ARMAGEDDON Featuring Former ARCH ENEMY Guitarist CHRISTOPHER AMOTT: 'Captivity & Devourment' Artwork Unveiled

The cover artwork for "Captivity & Devourment", the new album from ARMAGEDDON, the band led by former ARCH ENEMY guitarist Christopher Amott, can be seen below. Visual master Paolo Girardi created this oil painting after reading the album lyrics and story written by ARMAGEDDON bassist Sara Claudius. The group states: "He took his own inspiration and painted a scene of total destruction as described across the album. We thoroughly enjoyed our collaboration with him. We strictly did not want the uninspired digital photoshop album art that is so prevalent these days. This is hand painted visions of a man inspired by music."

ARMAGEDDON first came to life in Sweden in 1997 as a studio project, with the release of "Crossing The Rubicon", a sci-fi themed concept album. Two more full-length efforts followed, "Embrace The Mystery" in 2000 and "Three" in 2003, both featuring different lineups and different musical directions, with Amott as the sole remaining original member.

ARMAGEDDON is now resurrected in its most powerful form. The band is based out of New York City, and has brought unto itself a crushing lineup of musicians. Together they have once again conjured up the force that is ARMAGEDDON.

Due later in the year, "Captivity & Devourment" consists of 10 awe-inspiring and ingeniously crafted songs, full of devastating riffs, soaring guitar leads and fist-pumping choruses. Heavy, melodic, technical, and groovy, this is creative metal songwriting with one foot in deep in the classics and and one eye gazing towards the distant future.

ARMAGEDDON 2014 is:

Matt Hallquist - Lead Vocals
Christopher Amott - Guitar, Clean Vocals
Joey Concepcion - Guitar
Sara Claudius - Bass
Márton Veress - Drums

Amott's latest solo album, "Impulses", can be purchased directly from his music store.

Amott in March 2012 issued a statement explaining that he left ARCH ENEMY to pursue his solo career. He said, "I'm gonna continue to be very active in music, working with all kinds of styles — this does not rule out metal."

ARCH ENEMY recruited American guitarist Nick Cordle (ARSIS) to replace Christopher.

Christopher Amott started his career in music in 1995 as a founding creative force and guitarist in ARCH ENEMY. In this context, he is known for his tastefully technical guitar work and memorably emotive playing style.

After garnering his early success, Christopher had the desire to express himself on a personal level in the same genre. At this time he began writing albums under the name ARMAGEDDON. Christopher wrote and recorded three albums over the next few years as ARCH ENEMY grew into an internationally recognized act, with his compositions featuring his own vocal stylings on the last album. This would be Christopher's first foray into singing and a spark of inspiration for his later musical ventures.

In 2008, Christopher began to consider his creative options as a mature musician. He began writing songs of an entirely different atmosphere, which saw his guitar playing focused less on technical ecstasy and more on a chord-based blues rock ambience as a foundation for more prominent vocal and lyrical ideas. These compositions developed into his next solo project; the album would be called "Follow Your Heart", released under his own name in 2010.

Photo credit: John Fell

"Captivity & Devourment" album teaser:

"Captivity & Devourment" song audio stream: