Arch Enemy

Arch Enemy Lyrics (1)

Releases : 38     Total votes : 11     Reviews : 5

Added by Eagles Last edited by SludgeLeader

Founded by the Amott brothers after Michael Amott left Carcass. Originally with Johan Liiva as the singer, the band's debut entitled Black Earth was released by the now-defunct Swedish label Wrong Again Records in 1996. It obtained a fair amount of success in Japan, achieving MTV rotation with their first single "Bury Me an Angel", as well as moderate success in Sweden.

It is a common misconception that Johan Liiva played bass on Black Earth - it was in fact played by Michael Amott, who gave the credit to Liiva to make the album seem more like a band effort than a side-project (which is what Arch Enemy essentially was at the time). The band signed a contract with Century Media Records for the release of Stigmata in 1998. This was the first Arch Enemy album to be released worldwide and it caught the attention of a wider audience, gaining popularity in both Europe and America.

In November 2000, Johan Liiva was sacked as the vocalist with the cited reasons being "a failure to perform adequately live". Angela Gossow, originally from Germany, replaced Liiva as a vocalist. The first album featuring Gossow was Wages of Sin, released in 2001. This is also the first album where the band used C tuning, which they have kept until the present. That same year, Arch Enemy took part in the "Japan's Beast Feast 2002" concert, playing alongside Slayer and Motörhead.

Christopher Amott left the band on good terms after finishing Doomsday Machine to return to college. After Gus G. filled in on their Ozzfest tour dates, Fredrik Åkesson stepped in to take on full-time guitar duties, but ended up never featured on a recording session as Christopher rejoined in March 2007. On March 3rd, 2012, after the release of Khaos Legions, it was announced on the band's Facebook page that Christopher Amott had once again departed from the band. He was replaced by Nick Cordle from Arsis.

Alissa White-Gluz from The Agonist replaced Angela Gossow as a singer in 2013, although the announcement wasn't made until early 2014. Later in 2014, Nick Cordle left and was replaced by Jeff Loomis.

Michael Amott, Christopher Amott, Johan Liiva, Daniel Erlandsson, and Sharlee D'Angelo reunited in 2016 under the moniker of Black Earth for a sold-out Japan tour in May 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of both Arch Enemy and the release of their debut album, Black Earth. On this tour, they only performed songs from the band's first 3 albums Black Earth, Stigmata, and Burning Bridges, which was released in October 2017 as a CD/DVD package by Savage Messiah Music entitled 20 Years of Dark Insanity: Japan Tour 2016.

On November 23, 2025, the band issued a statement saying they have parted ways with Alissa White-Gluz. No further details were given for her departure. Lauren Hart was announced as her replacement on February 19, 2026.