I was super excited for this lineup, as I am a huge fan of both bands. Arch Enemy is currently on an extensive tour in support of War Eternal, their best album in years, and Kreator is one of my all time favorite bands and always an electrifying live act. Plus, I was taking my 12-year-old son and we always have a blast together at shows.

My excitement was compounded by the fact that I had been offered an opportunity to interview Arch Enemy mastermind Michael Amott before the show.

The NYC Doom Crew set out for a fine night of metal on October 24, 2014 to see Kreator and Arch Enemy live at the Best Buy theater in New York, NY. The venue is on the “fancy” side where security and ushers there will tell you to “enjoy the show” upon arrival and to “have a nice night” as you depart. There’s plenty of standing room around the stage and then one small level up, with stadium general admission seating all the way the back. And the sound – it’s fantastic. While it’s not the kind of place you’d expect a metal tour like this one to fit right into to, but thankfully it did. (I’ve seen other metal shows there, and those too were a good fit.)

California’s Huntress was the opener band for this stop on this North America, and while I was really looking forward to seeing them, I unfortunately just missed their set. (Check out their latest album, Starbound Beast.) German metal titans Kreator, who released the live album Dying Alive last year, were the direct support for headliners Arch Enemy, touring for latest effort War Eternal, their first album with new singer Alissa White-Gluz.

Metal’s Arch Enemy is halfway through their headlining tour of North America supporting their latest effort War Eternal, their first album with singer Alissa White-Gluz.

As a treat for the fans, the band has released a live video for “As The Pages Burn,” a track from their new album. Check it out here below.

To coincide with the launch of their North America tour this week, metal titans Arch Enemy and Kreator have done a limited-edition split 7-inch single.

For the single, Arch Enemy, who are supporting their new album, War Eternal, did a cover of the Judas Priest classic “Breaking The Law.” Kreator is on the B side with “Iron Destiny” for the latest studio album Phantom Antichrist.

Revolver debuted Arch Enemy’s cover of the Priest tune — listen to it here below.

Long-time fans of Arch Enemy were alarmed when the band’s iconic vocalist Angela Gossow announced this past April that she would be leaving the band. Gossow released a statement saying that she would be staying on as the band’s business managerm but would be “passing the torch to the super talented Alissa White-Gluz, whom I’ve known as a dear friend and a superb vocalist for many years. I always thought she deserved a chance to shine – and now she’s getting it. Just like I got that chance back in 2001.”

White-Gluz had been the singer of Canadian metal band The Agonist for ten years prior where she applied her wide vocal range across a broad spectrum from raw gutturals to beautiful and pristine clean singing. Arch Enemy fans were concerned that the new singer’s presence would mark a shift towards the lighter fare.

Those concerns were eased only days after Gossow’s announcement when the band dropped the video for the bruising title track of their tenth studio album, War Eternal.

Watch the official video for “War Eternal” here below.