ARCH ENEMY To Film London Gig For Upcoming DVD

ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott recently spoke to MetalEater.com about the group's recent tour with CRADLE OF FILTH, their "Dead Eyes See No Future" EP and the upcoming studio album, among other topics. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

MetalEater.com: What's your overall take on the current metal scene?

Michael Amott: "Well, there's a lot of stuff that's called 'metal' that I wouldn't really necessarily consider metal music. Coming from where I come from, with the roots I have — I think a lot of bands — their roots don't stretch further than maybe like PANTERA or something like mid-'90s type stuff. Metal for me is more like JUDAS PRIEST. Growing up, I listened to a lot of SLAYER, old METALLICA, MEGADETH — bands like that. Those bands kind of embrace the older type of metal. So, we kind of try to follow in that tradition. We're not doing anything new, but we're doing it better than most people like us. We just try to write good songs within that extreme metal format — the most extreme metal guitar harmonies — a lot of more traditional song writing, I guess. But it's definitely extreme metal. I wouldn't call what we do death metal. There are a lot of bands - more bands than ever - but I think that a lot of bands aren't necessarily that original. There's a lot of stuff that sounds the same."

MetalEater.com: When can we expect a new ARCH ENEMY album?

Michael Amott: "We're actually talking about recording a new album in March. We'll see if we can keep that deadline. I don't know if we'll stick to that, but that would be great. That's what we're talking about. And then I don't know — hopefully get it out during the summer — or early summer. A lot of things are going to need to go the right way for us to meet those deadliness, so we're just hoping that nothing goes wrong, which they probably will (laughs). We've been trying to write something on the road and we've got a bunch of stuff ready as well — songs that are in the can — like 5 or 6. So, it should be possible to pull it together. It'll be fun."

MetalEater.com: What can we expect from the new album? Is it going to be much of the same sound?

Michael Amott: "Hopefully more extreme. I just don't want to.... (Angela interjects: More extreme!) More extreme. I don't know. We just want to keep it more of a real high energy level. A lot of bands try to widen their appeal by changing their music. We'd just rather work real hard at what we do and do what we do without really compromising the integrity of the music, which I think you see a lot. We don't really want to get into that. We just want to keep it real edgy. We're quite comfortable with staying on the extreme side of the fence. (Angela laughs)."

MetalEater.com: After the tour is over, what are your plans?

Michael Amott: "Well, our plan is actually to go to London in the U.K. right after the last show of this tour. We're supposed to shoot a DVD. We're doing a big show in London with DARK TRANQUILLITY, THE HAUNTED, and NIGHTRAGE. There are three bands opening up. So it's all four Swedish bands and we'll be headlining. We're doing a longer set and we're shooting that for a DVD. There's that, and then obviously all the stuff you have to deal with in putting a DVD together — in the New Year. I guess in early January we're going to start rehearsing for the new album and do some pre-production for that. So it's basically what we did last time from the 'Wages of Sin' album to 'Anthems of Rebellion'. We stopped touring on the Friday and we started pre-production on the Monday (laughs). That's what happened on that album. It looks like it's going to be pretty much the same thing. We're going to have Christmas and New Year's off at home with our families."

Read Micheal Amott's entire interview with MetalEater.com at this location.