Arch Enemy, Truth Corroded @ Fowlers Live, Adelaide 27/03/2018
It’s been an amazing run of fantastic international artists rocking through Adelaide this last week. Who better then, than Sweden’s Arch Enemy at Fowlers to bring the metal festivities to an appropriate finish?
Adelaide band Truth Corroded have been pro-active in making sure they get noticed during this run of shows. Fresh from terrorising audiences supporting Overkill, as well as singing a new record deal with US label Unique Leader Records, the boys set about setting the stage on fire.
There are few SA bands out there heavier, talented and on song as this band right now. The vocals by Jason North pierce through the wall of riff crunching heavy guitars from Trent Simpson and Chris Walden. Songs this tight though must be anchored by an on-song rhythm section which Greg Shaw and Kieran Murray are the rock this band’s songs are built on.
Fresh from a headlining set on the Dogtooth Stage at Download, Arch Enemy come onto the stage as the PA finishes the closes sounds to Ace Of Spades. The Swedish legends blast into The World Is Yours and the already packed crowd swarm forward.
The dual guitars of Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis perfectly dovetail the vocals of Alissa White-Gluz. What’s apparent immediately is that the notoriously poor sound of Fowlers isn’t even an issue. Each guitar sounds clear and crisp, the bass the right amount of heavy and the drums perfectly weighted to allow the vocals to come through clear and audible.
Arch Enemy are like a caged lion on stage, the presence of Alissa confined to a tiny area rather than the vast spaces of the stages they usually perform. This just adds to the edge of their performance as crowd favourite My Apocalypse turns the crowd energy levels up another notch. The band just keep coming ferociously with such songs as Dead Eyes So No Future, As The Pages Burn and Dead Bury Their Dead hammer their way into your brain.
These songs allow Amoot and Loomis to show just what amazing guitarists they are; one-minute beautiful soaring solos, then blood curdling riffs the next. Never over played nor under stated, this band has reached a new peak in their performances. Then there is the vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, whose stage presence is all consuming as a focal point both sonically and visually. She whips the crowd into a frenzy time and again screaming We Will Rise.
Fowlers has been the Nemesis of many a metal band, Arch Enemy though are no normal metal band and they proved that This Eagle Flies Alone while simultaneously conquering the Fowlers sound and Adelaide audience.
Live Review by Iain McCallum