Episode 53: Arch Enemy’s “Paper Tiger” – Unleashing Relentless Aggression

In this episode of Mandatory Music, we dive deep into Arch Enemy’s “Paper Tiger” — a track that delivers pure, unrelenting energy. From the moment Alissa White-Gluz’s ferocious growls cut through the mix to Michael Amott’s razor-sharp riffs, this song is a masterclass in melodic death metal. We unpack the song’s powerful themes of defiance and exposing hypocrisy, exploring how the lyrics tear down deception with brutal honesty.

But that’s not all — we also break down the intricate guitar work, the thunderous rhythm section, and how Arch Enemy’s musicianship elevates the track to anthem status. Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering this banger for the first time, join us as we celebrate the intensity and artistry behind “Paper Tiger.”

Mandatory Music is proudly hosted and produced by Michael Heide and Sebastian Kwapich

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Thanks for listening and keep on rocking

Transcript

[Speaker 1]

Welcome to Mandatory Music, where we deep dive into the heaviest riffs, the most intense lyrics and the raw energy that fuels the metal scene. We don't just do metal though, but today we are definitely doing metal. We are kicking things off today with Paper Tiger by Arch Enemy.

Boy, am I excited for this one. The second you sent that to me, I was like, we got to do this song. It's so freaking good.

It's a blistering track that tears through the facade of hypocrisy with relentless aggression. With Alyssa White-Gloose, powerful vocals and Michael Amont's razor sharp riffs, this song is a perfect, perfect anthem for those who refuse to be deceived. Stick around as we break down the themes, the musicianships and everything that makes this track a standout in Arch Enemy's discography.

Let's crank it up, Mike. Let's get into it.

[Speaker 2]

Crank it up. Arch Enemy.

[Speaker 1]

So you have been listening to a lot of Arch Enemy recently. Recently, yeah. Yes.

Are you familiar with them outside of most recent listens? Because I've listened to Arch Enemy for years.

[Speaker 2]

Yes, it's been off and on for me, but I listened to, back when Michael Amont was in Carcass, I listened to a little bit of Carcass.

[Speaker 1]

I started when they had Angela, the original badass, Viking, Amazonian, I think she was German, awesome, powerful voice.

[Speaker 2]

Yes. Yeah. She, well, the song My Apocalypse is where I sort of cut my teeth.

That was the first one? With Arch Enemy, because that song's awesome. And it's so good.

Yeah, but sort of now I listen to, what do I listen to? I listen to the previous album, which escapes me, the title, the one that came out a couple of years ago. I don't want to say it's War Eternal, but that might not even be it.

I think it's, I don't think it's that. I think it's something to do with Deceivers or something.

[Speaker 1]

Yes, that sounds right, actually.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, pardon our professionalism. But anyways, I listen to it like three times on the weekend. And then I've had, they have a new record coming out in a couple of weeks.

[Speaker 1]

You're right, Deceivers is the last one, War Eternal is from 2014.

[Speaker 2]

OK, so yeah, so Deceivers I listen to a ton of. And then Blood Dynasty, which is coming out March 28th. I've listened to the four tracks they have released sort of.

[Speaker 1]

In 10 days.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, on repeat. And I just before we get into Paper Tiger, I just want to say the first song on the album is some of the craziest. It's it's psycho.

It's it's awesome. I didn't think I like that kind. I don't like melodic death metal.

I really don't. I just do.

[Speaker 1]

OK, I don't even consider them death metal, though. They're not. Because there's very rare blast beats in their in their drum patterns.

Like it's not like they don't do a lot of. And it's a lot of it is to me, a lot of it is slowed down 80s, 90s metal. But with just like a death metal screamer, badass front.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, we have like that. I think it's just a generation that Michael came from. It's just he's he's an 80s guy.

And that's where a lot of the the bread and butter is, especially Paper Tiger.

[Speaker 1]

It's like it's straight out of the 80s and 90s.

[Speaker 2]

It is. It's like it reminds me of. Like a throwback of if you put Arch Enemy, Iron Maiden and Megadeth into a blender and you hit puree and then you pour it into a cup.

This is this is Paper Tiger.

[Speaker 1]

I said I said it was a blend of Metallica, Pantera and Motley Crue. Oh, interesting. Because some of the the the the some of the riffs and the way she like sings is very like Vince, Vince Neil, but in a good way, screams.

But yeah, yeah, I guess. I don't know.

[Speaker 2]

Maybe maybe I'm wrong, but well, maybe the part in the chorus where the oh no and the oh no, yeah, here it comes again. That kind of it's you could sort of almost if you put clean vocals on that, you could say that's anybody from the 80s. But just the way Arch Enemy does it, it's so cool.

And they I don't know what key the song's in or even what the tune of the guitar is.

[Speaker 1]

I've literally been home for like I didn't look that up, but I'm not even sure anymore.

[Speaker 2]

So, OK, but I'll keep talking. But it's got that amazing 80s Iron Maiden gallop. Yeah, the guitars, the drums don't follow it like Maiden would.

The drums stay. Gallop is the right word for it. Yeah, the gallop.

And it's like, oh, man, they're doing a gallop. I'm like, no one does a gallop anymore. And that's not Iron Maiden.

And that's not Iron Maiden, right? So that's where the Iron Maiden feels. And there's some harmonies in there, too.

But with the Megadeth, I kind of like in the middle of the song, there's like this breakdown. And it just reminded me like it would fit on on Countdown to Extinction.

[Speaker 1]

It's the it's the intro riff that reminds you of Megadeth. That heart, the harmony. Did you do that?

Because that's very reminiscent of something like Train of Consequences or because they use a lot of like artificial harmonics.

[Speaker 2]

Yep.

[Speaker 1]

I do want to talk about that one specific riff. The very beginning riff. That's like where he he plays the harmony that goes up and then the next part that he goes down.

So are you familiar with the terminology of in storytelling what the hook is? Yes. So the perfect example that I thought this morning to give our listeners an example of a good hook is remember the Matrix.

The very first scene is Trinity and the bullet time thing where they try to arrest her. And then she basically kicks the crap out of the entire police force. But it's all in slow motion where she's up in the air.

And that whole scene, because you've never seen something like that before. That was the first time you saw bullet time. Bullet time, you can Google it.

It's like a big setup with like 50 cameras. And it's very intense for people that don't want to have time to explain it. But that that's a hook that that's something that grabs the attention of the viewer immediately.

And you're like, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm into it. And so I think a lot of musicians don't use a hook anymore for their initial songs. They just did like having a great hook in an intro.

It just you're you want to listen to the whole song immediately. And that one lyric with the harmonics where he's like, like, that's a hook to me because you hear that. You're like, whoa, what did I just hear?

Immediately, it's the first thing you hear. And you just get pulled right into the song. Oh, without a doubt, it's such a cool freaking riff, man.

[Speaker 2]

Well, and even her lyrics underneath it of the see no, hear no, speak no evil. It's that, you know, it's very sort of.

[Speaker 1]

Well, what is her first vocal line? Well, outside of that, the spoken part.

[Speaker 2]

We are each our own devil. And we make this world our hell. That was us.

Oh, yeah. And we make this world our hell. Happiness.

[Speaker 1]

So after after that intro part, her first vocal line is that big scream that she comes in. Like very reminiscence of like Vince Neil or. Sebastian Bach from Skid Row.

[Speaker 2]

I never I funny, I never even thought of it that way. I thought of it more of like a Bruce Dickinson kind of.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Like the scream and like what's that song? Be quick or be dead. Or he really.

[Speaker 1]

Oh, yeah, it's very similar to that, isn't it?

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, it's like because it reminded me this whole song reminds me of like. Like a metal band in the late like 1990 to 1992 range, because it's. But again, well, it's also a very Judas Priest to scream to.

Right, you can you can insert insert amazing singer here. And the list is kind of channeling, you know, Rob Halford, Dickinson. I don't want to give Vince Neil any props, so we'll leave.

[Speaker 1]

Why not?

[Speaker 2]

I don't know. He's been, you know, he's doesn't have the he doesn't have the chops anymore. But no, he doesn't.

No. So have you found the. And you like sort of the tuning of this song, because I was if I had time, I would have loved.

[Speaker 1]

It was totally not looking that up, but I will totally get up right now.

[Speaker 2]

I was totally wanting to try and learn some lesson guitar and completely butcher it for you. But I unfortunately this week, this weekend's been honestly, I've barely been home, which it's not a bad thing, but it's been extremely busy.

[Speaker 1]

And yeah, it's in Songster. So it's in it's in. I don't even trust Songster anymore.

[Speaker 2]

If it says standard is wrong, it's not standard.

[Speaker 1]

Well, it says it's in C. Down tuned to C.

[Speaker 2]

Interesting.

[Speaker 1]

And they play on the F string, which is the string right below this on the fifth string. So but I don't know if I believe that arch enemy.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, I'm not sure because it has that feel. OK, so like all a lot of the other songs are tuned low. But this one reminds me of something like Lux Aeterna, where it's in that higher, like in that A register where it's it's it's just got that feel of it.

It's not in the key of A, but it's got that feel of. Of a song like that, where it's like an album, it should be like an album opener. Yeah, kind of thing.

[Speaker 1]

I feel like it should be the first song on the album. Well, listen, I don't know because I haven't listened to it. Yeah, OK.

[Speaker 2]

You listen to Dreamstealer, man. That song has to be the first song on the album. It's insane.

Like it is. It's going to be a good album. I think it really is.

Oh, my God.

[Speaker 1]

That's there was a YouTube video of somebody playing this song, which I had at some point, which I can't remember where I did with it. So that's going to be fun for me to find.

[Speaker 2]

But but Michael Amott's guitar playing, we got to give this guy props because this is their 12th record and he's he did stuff with Carcass before that. So he's been making making music for 30 plus years and the riffs just keep coming. And they had a lineup change last year in 2023.

Jeff Loomis left, he was the other guitar player, he left the band. Yeah, he was the former leader of Nevermore. And Nevermore is being resurrected, even though the singer passed away.

They're going to try to find a new singer. But yeah, Nevermore is coming back, which is awesome. But yes, the riffs are insane.

I just.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, they've been quoted when they I can't remember who they asked, which one of the guitarists. But they were they were talking about the song and they're literally it's like one of the funnest songs within the play. Like the riffs are so much fun.

And it seems like fun. It gives me like kind of. And I'm going to use this reference, so it will make sense to you in a second.

It kind of gives me spit out the bone vibes where. You can get a song like we did with Lord Humongous, which is literally one riff. Yes.

And then you get a song like this, which just goes through so many shifts and changes and modulations, you're like, what else can they put in the song? Right. Because they just keep shifting around.

Like, yeah, they have the main theme. But it's it's so good.

[Speaker 2]

There's 100 riffs in the song. Like every song.

[Speaker 1]

So many riffs.

[Speaker 2]

Every song these guys do. There is tons and tons and tons. Like if you're looking for riffs, you need a riff, man.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Listen to RJ.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, there's some songs that like you listen to and it's like, OK, here's a riff and we'll play this riff for a minute and 15 seconds. Then we'll shift to this riff and then we'll go back to the first riff and the song's over every four and a half, five seconds. There's something different going on in the song.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

And it all works. It all works together. Right.

So they'll they'll they'll have the intro riff. Then she comes in with the voice. The bass comes in.

Drums come in, the drums shift and the riff shifts a little bit. The drums slow down. Then she sings differently.

Like there's so much shifting going around that just kind of like it's like you're it's like watching. OK, I'm going to try to use this reference. So it makes sense.

It's like watching a bunch of birds flying. But every bird is syncopated in the same direction, but they're all doing different things.

[Speaker 2]

Yes.

[Speaker 1]

So you get this like flowy. All this stuff that's happening, if that makes sense.

[Speaker 2]

Like almost like it's like a painter painting an amazing painting. He's just yes. First, he's drawing all this, all the stuff's going on.

And you're like, what is going on? But then all of a sudden, boom, you see the picture. You're like, holy crap.

And plus, it's got a harmonized guitar in the solo. And who does not harmonize guitars, right?

[Speaker 1]

Come on.

[Speaker 2]

Come on now. One thing I did notice because I listen to a ton of their music, but I've listened to the last record and this and I've listened to whichever one of my apocalypse is on again, professionalism. I'm here for you.

The songs don't overstay their welcome. The songs are in and out, man. You know, like there's no oh, we're going to repeat this and this and this 10 times in the song does all of a sudden eight minutes or nine minutes or seven.

It's four minutes. It comes in, kicks you in the face and it's on to the next one and that one kicks you in the face and it's on to the next one. There's no bloat.

[Speaker 1]

That's sometimes what people have problems with Metallica a lot is they really extend riffs sometimes past the point where they need to.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, but like it's we don't need like a third or fourth or fifth first stop. Yeah, just cut it a five minutes or our modern Iron Maiden has the exact same problem. Yeah, like a lot of their newer records.

Well, aside from some judges. Sure. That one, too.

But a lot of the new songs, they just go on and on. And you're like, OK, like, yeah, stop already.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, I agree with you.

[Speaker 2]

Right. But yeah, these songs are just because I can't imagine even because let's see Dreams. The opening track is it's 430.

So that's and there's a quiet intro. And then it's just like it's absolute.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Balls to the wall. Well, you said there's no blast beats, but this song is all blast beats.

[Speaker 1]

Well, OK, you're going to have blast beats for sure.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, it's like it's it's like it's it's insane. Like it is like this the musicianship to like the drummer. You put on a good pair of headphones and listen to this.

Just listen to the drummer. It's like, holy crap. It just it's mind boggling how good this guy is.

[Speaker 1]

So for those that don't know what a blast beat is, it's very common in death metal music and like really fast metal music. And it's basically you just you hit the snare as fast as you can. That's a really more of explaining it.

[Speaker 2]

But it's like it's it's it's a lot of drumming. So the drummer's name is Daniel Erlandson. He's been the drummer the whole time.

Like, which is, you know, I'm impressed. I'm looking at this. So Michael Emmett's been he's, you know, 1995 drummer, 1995 bass player, 1998.

And they've just they got a new guitar player now. And Alyssa has been the singer for 11 years.

[Speaker 1]

So, yeah, I guess she would be the longest tenured singer at this point. I think.

[Speaker 2]

Right. I think so, because Angela. No, it was Angela.

She was a lead vocalist from 2000 to 2014.

[Speaker 1]

So 14 years.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. And they had they had a male singer before Angela. Originally.

Originally, he was originally.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Johan Liva. He sang from 95 to 2000, which I remember.

[Speaker 1]

They made the right. They made the right move getting a female singer, because like imagine in the year 2000, how many heavy metal bands that I mean, like death metal bands had a female singer?

[Speaker 2]

None.

[Speaker 1]

Like now it's a lot more common. You get like it is Ginger and Spirit Box to name two.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Poppy. Well, she's not really a death metal singer, but like you know, you there is now a common place where female fronted death metal bands and hardcore bands are a thing. Yep.

Twenty five years ago, you. Yeah, there was Arch Enemy. That was like, I think, yeah, I'm probably wrong, but there's probably more.

But I'm just not aware of.

[Speaker 2]

Well, there's also the melodic bands, too, that have.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

A singer, a female singer that will sing the nice parts and then they'll have a male singing the what Alyssa can do. Honestly, I her voice is awesome. Like it's she's so good.

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

And she can sing as it's been proven when she sings with Kat Von D. Yeah, there's that Kat Von D song that she does. I am I am a machine.

And she actually sings parts of it.

[Speaker 2]

It's got a beautiful voice. Like it's an amazing.

[Speaker 1]

You can do both. You can definitely do both.

[Speaker 2]

And there are some some clean vocals here and here and there.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

And I wish I really wished you'd do it more. But I understand why they why they don't go down that path because they are very unique in their sound with what Angela and Alyssa can do. Yeah.

In terms of like these two ladies. Well, let's just talk about Alyssa now. She.

She really in this genre of music, I her voice is not only powerful, it's good to listen to, but it it's it's sort of just it sucks me into like, holy crap, but you just. You just I don't.

[Speaker 1]

There is there is something to be said about somebody's vocal talent when they're in that like death metal pocket of like, you know, that type of sound. But you can somehow understand everything she's saying. Yeah.

Like you can hear the words that she's saying. And it's not just like death metal where it's like, you know, like you can actually understand every syllable. She's got that grit and that death metal kind of roughness to her voice, which is all technique.

But she's super clear understanding. Right. So she's an amazing singer for sure.

[Speaker 2]

I wish we could go see them when they come to Vancouver. But it's Easter and it's literally on Easter Sundays.

[Speaker 1]

We have family commitments.

[Speaker 2]

I think I'd probably get a shot if I said, hey, by the way, I'm going to go see Arch Enemy on Easter.

[Speaker 1]

Do better, Arch Enemy, don't come here on Easter Sunday.

[Speaker 2]

Right. Yeah, do better. Yeah.

Can you organize your tour around Easter, please? Come on, guys. So what else?

What else do you think?

[Speaker 1]

Well. We were talking about I was talking, I was thinking about the solo. Yeah.

And there's. Two guitars in the solo parts, so I'm curious how they're going to do this live, if.

[Speaker 2]

Well. I'm assuming their new guy, Joey, is going to be playing, are going to both play, right?

[Speaker 1]

And it's such a tasteful solo, like, yeah, it's got flashy moments, but it's not like blistering fast. It's not like, look how fast I can play. Everything works.

[Speaker 2]

I think we talked about this last week in our Dark Chapel. Construct a solo, right? Yeah.

Carefully construct a solo.

[Speaker 1]

Well, I was thinking a lot about solos and metal and stuff like that. And why is a solo, why is a guitar solo such a staple in metal and rock music and stuff? And it's like, so I did a lot of thinking about this.

And metal music is a safe way to release emotions for people. A lot of people, right? There's, I've read an article many years ago saying that metal heads are some of the happiest people in the world because they have a way of releasing negative emotions through the music, right?

And so when you're in that state where you're like, and it's also highly energized music, like it's literally the best music to work out to, in my opinion, is metal music. Because you just get in that, like, let's lift the world attitude, right? And you're like, ah, right.

And all of that tension in the music that someone is feeling, it's all building up. And when you get to the solo part, that's the release of it. So in a sense, I believe the solo is kind of like the pure emotional heartbeat of the song.

And so you lead to that solo and it's just like everything you're building to is like, here's the solo, here's like the emotional connection of the song, because there's never words in a solo, right? So you're just asking your audience just to feel at that point instead of like actually listening to the lyrics and making logical things. Like, oh, he's singing about an ex-girlfriend or he's singing about poverty or he's singing about war.

You know, when you get to the solo, all of the themes and the motifs and everything that the band is working towards to get an emotional reaction from the listener blossoms in that solo part. It's kind of I could be wrong, but that's kind of like what I was thinking about earlier today.

[Speaker 2]

So I don't think you're wrong at all. I think that's absolutely fabulous. Not even a take.

That's insight. That is how you feel about solos. And I know you and I listen to music for very different reasons.

You're always you've always been into the lead. Maybe you like the lead, right? And I'm kind of the sit back and let me listen to the drums.

And the bass and the riffs. Right. And that's and I don't there's not many actual, quote, unquote, guitar solos that move me.

There just isn't because I just I kind of I kind of like singing. I tune them out. I just like, OK, I might if like, yeah, Michael's Michael's solo is really grab me because they are so tasteful and they are serve the song.

They serve the song so well as the soloist.

[Speaker 1]

They serve the song exactly. That's enough for the song that requires. Yeah, right.

[Speaker 2]

Like there's there's one solo that really moves me. It's actually from Led Zeppelin song remains the same as the solo in no quarter. And it's all improv.

And oh, my God, like it is it is out of this world. Like it does.

[Speaker 1]

I mean, you're talking to Led Zeppelin. You're talking about you're talking to the greatest soloist of all time.

[Speaker 2]

So it sort of transports me to like a whole different dimension. And it just I just I lose all all reality. It's just like I'm just I'm in because that that I don't know some of that song from that performance is it's otherworldly.

Anyways, we're not talking about Led Zeppelin. But as there's a Michael, I'm a solo going on in my ears right now for the song. Oh, Blood Dynasty, the outro solo.

It's I don't know his they're flashy, but like you say, they they have they're not like they're not like, oh, here's a solo.

[Speaker 1]

Here's about 45 seconds of just blistering speed. Like he knows how to slow it down. And like, you know, yeah, there's like moments where he plays these guitar licks in the solo where it's really fast and stuff.

But then he also takes the time to just feel things and not need to rush through it.

[Speaker 2]

Like he's almost approaching it like a vocalist with a melody to a song.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, there's rhyme or reason before what he does. Of course there is.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. And like I think we talked about last week, we slagged our boy for not doing his homework in our in our favorite band. And this guy is another case in point, right?

He's improv soloist is fine. In certain contexts, if you're in a blues band, but not if you're in a band that is like, so say, take our enemy. If he if he improvised all these solos, they would not nearly be as good as this.

[Speaker 1]

No. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you can improv in the studio, but at some point like.

[Speaker 2]

Work on it.

[Speaker 1]

There has to be a work on it, go, what do I need for the solo?

[Speaker 2]

What key is it in? What would be cool? Let's get some input from bandmates saying, hey, what are we doing?

Or somebody, somebody, your producer, like what is that? Delete that. Well, here's here's 48 solos.

Just change the keys and put them into whatever songs you want.

[Speaker 1]

Delete them all.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Right. So I don't know.

Like, of course, everything, everything we do circles back to Metallica anyway.

[Speaker 1]

Always and forever.

[Speaker 2]

Always. Forever does.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

And that's OK.

[Speaker 1]

But there is a nice breakdown of the song, too, where it just it just slows right down right before the solo. Yep. Also, the other thing I know we talked about her singing, but the enunciation she has in this, you know, when she's like the devil, you know, like just all all of all of her hits on certain consonants and vowels just works so well with the lyrics in this song.

Like she she's this is probably some of the best vocal work she's done for Arch Enemy, I think, in my mind.

[Speaker 2]

I think so, too, because even compared to the last record, the vocals are good. But this this song in particular, like it's on another level.

[Speaker 1]

She's dialed in, man, for this song.

[Speaker 2]

So, yeah, I'd love to I'd love to get a glimpse into their studio, how it works and how how they do it.

[Speaker 1]

I want to be a fly on the wall when they were writing the song, right? Because you got to you got to you got to assume that they're that they have this riff or whatever. I don't know what I have to assume that the intro came first because that's just like one of the coolest riffs I've heard in such and so stupidly simple.

Like, why don't I think of that? It's just right. Taking the art, you know, artificial harmonies and running it up and then running it back down and down with an open string.

[Speaker 2]

You know, do do do do do do do do do do.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, it works so well. And just being in that room, just going like, oh, that's cool. It's had that.

Oh, my God. What do you? Right.

I think this is a song that just all came together. For them.

[Speaker 2]

So do you think this breakdown sounds like Megadeth to you?

[Speaker 1]

Which I'm not saying it's a bad thing.

[Speaker 2]

I think it's I think it's a great thing. I think it's they're paying homage to their heroes. And I'm assuming Megadeth is probably in there.

[Speaker 1]

There's a lot of Megadeth influences, man.

[Speaker 2]

Like in their pantheon of what what band's influences Mustang had to be in there, because that is like.

[Speaker 1]

The the the interesting thing about Megadeth, which is different from a lot of thrash bands, is like you look at Metallica and they play a lot of their riffs in lower. Pockets and Megadeth is not afraid, like David's team is not afraid to go up high and high on the strings, like look at Hangar 18. The entire rift is played on like the first, second and third string.

Pretty much the lady in the lady. Like it's really hot.

[Speaker 2]

The intro riff to Call of Cthulhu.

[Speaker 1]

Yes. Well, Dave wrote it anyway.

[Speaker 2]

It's his song, whatever he wants to write. He had his own version. We won't get into that.

We won't get into that tonight. But yeah.

[Speaker 1]

So that's the fascinating thing about Megadeth is that they write a lot of their riffs like in completely different areas that normal thrash bands don't even go there for their main riffs of the song.

[Speaker 2]

Right. So that's the beauty of like bands, Megadeth, Arch Enemy. I'm going to throw them in there, too, that are different.

Metallica just sticks to the sticks, you know, the low E string. Yeah, low E string. And that you can only do so much with the low E.

[Speaker 1]

No matter what. Man, have they done a lot with it? They've done.

[Speaker 2]

I think they've done all they can with it, because they're just going to start repeating themselves. Anyways, we're not talking about that. But that's why Arch Enemy is cool, too, because the whole neck is there is the playground of any song, which I think is really, really cool.

[Speaker 1]

And yeah, that's a good point. They do a good balance of going all over the guitar fretboard.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Like even with the harmonies and the solos and stuff like that. It's yeah.

[Speaker 2]

So this song was written by Alyssa Daniel Erlandson and Michael Amont. So drummer had a piece of it. I guess the drummer must play.

He must play. He must play guitar.

[Speaker 1]

There's a lot of good drumming in that song. The double bass near the end.

[Speaker 2]

So like it's insane. I wonder how old he is.

[Speaker 1]

Because this song is OK. This song is three minutes and 56 seconds. So it's just short of four minutes.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

And what what they pack into the song and maybe we'll just close with this. But whatever they pack into the song is so many staple things that have been done in metal and thrash music for like the last 30, 40 years. And they just pile it all into one song and it all works.

It all flows together. You got you got harmonized guitars. You got double bass.

You got harmonics on the intro. You got a cool chorus. You got Alyssa singing with growly stuff like it's just so much packed into four minutes that it's just it's just an audio explosion in my mind when I listen to it.

It really is. I'm so wowed by this. The first time I heard it.

Ten out of ten, Mike.

[Speaker 2]

It really is a ten out of ten. I'm going to I'm going to blow your mind here. Blow it.

So the drummer is a year older than we are.

[Speaker 1]

Oh, my God. What do we do with our lives?

[Speaker 2]

We're talking about music, though, so that's what we're doing. And Michael Amon is 55 years old. So he's the main guitarist, right?

[Speaker 1]

Yes, he's probably in her late 30s, I think, right? He's probably the youngest member of the band, if I'm not mistaken.

[Speaker 2]

I believe she's the she's 39.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, so that makes sense.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, but even she wears many hats, too.

[Speaker 1]

Like Alyssa does like side projects. She did one with Nita Strauss. She did like a song with Kat Von D.

Like, she just gets involved with so many musicians to work on projects. I freaking like that, man.

[Speaker 2]

She has a solo album called Alyssa. And she's interesting. Yeah, she's let's see, guest vocals.

They say Kat Von D. She was this is back in 2012. She's a supporting act for Camelot on their tour.