ARCH ENEMY NORTH AMERICAN BLOOD DYNASTY 2025 TOUR

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that we need regular, jolting doses of heavy fucking metal to keep us on the right track. Over the last quarter of a century, no band has flown the flag for balls-out, melody-stuffed heaviness with more vigour or dedication than Arch Enemy. In 2022, the band’s brand new album, Deceivers, is destined to be this year’s most lethally effective cure for all ills. Increasingly unstoppable, not least since the recruitment of vocalist Alissa White-Gluz in 2014, Arch Enemy are about to remind the world what the real thing sounds like, with their 11th and most explosive album yet.


“We achieved so much with those first two albums with Alissa,” band founder and guitarist Michael Amott notes. “Both Will To Power and War Eternal did so well for us. We just kept building and building and we didn’t expect that. When Angela [Gossow, Arch Enemy’s iconic former vocalist] left the band initially, I thought the band would go down to some extent and we could slowly build it back up to where we were when she left. But instead, with Alissa, it just took off and became a whole new thing.”

The wind billowing their sails and an ever-expanding audience of diehard fans, Arch Enemy arrive in 2022 in the finest of form. Written during 2020, Deceivers is another self-evident labour of heavy metal love, from a band with confidence coursing through every vein. As Michael observes, Arch Enemy have successfully negotiated the ups and downs of the Covid era and come out the other side armed with their most destructive piece of work yet.

“Our last concert was December 15, 2019,” he recalls. “So then we took a year off, because we’d been in everyone’s faces for a while, and we thought we’d start writing a new album and start recording it at the end of 2020... and that’s what we did! In January 2020, me and Daniel [Erlandsson, drums], went over to Mexico and rented a place for a couple of weeks. It was on the beach, which was great, but we turned the living room into a little makeshift demo studio, with a couple of guitars and programmed drums. It was just nice to take time out and get away from everything. We did quite

a lot of demoing there, but then the pandemic hit. I was stuck in Sweden, as was Daniel, so we continued writing. There weren’t really many restrictions in Sweden, we didn’t have lockdowns like most of the world, so it was kind of easy to meet up and keep working on the music.”

Despite not being denied the chance to write new music, Arch Enemy would soon face some significant obstacles when it came to getting the whole band together in the same room. With Alissa and guitarist Jeff Loomis both residing on the other side of the Atlantic, the creation of a new album became rather more challenging than expected.


“It did turn out to be the worst time ever to have an international line-up!” laughs Michael “That part of it sucked. It was like, ‘Now we want Alissa to come in and do the vocals, and Jeff to come in and do his solos, both from North America...’ Well, that wasn’t going to happen, but in the end we made it work. It was just more complicated, the logistics were shit and everything was a lot more expensive! [Laughs] But we got it done in the end. I think we really wanted to get it done.”

From the belligerent fury of recent single Deceiver, Deceiver and the dramatic, viciously melodic House Of Mirrors to epic and brutal deep cuts like In The Eye Of The Storm and Spreading Black Wings, the new Arch Enemy album feels like a celebratory encapsulation of everything that has made the band such a vital force.

All of their cherished trademarks are present and correct, from majestic, heart-rending guitar hooks and harmonies through to an unremitting barrage of catchy but crushing riffs, but this is a sharper and more ferocious Arch Enemy than we have heard before. Deceivers could not have been created by any other band, but somehow this one feels like a bold reaffirming of musical values.

“I feel a responsibility there, to carry that heavy metal tradition to our best ability,” says Michael. Some people might say it’s a formula, but I just think it’s songwriting! I’ve been at it for a long time now, I’ve seen so many things come and go. People have said that guitar solos are out, or it’s all about industrial metal or rap-metal or it’s deathcore... there have been so many trends, but my focus has always been on the roots of heavy metal and hard rock songwriting, with quality guitar parts and stuff like that! [Laughs] You’ve just got to tweak it and find little things that you haven’t done before, and we always find something new to do.”

One of the new album’s most startling moments arrives during opening track and ready-made crowd- pleaser Handshake With Hell. A classic, exhilarating slab of prime Arch Enemy perfection, it boasts a jaw-dropping vocal performance from the ever-versatile Alissa White-Gluz, with both clean and harsh vocals woven through the pristine riff-powered assault. As an album opener, it’s an audacious one.

“Yeah, it was just to shove it in people’s faces, really! [Laughs] Make people talk, you know? We need that, 25 years into our history. We’ve been treading that line carefully, because when we brought Alissa into the fold we knew that, okay, she can do this and this, she can do what Angela did and she can do what Johan [Liiva, original AE vocalist] did, but she can also do this other thing. We have our sound and all the melody has really come from the guitars up to that point, but Alissa is amazing and it really works. Anyway, after 25 years and when it’s your 11th studio album, are you not allowed one song that’s a bit different? [Laughs]”

Arch Enemy fans have learned to expect their favorite band to sound immaculate. Deceivers once again belongs firmly at metal’s cutting edge, but a change of environment and a change of collaborator has brought new depth and texture to the band’s sound, while helping to hammer home those metal hooks with more intensity than ever.

“We did the drums with Jacob and then we went back to Sweden and did the guitars ourselves,” Michael explains. “It takes so long to do that, so we thought it made sense to come home. Then Daniel engineered that as well. We did the bass and the solos in Sweden, and then we went back and did the vocals with Jacob in Denmark. He put it all together and mixed and mastered it. We were going to fly Jeff in to do his solos, but then he couldn’t come, so he ended up doing his solos in a studio in Seattle. Working with Jacob was great. With the vocals, he was amazing. He gets such a great sound and performance out of the people he works with. He’s a super nice guy and we really enjoyed it."



The greatest bands always rise to the occasion. Arch Enemy are back, with one of their most defiant and uplifting records to date: a magnificent eruption of pure fucking metal, Deceivers is an invigorating, world-class shot in the arm. Meanwhile, Arch Enemy are primed and ready to return to their natural habitat, well-equipped with new anthems and still enjoying every last second of their steel-plated mission.

“We can’t wait to get back out there,” Michael Amott concludes. “I’ve always said that I’m ready to come back and play when it’s safe for everybody. The last few years have been incredible for us. It’s bizarre, because our new material is the most popular material that we have in the live show. Hopefully we can add a few more audience favorites from the new one, too!”

Success hasn’t spoiled Fit For An Autopsy — but as any fan of the New Jersey metal sextet could tell you, there was never much chance of that happening in the first place.

Fit For An Autopsy’s acclaimed 2022 album On What the Future Holds was the band’s highest-charting release to date, becoming the first of their six full-lengths to reach the Top 25 of the Billboard 200. But while some musicians would take such an achievement as a cue to duplicate whatever worked last time, or maybe even tailor their sound to boost its commercial appeal, the band — vocalist Joe Badolato, guitarists Will Putney, Patrick Sheridan and Tim Howley, bassist Peter Spinazola and drummer Josean Orta — simply continued to evolve along their own path.

The Nothing That Is, Fit For An Autopsy’s seventh and latest album (and third for Nuclear Blast), bears no sign whatsoever of commercial concession or rehashed past glories. Instead, the ten-song album finds the band exploring moodier textures and deeper emotions that add new power and dynamics to their already brutal and complex music, while also completely tuning out the ambient noise of passing musical trends and the expectations of the outside world.

Produced by Putney at his Graphic Nature Audio studio in Kinnelon, New Jersey, The Nothing That Is is an album filled with anger, frustration and crushing despair. Songs like “Hostage,” “Red Horizon,” “Lower Purpose” and the pummeling title track grapple with the horrors that the human race has unnecessarily inflicted upon the world, while the epic, introspective closer “The Silver Sun” reflects bitterly upon our uncertain future. Built to be listened to in its entirety in a single sitting, The Nothing That Is flows like the gripping soundtrack to a documentary film of our increasingly dystopian existence.

“Hostage,” the album’s lead-off track and first single, is the straight-up essence of Fit distilled into four minutes and forty seconds — an aurally assaultive post-deathcore howl of rage at being trapped in a world with no real hope of escape. But there’s also plenty of room on The Nothing That Is for the band to draw upon and incorporate a wide array of influences, like the mathematical precision of the early Meshuggah and Decapitated-type riffage that runs through “Spoils of the Horde,” the elements of classic Swedish melodic death metal that surge to the fore on “Savior of None – Ashes of All,” the “get in the pit” hardcore attack of “Weaker Wolves,” and the dark and doomy atmospherics of “Lurch”. And on the ripping “Lust for the Severed Head,” the band’s guitarists simply let loose with a thrilling array of fretboard fireworks.

A ringing wake-up call for humanity and a thoroughly intense listening experience, The Nothing That Is brims with both aggression and melody, its bracing music delivered with the confidence of a band that has honed its skills and forged its sense of purpose through fifteen-plus years of all-out live shows. Sufficiently secure of their place in the metal firmament to let their music go wherever feels right for a particular song, Fit For An Autopsy have delivered what may well be the greatest album of their career.

Extreme metal act Baest are unlike any band out there today. Since forming in Arhus, Denmark, in 2015, the hard-working quintet—featuring an all-original lineup of Sebastian Abildsten (drums), Simon Olsen (vocals), Lasse Revsbech (guitars), Mattias Melchiorsen (bass), and Svend Karlsson (guitars)—have amassed an impressive number of victories. Their curriculum vitae, to date, reads three full-lengths, two EPs, numerous big festival (Copenhell, Roskilde, Sweden Rock, Bloodstock) appearances, and over 300 live shows. The wins don’t stop there, either They’ve been honored with five GAFFA awards in Denmark. Singles “Genesis,” “Ecclesia,” and “Crosswhore” have racked up 2.5 million+ streams. The press also signed on in raucous support of Baest. Metal Hammer said Necro Sapiens (2021) “[is a] solid slab of brutish, no-nonsense riffery,” New Noise offered, “[Necro Sapiens was a] big step above most other modern death metal records,” and Angry Metal Guy was awestruck at Baest’s “slick Scandinavian savagery.” All this in just eight years—that’s beastly.

“Community is one of the most important things for us,” says Baest’s Svend Karlsson, attributing the group’s lineup solidarity to their current upward trajectory. “Same lineup as always; sharing the stages worldwide with the best mates is very special. That feeds into the songwriting and live shows. We are so well-connected personally and musically. It’s all about energy; with our backs covered, we can focus that energy on the audience. Every show is a death metal party!”

Baest’s sound—a furnace of death metal and heavy metal—summons the greats while also charging head-long into the future. Think: Dismember, Iron Maiden, Morbid Angel, Judas Priest, and Bolt Thrower with a present-day finish. In fact, this very aesthetic caught Century Media’s attention after the group issued their independently-released EP, Marie Magdalene, in 2016. Once the Danish faction signed to the label in 2018, it was game on. Full-lengths Danse Macabre (2018), Venenum (2019), and Necro Sapiens produced an avalanche of grinding, groove-centric extreme metal. Tracks like “Abattoir,” “Genesis,” and “Creature” put Baest’s songwriting dynamic on decisive display.

“Baest’s core is our live energy,” Karlsson says. “We feel like we’ve found a formula that captures all that. Songwriting is a dynamic process, so we try to keep the songs fresh and exciting. Our only rule is that if everyone grins while we riff the new songs out, it stays in the song! To do that, we write and arrange our songs at rehearsal—just like in the old days. Once the songs are 99 percent ready, we book a big studio to record them live in the middle of nowhere. That means we gotta be tight, especially when Simon comes in to slay the vox-box.”

The music currently in work post-GAFFA winning EP Justitia (2022), which featured guest vocals from The Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor Strnad (R.I.P. 2022) and Aborted’s Sven de Caluwé, continues to be defiantly Baest but pulls in more ‘80s heavy metal. The Danes also chew on the progressive muscle of Rush, Kansas, and Jethro Tull for spirit. They cite Pestilence’s landmark 1991 full-length Testimony of the Ancients as but one lighthouse of similar innovation, where disparate sounds thickened into a terrifyingly effective monstrosity. If the group are anything, it’s productive. Since (de)composing into Baest in 2015, they’ve written—on record—about 40 songs. Now that they’re on the eve of their fourth full-length album, there’s more on the way. The Danes’ crucible is perpetually hot.

“The songwriting process is the same as always,” says Karlsson. “We start with a ton of riffs and put ‘em together until everyone is stoked! This time around, we have some more time on our hands—and fresh inspiration. A lot of ‘80s heavy metal is really inspirational for us at the moment, like Maiden, Priest, and Saxon. I think if Mercyful Fate were from Sweden and played death metal, that’s where we’re going. Aesthetically, we try to keep true to our material and concepts, though. As of late, it’s taking a more old-school turn concerning our cover art material. Stay tuned for that!”

Since the stage is a conduit to the studio, Baest’s live shows over the last eight years have only improved. From modest venues like Pumpehuset and VoxHall in Denmark to the massive rostrums of open-airs like Bloodstock and Copenhell, where Baest played a primetime slot to 25,000, it’s all home to the fearsome five. Tours with Entombed A.D., Abbath, Decapitated, and more have proven one thing: Baest are beasties once the curtain drops. The group’s upcoming tour with Brazilian legends Krisiun will only add to their indefatigable killstreak.

“We’ve been touring as much as possible in the post-pandemic period,” Karlsson says. “Days after restrictions lifted in Europe, we headed for our first European headlining tour, which went amazing—a full month of playing great venues wherever possible. We topped last summer off with a headlining tour in Denmark, playing sold-out shows locally. The tours this year have been mainly European festivals, but we’re getting on as support with bigger acts like Arch Enemy, with whom we’ll play in Sweden. As for Krisiun, it’s an honor to go out with such a cult death metal act! Fans can expect a mix of all releases live, and we like to bring all the Baest flavors.”

Where next to conquer, indeed!