The 400 Project

Tired of listening to the same old heavy metal bands full of sweaty dudes chugging chords, screaming death wishes, and breaking it up with eerie sounding melodic choruses? Maybe you’re looking for something with a woman’s touch? Or maybe it’s been a while since you’ve watched some interesting music videos that may or may not have anything to do with the song they’re about?

Cue Amaranthe, a Swedish heavy metal band whose motif is intertwining three main singers into heavy metal pop synth-ness that is only defined as Amaranthe. Balancing three styles of singing can be a tricky task but somehow they do it extremely well. Heavy guitar riffs, double kick, solos, all with synth in toe. Musically it would seem they are just another metal band. Screaming is at home on the tracks and it even make sense when Jake’s clean vocals come in but intertwined with Elize’s powerful female voice, it’s something else. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s nice to look at. The music videos showcase the entire band, however they are not shy of holding the majority of the limelight on Elise. You can see how she’s come from a dance background through some of the videos in her performance.

I’ve ordered these music videos from oldest to newest in terms of albums and track order.

Hunger – Amaranthe (self-titled)

Set up like a movie more than a music video (I wonder if they actually got Universal’s permission for that). It seems some of the band members are captured by men in suits, beat up and left in a warehouse. Cue the other band members who are elsewhere in the world, playing violin or riding on a private jet to save the day. Just like that it’s time for an epic ‘cool guys (and girl) don’t look at explosions’.

Amaranthine – Amaranthe (self-titled)

Probably their most popular ‘slow’ song (they don’t have too many in the early years). Who would’ve thought a well placed scream in the bridge would work so well in this song, right before an Olaf solo of course. Not much to talk about here in terms of craziness in the video, mostly a performance in front of lights but does include some emotional floor dancing by Elize in the beginning.

The Nexus – The Nexus

Arguably their most popular song. I believe they held this one until the encore at the concert I attended. This time the video is in some military compound, but does include an escape again. Silly Amaranthe getting themselves captured all the time (this time after 57 years of cryo sleep). Jake is dreadless now and they’ve added some choreographed fighting in this vid. Actually pretty impressive stuff considering this is for a swedish metal band’s music video.

Drop Dead Cynical – Massive Addictive

When I was introduced to Amaranthe this was their latest album at the time. This album featured a new vocalist Henrik for the screaming role of the band as Andreas left sometime before. The video is focused around a boxing match with more pyrotechnics than you can shake a stick at.

Boomerang – Maximalism

Their latest vid just dropped at the end of January for their new album MAXMIMALISM. The video features yet another escape, but with a twist! Olaf had the key the entire time and they had an ulterior motive. Amaranthe is serious about their music videos. They should also sell those custom A glasses somewhere.

However even from this video you can tell somethings a bit off. Where’s Jake? You can hear him but he’s actually not in the video.

One thing Amaranthe have never lacked is flare. Three singers jumping and energizing the crowd while the guitar and bass shred behind them, it’s definitely a sight to see. When I saw them in concert Elize would rotate her outfit like a metal guitarist switches his drop tuned guitar. At the time they had someone else step in for Jake’s vocals for the tour. It’s sad to see that recently Jake has officially stepped down from the clean vocals. Resources say he sees the band is going in a direction he doesn’t quite agree with. (It has taken a turn for the pop side and even their latest album was mostly Elize taking over). Their earlier years had the sweet spot of metal, pop, and just something else you couldn’t put your finger on. It seems the balance is off kilter a bit and once something looses it’s balance it’s a lot harder to retain it. Here’s hoping they see that something isn’t quite the same and rediscover it. Perhaps they’ll evolve into a great duel singer band like many others. Their trio vocalists seemed to be one of the main things that made Amaranthe, Amaranthe to me however.

What do you guys think? Did Jake make the right choice? How do you like their latest album?