Doomsday Machine by Arch Enemy

Doomsday Machine, Arch Enemy's sixth studio album, arrived on Century Media in 2005 as the Swedish melodic death metal outfit's third outing with German singer Angela Gossow up front. Andy Sneap mixed it, and the record hits like a steel press: Michael and Christopher Amott trading razor-edged guitar lines, Sharlee D'Angelo and Daniel Erlandsson hammering the low end, and Gossow roaring over the top with a throat full of gravel.

"Nemesis" is the one that stuck, a battle cry that still turns up on countdowns. The album opened at number 87 on the Billboard 200 on 12,000 copies, respectable business for music this extreme, and had passed 65,000 in the US by the following spring. Christopher Amott quit shortly after the sessions wrapped, though he came back two years later.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.