Armageddon – “Captivity And Devourment” [Album Review]

Armageddon is the brainchild of former Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott and has been knocking around as a studio project since the late nineties. However, with Anott vacating his post for the Swedish metal titans, it seems he has more time to concentrate on Armageddon, or so the release of this new album would have you imagine.

Following on from three releases (the last, Three, harking back to 2003), Captivity And Devourment is an album of two personalities. On the one side there is the brutal, unrelenting thrash aired on songs like “Thanatron” which, unsurprisingly, treads a similar path to the one well worn by his former bandmates in Arch Enemy. In fact, it has to be said that there are many moments like that, where you feel you’re listening to something from the impressive back catalogue of his previous band. On the other side, there are the moments during tracks like “Fugitive Dust” where Armageddon spread their collective wings as they explore a sound more akin to a sci-fi movie. All in all, it makes for a dramatic, powerful-sounding album and one that has more in the tank than just brute-force, metallic thrash.

With Amott free of his responsibilities in Arch Enemy and now concentrating more on Armageddon, fans of the band will surely be hoping that, not only will there be more activity from the group, but also that Amott and the rest of Armageddon now have the time to put something together that really matches the grandiose, dramatic music should live dates start to get booked.

Track Listing:

01. Captivity And Devourment
02. Locked In
03. Rendition
04. Fugitive Dust
05. Conquer
06. Thanatron
07. Background Radiation
08. The Watcher
09. Equalizer
10. Giants

Run Time: 45:00
Release Date: January 26, 2015

Check out the song “The Watcher”