ARCH ENEMY will begin pre-production on February 4th for their follow-up to 2001’s successful Wages of Sin album, according to the band’s official website. Guitarist Mike Amott confirmed that Andy Sneap (LOCK UP, CATHEDRAL, NEVERMORE) will again be handling production duties. The band are currently in the process of rehearsing in preparation for the recording and will enter Sneap’s Backstage Productions studio in the UK.

Amott posted the following describing ARCH ENEMY’s new material: “What can I tell you about the new songs? Lots of HEAVY riffs and COOL parts, the melodies and hooks are the strongest we’ve come up with so far in our career I believe. Lyrically it’s heavier too…raw and real. And yes, there’s some ultra-sick guitar shit going on too…otherwise it wouldn’t be ARCH ENEMY, right? For us, it’s a matter of picking up were we left off with Wages Of Sin and just pushing ourselves to be 100% better!!! (Not that easy, we raised the bar pretty damn high on the Wages Of Sin album!).”

But before they enter the studio, ARCH ENEMY will do a week of shows in Sweden and Norway with CORPORATION 187 as a support act. Here are the dates:

1/25/03 Västerås, Club Rockers
1/26/03 Stockholm, Debaser
1/28/03 Oslo, John Dee
1/29/03 Gteborg, Musikens
1/30/03 Halmstad, Diezel
1/31/03 Helsingborg, Tivoli