The Root Of All Evil

I preface this by saying this is all my opinion, and I'm sure there are people who disagree, especially w/regards to Liiva's vocals. I love Arch Enemy... except for the first 3 albums. Nothing to do with the guitars, drums, bass or lyrics. It's the vocals. Johan Liiva's vocals. I can't stand them, plain and simple. There's no life or energy in them, those elements being what I love most about Angela Gossow's vocals. There are some new riffs and twists on the songs, but basically, they've given the songs Liiva ruined a new life. I highly recommend it! :)

I bought this album because I like the old material and really like new more profestion style recordings which is exactally what it is. So if your into that kind thing would higly recomend. From interviews withj Amott he was say that this will bring aboutr older material in there sets which is always good. Another point is that it probably took them very little effort to do even if you haven't played a song in ages you just pick it up so not really a waste of time. However in the interview at bloodstock they mentioned that they were already writting again so looking forward to it!!

Ok, lets keep this simple kids, there's no point arguing over whether or nor root of all evil is good or bad. how you're going to like this album depends squarely on which Arch Enemy singer is your personal favourite. If you're into Angela and her sandblasting death metal voice, then you'll probably like this a lot, as some of us are of the opinion that the song-writing was a bit better on the older albums. Likewise, if you thought Johan was a crap vocalist there's a good chance you too will enjoy Root of All Evil. However, if you liked Johan's approach then be prepared, as Angela's atonal roaring has none of the desperaion or emotion Johan had. As such, i think it's really impossble to say whether or not this is a good album, and how you like it will be totally subjective. It's really that simple, because in terms of the songs themselves there's hardly any difference performance-wise between the originals and the re-recordings. Although some songs seem a bit slower to me (e.g silver wing) but it could just be me. The more modern sounding production is the only real difference (maybe the rhythm guitars in are a bit higher in the mix then the originals), but its pretty negligiable. Again, its a subjective thing that I can't say is good or bad. It depends on where you stand in relation to the band, and if you've already got the originals you're probably better off sticking with them unless you really want to hear Angela on the old tracks. So there you have it. If you're an Angela-phile you might like to add a star or two, and if you're a Johan-lover then you might want to take away a star or two.

what we have here is second vocalist Angela and the merry men wrecking their own great tunes the originals are far superior to these re hashed versions, where in all honesty the guitars are toned down, the pace is sucked out of a couple of songs (bury me an angel being particularly slower) and all they really do is serve to show how one dimensional Angelas vocals are. if these songs were added as b-sides or a bonus disc then game on, as a stand alone album it just seems a little lazy.

I'm a bit of a latecomer to the whole Arch Enemy thing and haven't heard any of the Johan Liiva stuff (can't say I can be bothered to either), so I can't compare this CD to the old stuff. But I reckon this is a decent enough album for new kids like me. Not brilliant but definitely not worthy of just one star. I would suggest that Doomsday Machine is a 5 Star album and Rise of the Tyrant is a solid 4 Star. The Root Of All Evil is not as good as either of them and so I reckon 3 Stars is fair enough. So there you go. I'm sure Angela & Co will be over the moon with my verdict.

Rehash of songs from the first three Arch Enemy cds i.e. before Angela Gossow. Arch Enemy are a great band but I feel that this cd is a waste of effort that could have been better spent on writing and recording new material. These songs are part of their history, I don't need to have Angela prove to me that she could sing them. I would have believed her! This would have made sense as a free cd with a proper album. As it is it is a pointles exercise.