Do they not think this tour would do huge business outside of Japan?

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/black- ... announced/

BLACK EARTH — the project featuring former and current members of ARCH ENEMY performing material from ARCH ENEMY's first three albums live on stage — will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the "Burning Bridges" LP with a Japanese tour in May 2019.

BLACK EARTH is:

Michael Amott - guitar
Christopher Amott - guitar
Johan Liiva - vocals
Daniel Erlandsson - drums
Sharlee D'Angelo - bass

BLACK EARTH completed its first Japanese tour in May 2016.

ARCH ENEMY recorded three albums with Liiva: "Black Earth" (1996), "Stigmata" (1998) and "Burning Bridges" (1999).

Liiva was replaced by German singer Angela Gossow as ARCH ENEMY's lead vocalist in 2000. Gossow exited the band in 2013 and was succeeded by former THE AGONIST frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz, while remaining as the group's manager.

Christopher Amott first left ARCH ENEMY in 2005, only to return to the group two years later. His second, and apparently final, departure came in March 2012.

....

Liiva said that it is highly unlikely BLACK EARTH will work on new, original music anytime soon. "There are no plans for any album at the moment because of various reasons," he said. "The other guys are very busy with ARCH ENEMY, Chris has his life in the USA and me being busy at my work. Also, this is more like a project that we enjoy and have a lot of fun doing together. Still, ARCH ENEMY is priority number one and to do something like this would mean it to get more serious. But who knows what will happen in the future."

Cool, all we need now is the eventual Carnage reunion.

As noted in the linked article, this isn't exactly new-they already did this in 2016. In fact, there was a live album released only in Japan in 2017 (which makes me curious if that alone qualifies this for a page on the Archives as a side project).

I would not hold out hope for any new material, and I'm sure there are reasons (possibly legal/contractual) that prevent this from touring the rest of the world.

How? I would guess they go wherever they are paid to go.

Also all of the "Japan Only" versions of albums, that include bonus tracks. Not the only band to do this. Does anyone know whats so special about the Japanese audience?

It has something to do with higher import prices for CDs and such if I'm not mistaken.

Just spitballing. Speculative on my end. Maybe CM doesn’t want market conflict with the current Arch Enemy in those territories?

They actually buy records.

Domestic CD prices are incredibly high in Japan - a new CD will typically run you $20-30. Bonus tracks (as well as often including a second booklet with translated lyrics and liner notes by a Japanese writer) are an incentive to buy the Japanese release rather than getting a cheaper import.

As for why the Black Earth project sticks to Japan, I suspect they just think that's where their audience is.

Maybe it's the case that this band only started selling records when they appealed to the "wow, it's a girl who can growl" morons?

AE is ridiculously big in Japan. There are tribute bands in almost every major city, it seems like.

From what I recall reading, Arch Enemy is the most successful Scandinavian melodeath band to ever go to Japan. They have more fans, sold out shows and album sales than the lot of them. For that reason, Japan has always been a "special place" for the band according to Michael Amott.

They think it probably won't do ANY business outside of Japan.

Michael Amott has stated in the past that when Arch Enemy started out, Japan was really the only place that cared about them. Apparently Black Earth became massively successful in Japan and the fanfare them was responsible for getting them into the spotlight.



EDIT: I guess it doesn't necessarily explain why Japan-only, so my only answer to that is that in the article Amott describes the reasoning behind the tour as "100% nostalgia". Besides, since Johan and Chris aren't really in the big business anymore the band is probably happier taking this small scale. Also, this was originally done to coincide with the 20th anniversary of some big Japanese rock festival.

Source: http://bravewords.com/features/arch-ene ... -nostalgia



Probably not. You can interpret it as if they're covering Arch Enemy songs. It's not original material under this name, even if it's their material, so it probably won't count. It'd be cool if this group made new material again though.

Didn't God Seed have a live album that was Gorgoroth songs? They got a page with that prior to them releasing an album of their own.

I just wish at least the cd got released over here too; I'd be interested to hear that set.

That is true. Even more bizarre about that God Seed live album is that it was recorded when they were using the name Gorgoroth during the name dispute in 2008, and had to be retconned under the name God Seed for release 3-4 years after the show took place (without any Infernus penned songs). I cannot recall from that time period if that band had a page on the basis of that live album alone, or if it was due to the full length released 9 months later the same year (side note: this full length remains an outstanding listen and easily crushes the two albums released by Infernus after the name dispute was resolved).

I mean, I have no dog in the hunt on this whole Black Earth being on the Archives thing, I was essentially thinking out loud.

(seconded on the God Seed album being great)

I'm with your line of thinking though, as their page was created in January 2012 where only that live album could have existed at that point. The single and album weren't announced until September. So they had to have been accepted based on a live album alone. You may have been thinking out loud, but it was accurate.

Anyway, AE were always best as this incarnation in my view. Great melodic death that got dumbed down hard as the years went by.

That's why I'd be interested to hear it. This is the most interested I've felt in AE in years.
I liked the first two albums with Angela but since Doomsday Machine it's been a long way down.

Here you go.

Maybe not quite what you are looking for (it seems you'd like to get your hands on the actual CD), but should nonetheless serve to give you a taste.

Every band with a divided fan base should do this. How does it hurt to play some shows every so often and satisfy your fan base? It can't be THAT much extra work.

So many bands are looking for extra revenue streams ... well here you go.

Even Fates Warning eventually wised up and went this route.

I was indeed talking about purchasing a physical copy, but I really appreciate your kind gesture all the same

Anytime, of course.

For all the talk over the years of Liiva being a shitty live performer, he doesn't sound too bad here.

At least Michael still has some charisma and stage presence. Johan does too. Chris, on the other hand, is a horrific live performer. He plays everything perfectly but with zero energy. It brings the show down.

This is great to see, just when you thought Ammott & co were all about the female growler gimmick nowadays.
They sound better than ever on 20 Years Of Dark Insanity IMO, even Liiva's vocals seem improved somehow. Chris always on point as usual. It would be great if they kept this up or maybe even wrote new material although unlikely.

Liiva has always been adequate for this job; Arch Enemy never were a vocal-centric band. I liked Angela before they started piling all sorts of studio trickery on her voice to mask its deterioration but I never thought her arrival marked *that* much of an improvement.