Melodeathers Arch Enemy from Sweden have been around for a long time, but experienced a new popularity high with their critically acclaimed album War Eternal back in 2014. After three years and more or less constant touring, they released their newest longplayer, Will To Power, on 8th of September.
Will To Power starts off with an instrumental intro piece called Set Flame To The Night, which sound-wise is a typical Arch Enemy song and could have been found also on War Eternal. The song fades out towards the end, before a more brutal The Race takes over. The grunts, as well as the more powerful sound that are not a copy/paste from War Eternal, make it one of the best and innovative songs on the album. Next up is Blood In The Water, a War Eternal (the song) clone – quite good track, but nothing too innovative. Same holds true for the fourth song and the first single of the album, The World Is Yours. Way better, because in my opinion a bit more innovative, is the second single, The Eagle Flies Alone. It’s a midtempo track, interspersed with slow, ballad elements. This also sets the tone for the album’s slowest song, entitled Reason To Believe. While Alissa uses clean vocals in the verses, the chorus is still heavy – and doesn’t really fit in. Murder Scene has a Children of Bodom vibe to it, while First Day In Hell is another War Eternal clone. After another instrumental interlude, the remainder of three tracks are once again more standard Arch Enemy songs, even though A Fight I Must Win, the album’s final track, comes with more pathos than usual.
In conclusion: Arch Enemy deliver a solid album, but fail most of the time to show any type of evolution. Still, we can find a couple of good tracks on Will To Power, like The Eagle Flies Alone and the heavier The Race, so give it a go! 8/10.
Check our live review of Arch Enemy’s gig together with Amorphis and Nightwish here and our review of their live album As The Stages Burn! here.
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