May 5, 1998 - Stigmata

A month and a half after my last release and a year and a half since their debut "Black Earth", Arch Enemy released their second album "Stigmata" on May 5, 1998. These Swedes still play the same melodic death metal style as their debut, and they now have a full-time bassist in Martin Bengtsson. Let's see what Arch Enemy has to offer!

The album opens with "Beast Of Man" and the verse has some pretty fast, thrash-y guitars that sound nice and heavy and even Johan Liiva sounds alright shouting overtop. The chorus is slower and much simpler, but pretty catchy and both Michael and Christopher Amott sync up for some cool guitars. I think it's just one of them, but whoever delivers the back-to-back solos does a great job of shredding the first one, and then following up with another pretty epic solo right after. Solid album opener for sure! Up next is the short, instrumental title track "Stigmata" and one Amott brother sets the stage with some cool rhythm guitar before the other one starts to solo overtop. It's a pretty gnarly solo with some nice shredding at one point and for a little interludes this was pretty cool! It leads right into track 3 "Sinister Mephisto" which has a super fast opening before they settle into a slower but still epic and heavy main riff. Liiva sounds alright but he's still his usual self with his yell that isn't a scream and it just sounds like he's shouting at us! When they speed things up again between verses it sounds pretty awesome and the main riff is still solid. The guitar solo is long and Amott does a great job of matching the mood, wbile also squeezing in some moments of shred-y awesomeness. After this pretty sweet solo they return to the main riff for a predictable final verse and chorus that drags a bit at this point. The next track is "Dark Of The Sun" and it's got a nice and heavy, headbanging main riff but Liiva's vocals fall flat for me and kinda ruin things, which is sad because the guitars are solid as usual! That sums up this seven minute song pretty well: lots of cool guitars throughoutz but the vocals spoil it for most of it. The guitar solo is great not just because of the awesome guitar but because of the lack of vocals! Still a solid song, but it had the potential to be more. Track 5 is "Let The Killing Begin" and Bengtsson and Daniel Erlandsson briefly play a cool part of just bass and drums before the guitars and Liiva join in and things sound like typical Arch Enemy. The chorus is meh but the verse is decent and of course there's a pretty good guitar solo, this one with some nice melodic stuff by both guitarists before finishing with some nice fast stuff. Another pretty good, but still not amazing song. Up next is a rare instance of having the title track from the previous album make it onto the next album (like Led Zeppelin's "Houses Of The Holy") with "Black Earth". There's a long opening that's almost a minute long before they finally start up the main riff, and it's a pretty good one. Liiva even sounds alright on this one and the chorus is quite catchy with some cool guitar and some more decent yelling by Liiva. The solo is (unexpectedly) pretty sweet and it matches the mood perfectly and this is definitely one of the better songs on the album as it's pretty good at every point of it's six and a half minutes. There's another solo to close out the song that is also pretty epic and then they end the song on a nice note as well. Well done, but, how did this not make the last album?! Track 7 is "Tears Of The Dead" and it's got a heavy, chugging main riff which one Amott brother solos overtop of right out the gate to nice effect. Once Liiva begins the verse things drop off a little bit, but the music is still nice and heavy. There"@ a trio of solos midway though this one and they seem to get better and better, and the first one wasn't bad at all! Lots of coop guitar, but then Liiva returns for an average finish to the song. The next track is another shirt instrumental interlude called "Vox Stellarum" and it's almost all piano, a very unexpected turn (considering they have no keyboardist) but it sounds solid. The rest of the band briefly join in and make things heavier, but this is mostly a light piano solo that is a decent little interlude. Track 9 is the longest on the album at almost eight minutes and it's titled "Bridge Of Destiny". There's some epic opening guitar and the main riff is offbeat and pretty cool as well! Liiva's yells sound better (for him) and this is a pretty metal verse and chorus. The first guitar solo matches this mood perfectly and sounds pretty good as you'd expect and the end if it leads nicely back into the main riff. After another verse and chorus we hear a second, shorter solo before they switch to a slow but epic new riff that is very Iron Maiden-esque. It sets the stage beautifully for another guitar solo which is also slow and epic and this was another pretty good tune, especially for almost eight minutes long. Up next is yet another short, instrumental song, this one called "Hydra". It's 56 seconds of some space-y guitar that sounds pretty trippy, but it's pretty quick and fairly uneventful. Track 11 is "Diva Satanica" and it's got a thrash-y main riff that reminds me of some nice old Slayer. The chorus is alot slower and not nearly as good, but the verse is pretty sweet and filled with some cool guitars. The solo in the middle of the song is solid as you'd expect, but they rip out another solo right at the end of the song, and that one is a fuckin' banger! Phenomenal solo and great way to end another solid song. The final track on the album is "Damnation's Way" and it's got a pretty typical Arch Enemy main riff with some solid heavy guitars that are faster in the verse and slower in the chorus, all with Liiva yelling overtop in his meh voice. After a couple predictable goes through one Amott brother sets the stage with some cool rhythm guitar while the other solos overtop for pretty much the rest of the song! The chorus starts up again, but he just keeps going in a nice way to finish the album off.

That is the end of "Stigmata" and I thought it was a decent album with some pretty good metal music, but Arch Enemy continue to be held back by lead singer Johan Liiva. He's just not metal enough for the music that both Christopher and Michael Amott play, which is a lot of pretty heavy stuff. The guitars were definitely a great highlight throughout the album and I think this is even better then their debut album "Black Earth". But they could be so much more! Where will they go from here?