Source: Album Cover
Thankfully, female fronted metal bands are a thing, and there are stacks of them out there. But if we had to settle on the best, a name that would certainly be up there is Arch Enemy. With the follow up to 2014’s War Eternal on the horizon, we at MOSH are here to do what we do best. Dive balls deep into the death metaller’s next release, Will To Power.
Opening with ‘Set Flame To The Night’ an introductory instrumental number. We are immediately immersed in the harrowing harmonics that we’ve grown accustom to from Arch Enemy’s own lords of the fret board, Jeff Loomis and Michael Amott. All before we collectively crank up to eleven for ‘The Race’.
Joining the clan in 2014, vocalist Alissa White-Gluz has since then earned her bones as the new metallic matriarch of the group and again showcases her immense vocal range through bellowing lows and classic metal-esc melodic sections as seen on ‘Reason To Believe’. From the off and throughout the audible onslaught ensues valiantly. Powering through both singles ‘The World Is Yours’ and ‘The Eagle Flies Alone’ meanwhile evolving enough in terms of pace and tone to prevent your now unhinged happy face from catapulting off of your capsizing cranium.
Will To Power, is not only as heavy as a Rancor scrotum, but produced in a way that the immense levels of talent and combined craftsmanship can shine through. Opting for cleaner, more sleek sections of shred as apposed to the common façade of drop G tuning, you know the “real” way to make a song heavy… please.
Pausing for a rapid refuel through interlude track ‘Saturnine’. Will To Power is soon back at full pelt. Powering through our collective eardrums with a competitive tag-team of tracks, ‘Dreams Of Retribution’ and ‘My Shadow And I’. While the former once again delivers licks and riffs who even the almighty Mr. Christ couldn’t match, the latter delves to the darker side of the coin, delivering perhaps the heaviest and most sinister of Will To Power’s demented offspring.
Having made it to the end of the head bang train without the aid of a neck brace we’re left with ‘A Fight I Must Win’. A powerful end to an opus and a definite contender for the next Rocky soundtrack, we’re left feeling more than satisfied with our journey and would definitely recommend a friend. Will To Power merely scratches the surface of what Arch Enemy are capable of.
Although minor tweaks and tonal shifts have been made to ensure a fresh sounding release, there are leagues of possibilities where Arch Enemy could go with their next studio effort. Although to keep our round up in the now, you would be stupid not to bag this record up when it drops on September 8. Remember to bend your knees when you pick it up, like we said. Heavy as fuck.
