Arch Enemy
In Battle With Reality

24.09.2014

Consistency is a rare thing these days. Sooner or later changes happen to nearly all bands of the modern age. These changes may happen to style, image, songwriting approach, or these may be line-up changes that frequently trigger all of the above. Swedish melodic death metallers experienced that a lot recently – a while ago they parted ways with founding guitarist Christopher Amott and replaced him with Nick Cordle. Some time later the alarm bell rang even louder for the fans, as the one and only Angela Gossow announced her decision to step down as the band’s front lady, and was subsequently replaced by Canadian-born Alissa White-Gluz. Fortunately, these changes didn’t have that much of an impact on the band’s music. The rejuvenated Arch Enemy got down to working on a new album called “War Eternal”, which hit the stores this past summer. And now we can say for sure that with the arrival of the new members Arch Enemy was not only born again, but released an opus of unprecedented power that will surely kick asses of many of their enviers and rivals. As the band was gearing up for their first full-scale Russian tour, scheduled for late September, the band’s red haired mastermind, Michael Amott, called us to answer whatever questions we might have about the new record, the new line-up, and, of course, the upcoming shows.

First of all let me congratulate you on the release of the brilliant new record “War Eternal”, which, in my opinion, is one of the best Arch Enemy albums so far.

Thank you very much. So glad to hear this.

How is the touring going? How well do the fans accept the new material and the new line-up?

There’s a very good reaction actually, a lot of fans enjoy the new songs. And of course Alissa is the new addition to the band.

Your line-up has changed seriously. How seriously has the internal atmosphere in the band changed?

The atmosphere now is the best for a long time. Because I think that… You know, when everybody is happy and glad to be a team, a part of the band, it really helps improve the atmosphere. Honestly, Angela had really wanted to leave the band for a couple of years, and I think that now we have it fixed for everybody. Right now we have a very good atmosphere in the band.

Did Angela say about her decision suddenly and unexpectedly, or was it after a long consideration?

It was after a long consideration and also many talks and many discussions in the past. It was not like a sudden thing, it was not a huge surprise to us. Of course, it was a really serious situation, when she made the final decision last year, you know. It’s a very difficult position to be a singer in Arch Enemy. It’s not easy in any band. I think we did it in the best possible way and I think Angela did it the best way too.

How did you find Alissa? Were you familiar with her before she came to the band? And was she the only candidate for you?

We didn’t have any other candidate. Angela recommended Alissa to us. At that moment, I knew almost nothing about Alissa, almost didn’t hear her work. But I knew she was a good talent. So when Angela told us the bad news that she wanted to leave Arch Enemy, she also told us, you know, that we must continue as a band. She knows how much we love the band, how much we love creating music. She recommended Alissa, and of course it turned a really good thing for us. I knew who Alissa was, but only when we started talking about her, I started to listen to her works carefully. But yeah, we didn’t really have singer options at all. We quickly decided to try Alissa, and actually it worked very well. After this we didn’t need to try anyone else.

Did Angela manage to make any contribution to the new material, or did the work on it start after she had left?

It started after she left. The work on both arrangements and lyrics started after Angela left. Actually we had little kind of sketches when Angela was in the band, but at that time we didn’t have melodies and ideas for lyrics at all. It was a pretty fresh start when we found Alissa.

Your last few albums significantly differ from each other sound-wise. The new record was produced by the bandmembers themselves. Why did you choose to handle the sound without the aid of a specially hired man this time?

I don’t know. I think we just wanted to do it ourselves. I wanted the work on the new disc to be the most team work. We lost my brother on the guitar, we lost Angela – two very big parts of the band. I wanted to focus the new material mostly on the spirit of Arch Enemy, on myself, on Sharlee (D’Angelo, bass) and, of course, on the new bandmembers. Now I can say that together we created the most personal album. I think that’s why we decided to produce it ourselves. Next time we might try to work with a producer, I don’t know.

What about the lyrics of the new songs? What is the difference between Angela’s lyrics and the lyrics written by you or Alissa?

Well… Yeah, I think we have different styles. On the new album Alissa wrote lyrics for five songs, and I wrote lyrics for another five songs. In the past I also did a lot of lyrics for Arch Enemy. I think Alissa and Angela have definitely different styles, and Alissa also has a different style from myself. We have a good balance, different kinds of writing styles and a lot of topics that make us different.

The new album cover is just brilliant. Please tell me about the idea behind the cover art. It is, frankly, not quite typical for you.

Yeah, I think it’s really amazing on the new album, the cover, the booklet and everything. It was painted by Costin Chioreanu, he’s a big talent. I explained my ideas to the artist, and he realized them, like you said, in a style that is not so typical for us. I think there’s a lot of symbols in the cover that can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. The lyrics of most of the songs have something in common with these images. The central character in the center can symbolize death. It is holding a baby. It's like a mother holding a newborn baby, when it’s born dead. And it can symbolize like, “You start dying on the day you are born” (laughs), something like that. It’s pretty dark. There are other characters around with rat-heads and pig-heads. I think they symbolize greed and power. There’s different stuff in their hands. A skull is about “memento mori”, a ruler, a school ruler, is about more power, like business power, which we all start to get in school. I think, you as a human being are born with all these forces, and with time, something becomes a driving force for you, but something is also able to gain control over you. That’s what I basically wrote most of lyrics on the new record about. The album is called “War Eternal”. Of course, it’s not a war with the guns. It’s a personal eternal war, it’s for creating your personal life, identity, it’s a personal experience you get in battle with reality.

In addition to the deep symbolism personally for me it seems there is another subtext in the new cover artwork. The figures on the sides symbolize the four bandmembers, and in the center there is Angela, who holds Alissa and passes her over to you. Am I right? Is there such a subtext?

(bursts into laughter) It’s the first time I hear this. This is the new exciting interpretation.

It was my first thought when I saw this cover.

Haha, nice. (laughs) There are a lot of different things in it, and it was a new interesting one.

When do you prefer to compose new material? Do you do it during tours, or when you are completely free from touring?

It’s a combination of both actually. I always write a lot of things on the road. I get a lot of riffs, melodies and solo ideas in the hotel rooms, for example, in the backstage, or on the stage during soundchecks. Many ideas come on the road, but very often you have no opportunity to finish these ideas, because you are always moving, and a lot of things are going on. We always try to save the ideas we get on the road by recording them as much as we can. And when we are at home, in our home environment, we can finish some ideas, the basic shapes of songs. But you know, it’s impossible to know when a good idea will catch you. I always try to carry a phone with me and try to record something. It doesn’t always work actually. Sometimes it comes to me when I’m in a bathroom, for example. Then I try not to let the idea go out of my head, and later to understand what it’s about and how to finish it.

Do you have any plans in the foreseeable future to capture the new line-up on live video?

I would like to, yeah. Now we are talking about recording one or several shows during one of the nearest tours. It will be exciting.

How much attention do band members give to their side projects? For example, you have Spiritual Beggars and Sharlee has Witchery.

We all do other things, we all have side projects, pretty much all of us. But of course Arch Enemy is the main focus, the main band for all of us, that takes a bigger part of our time. But beside that we all have work around.

Quite recently there was an Internet guitar contest among your fans, and the winners were chosen by you personally. What can you say about the level and techniques of your fans? Did anyone really surprise you?

Yeah, the level is really good, very high, and the techniques of guitar playing are pretty much higher than I expected. But, you know, for me to be a great guitar player is always about creating music, having original ideas. There’s a lot of people who succeeded in copying others and uploading videos on YouTube. But of course I like the work of these guys. I’m sure there is also a lot of good bass players and drummers among our fans.

Your old bandmates in Carcass have recently gathered again and recorded a new album. Did you receive an offer to join their reunion?

No. We parted ways in 2010. We did a lot of shows in 2009 and 2010, we played in Moscow as well. But now I really want to focus on Arch Enemy, my own music, my own creation, my own career. So we didn’t have plans to gather again for a new album recording.

Your musical projects – Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars - differ a lot from each other. What kind of music do you personally prefer to listen to at the moment?

I’m a big music fan and I like a lot of different king of music. When I was younger, I mean much younger, I listened a lot of underground extreme metal music. Later the circle of my musical interests extended, filled with new styles, genres and influences. Now I have two main bands – Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars. They are very different, like you said. Because I listened to a lot of different music, I can develop my musical influences in two directions.

At the present time albums are issued are in a variety of cool and luxury editions. Do you collect vinyls and collectible editions of your personal music idols?

I’m not a record collector anymore, I stopped this, because I don’t have time at home to enjoy my record collection. (everybody laughs) So it’s difficult for me to have a big music collection at home. When I started to get interested in music, I bought favorite albums on vinyl and later on CD. Now the mp3 has become the main format. But it's cool there are still real collectors who have a demand for physical formats, especially stuff like vinyl that becomes popular again. There’s a very nice presentation and feel of sound in it.

Yes, I love vinyl too and bought your last album on it.

Nice.

Very soon you will visit Russia for the fourth time. It will be the first time you are going to play the cities that are far away from the Russian capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg. What do you expect from this trip?

Wow! Yeah, we have no idea. We don’t know what to expect. But I’m sure it will be an exciting time. I hope in the regions we have also a lot of fans, who want to get to the concerts.

In May this year Polish band Behemoth got into a very unpleasant story in Russia: their tour was canceled due to complaints of Orthodox activists. Have Arch Enemy ever had any problems with religious activists? If yes, how do you usually react when your band is labeled Satanic or “dangerous for kids”?

(long pause) Well… Yeah, I think we had a little bit of problems in the past, in countries like China, you know. It’s a too political country. Arch Enemy is not definitely a satanic band. But of course I believe in the freedom of speech, in the freedom of expression of all kind of feelings, emotions and art. It’s really sad, when religious extremists interfere with art. If their god is so strong and powerful, I don’t think that they should be afraid of some kind music or the words like "arch". Honestly, for me it’s pretty difficult to understand the religious persons at all. I’m not religious, I don’t believe in devil, I don’t believe in god.

That’s it with questions on my side. Thank you very much for an interesting talk. Maybe you want to say something to your fans in Russia, who are dying to see you on stage this September?

Thanks for the interview, it was very nice to talk to you too. We are very excited about coming and playing to our Russian fans, of course, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in other territories – we never played in other Russian cities. It will be very curious and exciting to meet all of you.

Arch Enemy on the Internet: http://www.archenemy.net

Special thanks to Alexei Kuzovlev (The Motley Concerts) for arranging this interview

Mikhail “IronMike” Shatalin
September 9, 2014
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