Black Earth

虽然是乐队的第一张专辑，可从编曲到录音都很有水准！由于他们的人员组成特别，那个时候几乎所有的评论都把他们和CARCASS比较。但他们音乐里面运用的独特旋律化编曲，前卫音乐的节奏，急速的双吉他和声演奏，以及力量金属型的死亡唱腔，都与过去CARCASS的方式有明显的区别。他们无疑比以往所有的哥登堡乐队都要重，而却不失瑞典人独有的旋律感。Death Metal凶狠的Riff加上哥登堡式的旋律，没有键盘做背景音网，使得吉他的旋律变化更加的清晰。主唱Johan Liiva的嗓音也显得与当时的潮流格格不入，可能听惯了低吼的乐迷第一次听会别扭，总觉得唱腔与音乐不和谐？ 这张大碟是由着名的“哥登堡之声”创始人之一 Fredrik Nordstrom （曾制作过众多的旋律死亡金属唱片，和AT HTE GATES、HAMMERFALL合作）监制，Amott兄弟独特的演奏配合将他的思路展现出另一种风格，一种和所有哥登堡乐队都不同的声音。这张专辑第一次发行只在欧洲范围，销量不大，但它的出现还是引起了很多业内人士和敏感乐迷的注意。之后有多家公司再版。回头再看，这是一张非常精彩的旋律死亡金属唱片。(转自死域) by Alex Henderson Reissues can be quite revealing when a band has been around for a decade or more. A reissue might demonstrate that a band's sound has pretty much stayed the same over the years, or it might make the listener say, "You know, this band has done a lot of evolving since this album was recorded." Arch Enemy's debut album, Black Earth (which was recorded in 1996 and reissued in the United States by Regain in 2007), is definitely an example of the latter. Between 1996 and 2007, Arch Enemy experienced some lineup changes, and their approach became increasingly polished along the way. That isn't to say that Black Earth is not well played or short on chops, only that Arch Enemy favored more rawness in the beginning. Arch Enemy's 1996 lineup -- Michael and Christopher Amott on guitar, Johan Liiva on lead vocals and bass, and Daniel Erlandsson on drums -- keeps the slickness to a minimum on bare-knuckles thrash metal/death metal scorchers like "Idolatress," "Transmigration Macabre" and "Fields of Desolation" (all of which show the influence of both Sepultura and Iron Maiden). Black Earth underscores thrash and death metal's debt to punk, but the power metal influence is quite evident as well, and for all their bombast, the tunes on this album are fairly hooky and relatively accessible. Of course, longtime followers of Arch Enemy will debate the merits of their early output versus what came later. Some headbangers prefer the gruff-voiced Liiva over his replacement Angela Gossow; others will counter that Gossow was an improvement over Liiva. At any rate, Black Earth was a promising debut for Arch Enemy and is among the Swedish combo's more consistent and memorable efforts. 2013 Remastered And Expanded Edition封面: