Even on a day when Michael Amott is seriously sleep deprived, the confidence the flame-haired, soft-spoken guitar hero has in his body of work and his band still comes through loud and clear in every carefully considered word. After playing Japan’s Loud Park Festival this past October, he and the rest of Arch Enemy caught an early morning flight to Taipei the following day, returning to play to their rapidly growing fan base on the island two years since their first visit with but a few precious moments of sleep snuck in here and there. Before their blistering performance, a bleary-eyed yet remarkably coherent Amott talked to Fight magazine about Arch Enemy’s latest album, The Root of All Evil, a disc comprised of re-recordings of songs originally done with the band’s first vocalist, Johan Liiva, this time with the razor-edged vocals of Angela Gossow, and what goes into each Arch Enemy release.

Fight: For the new album, The Root of All Evil, what led to your decision to re-record the old songs?

Michael Amott: Well we’ve had the idea for a few years. Originally it came from the fans, actually. We thought it would be kind of cool one day when we have the time. We found ourselves with a month or two off at the beginning of this year and we just went in and did it. It was quite easy in a way, because the music was already written. It was just a matter of picking the songs that we wanted to do.

F: How did you select the songs that went on the album?

MA: Well there were certain songs we thought we can’t really go there because we wanted to add something that kind of represents who Arch Enemy are now, not record some of the stuff that was way different to what we do now. It was just making one record out of three records, basically, which was a little bit difficult in a way. There were some songs that some members wanted to play and somebody else didn’t want to do them. But we worked it out.

F: Given the fact that Arch Enemy is so active all the time, has there ever been any talk of taking a break to recharge the creative batteries?

MA: Yeah, we’ve talked about it. But I don’t think anybody really wants to take a break. We’re just having a great time. We control our own schedule. We just do the stuff we want to do. We’re self managed, own our own recordings. We record when we want to record and license it to our business partners around the world. We book our shows and tours when we want to do them.

F: A few years back Angela said in an interview that she would actually make more money being on welfare in Germany than she did being in Arch Enemy. Is it more financially viable these days?

MA: Yes it is. Well, the live thing has been much better for us. When we started we went out there and we just wanted to establish ourselves as a live act and doing a lot of support tours. We’ve done tours all around the world with Iron Maiden, Slayer, Megadeth; we supported all these big, great bands. They’re not well-paid gigs but they’re very great from the perspective of promoting the band. So we had a long build-up, and now we’re reaping the benefits.

F: You seem to have a knack for writing very anthemic death metal songs that the crowd can really scream along with the chorus and things like that. When you are writing new material is that something you’re striving for?

MA: Not really; that stuff is always hit and miss. We go out and play live and some songs really work and some songs take you by surprise. You never know what people will like. That’s the great thing about music. It can still surprise you.  

F: So you like being surprise like that.

MA: Oh yeah. Mostly when I write music I have no set formula at all. I’m completely one hundred percent self-taught. I just mess around till I come up with stuff that sounds good in my ears. I like the freedom of just being able to do whatever you want to do with music.

F: The lyrics are also often very empowering for people. Are you guys conscious of the impact the lyrics might have on your fans when you write them?

MA: We always wanted Arch Enemy to be that kind of band that would more unify people than separate them. I mean, we all love the same thing. OK, some people love Cannibal Corpse and hate Arch Enemy or some people love Arch Enemy and hate Cannibal Corpse. But really we’re part of the same scene, somehow. Personally, I like both bands. I like everything from really hard rock stuff to grindcore and stuff like that. I like the whole spectrum of metal, hard rock and metal. That’s what the idea with Arch Enemy was, musically, to combine those two worlds.
Lyrically, I guess, especially Angela likes to have these kind of lyrics that are very…she just writes these lyrics how she interprets the music. And I usually come up with quite anthemic melodies like “Nemesis” and stuff like that. I guess she just writes what fits. The music always comes first, and then she writes the lyrics to fit the music.

F: You guys were hugely popular in Japan before anywhere else. Is that still the best place for you to play?

MA: This record we’ve just put out, I really didn’t expect it to do very well anywhere because it’s not really brand new songs. But it’s done extremely well in Japan already in its first two weeks. It’s outsold what many metal bands do in…ever. People ask me, ‘Why do they like the band so much?’ We don’t really want to analyze it too much. You don’t really want to know exactly why. I think they appreciate the combination of speed, aggression, and melody that we have. They tend to like good guitar players. They love their guitar heroes.

F: You mentioned all the different elements that go into Arch Enemy. Are you consciously trying to bring different elements into your style?

MA: Maybe subconsciously. We just play everything that we like. In the band we have quite a broad spectrum of stuff that we’re all into. Our common ground would be more like Judas Priest, and also death metal stuff like Death and Morbid Angel. We kind of have elements of death metal but I would never call us a melodic death metal band because I think we go beyond that in a way.

F: You’ve toured with many different types of bands.

MA: The thing is with Arch Enemy we’ve been able to get really great responses from Slayer’s crowd, from Iron Maiden’s crowd, Megadeth’s crowd, Cradle of Filth’s crowd. When we played with Iron Maiden, people were like, ‘Whoa, the vocals are a bit much for me.’ But after a few songs they were like ‘Well actually it’s great musicianship.’ And then the other way around; some people say it’s not extreme enough, but then they have to respect it. We’re kind of a crossover band in that sense.

F: Are you satisfied with your place in the metal community now?

MA: Personally I’m very satisfied. I’m playing exactly the kind of music that I want to play with exactly the people I want to play with. I’ve made zero compromises in my career. It’s always been the way I wanted it to be, which I don’t think a lot of bands can say that. That’s the beautiful thing about metal; it’s just so hardcore. That’s what attracted me to it, I guess. It’s no-bullshit music.

Our position in the metal scene…there are bigger bands and there are smaller bands. I guess we’re kind of at the top somewhere if you look at the worldwide picture. We can tour successfully all over the whole world. That’s also another great thing about underground metal is there’s a worldwide metal scene, which can’t be said for every style of music.

F: You mentioned before that you guys have been writing some new songs. How are they shaping up?

MA: A little bit too early to say. We’re pretty excited about them. We’ve been rehearsing some things that I’ve written and everyone seems excited by those ideas. Chris has got some ideas and Daniel has some stuff. When we find the time we’re gonna slowly start making demos and pre-producing a bit.

F: Is there any timeline for the next album?

MA: We’ve booked ourselves into a bit of a mess touring wise so I guess we’re gonna be maybe recording next year, fall, put it out 2011. But that could change if we get a sudden spur of creativity. That’s the kind of goal we set for ourselves, to put out a record in 2011.