Considering this band has been founded by two of the hated "artists" of the death metal community, brothers Michael Amott of Carcass and Christopher Amott of Dark Tranquility, it's no surprise why Arch Enemy received - and continues to receive, to this day - so much push-back and mockery from the other artists in the death metal scene, to say nothing of the fans (who basically have nothing positive to say about the band).
Really, the history of this band is a cautionary tale about why selling out and taking the "ticket to stardom" (very relative, considering the poor sales of their latest release "Blood Dynasty") is not such a good idea in today's extreme metal scene.
It should be noted that Arch Enemy was founded as a "supergroup" of sorts, while still being a side-project of Michael and Christopher Amott, until they were kicked out of their respective bands (Carcass and Dark Tranquility, respectively), at which point Arch Enemy became their main focus.
Ironically, or not, the reason given for firing the Amott brothers was that they: 1) contributed little to the songwriting, 2) tried to turn their previous bands into stadium rock outfits, 3) were constantly complaining ("b-tching") about other band members. This concept of "power struggle" within the bands is important, as it will come back to bite them later.
Why Arch Enemy Receives So Much Criticism
Disclaimer: Many of these excerpts were taken from the book "The Death Metal Bible" by Antoine G.
From the early days of the band, many fans and critics thought the band was a parody. Their debut "Black Earth", while less cheesy than their recent output, still cemented the band's reputation as "wannabe rockstars" without the talent. They notoriously received death threats from the early black metal artists, and even some of their contemporaries in the Swedish death metal scene. The reception of the band's early albums was also very negative, despite them being overall marginally better than the post-2000 mallcore output.
Also read: The Secret Story Between Chuck Schuldiner and the Death Metal Scene!
Chris Barnes (ex-Cannibal Corpse) described the band's sound as a "sort of watered-down version" of At the Gates' most hated album, "Slaughter of the Soul". This echoes the criticism of being "mellow death metal" (melodeath metal) that the band has faced since their debut. Their only talented member, Johann Liiva, was kicked out after two albums and replaced by the very controversial vocalist Angela Gossow - who was herself eventually replaced by Alissa White-Gluz.
Speaking of their 2022 stadium rock album "Deceivers, Deceivers", internet legend bitterman wrote: "From the misguided fan-service to the butt rock harmony 101 Saturday morning cartoon theme song riffs that are the focus of these tracks, this album reeks of compromises and vacuity".
Morsay himself, of the famous Morsay Magazine, wrote that "too much Taylor Swift and Mötley Crüe, and not enough Morbid Angel and Incantation, has turned this once quasi-generic deathcore band into a parody of the entire genre now competing with the like of jokegrind bands like "I Soiled My Diapers" of who can pander to the lowest common denominator".
This comparison with "joke grind" bands like AxCx is something that the band has struggled with since their early days.
"We Always Do What Management and the Record Label Wants..."
Another controversy came with the release of their most recent albums "Deceivers, Deceivers" and "Blood Dynasty". While it's routine, but frown upon, for metal bands to release "singles" before publishing a full-length LP (it can be seen as a "cash grab" if done too frequently), Arch Enemy went one step further and released EVERY song on each album as a single... many fans felt "ripped off" as they had pre-ordered the albums, and other also felt scammed as they had bought the albums with the expectation of finding something new... only to realise that they had already heard every song (making the albums more of compilation releases than proper studio LPs).
To answer the controversy, Michael Amott shifted the blame to "corporate management" and claimed "it was [the band's] idea" (source).
Michael Amott: I was a bit skeptical when this plan came together because it's not what I'm used to. I'm very rooted in releasing two singles and the album is out, and boom we're on tour. [...] [The idea] came from the record label and the management and you know, they really wanted to try this approach, I think partially because of the pandemic maybe. We have this rule in the writing phase that we never say no to any ideas [...] so we thought, let's put out songs and connect with the fans again and let them know we're still here.
They later tried to address the controversy by adding bonus cover tracks (from the bands Fight and Death, respectively), but this wasn't well received either.
It doesn't help that Alissa White-Gluz was consistently ranked in the top 5 of worst death metal vocalists by various polls (although to be fair, she has nothing on Glen Benton in the department of cringe vocals).
Other Arch Enemy Controversies, and a Conclusion of Melodeath
The are several related controversies related to the band's relationship to fellow Swedish death metal band Khranial, to various crypto "projects" (euphemism for something else), causing Peste Noire to pull out of an East European tour, and an overall atmosphere of corporate greed and the associated power struggles and "climbing the latter" that go with (for example, they couldn't kick out Angela Gossow due to politics, so they made her "superground band management" in 2014).
I won't delve into these topics in this post. This was meant more of an introduction to the modern "mellow death metal" - a play on the portmanteau melodeath genre -, and why so many death metal fans are frustrated with it.
Melodeath (mellow deaf) consistently ranks among the worst death metal sub-genres, alongside slamming brutal death (as in early Devourment) and deathcore (as in Waking the Cadaver).
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