Christopher Amott | |
|---|---|
 Amott in 2017 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Chris Amott |
| Born | 23 November 1977 Halmstad, Sweden |
| Genres | Melodic death metal, power metal, thrash metal |
| Occupation | Guitarist |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Century Media |
Christopher Amott (born 23 November 1977) is a Swedish guitarist, younger brother of Michael Amott and founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy and Armageddon. He is most recently the former guitarist for Dark Tranquillity.
Amott was born in Halmstad. Inspired by his older brother Michael's band Carcass, he began studying the guitar at 14, playing in local bands, and eventually attending music college at age 18.
While attending music school in 1996, Michael asked Christopher to record solos for his new melodic death metal project Arch Enemy. The Black Earth album was released in Japan in 1996, and received regular airplay on Japanese MTV. The band were invited to play Japan in 1997, and it was there that Christopher secured a deal for his Armageddon side project. The project began as a melodic death metal band, similar in style to Arch Enemy. Armageddon released their first album Crossing the Rubicon on W.A.R. records in 1997. The album featured Peter Wildoer and Martin Bengtsson, who would also go on to record Stigmata with Arch Enemy in 1998. The Stigmata album was again a success in Japan, and was the first Arch Enemy album to be released in the US, on Century Media records.
With Arch Enemy gaining ground worldwide, Amott would go on to release Burning Bridges and Burning Japan Live 1999 , both in 1999, then take a break until the latter part of 2000, when Armageddon released their second album Embrace the Mystery on Toy's Factory records in Japan. This time featuring a "melodic" singer, and more of an overall power metal feel, the album was a drastic shift from the straight ahead melodic death metal of Crossing the Rubicon, and marked Christopher's desire to branch out of the "extreme metal" genre. Also in 2000, he played a guitar solo on "Suburban Me" on the album Clayman with In Flames.
In 2001, Arch Enemy were joined by singer Angela Gossow, and released Wages of Sin . After completing an extensive world tour with Arch Enemy, Amott returned to his Armageddon project, and released Three in 2002 on Toy's Factory records in Japan. This time featuring Christopher on lead vocals, the album was almost purely a power metal effort, focusing on the melodic singing and guitar work of Amott.
Arch Enemy released Anthems of Rebellion in 2003, and again embarked on a world tour. In 2005, the band entered the studio to record Doomsday Machine , but immediately after the recording, Amott left Arch Enemy. He spent the next two years teaching music in Sweden, as well as attending a university. In March 2007, he announced his return to Arch Enemy as a permanent member. He re-joined the band near the end of the songwriting process for Rise of the Tyrant .
In an interview in January 2010, Amott said that he would be releasing a solo album early in the year entitled "Follow Your Heart". [1]
On 5 March 2012, Amott once again quit Arch Enemy. He cited his desire to pursue his solo career further as the main reason. He was replaced with Arsis guitarist Nick Cordle. In April 2012, he moved to New York City, United States. [2] After obtaining a green card in the beginning of 2013, he stated that he intended to record a new Armageddon record, which was planned to be released by summer 2013. [2] Amott also collaborated with Japanese pop/metal band Babymetal, providing guitars for an alternate version of their major label debut single, "Ijime, Dame, Zettai" nicknamed the "Nemesis" version (possibly named after the Arch Enemy song of the same name). [3]
In 2014, Amott began recording for the new Armageddon album with a new lineup consisting of himself, vocalist Matt Hallquist, guitarist Joey Concepcion, bassist Sara Claudius, and drummer Márton Veress. Their new album, entitled "Captivity & Devourment", is set to be released in January 2015 on Listenable Records. [4] Now enlisted Meridian Dawn/ex-Nightrage vocalist Antony Hämäläinen as their replacement for the recently departed Matt Hallquist. [5]
During Arch Enemy's North American tour in support of their album War Eternal, guitarist Nick Cordle reportedly left the band. Amott temporarily re-joined the band for the remainder of the tour, while famed guitarist Jeff Loomis (formerly of Nevermore) was announced as the official replacement and joined the band for their European tour with Kreator and subsequent events. [6]
On 10 October 2015, as part of Japan's Loud Park Festival, Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz invited special guests Amott and Johan Liiva to the stage, reuniting the Burning Bridges lineup. They would go on to perform "Bury Me an Angel" and "The Immortal", before being joined by White-Gluz and Jeff Loomis to perform "Fields of Desolation" together.
While Armageddon and Arch Enemy were touring together in Mexico 2016. Amott made a guest appearance on Arch Enemy and performed two songs, "Revolution Begins" and "Blood On Your Hands".
Starting on 23 May 2016, Amott along with the original Arch Enemy lineup reunited as Project Black Earth and made a special tour in Japan. The band performed the Black Earth album in its entirety. Songs from Stigmata and Burning Bridges were also played. The tour lasted for about a week.
In 2017 Amott joined Dark Tranquillity temporarily to help out the band with their European tour, and continued to tour with them throughout 2018 in Europe and North America. On 30 March 2020, Amott joined Dark Tranquillity, replacing original guitarist Niklas Sundin, but left the band on 23 July 2023. Amott released his third solo album Electric Twilight [7] on January 30 2020. It is largely a synthwave album, strongly contrasting with the rest of his discography.
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. It was founded by Carcass guitarist Michael Amott along with Johan Liiva, who were both originally from the death metal band Carnage. The band has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three video albums and four EPs. The band was originally fronted by Johan Liiva, who was replaced by German vocalist Angela Gossow in 2000. Gossow left the band in March 2014 to become the group's manager and was replaced by Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz.
Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates - regarded as the Gothenburg fathers in the film entitled Out of Nothing: A DT Documentary released by Century Media, which was filmed in their home town in April 2009. After a nearly three-decade long collaboration of four founding members frequent lineup changes between 2016 and 2021 have left only vocalist Mikael Stanne as an original member, together with long-time keyboardist Martin Brändström.
Michael Amott 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.
Stigmata is the second studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. The album was Arch Enemy's first to see worldwide release, in Europe and North America on Century Media Records, and in Japan again on Toy's Factory records. Stigmata features session drummer Peter Wildoer, who had also appeared in Christopher Amott's solo project Armageddon on the 1997 album Crossing the Rubicon, shortly before the recording of the album. The album was reissued on 25 May 2009, featuring a new layout, packaging, and bonus tracks. Stigmata not only contains a title track, but a track named after their previous album as well. The Sri Lankan metal band Stigmata named themselves after this album. The album was reissued again on 28 April 2023 in various formats, along with a visualiser for “Bridge of Destiny”.
Black Earth is the debut studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Released on 2 October 1996 through Wrong Again, The album was reissued on 24 April 2007 through Regain Records, featuring "Losing Faith", two Iron Maiden covers and the video for "Bury Me an Angel". The album was reissued again on 28 April 2023 in various formats, along with a visualiser for “Dark Insanity”.
Burning Bridges is the third studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It is the first Arch Enemy album to feature Sharlee D'Angelo on bass and the last studio recording to feature vocalist Johan Liiva, as well as the most recent album to featured male vocalist to date. The music here showcases the band's wide interpretation of the death metal genre to include portions of melodic death metal, progressive metal and grindcore. A music video was released for the song "The Immortal".
Nightrage is a Greek/Swedish melodic death metal band originally from Thessaloniki. They later re-located to Gothenburg, Sweden.
Doomsday Machine is the sixth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, produced by Rickard Bengtsson and mixed by Andy Sneap. It is the third album to feature the vocals of Angela Gossow. The album had some commercial success, debuting at number 87 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 12,000 copies. It had sold 65,000 copies in the United States by April 2006. Christopher Amott left the band shortly after recording the album in July 2005 but rejoined 2 years later for the songwriting sessions for Rise of the Tyrant.
Burning Japan Live 1999 is a live album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Originally released in Japan only, the album was re-released worldwide in 2000 due to fan demand.
Johan Patrik Mattias Liiva is a Swedish extreme metal vocalist, most widely recognized as the founding vocalist of melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as a former member of Carnage, Furbowl and NonExist. He is currently working as vocalist with Hearse.
Björn Tom Fredrik Nordström is a Swedish musician and record producer, best known as the guitarist of heavy metal band Dream Evil. Nordström is one of the leading melodic death metal and power metal producers in Sweden and has worked with some of said genres' top acts, including At the Gates, Arch Enemy, Nightrage, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Soilwork, Opeth, and Powerwolf.
Armageddon is a Swedish melodic death metal band, led by Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy.
Crossing the Rubicon was an album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Armageddon, released in Europe on the now defunct Wrong Again Records, and in Japan on Toy's Factory records in 1997. The album features Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy, as well as former Arch Enemy members Peter Wildoer and Martin Bengtsson. The album was only released in Japan, briefly in Europe, and is extremely hard to find.
Dick August Lövgren is a Swedish musician. He is the bass guitarist for extreme metal band Meshuggah, which he joined in 2004.
Martin Bengtsson is a Swedish metal musician. He was a key part of the influential Swedish melodic death metal scene. He was a member of the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy between 1997 and 1998, and played bass guitar on their second album, Stigmata. He was also a member of Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott's side project Armageddon in 1997. Bengtsson is currently the vocalist and lead guitarist in the heavy metal band Lechery.
Antony Hämäläinen is a Finnish extreme metal vocalist living in the United States.
The Root of All Evil is a studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, featuring re-recorded songs from the first three albums by the band—Black Earth, Stigmata, and Burning Bridges. It was released on 28 September 2009 by Century Media Records and was made available as a jewel case CD, limited edition mediabook, digital media download and LP. The album was produced by the band themselves and mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap. All songs from this album are re-recordings, with the title track being another version of the instrumental Demoniality.
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 line-up; Alissa White-Gluz took over on vocals after former long-time vocalist Angela Gossow stepped down from vocal duties to be the band's business manager. Additionally, ex-Arsis guitarist Nick Cordle replaced Christopher Amott in 2012. Cordle ultimately left the band just before their European tour and was replaced by former Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis.
Joey Concepcion is an American guitarist, best known as a member of the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, which he joined in 2023.
Deceivers is the eleventh studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. 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, marking the longest gap between two of their studio albums. It is also the second and last studio album to feature guitarist Jeff Loomis before his departure from the band in 2023.
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