Amaranthe

Amaranthe started life under another name. Guitarist Olof Mörck, of Dragonland and Nightrage, and Joacim "Jake E" Lundberg, of Dreamland and Dream Evil, built the project in Gothenburg, and it took real shape once singers Elize Ryd, who had toured with Kamelot, and Andreas Solveström signed on, along with drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen. They were Avalanche until May 2009, when legal trouble forced a rename, and bassist Johan Andreassen of Engel slotted in before the debut album was cut.

The hook, and it's a good one, is three lead vocalists stacked over a mash of metalcore, power metal, melodic death metal and dance-floor pop. The self-titled debut in April 2011 climbed to 35th in Sweden and 16th in Finland, and The Nexus followed in March 2013, the year Henrik Englund Wilhelmsson stepped into Solveström's spot.

Massive Addictive, from 2014, is the band at full gloss, and "Drop Dead Cynical" is its pounding, electro-charged centerpiece: chugging riffs and a sugar-rush chorus fight it out, and somehow both win. Ryd has stayed put through the lineup shuffles since, with Nils Molin and later Mikael Sehlin taking turns at the microphone beside her.

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