''Deceivers'' is the eleventh studio album by Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Arch Enemy Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic death metal band, originally a supergroup from Halmstad, formed in 1995. Its members were in bands such as Carcass, Armageddon, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars, The Agonist, Nevermore, and Eucharist. ...

. Originally scheduled for a 29 July 2022 release, the album was pushed back to 12 August 2022 for undisclosed reasons. ''Deceivers'' is Arch Enemy's first studio album since 2017's ''

Will to Power The will to power (german: der Wille zur Macht) is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The will to power describes what Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in humans. However, the concept was never systematic ...

'', marking the longest gap between two of their studio albums.

Background and recording

Writing began as early as October 2018: main songwriter and guitarist

Michael Amott Michael Amott (born 28 July 1969) is a Swedish guitarist, founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars and Carnage, as well as a former member of Carcass. He is the older brother of Christopher Amott. Amott was ranked No ...

mentioned on an interview with

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

that he had "a few new ideas already for new stuff". In February 2021, on "The Riffhard Podcast", lead guitarist Jeff Loomis revealed he was "doing solos for the new Arch Enemy album", though adding he did not know when it would be released. All of the album was recorded in Europe, except for Loomis' guitar contributions: due to traveling restrictions, he was unable to join the rest of the band, so they ended up "having him do his solos in the studio in Seattle". The song “Spreading Black Wings” is dedicated to the memory of LG Petrov.

Promotion

"Deceiver, Deceiver" and "House of Mirrors", respectively released on 21 October 2021 and 9 December 2021, were the first two singles from the album, each receiving a music video: however, at that time, the album had not been yet announced, and both tracks were simply marketed as standalone singles. The album was officially announced on 27 January 2022; the third single "Handshake with Hell" was released eight days later on 4 February 2022, along with its accompanying music video. On 20 May 2022, the fourth single "Sunset over the Empire" was released alongside a video clip. A 7-inch vinyl single featuring the single alongside "The Judging Eyes", an instrumental remake of

War Eternal ''War Eternal'' is the ninth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, which was released first in Japan on 4 June 2014 by Century Media. It is the first Arch Enemy album in 15 years since '' Burning Bridges'' to feature a new ...

's "You Will Know My Name" , was commercialized in limited edition. The band announced that the record was postponed by two weeks on 6 June 2022, the reason being "unforeseen circumstances". No further information was issued about the topic. "In the Eye of the Storm", the fifth and single, was released on 14 July 2022 with its music video. "The Watcher", the sixth and "final" single (until 2023), was released on August 14, 2022, which was two days after the album's release. "Poisoned Arrow", the seventh and final single, was released on February 9, 2023.

Track listing

Personnel

Arch Enemy

Alissa White-Gluz Alissa White-Gluz (; born 31 July 1985) is a Canadian singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, and former lead vocalist and founding member of the Canadian metalcore band the Agonist. Her vocal ...

– vocals *

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

, lead guitar *

Jeff Loomis Jeff Loomis (born September 14, 1971) is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore during its existence from 1991 to 2011, as well as brief tenures in its precursor, Sanctuary (band) ...

– lead guitar *

Sharlee D'Angelo Sharlee D'Angelo (born Charles Petter Andreason, 27 April 1973) is the Swedish bassist for the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as the classic rock/AOR band the Night Flight Orchestra and the stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars. D'A ...

– bass *

Daniel Erlandsson Daniel John Erlandsson (born 22 May 1976) is a Swedish musician, best known as the drummer in the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy and Brujeria. His early work includes drumming on the In Flames album '' Subterranean'' (1995). He has also p ...

– drums, keyboards, sound effects

Additional musician

* Raphael Liebermann – cello

Technical personnel

* Jacob Hansen –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

, mixing, mastering * Michael Amott – co-production * Daniel Erlandsson – co-production, guitar and bass engineering * Aaron Smith –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

* Ruben Kamlah – recording * Alex Reisfar – cover art * CVSPE (André Trindade) – artwork * Costin Chioreanu – layout * Patric Ullaeus – photography

Charts

References

{{Arch Enemy 2022 albums Arch Enemy albums Century Media Records albums