ARCH ENEMY - DOOMSDAY MACHINE published September 2005, Zero Magazine

Admit it. Metal, in all its splendor and beauty, has a mandatory quotient of corniness. If you want to debate this, try watching Visions of the Beast without cracking up just a little. If you succeed and aren’t a high school drop-out gas station attendant, we’ll talk. Metal has a grandiosity from its upbringing that is hard to abandon. Hard if you are not Arch Enemy.

In Doomsday Machine, all metal cheese is melted away and scorched a crispy black. The unfathomably androgynous vocals of Angela Gossow are undoubtedly a key role in this. Joining Arch Enemy in 2001, Gossow gives the band one of the rarest assets in music and opens the door for the female population of wailers. Her grit and strength will rattle the cartilage right out of your knees and is literally unlike anything you have heard.

Doomsday Machine is captivating from intro (which giddily reminded me of the opening theme from X-Men and what is cooler than that?) to end. The oh so chunkiness of the brothers Amott guitars is basically orgasmic. The tracks are relentless and the only breather you are allowed is during a little undistorted Floyd homage in “My Apocalypse” Overall, very un-disappointing.