Arch BLOODY Enemy (and other re-recording crimes)

So here I am, sat in the dining room (which is also the repository for all my varied CDs) listening to the rather splendid Arch Enemy - Stigmata album. for those of you who don't have it, this is probably my favourite Arch Enemy album, full as it is of those wonderful classical music inspired guitar solos, ferocious near-thrash up-tempo moments and the vicious vocals of Johan Liiva. It's nicely produced, the songwriting was never bettered by the band, and truth be told, it could be released again tomorrow without sounding in the slightest dated.

Ah, but here is the rub. Michael Amott and chums (including the be-titted one herself, Mz Gossow) have decided that this incarnation of Arch Enemy just weren't up to scratch this time round, so with the proverbial dollar signs rolling around their eye-balls like some absurd 1970's Hanna-Barbera cartoon band, they're going to release some "re-recorded" versions of these tracks.

To recap then; the current line up of the band (who are, no doubt entertaining, but never the less couldn't seemingly write a track to match any on Stigmata if they were being held up at gunpoint) are going to re-record perfectly adequate songs. Huh ? Can anyone else see the point in this ? This current trend for rehashing old material is wearing just a little-fucking-thin. About a decade ago, most bands couldn't go more than six months without dropping a cover versions album, and just when that tedious little trend seems to have died down, they're all clambering over each other to wring as much cash from the same songs as they possibly can.

I mean, in the case of Arch Enemy, the re-recordings of classic cuts are almost certainly going to sound worse. Gossow isn't the worst vocalist out there, but she doesn't have half the vocal personality of the demented-sounding Liiva on these first three albums.

Occasionally, I can forgive this CD equivalent of self-abuse. Testament, on recording "First Strike Still Deadly" did manage to improve on the poor production of some of their original material significantly. In the main though, these albums come across as some mean-spirited attempt to re-write history in some kind of Stalinist version of heavy metal air-brush revisionism. Was there really any need to re-record the seminal Bonded in Blood ? We know the answer to that kids, don't we ? As for Anthrax and the utterly unpleasantly titled "The Greater of Two Evils", I'm just glad that they are experiencing the utter credibilty drought that they currently have. Wankers. a They may have well just shot a short video of John Bush defecating onto a vinyll copy of "Among the Living" and posted it onto YouTube.

Arch Enemy - The Root of All Evil ? More like the root of all that is flaccid, vapid and pointless. Oh, and Rise of the Tyrant was shit as well. Me ? I'd rather be listening to Hearse.

Cynical Metalhead