ALBUM REVIEW: Blood Dynasty – Arch Enemy
Time to get your biggest, stompiest boots on – ARCH ENEMY are back. With three decades under their belt and having crushed their way through eleven studio releases with various superstar personnel the band return with Blood Dynasty; the melodic death metal batting plate that they have claimed as fiercely as their contemporaries over the years primed for some violence from the home team.
The craftmanship is where the bat strikes flush here. Whistle-sharp production is the expected norm from ARCH ENEMY and Blood Dynasty is all over the minutiae expertly. Start to finish it just clicks, from the fists and fury of lead single and opener Dream Stealer to all the usual ARCH ENEMY curveballs and rhythmic shenanigans. All of the parts lock together with no wiggle into one solid block to beat you senseless. And that’s factoring in big time departures, too. New guitarist Joey Concepcion slots in like he’s been there for years, trading hammer blows and squeals with ringleader Michael Amott and doing an admirable first job filling the daunting Jeff Loomis-shaped hole in the lineup. From a technical perspective, this is excellent work.
There’s clear effort being made – pre-empted by Amott in interviews – to add new elements and experiments, too. Alissa White-Gluz‘s howls of rage ring true, but her clean vocals on Illuminate The Path add dynamism that elevates the track to a clear standout. The band’s career-long flirtation with symphonic metal arrangements float through the title track to strangely anthemic effect between hurricane blasts, lending credit to the claim that the rulebook has gone out of the window a little on this release.
But the melophant in the room still paces its usual corner. It’s getting progressively difficult to ignore ARCH ENEMY’s reliance on the path overtrodden; a point not massively helped by a cover of Vivre Libre in slot nine on the main tracklist, either. Granted, the inclusion of the excellent ballad by French heavy metal outfit BLASPHEME will likely do wonders for the streaming numbers of a band who have been defunct for nearly forty years. But it will do absolutely zero to assuage lingering doubts about the cutting edge of ARCH ENEMY’s output, even with its clear role as part of the new playbook Amott alluded to.
Neither, to that end, will Liars & Thieves, a cutting room compilation of well-rehearsed points and counterpoints with all the fun scoured off. Nor will Don’t Look Down, a barebones bit of melodeath template filling that scratches the itch for thuggery and nothing else. Barring the aforementioned Illuminate The Path, the excitement for any replayability throughout can be measured in moments rather than minutes even with the new additions. Which, given what we have been treated to before, leaves Blood Dynasty in a position to be easily overlooked as time goes on.
For all of that, Blood Dynasty is still as heavy as you like and feels every bit of an ARCH ENEMY album for better or worse. Any experimentation or boundary pushing present, however, feels pegged back by two steps worth of noticeable same-old. Which, for its lessening forgivability, is still fantastic music by a band who know their way around the fundamentals of the genre better than most. The fans needn’t worry too much; stale still feels like a harsh word here. But the longer you spend roaring up to the signs on the highway, the larger they get.
Rating: 7/10
Blood Dynasty is out now via Century Media Records.
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