Following on from last year's co-headline tour with In Flames (also featuring Soilwork), Swedish melodic death metal-ers Arch Enemy are back in the UK promoting their latest release, 2025's Blood Dynasty. With Amorphis, Eluveitie, and Gatecreeper in tow, Wolverhampton was the first stop on the UK leg of this tour.
Bathed in green light and surrounded by smoke, chains, and skulls, the Arizona-based death metal five-piece Gatecreeper were first out onto the crowded stage (due to the limited space afforded to them as a result of the staging for the subsequent bands, it was a refreshing change to normal gig procedure, seeing the drummer as front and centre as you could possibly get).
The setlist heavily favoured the most recent album release, 2024's Dark Superstition, featuring "Dead Star", "A Chilling Aura", "Caught in the Treads", "The Black Curtain", "Mistaken For Dead" and "Flesh Habit".
The set was brief, just 35 minutes, but was jam-packed with head bangs, fist bumps, and dive bombs galore from lead guitarist Eric "The Darkest Cowboy" Wagner; it also featured "Ruthless" and "From the Ashes" from 2019's Deserted.
Gatecreeper
Frontman Chase "Hellhammer" Mason addressed the crowd with the usual pleasantries before instructing the audience to head to the foyer and "tell the merch guy I was fucking banging with the Creeper".
Drawing in to a close, "Sick of Being Sober" from 2021's An Unexpected Reality. The lighting director treated us to some variation for the last song, now doused in red, the set finished with "Flamethrower" from 2016's Sonoran Depravation.
The changeover cleared a little more space on the stage, and it was most definitely needed as all eight members of Swiss folk-metal legends Eluveitie emerged with possibly every instrument imaginable (in addition to the standard guitar, bass, drum you'd expect of a metal show, add in a mandola, harp, violin, hurdy-gurdy, gaita, and an array of various pipes and flutes).
Taking us in a very different direction from the opening act, Eluveitie's blend of melodic death metal encapsulated in traditional Celtic music was a triumph and quite possibly a highlight (for this reviewer at least) of the whole evening; the contrast of Chrigel Glanzmann's harsh vocals with Fabienne Erni's cleans was something to behold.
On this tour, they are promoting this year's album release Ànv, that being said, the set list is absolutely stacked with bangers from the entire back catalogue. Opening with the title track from 2019's Ategnatos, "Deathwalker" followed from the same album before "The Prodigal Ones" from the new record, and 2022's stand-alone single, "Exile of the Gods".
Eluveitie
The Wolverhampton crowd really start to get involved as "A Rose for Epona," from 2012's Helvetios ticked the box for the next banger of the set. Another visit to Ànv "Premonition" followed before a huge 4-song finish.
"Ambiramus" had the former Civic Hall dialed in to party mode; there was a massive pop from the crowd as "The Call of the Mountains" (2014's Origins) started and was completed by an acapella sing-along from the whole room. This was swiftly followed by "King" before a finish that could only be described as epic with "Inis Mona" (2008's Slania).
Lights were up, bows were taken to rapturous applause, and hopefully, it will not be too long before Eluveitie grace these shores of Albion again.
The penultimate band of the night was progressive metal stalwarts, the Finnish five-piece Amorphis.
Their latest album, Borderland, was released just at the end of September, and they kicked off their set with "Bones" from that album before we were taken on a journey around their back catalogue, all the way to 1994's Tales From the Thousand Lakes.
Amorphis
The journey took us on a riff-laden, head-banging pursuit through "Silver Bride" (Skyforger, 2009), where some very intense strobe lighting provided an assault on the senses, adding to the atmosphere of the soundscape that was being created. "Wrong Direction" (Queen of Time, 2018), "The Moon" (Hal0, 2022), and "Dancing Shadow" the latest single from the new album, all followed.
The back half of the set was punctuated with "Death of a King" (Under the Red Cloud, 2015), "Black Winter Day" (1994's Tales From the Thousand Lakes); this deep cut gets the biggest cheer from the crowd. "House of Sleep" (Eclipse, 2006) preceded the final song of the night for Amorphis, "The Bee" (Queen of Time).
The support acts successfully fulfilled their brief with the assembled Wolverhampton crowd more than warmed up and eagerly anticipating the arrival of the headline act.
The history of Sweden's very own Arch Enemy is both long and storied, releasing their 12th studio album, Blood Dynasty, earlier this year, this tour marks the next chapter in that story.
The lights dimmed and the audience held their breath as Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon" began to play. Starting the show from behind a "Pure Fucking Metal" curtain, illuminated with silhouettes of the band as the opening drum fill from "Deceiver, Deceiver" (Deceivers, 2022) played, the curtain finally dropped, and the show started proper with a bang and a tone of intensity that carried on for the next eighty-five minutes. The (sadly less than capacity) Wolverhampton crowd were in for a real treat. The set was only minutes old before the first wave of crowd surfers made their way over the barrier.
Arch Enemy
The opening shots included "Ravenous" (Wages of Sin, 2001) and "Dream Stealer". The titular track of the new album, "Blood Dynasty", followed , as wel as "War Eternal" (from 2014's War Eternal) and "My Apocalypse" (Doomsday Machine, 2005); each one seemingly a sonic punch to the chest.
The set had built in intensity to this point when popular single from the new album, "Illuminate the Path" (Blood Dynasty), was played, which saw Alissa White-Gluz wielding the big Arch Enemy flag that was usually reserved for "Under Black Flags We March", but that song was missing from tonight's setlist.
Alissa gave the audience a moment to compose themselves, asking by way of cheers how many Arch Enemy shows the crowd had previously been to, and this somehow devolved into some sort of auction (big up Mark in the front row, tonight was his sixteenth Arch Enemy gig).
The final dip into the newest album for the evening, "Liars & Thieves", saw the biggest circle pit of the night, and a duo of tracks from Will to Power (2017): "The Eagle Flies Alone", which started with a very impressive drum solo from Daniel Erlandsson, and was then followed by "First Day in Hell", which saw the Wolverhampton crowd oblige to Alissa's request to "bang your fucking heads".
Arch Enemy
"Sunset Over the Empire" (Deceivers, 2022) saw a very respectable wall of death from the audience. "No Gods, No Masters" (Khao Legions, 2011) had the entire crowd bouncing along to the beat. "Avalanche" (War Eternal, 2014) was the big booming finish that saw mic stands lifted into the air in triumph.
The initial part of the set was at an end, but the crowd were not happy. They wanted more, chanting "Nemesis, Nemesis, Nemesis".
Michael Ammott and Joey Concepcion emerged back onto the stage and conducted some sort of 6-string duel to "Snowbound" (Wages of Sin, 2001), pinching harmonics all over the place; the two guitarists were eventually joined by Sharlee D'Angelo and Daniel Erlandsson to round out the instrumental.
When Alissa finally retook the stage, she proclaimed, "One for all, all for one, we are one, NEMESIS". The crowd got their wish and absolute carnage unfolded as the band burst into the breakout hit from 2005's Doomsday Machine.
The final...final song of the night was a deep cut, all the way back to the very beginning: "Fields of Desolation" from 1996's debut, Black Earth. A sea of large red and black balloons rained down on the audience from the upper balcony, and before you knew it, ears slightly ringing, we all shuffled back out into the bleak evening.
The Blood Dynasty tour heads back to mainland Europe with dates through to the middle of November.
