UMUR "Anthems of Rebellion" is the 5th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Arch Enemy. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2003. The album features the same lineup that recorded the preceeding album "Wages of Sin (2001)" but introduces producer Andy Sneap.

If you are familiar with Andy Sneap´s professional metallic sound productions, it´s no surprise how "Anthems of Rebellion" sound. But actually the sound on this album doesn´t differ much from the sound production on the Fredrik Nordström produced "Wages of Sin (2001)". And it´s the same with the songwriting and general sound and style of the music. The band still play melodic vers/chorus structured death metal. There´s an emphasis on melodic guitar leads and themes, a solid rythm section and the processed growling vocals by frontwoman Angela Gossow.

Out of the 13 tracks on the 43:26 minutes long album, only very few tracks stand out, so even though the songwriting is professional and streamlined, the tracks lack variation between them. The album is in dire need of more tracks like the "hit" "Dead Eyes See No Future", that I´m actually able to remember after the album ends. Also why make an album that sounds almost exactly like a carbon copy of the last album? If you´re gonna do that at least make damn sure that the carbon copy is either fully on par with the original or preferably better, which "Anthems of Rebellion" isn´t.

Overall there´s no denying that "Anthems of Rebellion" is a very professional sounding melodic death metal album and I´m sure fans of the genre will enjoy the album with fewer reservations than I have, but compared to the band´s preceeding releases this one simply lacks bite and an original sound. It sounds uninspired and calculated. And to top it off I have to endure almost 45 minutes of the soulless growling by Angela Gossow. She is not able to convince me of her vocal qualities on this album either.

"Anthems of Rebellion" comes off as a very "safe" album release by Arch Enemy, but as the sound production is professional, the songwriting ditto and as the musicianship are strong (except for the monotone vocals), I would probably be out of line calling this a bad album. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is therefore warranted.

adg211288 Anthems of Rebellion is the album that actually introduced me to extreme metal, mainly thanks to the guitar work of the Amott brothers, which left no doubts in my mind that they are both gods of the guitar. Back then when I was first hearing this I thought that it was the best thing since Metallica’s Master of Puppets, but looking back, I can’t really say that it’s a classic of the genre, with not many of its songs coming in the category of Arch Enemy must-hears, and with some moments of mediocrity (Exist to Exit, Despicable Heroes), it's hardly a masterpiece.

Beginning with one of the most ridicules ‘intro’ type tracks ever, Tear Down the Walls is 32 seconds of a slowly building riff and shouts of what sounds like ‘hey hey’ and that is all there is to it. This isn’t even a case of me thinking that the ‘intro’ track should just be a part of the first proper song, which in this case is Silent Wars, as there is a short pause between the two tracks. It doesn't flow at all. Totally pointless.

The best songs on Anthems of Rebellion are Silent Wars, Dead Eyes See No Future, Leader of the Rats and Dehumanization. These are the only four songs on Anthems of Rebellion that I’d actually call metal anthems, and certainly the only ones that I’d put into that Arch Enemy must-hears category I mentioned already. Instrumental Anthem is short and therefore doesn’t really have a chance to live up to its name. Silent Wars features some great riffs, with many changes so it doesn’t get boring and time changes here and there giving the song good credibility as one that best shows off the band’s skills as musicians. Dead Eyes See No Future has more of this amazing guitar skills and the drumming of Daniel Erlandson is well varied and not so just a continually blast beat and some other bands seem to love so much. There is melody as well as ripping lead solos and even an orchestrated section will a military style drum pattern played over the top, which makes for a well varied song. They manage not to make any of their riffs sound like the last one too and Angela Gossow is able to vary her growl so she doesn’t make every song sound the same. Dehumanization has a great drum intro and even some clean backing vocals in places which adds new outlets to an album even so close to its end. The piano used on this track also gives it a very haunting feel, making it unlike any of the other songs and therefore a standout for me.

Other songs such as We Will Rise, Instinct, End of the Line and Saints And Sinners are almost as good but are not among Anthems of Rebellion’s standouts. They still feature great playing, awesome vocals and good variety but the actual songs aren’t as good. Close, but no cigar.

The mediocre moments as already stated are Exist to Exit and Despicable Heroes. While they still have their moments they just don’t live up to the standard that the best of the album has set. Exist to Exit is the album’s longest track but is perhaps a bit too long (this coming from someone who likes long songs) because it just sounds too dragged out to me. The end for example of a long outro of random guitar squeals, which while it may appeal to fans of that sort of thing end up giving the song less credibility. Despicable Heroes on the other hand is under two and a half minutes in length and is actually the most brutal track on the album. Now I can hear them already, those shouts of: “What is he talking about, calling the most brutal song one of the weakest?” Well I can understand where they would be coming from but it just seems to me that all that the track is all speed and little melody. This is melodic death metal after all. It’s not awful and to be fair it does fit into the rest of the album but when put up against Silent Wars or Dehumanization this song has little to offer the listener.

Special mention however to the acoustic instrumental, Marching on a Dead End Road, proving that this sort of music isn’t always brutal and can succeed in throwing a track like this into what is otherwise a fast, heavy record.

Overall though I find that this album is missing that special something that makes a classic. Certainly it is an exceptional release, but it is my honest assumption that Arch Enemy can do better. They could have done much worse though.

Time Signature Saints and bangers...

Genre: melodic death metal

One of the things that I really like about Arch Enemy is their ecclectic approach and how you can find elements of death metal, thrash metal, traditional heavy metal, power metal, progressive metal and so on, not just on the same record, but often in the same song. I think this is as much a contributor to Arch Emeny's originality in sound as the focus on melody is.

Ecclectism and variation certainly characterizes the mighty "Anthems of Rebellion". The first proper track, "Silent Wars" starts out as an old school thrasher, which constitutes its default athmosphere, but it contains elements from power metal and progressive metal alike. The following track, the hit "Rise" is a midtempo track, which reminds me of both Depeche Mode and Anthrax' "Only". And the rest of the album continues down the road of variation, incorporating elements from all of the metal landscape, and sometimes beyond. But, we are not dealing with a band that hasn't found its style, we are dealing with a band where ecceltcism IS its style.

I think this album will appeal to fans of many different subgenres within the heavy metal world (and probably be shunned by purists).