Christopher Amott

Christopher Amott
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Amott
Also known as	Chris Amott
Born	November 23, 1977 (1977-11-23) (age 33)
Origin	Halmstad, Sweden
Genres	Melodic death metal, power metal, thrash metal
Occupations	Guitarist, musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Century Media
Associated acts	Arch Enemy, Armageddon
Website	chrisamott.com
Notable instruments
Caparison Guitars 'Dellinger-CA'

Christopher Amott (born November 23, 1977 in Halmstad, Sweden) is a Swedish guitarist and vocalist, younger brother of Michael Amott and founding member of the Swedish metal bands Arch Enemy and Armageddon.

Biography

Inspired by his older brother Michael Amott's band Carcass, Christopher began studying the guitar at 14, playing in local bands, and eventually attending music college at age 18. With aggressive, fast vibrato, speedy alternate-picking, and fluid lead lines, Christopher's memorable playing style was crafted after such players as John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth, John Norum, and Michael Schenker.

While attending music school in 1996, Michael asked Christopher to record solos for his new melodic death metal project Arch Enemy. The Black Earth album was released in Japan in 1996, and was an instant hit, receiving regular airplay on Japanese MTV. The band were invited to play Japan in 1997, and it was there that Christopher secured a deal for his Armageddon side project. The project began as a melodic death metal band, similar in style to Arch Enemy, but with a more conceptual feel to the lyrics. Armageddon released their first album Crossing the Rubicon on W.A.R. records in 1997. The album featured Peter Wildoer and Martin Bengtsson, who would also go on to record Stigmata with Arch Enemy in 1998. The Stigmata album was again a success in Japan, and was the first Arch Enemy album to be released in the USA, on Century Media records.

With Arch Enemy gaining ground worldwide, Amott would go on to release Burning Bridges and Burning Japan Live 1999, both in 1999, then take a break until the latter part of 2000, when Armageddon released their second album Embrace the Mystery on Toy's Factory records in Japan. This time featuring a "melodic" singer, and more of an overall power metal feel, the album was a drastic shift from the straight ahead melodic death metal of Crossing the Rubicon, and marked Christopher's desire to branch out of the "extreme metal" genre. As well in 2000 he did the guitar solo on "Suburban Me" on the album Clayman with In Flames.

In 2001, Arch Enemy were joined by new singer Angela Gossow, and the band reached new heights in worldwide popularity with the release of Wages of Sin. After completing an extensive world tour with Arch Enemy, Amott returned to his Armageddon project, and released Three in 2002 on Toy's Factory records in Japan. This time featuring Christopher on lead vocals, the album was almost purley a power metal effort, focusing on the melodic singing and guitar work of Amott.

Arch Enemy released Anthems of Rebellion in 2003, and again embarked on a world tour. In 2005, the band entered the studio to record Doomsday Machine, but immediately after the recording, Amott left Arch Enemy. Christopher later stated that he "wasn't feeling creative musically" in Arch Enemy, and that he "just wasn't into (the band) anymore."^{[attribution needed]}

Amott spent the next two years teaching music in Sweden, as well as attending a university. It is currently unknown if he will return to his Armageddon project, but he says that he still "plays guitar constantly, several hours a day", but also says that "If I do some kind of record it won't be metal" But of course he has changed his mind with that (with rejoining Arch Enemy afterwards).^[1]

In March 2007 Christopher announced his return to Arch Enemy as a permanent member. He re-joined the band near the end of the songwriting process for Rise of the Tyrant. In an interview in January 2010 Chrisopher revealed that he would be releasing a solo album early in the year entitled "Follow Your Heart".^[2]

Equipment

Christopher Amott is endorsed by Caparison Guitars, Japan. His custom 'Dellinger-CA' guitar (black model production discontinued, white model in production) has two Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups in the neck and middle position, and a Caparison bridge humbucker.

• Caparison Dellinger Christopher Amott Signature model (with the Arch Enemy logo as the guitar graphic, in black, silver, and white)
• Caparison TAT Iceberg (1997–2002)
• Caparison Horus (seen on video 'The Immortal')
• ESP Guitars Custom Horizon model (seen in Live Apocalypse DVD)
• D'Addario Strings (11-58 custom set)
• Rocktron Hush
• Boss TU-2 Tuner
• Boss Digital Delay DD-3
• Peavey JSX Amps
• Randall RM100 head

Discography

Arch Enemy

• Black Earth (1996)
• Stigmata (1998)
• Burning Bridges (1999)
• Burning Japan Live 1999 (1999)
• Wages of Sin (2001)
• Burning Angel (2002)
• Anthems of Rebellion (2003)
• Dead Eyes See No Future (2004, EP)
• Doomsday Machine (2005)
• Live Apocalypse (2006, 2-disc DVD)
• Rise of the Tyrant (2007)
• Tyrants of the Rising Sun (2008)
• The Root of All Evil (2009)
• Khaos Legions (2011)

Armageddon

• Crossing the Rubicon (1997)
• Embrace the Mystery (2000)
• Three (2002)

Solo

• Follow Your Heart (2010)^[3]

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "MySpace-blog | van Armageddon". Blogs.myspace.com. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=58041991. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
3. ^ "ARCH ENEMY Guitarist CHRISTOPHER AMOTT Releases Solo Album". Roadrunnerrecords.com. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=143004. Retrieved 2011-11-01. 

External links

• Official MySpace
• Caparison Dellinger-Christopher Amott

Persondata
Name	Amott, Christopher
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 23, 1977
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death