After emerging as this year’s Ozzfest breakthrough artist, ARCH ENEMY made their triumphant return to the U.S. last week to begin their much-anticipated headlining tour with REMAINS, MNEMIC and A PERFECT MURDER in the support slots. The trek is the group’s first headlining run in support of their critically acclaimed new album, Doomsday Machine, which debuted at #87 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and recently surpassed the 50,000 SoundScan plateau.
Mike Amott (guitars) checks in the following report from the road: “Hello all ARCH ENEMY friends. We are in Boulder, CO today, and I had to switch out my camo shorts for camo pants - damn it’s cold! I saw my first racoon today, right outside the coffee shop on the street…wow… I am from Sweden; I am not used this stuff. It was cool. A local was telling me that they get bears and mountain lions coming down to their town, too. That’s really mind-blowing to me but just a part of life here.
“We started this U.S. leg of the Doomsday Machine tour in Tempe, Arizona - a much warmer place! I got to visit the Krank factory - Krank is the company that builds my amps. Great guys and fantastic amps! They hooked me up with a Krankenstein amp that sounds really raging - a high-gain monster! This amplifier is the Dimebag Darrel (R.I.P) signature amp. I think the world needs a ‘Michael Amott amp’ soon.
“The show in Tempe, AZ was nice, pretty raging for a first show. We had some bugs to work out, but all in all great crowd and a cool night. It’s a lot of fun to be headlining shows again in the U.S. We’ve got a great set list, basically the same thing we’ve been doing in Europe, Japan and Australia recently - it pretty much covers most of the essentials from our recorded history (well, you could argue about that forever!) and also features a killer drum solo from Daniel and guitar solo spots from myself and new boy Fredrik. It’s good fun and very metal. We are also playing the instrumental song ‘Hybrids of Steel’ from the Doomsday Machine album - that’s a blast to play.
“A few nights ago, we played in Los Angeles at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd. It was another great show. The L.A crowd has always been good to us. Our first show with Angela was in L.A at The Troubadour, good memories for sure. L.A usually means lots of stress, promotional activities and also tons of guests. I had a great time, though, and spent most of the after show time talking to my new friend Doug Aldrich, talking about guitars, amps and effect pedals. That’s a good evening for me, and on the subject of guitars, while in L.A, I visited the very good people at ESP guitars. I had a great meeting with them, discussed some very cool stuff for 2006. I am excited! More on this later.
“The show in San Francisco went well, a lot more people in the club as compared to the last time we played there back in 2002. I guess the word is spreading. So yeah, a cold evening here in Boulder, CO. After the show here, we’ll be driving down to Texas for a couple of shows down there. Come out and see the show if you are in the area - it’s a PURE FUCKING METAL extravaganza.”
Remaining tour dates:
11/18 White Rabbit - San Antonio, TX
11/19 Engine- Room - Houston, TX
11/21 The Bottleneck - Lawrence, KS
11/22 Logan Square Auditorium - Chicago, IL
11/23 Harpo’s - Detroit, MI
11/25 Theatre of the Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
11/26 The Palladium - Worcester, MA
11/27 Jaxx - West Springfield, VA
11/28 Irving Plaza - New York, NY
11/30 Imperial - Quebec City, QC
12/01 Opera House Concert Venue - Toronto, ON