Arch Enemy - The Civic Hall Wolverhampton - 30th October 2025

It was an eerily quiet night in Wolverhampton, though it being the night before Halloween may have something to do with that and with the early door time of 5pm, I assumed others were still to come after work. Arch Enemy would be kicking off the UK leg of their Blood Dynasty tour, but more on the attendance later.

Opening the show was Gatecreeper, raw American death metal that punched hard into the crowd, setting an aggressive tone for what was to come. Next up was Eluveitie, the Swiss folk-metal outfit whose blend of melodic hooks, folk instrumentation and brutal metal grooves offered a nice contrast, with many flute solos and an electric harp, their reception was highly welcomed as when they took their bow, you’d have thought they had been the headliner of the night. Then Amorphis took the stage: the Finnish melodic death-metal veterans delivered a mature, atmospheric set, a pleasant surprise for the evening and a band I will be checking out more of.

Arch Enemy’s time was soon, and somehow there seemed to be fewer people than there were earlier, where was everybody? Having said that, those who showed up carried the energy of a sold-out crowd. From the moment the band took to the stage, the circle pits opened up, and on the bright side, there was more space to make bigger pits.

From opener 'Deceiver, Deceiver' onwards, Arch Enemy wasted no time. The dual‐guitar avalanche from founding member Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis was as sharp and calculated as ever, and frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz commanded the stage with intensity. Her growls, screams and occasional cleaner vocals all delivered with clarity and power. The band’s live form continues to demonstrate why they remain among melodic death-metal’s heavy hitters.

Alissa took the time to interact with the crowd, gauging how many times people had seen the band live (which, as Alissa jokingly said, became like an auction). The winner came from a guy named Mark, who had seen them an impressive 16 times over the years.

Songs like 'Ravenous', 'Dream Stealer', 'Blood Dynasty' and 'War Eternal' were major highlights where the tempo never slackened, the riffs pounded and the crowd responded in kind. 'My Apocalypse' and 'Illuminate the Path' gave the band a chance to dig into newer material, and the mix of the old school and the fresh kept the set dynamic.

When they launched into 'Liars & Thieves', 'The Eagle Flies Alone' and 'First Day in Hell', the energy peaked, circle-pits were established even more so, and you could sense the audience completely engaged albeit fewer in numbers than expected. As the set moved into 'Sunset Over the Empire', 'No Gods, No Masters' and 'Avalanche', the band showed off their more mature songwriting and power-metal‐scale hooks without sacrificing ferocity.

The encore saw 'Snow Bound' and then the inevitable 'Nemesis', always a crowd-pleaser with its anthem-level chorus, before closing on 'Fields of Desolation'.

Overall, while the turn out may have been underwhelming, that didn't matter. The night delivered both spectacle and substance, high technical musicianship, commanding vocals, tight rhythm section and the kind of energy that lifts a show from 'good' to 'memorable'.