ARCH ENEMY Guitarist: 'Metal Has To Come From A Different Place Than The Cerebellum'

Keith Carman of ChartATtack.com recently conducted an interview with ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On the group's new album, "Doomsday Machine":

"We try to involve the brain as little as possible when writing. It's gotta feel right. Metal music has to come from a different place than the cerebellum. We have technical elements, but those are easy for us. It comes naturally to us. If we're headbanging while playing a new song, we know it's ARCH ENEMY. You can't overanalyze. You just have to feel it out, but people take things so seriously. You perform something on the spur of the moment and they overanalyze what you're doing.

"We wanted to make a more intricate yet heavy album; to get deeper into that concept of blending brutality with melody. Melodies coming from the guitars, I mean."

On the new album's commercial success:

"Metal seems to be becoming kind of trendy again, but no one is executing it particularly well. This is why we think that 'Doomsday Machine' is doing so well. We've got a solid foundation and people are ready for something that's not such an easy listen. They want more fret board action now that they had the simplicity of nu metal in the '90s."

On having lots of guitar solos in their music:

"Everyone's freaking out! I heard that DISTURBED are gonna have more solos on the next album. People are chasing that now, so I feel like we're ahead of the game. For a while it felt ridiculous because it felt like no one was interested. We were holding a flag going, 'Hey! We’re here! We play guitar solos!' But like I said, people really overanalyze this shit. All it boils down to is that I stand for everything we've put out even though I don't listen to them!"