Albums

Album Review: Amon Amarth

[Album: Twilight Of The Thunder God]
[Label: Metal Blade]

Amon Amarth, the Swedish melodic death metallists, are synonymous with ridiculous concepts - what else would you expect from a band that matches the Elvish name for Mount Doom in Tolkien’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’. However, when they start releasing “Bobble-Head” figurines of themselves you suspect a line has been crossed. Consequently, the fear that the band had similarly overdone things on the new album needed to be quickly allayed.

The title-track opener does indeed go a long way to achieving this. Despite immediately throwing stories of fantastical beasties and heroic champions at you, these characters do battle amidst an impressively solid backdrop of part-chugged/part-breakneck guitar, hammering double-kicks, euphoric keyboards and brutish grunting. It is the sound of DevilDriver covering Turisas in 3 Inches Of Blood and it lays waste to any fears that the music has had anything but the utmost of attention lavished up on it.

It’s certainly a carousing opening, but goes one step further with ‘Guardians Of Asgaard’ giving you the chance to glory in the finery of its rippling guitar sequences and bullish death vocal. Replete with a kick-arse riff, a searing solo and pounding drums there is no escaping the inevitable and completely involuntary headbang. ‘Where Is Your God?’ follows up with a gripping dip into a dark and death-edged race to the finish between drums and guitar.

There are a few tracks that are too formulaic to really shine through as clearly (‘Free Will Sacrifice’, ‘Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags’) but the remainder have a strong enough shred, vocal hook, or variation in drum pattern to inject that extra spark necessary. Check out the euphoric choral riff on ‘Varyags Of Miklgaard’, the dips out into wandering keyboard in the epic ’The Hero’ or the dizzying guitar effect on the verses of the ‘Embrace Of The Living Ocean’.

If anything this is another battle-scarred step forward for the band, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that they have been snapped up to play the forthcoming Unholy Alliance Tour off the back of this. For heavens sake, don’t refer to them as “Viking metal” - they take great umbrage at the suggestion - but if you fancy a bit of Norse mythology and a spot of power with your death metal then this band, now 16 years young, may just have delivered one of their best efforts so far.

For Fans Of: Ensiferum, DevilDriver, Kalmah

Band Link:
Amon Amarth

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