review by: ~Vargscarr~

Swedish bands like this do not play 'Melodic Death Metal,' I don't give a fuck what any other music critic says. There is not the merest semblance of Death Metal about this music. No, this is modern Heavy Metal that just happens to have dirty vocals. With that out of the way, Arch Enemy's new album: same old same old, but with far superior vocals to the previous releases; and much less interesting songs.

This album features a lot of that 'start - stop' style that serves to piss me off no end. Better, more crushing riffs are traded off for weak, undecided chord progressions that were fortunately kept to a minimum on Arch Enemy's previous (and to my ear, their best) work, Burning Bridges. Gone is the bombast of "Demonic Science" or "Angelclaw"; and worse still, Wages of Sin lacks the wonderful solos that used to define and elevate the band amongst and above their Swedish contemporaries (you know - shitty pop bands like In Flames). The solo on "Dead Inside" (track two on ...Bridges) ranks up as one of the very best I have ever heard - not one of the solos present on Wages of Sin even come close. The song structures all seem very modern, and the general modus operandi the band spent their last three releases defining seems to have been lost, making me wonder if perhaps their ex-vocalist wasn't more responsible for the songwriting than the credits let on...

It's not all bad - there are a couple of decent tracks on here - but it's a big let down for those who've enjoyed the band in the past but don't enjoy other Swedish bands of the same genre, since I'm sure all you 'Melodic Death' Metalheads will lap this up. At least the vocals are the best you'll hear from a band of this kind for a very long while - Angela Gossow is a credit to her chosen style and female vocalists everywhere, and its a great shame her talents were wasted on this rather pitiable release that exudes a similar air to that of a retarded child lost in the snow - confused, weak, and oblivious to it's plight. She needs to hook up with Children of Bodom; for there is a modern heavy Metal band crying out for a vocalist of her calibre.