Customer Reviews

Three

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ARMAGEDDON is ARCH ENEMY's Christopher Amott & Daniel Erlandsson with other various members on each of their three albums. This time we are down to a three piece (with Christopher singing for the first time!). Admittedly, I was a little worried about equalling the quality of the excellent last release (Embrace The Mystery). But what I heard when I played the CD for the first time blew me away! Chris just wails on guitar better than ever, and the vocals are also better than I had expected. He sings more like the guy on the last album with no attempted growls, and fits in well with the material. Don't get me wrong, I love Death Metal vocals too (as on their first album), but I tend to prefer this style with Armageddon's heavy melodic music. You also get what you have come to expect from Daniel on drums - awesome skill and interesting play that always fits the song perfectly! To sum it up, any fan of ARCH ENEMY that also enjoys clean vocals would be sorry not to pay the extra $$ and pick this up. Highly recommended!

What a difference a few years can make! My previous exposure to Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott's side project Armageddon was their 1997 debut album Crossing the Rubicon, so I went into their appropriately-titled third album Three expecting another blast of melodic death metal. Well, Three is still very much a melodic metal album, but there's nothing "death" about Armageddon at this point. I haven't heard the band's second album yet, so I don't know if this change was gradual or sudden, but the difference in styles between Crossing the Rubicon and Three is stark.

At some point Armageddon went from a melodic death metal album to a melodic, not-quite-progressive, not-quite-power metal band. As much as I enjoyed Crossing the Rubicon, I think the band suits the latter style quite well. It reminds me a bit of Brainstorm, Last Tribe and fellow Swedes Tad Morose, but what strikes me the most about Three is that it's what Queensryche would have sounded like later in their career had they not lost their way.

Amott's powerful guitar solos are still present, and they seem better suited to this kind of music. Another key characteristic of Three is the nice use of clean midrange vocals throughout, which really changes the nature of Armageddon's sound. The songwriting is also first rate. It's just a very compelling, very engaging melodic metal album from start to finish.

If you're only interested in Armageddon's death metal sound, Three is definitely not for you. If you're a fan of high quality melodic metal though, this album has a lot to offer. Unfortunately it's not very easy to track down, and commands a fairly hefty price tag.

As you may guessed, "Three" is Armageddon's third album. Armageddon is Christopher Amott's solo project, along with his Arch Enemy buddy, Daniel Erlandsson in drums, and Tobias Gustafson in bass. In this album, Chris takes charge of the vocals. That's right! He sings. He does a good job, cosidering that this is his first experience as a singer. He sounds too similar, with no variations all over the album but, hey!, he's forgiven!.
In "Three" you will find a different Armageddon, as usual, quite different from his previous albums. The album sounds more like his first album, "Crossing the Rubicon", than his second, "Embrace The Mystery". "Crossing..." is more death metal, with extreme vocals, and "Embrace..." more epic and classical metal, "a la Malmsteen". In this case, the album has influences from hard rock and heavy metal from the 80's, and maybe 70's; rockier, in general, and also melodic; Armageddon is really different from Arch Enemy. The album has the same format as "Embrace...": 10 songs total, including an intro, a semi-ballad, and an instrumental. It starts quite energetic, with a fast song such as "Burn The Sun"; some of the high points of the album are: "Burn The Sun", "Final Destination", Winter Skies" and "The Contract" (a melodic gem!)...

Well, I can't say which Armageddon album I like more, 'cause thay are all different, and that's why the band stands out for:
doing something different release after release...

I found this cd is the perfect mix between trash or even death-metal and classic melodic rock. Think about 80's trash (e.g. early Metallica) and classic melodic rock (Rainbow, Whitesnake). The vocals are superb and make me prefer this cd over their last Embrace the mystery. Just get it, you won't be disappointed !!