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 for
one 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 UK
icons 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-melodic
guitar 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,
Release Date: March 28th, 2025
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, and
since 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 same
thing, but in slightly different ways!” says Amott. “There’s a degree of familiarity in our sound, which I
don’t see as a problem because we’re playing the music we love. But obviously we’ve got to throw a
couple of curveballs in there each time, a few new interesting things to spice it up a little bit. How do
you 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. So
there’s a song, ‘Illuminate The Path’, that has some clean sung vocals in the chorus, which is unusual
for us. We’ve incorporated Alissa’s clean vocals before, but it’s been in a bridge section or something
like that. So this is a different approach. There is also a cover song, ‘Vivre Libre’, which is a French
hard 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 we
heard 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 the
controls. 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, almost
30 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 whole
atmosphere 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 of
heaviness 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 them
in their lives, and that’s just really amazing to hear. It’s a responsibility, in a way, to keep delivering
high 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.”