It is a warm Monday evening in London and, believe it or not, Arch Enemy are playing at Camden’s The Underworld. The tiny (by the band’s standards) venue is where they chose to allow some 500 of their fans in the Capital a glimpse at their future. A future that is fronted by Lauren Hart.
Arch Enemy
The Underworld, Camden – 10 August 2026
Words: Bogdan Bele
Photography: Robert James Congdon
As the clock hits 7 PM, the time the doors open tonight, there is a massive queue in front of the venue. Everybody gets in, but as there is no opening act tonight, the wait until Arch Enemy takes the stage, two hours later, is quite long.
Therefore, we all talk amongst ourselves and look at the club’s tiny stage, bathed in red light, with PURE FUCKIN’ METAL written on the front heads of Daniel Erlandsson’s two bass drums.
The Arch Enemy Doomsday Machine Carries On
At 9 on the dot, the music turns louder (Motörhead’s Ace of Spades) and the band takes to the stage. First, the instrumentalists, and then new singer Lauren Hart, wearing a black outfit with a white logo, as well as the biggest smile you will ever see.
The contrast between that smile and the absolutely brutal delivery of her vocals, as well as constant headbanging, is nothing short of incredible. Those vocals prove, throughout the evening, that Arch Enemy has chosen its replacement of previous singer Alissa White-Gluz with extreme care.
Within a few seconds, the time spent waiting is a distant memory, and all of The Underworld is bouncing to Silent Wars. As Taking Back My Soul continues the evening’s entertainment, Lauren asks for a moshpit. And she gets it. Instantly, I might add.
It is quite a sight to see, as the whole venue starts to get sweatier with each song, the people on stage even more so than the crowd. The singer actually splashes the first few rows with water at times.
What we get here tonight is exactly what the billing of the tour, Back To The Root Of All Evil, promises. It serves the main purpose of introducing new recruit Lauren Hart to the Melodic Death Metal outfit’s fans, doing so in intimate settings like this one (with festival appearances added in between).
However, the setlist shows a band returning to its roots, as it is comprised mostly of classics from the Angela Gossow-fronted era, the one that most people see as the one having defined the monster that Arch Enemy is today.
Of course, the recently ended Alissa White-Gluz era, as well as the beginnings, when Johan Liiva was the one singing, are present as well, but most of the tracks come from the Gossow era. And, in my personal opinion, they seem to fit Hart’s vocals quite well.
As the evening progresses, you can not help but notice what a tight band this is. It makes perfect sense, with founder and guitarist Michael Amott and bass player Sharlee D’Angelo having been here since their 1995 beginning, and drummer Daniel Erlandsson completing one great rhythm section. Of course, the previous change to the lineup was guitarist Joey Concepcion, joining in 2023, after having subbed for Jeff Loomis a few times.
It is a fantastic Metal Machine, and the small venue only serves to make this more obvious.
Coming back to Lauren Hart joining the band, it is very obvious that the new singer is also a long-time fan. She mentions that she got into them with the 2001 Wages Of Sin album, as she introduces The First Deadly Sin from that opus.
Throughout the evening, it feels obvious that they got their choice very right. Apart from excellent singing, Hart brings a stage presence that is commanding and very sincere at the same time. The enjoyment of being on that stage and the way she appreciates what she gets back from the fans is visible.
This is a back-to-basics Metal show, with very few lights, mostly red, good use of strobe, and very good sound. It looks and sounds as if Arch Enemy is set to show everyone that they do not need anything more than that to crush everything in their way.
This impression is reinforced by the new track To The Last Breath, which I listened to quite a lot in the days following its release. However, in a live setting it is an absolute monster, augmented by that singalong chorus, during which Hart even has some very good clean vocals. It would be interesting to see if there will be more of this (rare thing for Arch Enemy) in the future.
The set simply flies by, and one would be very hard-pressed to choose a highlight over another. It is simply a blur of a perfect Metal show, with everyone headbanging and chanting the lyrics together with the band. It also makes you realise how many extremely catchy songs they have. The Eagle Flies Alone sounds incredible, not to mention No Gods, No Masters – with the chorus yelled like a true mantra by everyone present – and during which everyone jumps. Dead Bury Their Dead comes, in turn, with those great twin guitars that sound so old-school Metal.
The regular set could not end without Dead Eyes See No Future and, of course, We Will Rise. Before the former, Hart introduces the band, and the crowd shows her that she is now truly part of the family by chanting her name.
As a tear comes to her eye, Michael Amott jokes that there are no tears in Heavy Metal, after which he does mention that it is, in truth, a very emotional moment for the band.
Arch Enemy come back for an encore that includes Blood On Your Hands, followed by a Snow Bound showing that axemen Concepcion and Amott can play anything they like, including truly sensitive parts. Of course, that moves quickly into the anthemic Nemesis, with its dual guitar attack on top of a blastbeat.
At the end of the night, I hope this tour will not be a one-off. The performance, as well as the atmosphere and the rapport between audience and band, were all exceptional in this intimate setting.
