You can't possibly be in a Metal band and expect to make it (or even continue to make it) without putting in a ton of hard work and getting out there and promoting your music. There's just no way. Sweden's ARCH ENEMY know the drill well. In the last two years, not only have they released another successful album, "Doomsday Machine", they've jumped head first into an extensive multi-continental touring run (including a spot on last year's Ozzfest), which has taken the band from big to bigger. And while they venture across the U.S. and Canada on the current Jägermeister-sponsored tour with CHIMAIRA, HATE ETERNAL and GOD FORBID, more travels await them, including a two-date Mexican jaunt and a whack of more dates planned for the coming summer months. Ah yes, touring around the world, playing in front of screaming fans every night, getting less-than-ample sleep, spending endless hours driving from city to city, eating lots of Swedish cookies... it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, and as guitarist/mainman Michael Amott explains, it's the best job in the world - and they're loving every minute of it.

It's been almost a year and a half since you were last in Vancouver.

Yeah, I know. Immediately when we were here the first time with CRADLE (OF FILTH) we though, 'We've got to get back here as soon as possible. But then, you know, it just took time. We made a new record ("Doomsday Machine")... yeah we did all kinds of stuff. So now it's great to be back.

The one thing that was a real rip-off the last time was that you guys only got a 30-minute set.

So it was HIMSA then us. HIMSA opened all those shows. We were to switch in the middle there with BLEEDING THROUGH. Ah, what are you doing to do? It wasn't our tour so... But we're doing a bit of flip-flopping on this tour as well with CHIMAIRA, but we're headlining - or closing I should say - all the Canadian shows. The deal is that us and CHIMAIRA do one hour each. So it's worked out pretty good. We have a really good set together. It's getting pretty good... good reactions.

How has the tour been thus far?

Oh excellent, excellent! We've done about eight shows so far. Excellent... just killer shows all the way through. Maybe it will take a nose-dive today, but I don't know... no (laughs). But we're excited; we're having a lot of fun being back out on the road again. We had a couple of months off at home. Well, I wouldn't say "off"; we did a whole bunch of stuff. We worked a lot but weren't actually on the road touring, so now it feels great to be back out here playing live again.

Well, the hour-long set will allow you to play a lot more material.

Yeah, but we actually headlined quite a lot last autumn. We did a whole bunch of headlining stuff all around. We were in the U.S. a bit; we were in Europe, Japan, Australia - and we were playing around 90-100 minutes. So that was the whole filled deal. This is kind of in between (laughs). This is kind of in between opening up and being a headliner. So it's some kind of compromise, but it's a good show.

You've been over here in North America quite a bit in the last two years.

Yeah and we've found that people have an appreciation for what we do up here. It's worth coming back here, you know. The Metal scene is pretty strong.

You guys were at last year's Ozzfest, and again you only had a half-hour set. I think that probably boosted people's interest more.

Definitely. I mean, I've had a lot of bands say that it didn't do that much for their career or whatever you want to call it, or their album sales. But for us it definitely made a big difference. We got a lot out of it and started making a lot of new fans.

What would you say is your favorite state, city or venue to play in the U.S.?

(pauses for about 8 seconds) I like all of it, but just from a purely egotistical point of view I kind of like California because it's nice and warm (laughs). It's different; I can wear shorts and stuff. I really don't get to do that much at home in Sweden. Like when you get out here it's more like Sweden, or when you're on the east side it can be pretty cold too. I like it when it's warm, you know. It kind of feels like I'm on holiday; palm trees and stuff - it's cool.

What about Canada?

That's like a whole different story. That's kind of a lot more intense.

Quebec loves you guys.

Yeah, I know. We've had some great shows - Toronto, Montreal - over on that side in Quebec. Then when we played with CRADLE OF FILTH, you know Edmonton. Calgary, here in Vancouver - we just have amazing shows. So yeah... Canada just seems to be this real crazy place for Metal. That's what everybody says.

That's true. Can you tell me what we can expect from the next ARCH ENEMY album?

Well, we're going to be touring a lot for this record still, so it's not that sort of imminent. But we're writing a lot of material; nothing with vocals so far and nothing with full arrangements like that. I think we've got four or five songs that are kind of put together that are like done that we're really happy with. Then there's hours of music that's just floating around; well it's not floating around, it's actually on that kind of hard drive. We're recording on the road; we sit here and just record our ideas. Daniel (Erlandson) our drummer is really into the engineering part of it now, so we're recording with ProTools onto his laptop and then basically he programs some drum machine and we can mess around with arrangements and all kinds of stuff. So, I can't really say what direction... I mean it's just going all over the place right now (laughs). We've got stuff that's like that and like this and it's pretty crazy. I think it's going to be very musical actually. We're going to try and cram in as much music as possible in one and just have everybody going off. Yeah, I think we're just going to try and be a bit more crazy. I don't know. We went a little bit more that way on "Doomsday Machine". I think there's a lot of cool instrumental stuff. We don't really care that much anymore. I think we've just become a bit sort of... we're not really that content with what people are going to think about it. I think we have a kind of a signature sound now in a way. We feel pretty secure. There's a lot of confidence in this band right now - musically. That's all I can come up with (laughs). I can't really tell you what it's going to be like.

You mentioned instrumentals on "Doomsday Machine". "Enter The Machine" is a great build for "Taking Back My Soul", then onto "Nemesis". You have your own sound.

We just enjoy playing music so much and everybody's into a lot of different stuff. We dig quite deep into what we're in to. We're not really influenced to a very narrow sort of thing. There's a lot of weird names and references that can pop up when we're writing and recording. I think that's what gives us a bit of maybe a little bit more... you know we don't listen to a lot of current stuff. You know, there are a lot of references to a lot of the guitar solo parts - like old SCORPIONS, ACCEPT - a lot of stuff like that; classic Heavy Metal like JUDAS PRIEST and stuff like that.

The old school.

Yeah, I like that. But that's all I do with ARCH ENEMY is to mix that old school with the aggressive, extreme Metal edge. I don't really want to dilute the sound of the band. There's a sound that's very popular right now and we don't really want to be a part of that. I mean, we tour with a lot bands that are a part of it; like Ozzfest was full of bands that were very much the same.

Metalcore.

Yeah. I like some of those bands. Everyone I've met has been a nice guy. I think we have a very European sound. We're not a European band trying to be an American band; we're a European band from the start that happens to have a kind of a building to follow. We're in the U.S. and Canada, which is great. We want to be an international act, you know. We want to play everywhere. We don't really zone in on like "We've got to break the U.S. market and we've got to have a song like this to get on the radio." That's not our frame of mind; that's not how we think. It's more like people come to us. I think ARCH ENEMY is an acquired taste, you know. It's not really everybody's cup of tea (laughs). You know with the extreme vocals and some people can't handle that and then some people say it's got too much guitar wanking or whatever, you know, and stuff like that. But you know, it's like, this is the kind of Metal that we want to hear, and we love playing it. So it's all good (laughs).

Speaking about the vocals, Angela has a unique voice - a good one at that - but really when you look at all the Death Metal and Black Metal bands, the vocal style is really not that different. It's extreme; it's powerful; it's growling, grunting, high-pitched screams. All those elements are in Death Metal. Look at CANNIBAL CORPSE - George "Corpsegriner" Fisher does all that. So I think maybe that people are used to that. Do you really think that ARCH ENEMY's music is an acquired taste?

Well, we don't have the clean-sing choruses like "I'm falling through you" or whatever - you know kind of a boy band type chorus and then to a bit of screaming again. That seems to be the thing - that's the sound right now. And you know, whatever is going on on the guitar, so that seems to be a big hit right. But that's not Metal to me; it doesn't count. (laughs)"

You mentioned that you're going to still be doing quite a bit of extensive touring for the album.

Yeah, yeah we are. This is kind of the middle right now. We're not towards the end of the touring cycle. We're doing this, which is a lot of fun, then we're going to play in Europe this summer. We're going to spend doing what we didn't do last year because we did Ozzfest - we're going to do all these festivals. I think we're doing 13, 14 of these European festivals, all spread out all over summer. So it's going to be chaotic. Some are flying in and out of European airports and stuff. But going to be fun as well. You reach a lot of people doing those. I mean, some of those festivals are huge as you know.

And you're heading to Mexico.

Right after this. That's going to be so much fun. It's going to be warmer than here (laughs).

What are you comments on the Mexican tour dates?

Well, we've never been there with ARCH ENEMY, we're looking forward to it. I mean, finally! Hopefully they'll show up now. They've been nagging us forever (laughs). "You've gotta come!" in e-mail; and you know, people can always contact the band and MySpace or that stuff. It's been a constant avalanche people trying to get us to come to Mexico, and South American for that matter, which we still haven't been to yet. So going to Mexico is going to be... I'm hoping it's going to be really intense, so I'm looking forward to it.

Do you think the shows will be packed?

I heard the pre-sales are good, so hopefully. It's not Mexico if it's not packed. Do you know what I mean? (laughs).

Mexican metalheads are real die-hards.

Yeah. We've waited so long to go down there, you know. I think now the time is right. People really want to see it themselves.

That will be good for you guys.

Yeah, we're excited.

You have a new DVD coming out as well.

Yeah, we do. It's a killer DVD. We put a lot of work into it. I think it stands up against any major DVD that I've seen. I collect lots of DVDs - I have tons of music DVDs. This isn't your underground Metal act putting out a DVD; this is top of the line, so. It's definitely got killer sound; it's got fantastic visuals; very high quality; the editing is perfect. It's something to be proud of. It's one of the best things we've ever done as a band, I think. It's going to be two discs. It's got some interviews on there, which is awesome so they get to know the band a little bit - some one-on-one interviews. There's also select stuff about our equipment - stuff for the gear freaks, and all our videos that we've done. We've concentrated on the sort of Angela-era, or whatever you want to call it. We've got other plans for maybe the old stuff. But that's what people know, so. We've got stuff from the "Wages Of Sin" album on there; it's got all that. It's got stuff like 'home footage', or whatever you want to call that stuff that we filmed. That's what people expect nowadays; I mean that's what I expect. If you're getting a great concert DVD and there are no extras you can't... like the JUDAS PRIEST one ("Rising In The East"). I haven't seen it, but apparently it's extremely good; well-shot, sounds great, but then there are no extras on it so people give it not such a high grade. So people obviously want more so we're giving them more. So it's two discs with quite a lot of stuff on it. I think that will be pleasing to a lot of fans because it'll be our first-ever DVD, and ARCH ENEMY being quite a visual band in many ways, it will be interesting for the fans to see. It's a cool thing for the fans that have seen us live, but it's also VERY cool for the people that maybe never will see us live. We put a lot of work into our studio albums and we wanted the DVD to be at the same standard; that people can expect the highest quality sound production, just killer sound, and a good visual representation of the band. I think that's important. We put a lot of money into it. It's called "Live Apocalypse" - very original (laughs).

The concert portion was filmed in Britain.

Yeah. There are two parts for the concert. The one is actually Chris' (Amott - ex-guitarist) last-ever show with the band, which gives it a bit of an historic value without us really knowing about it at the time though. It was his last performance with the band. That was a great show. That's the big one that was filmed at the Forum in London. I was a sold out show - over 2000 plus. That's quite a long concert - lots of songs. There are three songs that we did more recently that's got Fredrik (Akesson), our new guitar player, as well that we shot in Manchester actually. It's got three songs from the new album; it's got "Nemesis", "Skeleton Dance" and "My Apocalypse". So people will get to see some newer stuff as well - bring it up to date a bit. That turned out really cool.

How is Fredrik fitting in?

He's a really, really good guitar player and he's also a very, very laid-back person, you know. We have enough colorful personalities in this business (laughs). He's one of those guys is kind of the glue and that makes it all stick. He doesn't create any drama or anything. So he's exactly what we needed - and who wants to be in one band; do this 100%. There are a lot of great musicians out there but they don’t really want to spend most of their life on tour or dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to one thing, you know.

Yeah, it can be a tough life.

Yeah, I mean it's not for everybody. I think we found the right guy.

How is Christopher doing?

He's doing well; he's at home. He's got a job working as a guitar teacher in a music school for younger kids. He's been doing that for a while and I think after the summer he's going to do some studies of his own.

Yeah, he mentioned that he wanted to go back to school and do some studying.

Yeah that's right.

Do you think he'll ever return to the band?

I don't think so, no. I mean, it was hugely upsetting for me because he's my brother and you know, he was there from day one. I always perceived the band that it would be us two. It was a shock and I very upset, because you know I'm so focused on ARCH ENEMY. It's my life! I don't really consider that people will ever want to leave the band (laughs). I'm so into it. But it did happen; and then we went on tour and we actually borrowed a Greek guitar player, Gus.

Gus G.

Yeah, we had him fill in for us. I was like "It kind of still sounds like ARCH ENEMY; it's working out; it's still fun." Then I could see that we can actually move forward without Chris, because when you've been playing in a guitar team for almost 10 years, it's hard to sort of imagine it not being those guys. With Fredrick it's even better, you know. We know he's going to be permanent and stay here. We're writing with him. It's fun. And he actually really, really wants to do it. He's really enthusiastic about being in ARCH ENEMY. It's kind of the opportunity that he's been dreaming of for a long time - to be a part of a sort of "established" Metal band and have a career in music. That's what he's wanted to do for a very long time. With my brother, Chris, he came straight from living with our parents and going to school, then playing with his big brother and touring the world and getting guitar endorsements. He was just kind of thrown into it, you know what I mean? He didn't really have to sort of yearn for it or anything, you know. I think he kind of got burned out on it. But he's still playing guitar; he's a fantastic guitar player. He's going to continue with music in some shape or form. I don't think he's quite figured out what he's going to do, what his next move is going to be.

It's in the Amott blood.

(laughs) Yeah, probably.

Well, I'm glad to hear Christopher is doing well.

Yeah, he is. We hang out with him and even Fredrik has gotten to know him as well. When he comes down to rehearsal, he'll hang out with Chris. It's not the "bad blood"; you know like the SEPULTURA thing, which was real publicized with the two brothers not speaking. It's not like that. We're all cool, you know. I mean, it was upsetting but now it's calmed down.

Maybe one day we'll see the triple-axe attack in ARCH ENEMY.

We could be like IRON MAIDEN. You know, never say never. This is a pretty interesting business that we're in. When Chris left the band, it was a big shake-up in the band where you kind of start thinking, "What does this band mean to me?" or "If somebody is leaving, does that mean that I shouldn't be doing this anymore?" But then after a few weeks we said, "This is what we do; we love doing this, we love playing this music; we want to keep doing it." Just because somebody has gotten tired of it, it doesn't mean we should throw it out. We're just retarded. We just love playing this Metal music. I have failed very badly at developing any other interest throughout the years, you know. I'm still very focused on guitars, Metal... (laughs). It's pretty sad (laughs). I just love it you know. I've imagined what it would be like to do another job, to go back. I can't even go back because I never did a normal real thing. I've been very fortunate in the career that I've had. I've been able to, for the most part, make a living doing what I love doing - playing guitar. And I say "fortunate" because I know so many musicians that are so great but have never really had the opportunity to, for various reasons. Maybe they're playing a style of music that's not "hip" in the Metal scene or just can't get it together, or haven't got the right opportunities. It's not only that; you've got to work hard as well. You have to be very focused if you want to make something out of it. If you've got something that people want to hear, you can't just take it easy; then you've got to go out there and work it, you know. Fortunately, we love touring; we love being out here playing; we love interacting with the fans; we love putting out new records. I think a lot of bands are lazy like that. They do one tour over here and one tour in Europe, maybe go to Japan, then they stay home for a year. Maybe then they start writing. We're like a never-ending... I don't know... nightmare (laughs). We just keep going on and on. You know, we'll stop touring on the Friday and then we'll start pre-production for the new album on the Monday. That's how intense it's been in the last few years.

I remember the last time you told me that as soon as you got home you would get right to work.

Oh we got busy, because we had that Ozzfest coming up; that was confirmed that we were going to do that. The pressure was kind of on to make a new record - to drop this album before Ozzfest. We worked around the clock - 19/20 hour days on that record for like three months. We rehearsed every day for 36 days to put the record together. But I don't really want to work like that anymore. That's why we're do far ahead of the game right now because we're writing on the road, and when we've been home we’ve been writing a lot as well. So we've got this massive volume of music now. It's going to be great to go to that and just like pull stuff out and go "Oh yeah!", and then just sort of flush it out - you know have fun with it rather than just be like, "Ah, we need three more songs." Somehow inspiration just has to drop on you from somewhere. And I don't really want to make a workman-like record; I want it to be brilliant; I want it to be out of this world - just Metal magic, you know. I think you can't really force that kind of stuff. [FIN]