Arch Enemy recently unleashed their 11th studio album, Deceivers, via Century Media Records. A collection of 11 tracks that are ruthlessly catchy and mercilessly violent, Deceivers stands toe-to-toe with the highlights of the band's storied catalogue. Roaring to life with Handshake With Hell, Arch Enemy make it clear they are out for blood, and every track is a hit, from the moody Poisoned Arrow to the titanically anthemic One Last Time. Sounding more energized than ever, the quintet is operating at the highest level, delivering a maelstrom of diamond-hard riffing wrapped around cinematic melodies, thunderous drumming and towering vocals. With Deceivers Arch Enemy have proven, yet again, that they are an unstoppable force in modern metal. 

To celebrate the release of Deceivers we caught up with guitarist and founding member of Arch Enemy, the mighty Michael Amott who gave us the inside word on five things we might not know about Deceivers. 

5 Things You Might Not Know About Arch Enemy - Deceivers with Michael Amott

1.  Pre-Pandemic Mexico Writing Sessions 

"The initial writing sessions for Deceivers took place in Mexico, myself and our drummer Daniel Erlandsson rented a house and turned it into a little studio and wrote there for a few weeks. So the first six or seven songs of the album were created in Mexico. And that was in January 2020, before the pandemic." 

2.  Competition Time

"We held a competition during the pandemic, we ran a competition where people did covers of Arch Enemy songs on various instruments. There were a lot of guitar players, drummers, and singers doing covers of Arch Enemy songs. Overall, we picked five winners. And there were also some very interesting submissions, people playing piano or people who had very different interpretations of our songs. There was one guy from Germany that played the cello beautifully, he really nailed it with his cover of an Arch Enemy song - and we ended up asking him to play on the new album. So he is actually on the new album, that was a bit of a bonus prize for him. He's on a song called Poisoned Arrow."

3.  Album Cover 

"The Deceivers album cover actually is painted by an artist called in Portland, Oregon called Alex Reisfar. When we were recording the vocals for the album, Alex asked me for reference photos, he asked if I had any reference photos for light and if I could take any photos of Alissa's face. It wasn't supposed to be her on the cover, but he wanted some reference just for how the light fell on faces. We’d discussed having different faces on the cover, so I took some photos of Alissa, and those are the references for the cover. I don’t know if people have spotted that, and all thanks to my stunning photography (laughs)."

4.  Green Screens & Stranger Things

"The video for In The Eye Of The Storm was completely shot against a green screen in Berlin, Germany. That was actually the first time we've ever done a green screen video, pure 100% green screen video. And the guy who did the CGI, all that crazy CGI stuff in the video, also worked on the latest season of Stranger Things."

5.  Spreading Black Wings

"There's a song on Deceivers called Spreading Black Wings and that song is dedicated to the memory of a friend of mine who passed away during the time when we were recording the album. He was the singer of a band called Entombed from Sweden, his name's LG Petrov. When he finally passed away, I had been in touch with him when he was sick... but when he passed away, I fine-tuned the lyrics a little bit and dedicated it to him."

Listen To Arch Enemy - Deceivers