Armageddon

Armageddon emerged as an outlet for Swedish guitarist Christopher Amott to pursue outside of his primary commitments to Arch Enemy, the group he co-leads alongside his sibling Michael, formerly of Carcass. The project delivers rapid, thrash-rooted heavy metal laced with contemporary death and black metal influences, much in the vein of Arch Enemy itself. Its debut arrived in 1997 under the title Crossing the Rubicon and included vocalist Jonas Nyren alongside bassist Martin Bengtsson and drummer Peter Wildoer. Both Bengtsson and Wildoer had logged brief stints with Arch Enemy, contributing to the 1998 release Stigmata, so Amott’s decision to enlist the band’s Daniel Erlandsson on drums for Armageddon’s long-delayed follow-up, Embrace the Mystery, felt consistent. That 2000 album further incorporated vocalist Rickard Bengtsson and bassist Dick Lowgren, both drawn from Last Tribe, although neither remained when the band issued its third record, simply titled Three, in 2002. On that effort Amott assumed vocal duties while recruiting bassist Tobias Gustafsson from Eucharist to complete the lineup.