Embrace the Mystery + 3

Armageddon (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Century Media
• ASIN: B0030ZOYSQ
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #368,433 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two hard-to-find melodic metal albums in one great reissue, March 4, 2010

By 

Justin Gaines (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Embrace the Mystery + 3 (Audio CD)

While Armageddon, the side project of Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott, started out as a melodic death metal band, the Swedish metal group turned towards a more traditional/power metal sound for their second and third albums.

Originally released in 2000, Embrace the Mystery was the band's second album, and was a stark departure from the melodic death metal style of 1997's Crossing the Rubicon. It is still a melodic album, but has more in common with bands like Tad Morose and Brainstorm. Last Tribe vocalist Rickard Bengtsson gives a killer performance, which further highlights these well-written and well-executed melodic metal songs.

2002's Three continues along the same lines, though vocals this time around are handled by Christopher Amott himself. He actually did a pretty impressive job, though I still prefer Bengtsson's performance on Embrace the Mystery. Three has something of a Queensryche vibe to me.

Previously available only in Japan and Korea, Embrace the Mystery and Three have been reissued in a 2-disc set by Century Media. The set features expanded liner notes by Christopher Amott and each disc has a few bonus tracks.

The bonus tracks on Embrace the Mystery are instrumental rehearsal demos of "Worlds Apart" and "The Broken Spell" as well as a cover of Iron Maiden's "Die With Your Boots On" that features original Armageddon vocalist Jonas Nyren on vocals.

The bonus tracks on Three are demos of "Winter Skies" and "Sands of Time" as well as a cover of Mercyful Fate's "Desecration of Souls" that features Tobias Nilsson on vocals.

If you're only interested in Armageddon's death metal sound, this set is not for you. If you're a fan of high quality melodic metal (think Tad Morose, Last Tribe, Brainstorm, Starbreaker and Jorn), you'll want to check out Armageddon's later albums, especially now that they are more available and affordable. Hopefully a reissue of Crossing the Rubicon won't be too far behind.