Photo Credit: Patric Ullaeus / Info From Century Media Records and Atom Splitter PR
Legends of pure fucking metal for nearly 30 years, Arch Enemy are a certifiably formidable force. Founded by Swedish guitar hero Michael Amott back in 1995, they have survived three decades without compromise and are still growing in strength and popularity. In 2025, Arch Enemy return with yet another magnificent outpouring of virtuoso brutality, Blood Dynasty.The band’s 12th studio album captures them at the height of their powers, as showcased on the recently released Dream Stealer and Liars & Thieves tracks: the vicious, high-energy rippers that open and close the record.
As Amott explains, these songs set the tone forone of Arch Enemy’s heaviest and most dynamic albums yet. “When we released ‘Dream Stealer’, I saw a lot of comments saying that it harked back the old school sound of the band, but I don’t know if I agree with that”, he notes. “We definitely turned up the speed and the aggression this time. We all enjoy that. Luckily we got some good rehearsal time in before the tour, it has a lot of twists and turns, so we need to play it very well for it to sound as good as it does on the album!”
Arch Enemy began life amid the shadows of the metal underground. Michael Amott’s tenure with UKicons Carcass inspired him to continue down a fervently melodic but dark and brutal road, and the debut album Black Earth, released in 1996, was the result. Defined by its intricate, hyper-melodicguitar work and grisly, death metal intensity, Arch Enemy’s sound had huge potential from the start.But after three albums with original frontman Johan Liiva, the band mutated into an even more powerful beast, with charismatic vocalist Angela Gossow leading the charge. Albums like Wages Of Sin (2001), Anthems Of Rebellion (2003) and Doomsday Machine (2005) were rapturously received by critics and fans alike, and by the end of the noughties, Arch Enemy were firmly established as international heavyweights with a peerless reputation for triumphant live shows.
In 2014, Gossow’s amicable departure gave way to the arrival of powerhouse frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz, and the release of War Eternal, the new line-up’s first album together. Another instant hit, it paved the way for even greater success and popularity. More recent albums Will To Power (2017) and Deceivers (2022) kept the band’s standards sky high, with White-Gluz a remarkable, captivating figurehead, and her band mates – Amott, drummer Daniel Erlandsson, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo, andsince 2023, guitarist Joey Concepcion – enjoying astonishing levels of chemistry and ingenuity. Returning in 2025 with Blood Dynasty, Arch Enemy are more powerful than ever.
“This is our 12th studio album, and the rule of metal is that you’ve got to keep trying to say the samething, but in slightly different ways!” says Amott. “There’s a degree of familiarity in our sound, which Idon’t see as a problem because we’re playing the music we love. But obviously we’ve got to throw acouple of curveballs in there each time, a few new interesting things to spice it up a little bit. How doyou get people talking about your record when it’s the 12th one, you know?”
Diehard Arch Enemy fans will be expecting a curveball or two, but the essence of Blood Dynasty is drawn from the same pristine carnage that made anthems like We Will Rise and Nemesis such staples of the modern metal world 20 years ago. From the blistering grandeur of Dream Stealer to the grinding, mid-paced melodic death of Don’t Look Down, this is the sound of a legendary band hitting a new level of potency. Explosive and anthemic on Illuminate The Path, pitch-black and monstrous on the title track, and melodically imperious on the skull-rattling The Pendulum, Arch Enemy have never sounded bigger, better or more excited about their own music.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re just writing the best music we can”, says Amott. “It may be old news now, but we have a singer who can do different voices and different kinds of singing. Sothere’s a song, ‘Illuminate The Path’, that has some clean sung vocals in the chorus, which is unusualfor us. We’ve incorporated Alissa’s clean vocals before, but it’s been in a bridge section or somethinglike that. So this is a different approach. There is also a cover song, ‘Vivre Libre’, which is a Frenchhard rock metal ballad from the ‘80s, by a band called Blaspheme. It has French lyrics, and Alissa speaks fluent French as she grew up in Quebec, Canada. It was going to be a bonus track, until weheard her vocal on it, and then it was, ‘Damn, this is killer!’ It sounded like it should be on the album. People can hate it or love it, I don’t mind [laughs]!”
Blood Dynasty was recorded in Sweden, with revered production guru Jens Bogren manning thecontrols. Having previously worked with the band on the mix for 2017’s Will To Power, Bogren was the perfect addition to the team this time around. The new Arch Enemy material sounds colossal, detailed and muscular, but with an underlying grittiness that outstrips all previous albums in terms of out-and- out metal power. Although they are renowned as great virtuosos of the modern metal scene, Amott and his comrades have lost none of their underground spirit. As described with passion on new anthem, March Of The Miscreants, Arch Enemy are the biggest little underground metal band in the world.
“I know we’re bigger than underground bands, and we’ve reached a new plateau in our career, almost30 years in”, Amott admits. “But at the same time, if you look at the big picture of music, nearly all metal bands should be considered underground! They’re ignored by the mainstream, and that’s fine by me. Growing up and playing my guitar and joining my first bands, I wasn’t thinking about mainstream acceptance at all. I was trying to be a better musician, trying to play with better musicians, and having the dedication to go to shows and support the underground. The wholeatmosphere and the spirit of it... it’s the spirit of the underdog! That’s still what Arch Enemy is about.”
Arch Enemy’s 30th anniversary arrives during 2025. What better way to celebrate three decades of vital and exhilarating heavy metal than to welcome the mighty Blood Dynasty into the world? Another creative peak in a career and catalogue that are full of them, this latest salute to the gods ofheaviness is as dark, heavy, riotous and real as anything in Arch Enemy’s celebrated career.
As Amott explains, these songs set the tone forone of Arch Enemy’s heaviest and most dynamic albums yet. “When we released ‘Dream Stealer’, I saw a lot of comments saying that it harked back the old school sound of the band, but I don’t know if I agree with that”, he notes. “We definitely turned up the speed and the aggression this time. We all enjoy that. Luckily we got some good rehearsal time in before the tour, it has a lot of twists and turns, so we need to play it very well for it to sound as good as it does on the album!”
Arch Enemy began life amid the shadows of the metal underground. Michael Amott’s tenure with UKicons Carcass inspired him to continue down a fervently melodic but dark and brutal road, and the debut album Black Earth, released in 1996, was the result. Defined by its intricate, hyper-melodicguitar work and grisly, death metal intensity, Arch Enemy’s sound had huge potential from the start.But after three albums with original frontman Johan Liiva, the band mutated into an even more powerful beast, with charismatic vocalist Angela Gossow leading the charge. Albums like Wages Of Sin (2001), Anthems Of Rebellion (2003) and Doomsday Machine (2005) were rapturously received by critics and fans alike, and by the end of the noughties, Arch Enemy were firmly established as international heavyweights with a peerless reputation for triumphant live shows.
In 2014, Gossow’s amicable departure gave way to the arrival of powerhouse frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz, and the release of War Eternal, the new line-up’s first album together. Another instant hit, it paved the way for even greater success and popularity. More recent albums Will To Power (2017) and Deceivers (2022) kept the band’s standards sky high, with White-Gluz a remarkable, captivating figurehead, and her band mates – Amott, drummer Daniel Erlandsson, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo, andsince 2023, guitarist Joey Concepcion – enjoying astonishing levels of chemistry and ingenuity. Returning in 2025 with Blood Dynasty, Arch Enemy are more powerful than ever.
“This is our 12th studio album, and the rule of metal is that you’ve got to keep trying to say the samething, but in slightly different ways!” says Amott. “There’s a degree of familiarity in our sound, which Idon’t see as a problem because we’re playing the music we love. But obviously we’ve got to throw acouple of curveballs in there each time, a few new interesting things to spice it up a little bit. How doyou get people talking about your record when it’s the 12th one, you know?”
Diehard Arch Enemy fans will be expecting a curveball or two, but the essence of Blood Dynasty is drawn from the same pristine carnage that made anthems like We Will Rise and Nemesis such staples of the modern metal world 20 years ago. From the blistering grandeur of Dream Stealer to the grinding, mid-paced melodic death of Don’t Look Down, this is the sound of a legendary band hitting a new level of potency. Explosive and anthemic on Illuminate The Path, pitch-black and monstrous on the title track, and melodically imperious on the skull-rattling The Pendulum, Arch Enemy have never sounded bigger, better or more excited about their own music.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re just writing the best music we can”, says Amott. “It may be old news now, but we have a singer who can do different voices and different kinds of singing. Sothere’s a song, ‘Illuminate The Path’, that has some clean sung vocals in the chorus, which is unusualfor us. We’ve incorporated Alissa’s clean vocals before, but it’s been in a bridge section or somethinglike that. So this is a different approach. There is also a cover song, ‘Vivre Libre’, which is a Frenchhard rock metal ballad from the ‘80s, by a band called Blaspheme. It has French lyrics, and Alissa speaks fluent French as she grew up in Quebec, Canada. It was going to be a bonus track, until weheard her vocal on it, and then it was, ‘Damn, this is killer!’ It sounded like it should be on the album. People can hate it or love it, I don’t mind [laughs]!”
Blood Dynasty was recorded in Sweden, with revered production guru Jens Bogren manning thecontrols. Having previously worked with the band on the mix for 2017’s Will To Power, Bogren was the perfect addition to the team this time around. The new Arch Enemy material sounds colossal, detailed and muscular, but with an underlying grittiness that outstrips all previous albums in terms of out-and- out metal power. Although they are renowned as great virtuosos of the modern metal scene, Amott and his comrades have lost none of their underground spirit. As described with passion on new anthem, March Of The Miscreants, Arch Enemy are the biggest little underground metal band in the world.
“I know we’re bigger than underground bands, and we’ve reached a new plateau in our career, almost30 years in”, Amott admits. “But at the same time, if you look at the big picture of music, nearly all metal bands should be considered underground! They’re ignored by the mainstream, and that’s fine by me. Growing up and playing my guitar and joining my first bands, I wasn’t thinking about mainstream acceptance at all. I was trying to be a better musician, trying to play with better musicians, and having the dedication to go to shows and support the underground. The wholeatmosphere and the spirit of it... it’s the spirit of the underdog! That’s still what Arch Enemy is about.”
Arch Enemy’s 30th anniversary arrives during 2025. What better way to celebrate three decades of vital and exhilarating heavy metal than to welcome the mighty Blood Dynasty into the world? Another creative peak in a career and catalogue that are full of them, this latest salute to the gods ofheaviness is as dark, heavy, riotous and real as anything in Arch Enemy’s celebrated career.
“I’m a big believer in doing something that feels authentic, convincing and real”, Amott concludes. “I want our music to be relatable, exciting, and to turn people on, you know? We do get a lot of messages from fans who tell us how much our music means to them, and the lyrics have helped themin their lives, and that’s just really amazing to hear. It’s a responsibility, in a way, to keep deliveringhigh quality and real stuff. There have been ups and downs, and we’ve been through a lot together as a group, but we have new fans coming in all the time, and that’s really exciting.”
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