ARCH ENEMY

As all sensible people are aware, ARCH ENEMY are deadly fucking serious about heavy metal. Over the course of 30 years, Michael Amott's virtuoso death metal band have defied all the usual rules and taken supremely heavy and brutal music to places that few thought possible. They have done it all under the banner of "pure fucking metal," and never deviated from a righteous diet of explosive, overblown and technically dazzling extremity. Along the way they have pulled off the rare feat of replacing their singer — twice! — without missing a step, and with each successive incumbent driving the band to greater heights than before. Since the recruitment of Alissa White-Gluz in 2014, ARCH ENEMY have been unstoppable, and it is a testament to Amott's creativity and determination that the band have never compromised on either brutality or melody along the way. Both are integral to one of the most resilient templates in modern metal, and both are rampant and on full, ferocious display throughout "Blood Dynasty", the band's 12th studio album that is as intense and murderous as anything Amott's international crew have released before. Plus, there's a fantastic ballad. One might argue that ARCH ENEMY are spoiling us.

Anyone expecting radical departures from the expected norm will be sorely disappointed by "Blood Dynasty", but it would be criminally reductive to ignore the obvious evolution of ARCH ENEMY's sound over the last few albums. "Dream Stealer" is a typically vicious album opener, but there is a newfound darkness driving the guitars further into death metal's malevolent maelstrom, and a spiteful kick to the band's delivery that says it all about these musicians' zealous devotion to crushing skulls. Similarly, "March of the Miscreants" is grimy, mean-spirited and defiantly off-kilter, with syncopated riffs that rattle and churn, and a dead-eyed chorus that proclaims solidarity among the metal faithful. White-Gluz sounds astonishing, her rallying cries of "This is where we belong!" echoing into a pristine pileup of gnarly riffs, culminating in a beautifully indulgent guitar solo. "Don't Look Down" is another gleeful twisting of the ARCH ENEMY formula, with furious, pummeling verses that erupt into a colossal, fists-in-the-air refrain, fit to stir the blood. Again, White-Gluz is a revelation, her vocals more powerful than ever before, and her delivery laudably venomous. She excels on the classic metal hellscapes of "Paper Tiger" and the sumptuous, inspirational fervor of "A Million Suns", and she navigates platinum-plated anthems like the previous released title track and the sublime, mid-paced, melodic majesty of "Illuminate The Path" with consummate skill. And, as previously advertised, White-Gluz's clean vocals are extraordinary. On "Blood Dynasty" she gets the perfect opportunity to sing her heart out, unencumbered by death metal's hostile demands, on a cover of cult French metal band BLASPHEME's 1985 power ballad "Vive Libre". As curveballs go, it is as smartly conceived and executed as it gets, and sweet Christ, Alissa White-Gluz has pipes!

Bands that have little or nothing to prove are often prone to complacency, but ARCH ENEMY have been heroically consistent over the years, and their sincere love of this thunderous, life-affirming marvel we call heavy metal still shines through in everything that they do, three decades on from their low-key beginnings in Halmstad, Sweden. If the virtues of following a strict code of "pure fucking metal" weren't already obvious, records like this will happily hammer the message home. Another resounding victory for the real thing.