Christopher Amott

Arch Enemy, Armageddon, Solo artist, Dark Tranquillity

Christopher is featured on the song:

- You're just a bad dream (Here to Stay)

Christopher Amott is playing as a guest musician on Ron Coolen's Here to Stay album

Christopher Amott is a Swedish guitarist and vocalist, younger brother of Michael Amott and founding member of the Swedish metal bands Arch Enemy and Armageddon.

He recently resigned from his position as touring guitarist for Dark Tranquillity and is building up a solo career out of Sweden.

Born in Halmstad, Sweden, 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.

Here's a video with an awesome solo by Chris, taken from Arch Enemy's 'Tyrants of the rising sun' DVD

I have learned to know Chris during my time I was hosting the radio show called 'Let there be Rock", from 2010 onwards. As a follower from Arch Enemy I interviewed Chris a couple of times and we got along really well. After Chris left Arch Enemy in 2012 and moved to New York, we kept in touch regularly.

Chris is a really nice person, intelligent, social, non-conformist non-typical-metal-guy and above all an extremely talented musician. I would say he belongs in the ranks of the world's best guitar players.

When we met in Belgium in May 2018 while Chris was on the Dark Tranquillity tour, Chris offered to play a guest solo on my album, and I was working on the perfect song for that at the time, called 'Kill Kill Kill'.

Chris and I are on different paths in our lives and we always have inspiring conversations about that. Chris being the younger guy (and far better musician) that has seen it all in music, and me being the older guy that has seen everything in corporate life, and now entering the world of professional music.

Chris was the first guest musician to contribute to a song, and this was the turning point where I got confident enough to go ahead full steam and make this album. From that moment onwards, things accelerated and were speeding up. With Chris' contribution behind me, it got easier to get interest from other great guest players. Chris introduced me to Sam Walters, with whom he played in a New York based heavy metal band at the time. Sam is the singer on the 'Kill Kill Kill' song. So Chris and Sam were in the same band, yet their only album performance together is on RISE

Years later, when I was heading towards the end of the recordings for 'Here to Stay', I decided to squeeze 'You're just a bad dream' into the album, since the song is just too good to wait for the 3rd album. When Chris and I met after the Dark Tranquillity show in Tilburg, back in November '22, Chris offered me to do the solo parts. When the tour has finished Chris laid down some furious and spectacular solos. I couldn't be happier with the result. 'You're just a bad dream' is one of my personal favorites on 'Here to Stay'!