Arch Emeny – War Eternal – 2014

War Eternal Arch Ememyäs ninth studio Album.  It’s a bit amusing when bands have female growlers. Arch Enemy, in this case, has a new addition to the album as well. Alissa White-Gluz is new to the band, taking over the vocal role. Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of this vocal technique, but one must commend the uniqueness in itself. You can’t hear at all that it’s a woman. I didn’t expect that!

Musically, it’s melodic Death Metal, a genre I don’t have much experience with. I can find it a bit contradictory. On the one hand, it’s incredibly hard, while on the other hand, it’s almost a bit weak. It becomes strange for me. It probably needs to be a bit better produced than this for me to get really interested. That’s not to say the production is bad; it’s just not as top-notch as one might wish.

For my taste, there’s too much Death Metal, too little melody on War Eternal. The melody that is there sounds a bit too weak, and I prefer straightforward Thrash riffs over what this band manages to achieve.