Arch Enemy’s re-recording of the song “Pilgrim” is available for free download so I cannot miss an occasion like this. Pilgrim is my number one song from this band; it dates from their early days when it was first recorded with singer Johan Liiva – available on YouTube in a nice live bootleg version – the vocal duties on the new version being handled by Angela Gossow. What can I say, I’ll stick to the old Pilgrim for mainly two reasons. The modern day Arch Enemy is a vicious bundle of devastating riffs thrown out with surgical precision in the detriment of the melodic line while the old Arch Enemy was a breath of fresh air in the Melodic Death Metal scene with a particular inclination towards catchy melodic lines with enhanced nuance and emotional depth. Johan Liiva’s sometimes exhausted Death Metal grunts contributed a great deal to the emotional side of the songs in absolute contrast to Angela Gossow’s perfectly balanced and highly technical vocal attacks. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy Arch Enemy today, I do, but I would never trade the chorus on Pilgrim sung by Johan Liiva for any other Arch Enemy song out there.
Pilgrim man – What are you searching for?
Believe the tales when everything else fails
Pilgrim man – Deep in your heart you know
Your faith is already bought and sold