Arch Enemy admit they had doubts about continuing as a band following the exit of lead singer Angela Gossow in 2014.
Guitarist Michael Amott and drummer Daniel Erlandsson revisit the time in a new video interview with Metal Hammer marking 10 years of their War Eternal album.
Erlandsson says that the news of Gossow’s move from vocalist to manager of the band sparked a meeting where they asked if they could carry on. “The band had kind of fallen apart a little bit,” the drummer admits. “I remember us having a meeting and you [Amott] asking if we want to continue or not. Are we gonna continue? What are we gonna do?”
However, the drummer adds that the band were motivated to carry on by material that they had already written, which would eventually appear on the War Eternal record. The album marked the debut of current vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, who jumped ship from The Agonist to join the melodeath stars.
“We worked really hard on that record,” Amott remembers in the Hammer interview. “[We knew] that it was going to be scrutinised and analysed, you know. It was a do-or-die moment for us, I guess.”
The guitarist adds that he “didn’t really have high hopes” for War Eternal, given Gossow’s absence. “When Iron Maiden changed singers [from Bruce Dickinson to Blaze Bayley], it took so long for people to get into that, and when Black Sabbath changed singers,” he explains. “That’s the era I come from, and I know it took years and years for them to gain acceptance from the fanbase.”
He continues, saying people “get used to news much quicker” in the age of social media. “And it was also really good. She [White-Gluz] was great, the songs were great, the sound… everything was perfect on that record, I think.”
Ultimately, the goodwill towards White-Gluz, War Eternal and the ‘new’ Arch Enemy was so great that other musicians contacted Amott asking how the band pulled it off. “I was like, ‘I don’t know,’” he laughs. “It was the right moment and the right album.”
Watch the full conversation with Amott and Erlandsson below.
In a 2021 Metal Hammer interview, White-Gluz explained how she got her position fronting Arch Enemy. “It was all relatively simple, which sounds strange, but I was friends with Angela already and we spoke all the time,” she said.
“I’d met Michael and the rest of the guys a bunch of times, although I didn’t really keep in touch with them. I was on tour with Kamelot at that point, and we were in South Korea when I got an email from Angela that said, ‘Can you jump on the phone with Michael real quick?’”
The band will release their next album (their fourth with White-Gluz) Blood Dynasty via Century Media on March 28. The singles Dream Stealer and Liars & Thieves are currently streaming.
