Review by Saxy S for Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty (2025)

Arch Enemy return in 2025 with Blood Dynasty and I find myself rather impressed by what's on display here. For starters, when I reviewed Deceivers a few years ago, I heavily criticized it for its lack of originality. To me, Deceivers sounded liked a greatest hits compilation instead of a new album. In 2025, Arch Enemy are at least putting in some much asked about effort. Blood Dynasty shows off a full range of emotions throughout the runtime and it does lead to success...most of the time. It took a while for me to start enjoying the record since the opener "Dream Stealer" has an aura of progressive songwriting as it quickly modulates back-and-forth between about three different ideas that do not compliment one another. "Illuminate the Path" was a little better, but Alissa White-Gluz's clean singing comes out of nowhere and the whole track loses momentum after that. "March of the Miscreants" is when the album picks up and Arch Enemy do a solid enough job of keeping that intensity up until the final moments. Songs like "Vivre Libre" are better constructed for Alissa's clean singing, while "Paper Tiger" takes liberties from classic hard rock/heavy metal. And while it might sound extremely goofy at first, after the second or third listen, I really enjoyed it as a fully developed interlude. 

While nothing on this album screams at me (besides Alissa herself I guess) that Arch Enemy are going above and beyond in the world of melodic death metal, I cannot deny that Blood Dynasty is quite a bit of fun. It still sounds like Arch Enemy, but it isn't status quo Arch Enemy in the same way that Will To Power and Deceivers were, and I greatly appreciate that.

Best Songs: March of the Miscreants, Blood Dynasty, Paper Tiger, A Million Suns