I was only into later AE for the longest time and never really delved into the old stuff despite owning the CD's. I got all three out and was amazed, mostly by Stigmata. That is so underrated and possibly now my fav AE album. It's incredible.
Stigmata and Burning Bridges are my favorite Arch Enemy albums, by some margin.
I guess it depends on the crowd, for example Metal-Archives actually rates it the highest of any of theirs, though I'm generally quite skeptical of their ratings and reviews. But I do have a hard time deciding between them, although it might be the strongest candidate. Wildoer's guest drumming is on a level beyond Erlandsson (I especially love the groove early in the title track), and it has everything from the ferocity of "Beast of Man" to the stellar epic harmonies at the end of "Bridge of Destiny".
Yep, lots of highlights on Stigmata. I do enjoy Erlandsson drumming too, though.
Anyway, I think we discussed this not long ago, but will say I have progressively lost interest in AE a few albums into the Gossow era. Maybe in part it was a general drift away on my part, I don’t know.