So in comes the newest release from one of Sweden's most popular Death Metal bands, ARCH ENEMY. The band had taken a dramatic turn music-wise since their debut album "Wages Of Sin" with newly recruited vocalist Angela Gossow. Since her debut in the band, the music has been more focused on being more melodic than the band's previous albums with vocalist Johan Liiva. The band succeeded quite well with this new approach to making music and the sound just got heavier since then, as you can tell by listening to their 2003 release "Anthems Of Rebellion" which really showed great solos as well as aggressive drumming.

So now let's focus on the new album - ferociously titled "Doomsday Machine"

The album starts off with a melodious introduction entitled "Enter The Machine" which is just what you need to have your adrenaline pumping before the CD goes into full throttle with "Taking Back My Soul." Once the song kicks in, you can feel the aggression just pumping into your ears with heavy guitaring, fast drumming, short but great solos and of course, Angela's deadly shrieks and growls. All of which are enough to make you start headbanging and windmilling right from the start to finish without hardly catching a breath.

Now if you thought that was heavy, just wait to see (hear) what the next track has to offer. With not even 15 seconds into the song, everything is already happening at full blast without ever stopping until the melodic-ish chorus kicks in. "One for all, all for one. We are strong. We are one. One for all, all for one. We are one… NEMESIS." Right there you get reminded of the similar type of lyrics which were sung in the song "We Will Rise" from their previous album "Anthems Of Rebellion." This is not a bad thing at all though. It's a reminder that ARCH ENEMY can remain true to their roots, but also throw in something new as well so you, the listener won't get bored.

Next track is entitled "My Apocalypse", which throws in some doom metal elements and is a little slower than the other tracks on the album, but is still a great song because it's just a little different than usual, but never gets tiring or boring thanks to the great mid-song solo and the amazing chorus sung with Angela's amazing growling vocals"

The next song, entitled "Carry The Cross" starts off with a crazy fast solo-ish guitar riff, but then almost immediately slows down after that to almost match the Doom-ish sound of the previous track. It's a little slow, this one, but the chorus saves the song because it's faster than the rest of the song. They also did a nice job with the solo on this track too.

So that's 5 tracks and already I've out-headbanged myself, the rest of the album is just as good and is quite heavy. Especially the track “Machtkampf” with the catchy chorus and insane drumbeat. Another excellent song on “Doomsday Machine” is the instrumental “Hybrids Of Steel” which shows off the superior talent of the band’s guitarists. This album is already one of my all-time favorite albums of 2005. With so much going for them, I cannot picture ARCH ENEMY dying out anytime soon... Or anytime in the far future for that matter. "Doomsday Machine" is a great masterpiece. In only a few songs, it already surpasses "Anthems Of Rebellion". Pick this one up. It's cheap and it serves a great plate of Death Metal. (Online March 22, 2006)