ARCH ENEMY's "Wages Of Sin" To Be Unleashed On March 18th!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ARCH ENEMY — Supreme Wages Of Sin to be released on March 18th, 2002!

The wait is finally over, soon we are all to experience the frenetically anticipated release of ARCH ENEMY's finest album to date, Wages Of Sin in Europe and America!

The Swedish Metal supergroup has become the leading band in terms of metal in Japan and should finally gain promotion to a heavily deserved premier league spot in the worldwide extreme Metal scene with this outstanding new record that can be best described as "state of the art" for the Melodic Death Metal genre.

Quite a lot has been happening since the release of ARCH ENEMY's last domestic album Burning Bridges: The band toured the USA together with NEVERMORE, Europe with IN FLAMES, CHILDREN OF BODOM and DARK TRANQUILLITY, played major festivals such as Dynamo, did a gig in Santiago, Chile together with HAMMERFALL, made a one-off appearance in London with CRADLE OF FILTH and needless to say, also returned triumphantly to tour Japan for their 3rd time, culminating their Asian efforts with the Burning Japan live album, so far issued only in the land of the rising sun.

Following some musical disagreements, ARCH ENEMY decided to part ways with their original singer Johan Liiva before beginning work on new material. Totally unexpected, the band unveiled German Angela Gossow as his replacement, surprising the Metal community and fans worldwide. But as soon as she was heard the word began to spread that the band had found themselves the most aggressive female vocalist on the planet. Angela doesn't only come up with an incredibly powerful, yet clearly accentuated vocal delivery, somewhat in the vein of the legendary and now sadly departed Chuck Schuldiner or CARCASS' Jeff Walker (both considered as two of the best vocalists ever in the Death Metal movement) but she also knows how to impress the audience with her full on metal attitude and outstanding looks.

ARCH ENEMY mastermind Michael Amott comments on the new, line-up: "When you have a group of musicians as strong as ARCH ENEMY, the vocals need to be nothing less than totally killer. The band was in desperate need of a strong personality at the front, we were lucky enough to find Angela, by far and away the best vocalist we tried. She's really one in a million, musically as well as visually..."

Wages Of Sin was once again recorded at Gothenburg's Studio Fredman with producer Fredrik Nordström (HAMMERFALL, IN FLAMES, DIMMU BORGIR, etc.) but unlike ARCH ENEMY's previous album efforts, it was mixed by sound wizard Andy Sneap (TESTAMENT, NEVERMORE, KREATOR, etc.) at Backstage Studios in England for a stunning brilliance and brutality in sound quality that will surely set new standards for the whole scene.

"Musically, the new album is more aggressive and dark sounding than the previous one seeing as there isn't much to be particularly happy about in the world today! We went in the studio with the new line-up and tons of energy, just plugged-in and let rip! The energy just screamed out of us. It was cool working with Andy Sneap, his mix helped give the album that extra edge that I don't hear on too may records today", views Amott.

Wages Of Sin will be released by Century Media Records as 2-CD version for the regular price of one album on March 18th in Europe in first edition. CD number one includes the full W.O.S. record featuring new vocalist Angela with the following track listing:

01. Enemy Within
02. Burning Angel
03. Heart Of Darkness
04. Ravenous
05. Savage Messiah
06. Dead Bury Their Dead
07. Web Of Lies
08. The First Deadly Sin
09. Behind The Smile
10. Snow Bound
11. Shadows And Dust
Bonus Cuts:
12. Lament Of A Mortal Soul (exclusive, unreleased bonus track)
13. Ravenous (enhanced video clip)

The exclusive second CD of the release features the band's original singer
Johan Liiva on the following tracklisting:

01. Starbreaker (previously unreleased JUDAS PRIEST cover)
02. Aces High (IRON MAIDEN cover, previously only available on a Japanese tribute album)
03. Scream Of Anger (EUROPE cover, previously only available as Japanese bonus track)
04. Diva Satanica (previously only available as Japanese bonus track)
05. Fields of Desolation '99 (previously only available as Japanese
bonus track)
06. Damnations Way (previously only available as Japanese bonus track)
07. Hydra (previously only available as Japanese bonus track)
08. The Immortal (enhanced video clip)

This "supreme" 2CD version of Wages Of Sin also includes an extensive booklet including liner notes by Michael Amott himself and should not only please those fans that have been anxiously waiting for the album but also serve to conquer a whole massive ground of new listeners that haven't been exposed to the outstanding qualities of the band so far. ARCH ENEMY once again have redefined the limits of melody in Death Metal and at the same time of brutality in Melodic Metal with a breathtaking songwriting talent and superior individual musical abilities. As long as bands like ARCH ENEMY keep on refreshing the Extreme Metal scene with material like Wages Of Sin, there definitely is a meaning in the expression "Life After Death".

As to future activities, Amott states "We now have the line up to be able to give the rest of the world the chance to be part of what this band is all about. We have achieved much in Japan, we will now go out touring and kick ass everywhere else possible. We have loyal fans all over the world who have never seen us, we are gonna play for them."

Look out for something extraordinary to Extreme Metal, to be released on March 18th, 2002!