Khaos Legions

 

 

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I must admit, I strongly disliked Arch Enemy's last full feature album 'Rise of the Tyrants.' Details aside, it simply did not feel like the Arch Enemy I had been listening to since 'Wages of Sin.' After a very brief hiatus and the release of 2009's "Root of all Evil," the band had enough time to regroup and re-strategize. The result is 'Khaos Legions.' While it isn't a rapid succession in terms of sound or songwriting structure, it is vintage Arch Enemy sounding the way they were meant to sound.

Ironically, 'Khaos Legions' seems to have learned a lot from 'Root of all Evil.' Songwriting structure sounds fresh and revitalized from an energetic point of view, but this is still stock Arch Enemy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but is still nothing too new. Michael Amott bounces back and forth between gnash-toothed aggression and tragically poetic harmony in many of the album's songs. The album opens with a 1:31 instrumental, the 'Khaos Overture,' before diving head first into 'Yesterday is Dead and Gone,' arguably one of the band's most furious tracks in recent years. Angela Gossow sounds absolutely on fire, screeching out every lyric with blood-curdling aggression and fury. There is a hint of multi-vocal layering in her delivery, however; something that seemed unnecessary given Gossow's performance on 'Root of all Evil.' That being said, the band hasn't sounded this good since 'Anthems of Rebellion.'

'Bloodstained Cross' mixes up chaotic fury with a slow chorus to deal an adequate blow to religious hypocrisy. 'Under Black Flags We March' is Arch Enemy at their least-inspired, forcing the band to rely on a medium-paced chugfest in an attempt to sound serious and contemplative. 'No Gods, No Masters' is a very interesting direction for the band, succeeding where the prior track failed by giving a wholly inspired opinion of the importance of self-confidence and being happy with who you are. "...be strong, take this chance...make your way...a better future comes!" may not be the most poetic of lyrics, but the message has never been a more positive or beautiful one. 'City of the Dead' and 'Through the Eyes of a Raven' take multiple listens to appreciate; the former a taunting ode to former empires who now lie in ruins, and the latter written from the perspective of a battlefield carrion feeder. 'Cruelty Without Beauty' is a huge highlight of the album, showcasing the band at their most savage, vicious and violent as they scorn what appears to be the unethical and immoral experiments performed by scientists and doctors down through the ages. The small instrumental 'We Are a Godless Entity' moves straight into 'Cult of Chaos,' a song that trumpets the notion of natural selection and religious/god-free existence based on personal life choices. 'Thorns In My Flesh' is a weaker attempt at duplicating the power of 'Cruelty Without Beauty,' and ends up sounding less inspired and more quickly written than other tracks on the album. 'Turn To Dust' is another poetic and beautifully soft instrumental in the vein of past tracks like 'Snowbound,' and in typical Arch Enemy fashion, it moves uncharacteristically into another seething metal number, 'Vengeance Is Mine,' which unfortunately signals the band running out of steam towards the end. 'Secrets' tries to end things on a high note with a rapid-fire exploration into just how heavy those skeletons in your closet can be. The song is highly reminiscent of 'Silverwing,' as it tries to end the song with uplifting major chords. 'The Zoo' takes an explosively heavy chug approach to end the album, mixing in Megadeth-style elements to complete its task. The Special Edition album contains four extra tracks, including a new acoustic version of the 'Snowbound' instrumental on Spanish guitar which sounds absolutely gorgeous.

Arch Enemy haven't lost their fire, nor their fury. The band's main weakness has always been its inability to tackle new songwriting structure, a curse which also plagues other bands like Cradle of Filth. However, those who are in love with this particular sound will be wholly satisfied with 'Khaos Legions.' It sounds far better than 'Rise of the Tyrants,' and makes a lot more sense as well.

More of the same may be considered a good review to some and a bad one to others. For me...I expected more. It is a very solid album but there are not any surprises.

I like Arch Enemy a lot. I had high hopes for this. It's not a bad album, but it really retreads their past, without offering anything new, and without doing a very good job of repeating what they've done before. There are some decent songs(track 2, 3, and 4 stand out a little), but even then, I'd rather listen to Wages of Sin, Doomsday Machine, Anthems of Rebellion, or even Rise of the Tyrant over this. There are spots where you can absolutely pick out riffs or melodies they've stolen from their own previous albums.
I'm also a little put off by how posed and manufactured their pictures seem in the artwork accompanying the album. Hey, I'm all for worldwide revolution, but it means more than writing "rebel" and such on your clothes and striking poses. Put the effort into the music instead of into some phony rebellious attitude that wouldn't fool a 12 year old.

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