I think he's one of the best songwriters in metal."

Photo credit: Katja Kuhl