Album Review: Amaranthe - Helix

There has always been a fight as to whether metal and pop can coexist. The latter term has been thrown around for decades as a slur in metal circles, because there are a lot of metal fans who are wildly insecure about something I won't speculate on, and have to deride anything that isn't all heavy all the time. For those of us who are more enlightened, the fusion of the two sounds is something that serves as a grand experiment; can we take the most mainstream of sounds, combine it with the most underground, and manage to please the majority? I don't know what the answer to that is, since I consider myself a bit odd when it comes to such things, but Amaranthe has been trying to prove their point. With four albums under their belt already, they are at the forefront of metal's pop infection.

As always, Amaranthe provides us a mixture of Gothenburg melodic death metal and electronic pop. I know how that sounds, but there is a logical way it fits together. Modern pop music, with its programmed percussion and electronic bleeps and bloops, is entirely based on establishing rhythms. So to is the chugging nature of modern heavy metal, where riffs are often about establishing patterns of notes that have no melody, but plenty of percussive force. In that way, the two genres are more alike than you would think, and serve as a natural basis for Amaranthe's sound.

That approach has a downside; namely that if you don't have a mathematical mind to follow and memorize the patterns, the instrumentals of the songs blend into one long string of chugging notes. The first three tracks here fall into that category. The riffs are all so simple and a-melodic that the only thing separating the tracks is the vocal melody. That is helped by the fact Amaranthe is capable of delivering strong hooks, but a bit more separation would certainly be welcome.

"Helix" is a tight album that wastes no time getting from one sticky chorus to another. If metal can often be like trying to get the wiggling bait on the hook, Amaranthe is fishing with dynamite. They are relentless in delivering catchy songs, giving you little time to breathe before the next chorus punches you in the gut again. None of the twelve tracks here even reach the four minute mark, and that's a wise decision. They know what they want to deliver, and their brevity keeps them focused on those goals. Their actual music wouldn't serve for being drawn out in five-minute increments, so playing by the structure of radio pop is smart.

The differences between the tracks comes down to the little details, like whether there are a few more harsh vocals (such as the title track), or how much the electronics are placed in front of or behind the guitars. Yes, it would be fair to say the record is a bit samey throughout, but I don't consider that a criticism. If you have a sound that works, there's nothing wrong with delivering a forty-minute record that keeps its foot on the gas. I said the same thing recently about the identical criticism leveled against Pale Waves, and I'm saying it again here. It's one thing to do exactly the same thing album after album for an entire career, but within the context of one record, I don't mind it at all.

Anything I can say about one song can be said about them all, so I won't try to pick out highlights. "Helix" is a remarkably consistent album that shows how pop and metal are not so different after all. Amaranthe has managed to make music that is heavy, aggressive, sleek, and catchy all at the same time. That's a pretty good achievement, and even if there are a lot of metal fans who will never give them credit, we need to take note and respect what they have done. "Helix" is the metal smoke bomb that shows we all like pop music more than we let on. Easily a recommendation from me.