Simon Rushworth
Arch Enemy, Sonisphere UK Main Stage, July 10 2011
Arch Enemy might not have been granted the best time to pervade some tracks from their new record Khaos Legions in true militaristic fashion, but that had no bearing on what Angela Gossow and the Swedish metallers would do to entertain this early afternoon crowd.
Battle-scarred, beaten but relentless, Arch Enemy craft a sound that embodies an eternal uphill struggle represented with an uplifting tone of chorus’ with a huge melodic edge. It’s perfect to begin your final day of band-seeing through the treacherous extremity of weather changes.
Gossow understood that it was all too early to expect a mass chaos of mosh pits, but nevertheless rallied her crowd to action. Choices in the set-list were clever, making this a relatively charismatic performance and a one that would nicely set up the many Sonisphere metal-heads in anticipation for what was to be arguably the richest day of metal talent to be displayed in one hefty bulk.
Commencing with the culminating intro of Khaos Overture snapping suddenly into Yesterday Is Dead And Gone, Arch Enemy smashed through their tuneful solo work and riffing but briefly suffered in sound trouble – Gossow’s vocals paying the price. Fortunately this didn’t remain an issue and by Ravenous, the energy they mustered burst free and floursished especially with highlight track from their new album – No Gods, No Master.
The melodic Swedes made the wise decision of concluding their performance with popular video single We Will Rise from the impressive Anthems Of Rebellion record and Nemesis from 2005’s Doomsday Machine. Considering there was just 30-minutes distributed to them, Arch Enemy made a decent impression on us and set us up for what would prove to be a hectic, neck-swirling 12-hours of metal.
Calum Robson