Michael Amott of Arch Enemy: My Five Fav Tracks from Deceivers
On August 12, Swedish death metal act Arch Enemy burst back onto the scene with their stellar new album Deceivers (our review here) and we have been captivated ever since. As our reviewer (and long term fan) KJ Draven so elegantly put it:
“Deceivers is a killer album that is worthy of the Arch Enemy legacy and is a demonstration of their continued firepower. This is the best album with White-Gluz out front and the fellas sound as razor sharp as they did when I first heard them in ‘99.”
With the smoke settling on the release, it only seemed fitting to hear from the band about the songs they’re most proud of on this release and the founder, songwriter and shredmaster himself Michael Amott has penned the following – detailing the five tracks you MUST LISTEN to when giving the record a spin with insights direct from the man himself… Let’s jump into it!
HANDSHAKE WITH HELL
I would start with ‘Handshake With Hell‘. From the moment that we completed the instrumental demo, it actually felt really special, even as an instrumental song. It’s almost a complete song and then it breaks down into a very soft and instrumental part, then picks up again, it just had this different flow for us. It’s probably one of the longest songs we’ve ever recorded as well, and it opens the album. Originally I sent the instrumental demo over to Alissa in Montreal and she emailed back her vocal ideas and the lyrics and stuff, and it just took the song to another level.
THE WATCHER
‘The Watcher‘ is another one of my favorites. It’s got that really uptempo, very speedy feel and lots of different guitar parts, it’s really exciting. We didn’t initially pick it as one of the singles, although it was one of the first five singles that we put out, but we did start playing it live recently. We have put out a little video for it now with live footage from Wacken Festival. And it just seems to be becoming a fan favorite. It just goes to show you that we don’t really know what the fans will like, you never can tell what people will enjoy. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think other people would as much!
SPREADING BLACK WINGS
Next would be ‘Spreading Black Wings‘, it’s kind of a very dark and very unique song for Arch Enemy in a way. It doesn’t feature any guitar solos, which is weird for an Arch Enemy song because we usually can’t stay away from that. But this one doesn’t have that, and it’s got a very dark and brooding feel. The lyrics are dedicated to LG Petrov who passed away during the time that we recorded the album. And I liked how the song ends as well, it’s all very cinematic. It’s got this beautiful, very dramatic ending to it.
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
I also really like ‘In The Eye Of The Storm‘, it’s very mid-tempo. It started around that groove and it’s just in a very mid-tempo sort of zone for us. It’s another one that we’ve been playing it live and it just works really, really well, it gets everybody in the mood.
HOUSE OF MIRRORS
Another favourite would be ‘House Of Mirrors‘, it’s just a really cool one and I just really like how that one came together. And it’s another one that features Alissa’s lyrics, I really like its lyrics. But also instrumentally, I really like that galloping feel. It’s got some really interesting parts in it, and it’s fun to play live as well.
Written by Michel Amott @michael_amott
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