“Black Earth” showed the potential of the band, but with a better distribution deal now having been arranged, there is little doubt that the band would have known they also needed to step things up. The band had already shown their love of traditional metal, having recorded cover versions of two Iron Maiden songs, and Christopher’s preference for that style of metal seemed to be a perfect reference point as to how to create a unique sound going forward. Along with the experience behind them with their first album, the writing and recording sessions for their follow up had the potential to set the band up for a lengthy stint on the world stage.
Look, there is little doubt that the star turn on this album is the dual guitaring skills of the brothers Michael and Christopher Amott. Their influences growing up are obvious from the opening track, and poke their head up every time we come to the solo spots on each song.
The instrumental title track that comes in for the second song on the album is laden with those terrific riffs and melodic play offs that showcase exactly what these two brothers can do, and actually sets up the album well from that point.
And what they successfully do is inject their love of 1980’s traditional heavy metal melodic music into their 1990’s death metal sound, which seems to do two things on this album. Firstly, it creates not a unique sound as such, but an amazing combination of the heavy hard riffing guitars that are such a part of death metal, but then have those melodic dual guitar solos through the middle of the songs that remind you immediately of those great bands of the 1980’s and what they used to do. Secondly, you have the growling ideals of Johan Liiva’s vocals which also do two things – well, for me at least. They initially bring you back to the fac that this is for all intents and purposes a death metal album, and his performance brings that to the fore, and yet it proves to be limiting because there is only one type of vocals here, despite the fact that the music lends itself have to have both harsh vocals and then clear soaring vocals in the mix, as many excellent bands into the next millennium began to do. And, of course, something that Arch Enemy themselves eventually found the band utilising to a degree. But that was down the track a ways.
And so the songs here are a terrific mix of the hard hitting drums with that heavy riffing with Johan’s vocals banging out combined with the fast melodic guitar solos through the middle. And while this was also prevalent on the band’s debut album, it has gone up a notch here on “Stigmata”. The energy throughout is fantastic. And because it combines the best parts of two differing varieties of the heavy metal genre, it becomes more accessible without driving away fans of either. And that is quite a feat given the time it was released and what was occurring in the music world.
I didn’t come across Arch Enemy until the mid-2000's. In the period prior to this I had spent most of my music chasing time in relentless pursuit of the European power and progressive metal scene and the bands that proliferated it, so the more extreme side of metal was something I wasn’t particularly listening to. It wasn’t until my usual purveyor of music, who has since high school not only been one of my best friends but also the guy who seemed to find a way to discover new bands for me to listen to, had begun his own divergence in his listening habits, and suggested I check out their work. So I did, and found it interesting without blowing my mind. But then I went back, and listened to their first three albums, with Johan on vocals, and then I really found the band and the sound. And yes I enjoy their debut, but it was “Stigmata” that really sold me on Arch Enemy when I first heard it. It was the music of the songs that dragged me in, and I related more to the vocals of Johan than I did of Angela who had taken over by those mid-2000's albums. In many ways it was a confronting change for me musically, with Arch Enemy and Trivium and Killswitch Engage at that time much different from what I had spent many recent years listening to.
I still think this album holds up beautifully. It sounds a lot better on my stereo at home than it does on my tinny speaker at work, but it is still the magical mix in styles that retains the uniqueness of their sound that allows this album to continue to be worth your attention.
