Christopher Amott

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.

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."

Amott spent the next two years teaching music in Sweden, as well as attending a university. 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 Christopher revealed that he would be releasing a solo album early in the year entitled "Follow Your Heart".

On 5 March 2012 Amott once again quit Arch Enemy. He cited his desire to pursue his solo career further as a main reason. He was replaced with Arsis guitarist Nick Cordle.

In April 2012, Amott moved to New York City, United States. After obtaining a green card in the beginning of 2013, he stated that he intends to record a new Armageddon record, which was planned to be released by summer 2013. Amott also collaborated with Japanese pop/metal band Babymetal, providing guitars for an alternate version of their major label debut single, "Ijime, Dame, Zettai" nicknamed the "Nemesis" version (possibly named after the Arch Enemy song of the same name).

In 2014, Amott began recording for the new Armageddon album with a new lineup consisting of himself, vocalist Matt Hallquist, guitarist Joey Concepcion, bassist Sara Claudius, and drummer Márton Veress. Their new album, entitled "Captivity & Devourment", is set to be released in January 2015 on Listenable Records. Now enlisted Meridian Dawn/ex-Nightrage vocalist Antony Hämäläinen as their replacement for the recently departed Matt Hallquist.

During Arch Enemy's North American tour in support of their album War Eternal, guitarist Nick Cordle reportedly left the band. Amott temporarily re-joined the band for the remainder of the tour, while famed guitarist Jeff Loomis (formerly of Nevermore) was announced as the official replacement and joined the band for their European tour with Kreator and subsequent events.

On 10 October 2015 as part of Japan's Loud Park Festival, Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz invited special guests Amott and Johan Liiva to the stage, reuniting the Burning Bridges lineup. They would go on to perform "Bury Me an Angel" and "The Immortal", before being joined by White-Gluz and Jeff Loomis to perform "Fields of Desolation" together.

While Armageddon and Arch Enemy were touring together in Mexico 2016. Christopher Amott made a guest appearance on Arch Enemy and performed two songs. Revolution Begins and Blood On Your Hands.

Starting 23 May 2016 Christopher Amott along with the original Arch Enemy lineup reunited as Project Black Earth and made a special tour in Japan. The band performed the Black Earth album in it's entirety. Songs from Stigmata and Burning Bridges were also played. The tour lasted for about a week.

In 2017 Christopher Amott joined Dark Tranquillity temporarily to help out the band with their European tour.

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

More recently Christopher has had a new custom model designed Dellinger-CA VW (Vintage White) featuring his newly endorsed DiMarzio pickup selection. He used the LiquiFire in the bridge position, the TrueVelvet in the Middle position and the Air Norton S in the neck position.

For tunings, Christopher primarily uses C Standard on Arch Enemy's releases and has since their album Wages of Sin. Prior to that, he tuned to B Standard. A number of songs also used dropped tunings. His main band Armageddon, as well as his solo work feature mostly E Standard or half-step down E standard tuning on their releases.

As of October 2012 Chris no longer endorses Caparison Guitars, he now uses Charvel Guitars and is an official Charvel Artist.

He also plays Jackson Guitars. He plays a Jackson Custom Shop Soloist loaded with a Floyd Rose Tremolo system, a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge and a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck position.

Guitars

• Charvel Guitars So-Cal Style 1 HH
• Jackson Guitars USA Custom SL1 Soloist
• Caparison Guitars Dellinger-CA VW – New model based off his previous signature version. Created for his recent switch to DiMarzio pickups.
• Caparison Guitars Dellinger Christopher Amott Signature model (with the Arch Enemy logo as the guitar graphic, in black, silver, and white)
• Caparison Guitars TAT Iceberg (1997–2002)
• Caparison Guitars Horus (seen on video 'The Immortal')
• ESP Guitars Custom Horizon model (seen in Live Apocalypse DVD)

Amplifiers and cabinets

• Fender EVH 5150 III
• Peavey JSX Amps
• Randall RM100 head

Effects

• Rocktron Hush
• Boss TU-2 Tuner
• Boss Digital Delay DD-3

Other

• D'Addario Custom Set (11–58)

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)
• Captivity & Devourment (2015)
• Crossing the Rubicon (Revisited) (2016)

Solo

• Follow Your Heart (2010)
• Impulses (2012)