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Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
| Dustedmagazine |
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A thousand years ago, if you walked into a Viking long house, you might notice a station near the fire pit where the women would heat up glass bulbs. The purpose? To iron clothing on whale-bone ironing boards. The Vikings preferred linen shrits, and if you’ve ever owned one yourself, you know that getting that shit presentable is a bitch. After ransacking monasteries and sailing the icy seas, Vikings appreciated looking sharp. Amon Amarth, Swedish metalheads who write songs about Viking life and death, got their start in the grindcore era. For a long time now, they’ve been driving the ladies wild with synchronized stage moves, troll doll looks and a heaping of growls and grunts. But it took hooking up with producer Jens Bogren to get the wrinkles ironed out. If studio gloss can drain the life out of some loud bands, Amon Amarth buck that trend. The potential guitar soup and airless drum patterns of death metal is helped along by Bogren’s crisp production. And with Twilight of the Thunder God, they’ve written a set that takes full advantage of experience and polish. It’s the riffing that’s going to carry any album like this, and Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg deserve to have more than just one umlaut spread across their proper names. The expected lava leads are here, but what sets them apart is their staccato playing. Like Dick Dale’s "Miserlou" or the balalika style that informed it, their picking is so rapid, it becomes orchestral. As Johan Hegg barks his monster-voiced lines, Mikkonen and Söderberg’s ripping gives him a cinematic backdrop. Melody is teased out of the guttural, and something resembling emotion arises from two guys who strive for the inhuman. "Live for the Kill" builds from stop-start thrash to trembling sawtooth picking. When breaks turn suddenly into real cellos, the handoff is completely natural (perhaps because Amon Amarth hired fellow headbangers Apocalyptica). They’ve worked out so much somber interplay between the guitars and bass that the switch to acoustic instruments doesn’t change the dynamics all that much. What it does do, however, is open up enough space that when the guitars make their return, they bludgeon....full text |
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| Popmasters |
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Over the last two decades, Viking lore and metal music have gone together like mead and a drinking horn. From the days of seminal Swedes Bathory to the adventurous Norwegian black metal of Enslaved, Nordic themes have played a significant role in extreme metal, and still continue to today, and whether a band’s approach is reverent (Faroese band Tyr) or cartoonish (Finland’s Turisas), that melding of mythology and heavy music is always appealing to listeners. One can see it at shows: some audience members take that Nordic heritage seriously, adopting it as a lifestyle, dressing in traditional garb, while others merely slap warpaint on their faces because they just dig the pure escapism of it all. In addition, when a Viking metal band is able to strongly project that Viking image along with providing some bracing, galloping metal music, well, that’s even better. Of all Viking metal bands, Amon Amarth is easily the most convincing. Musically innovative? Far from it, as their sound is a rather straightforward mélange of old school Swedish death metal and the melodic sensibility of classic 80’s metal. Eloquent? Hell no, as their blunt approach to Norse mythology has all the subtlety of a Manowar song. However, they take that musical simplicity and lyrical terseness and sell the helvete out of it, and that alone is the main reason why the Swedish five-piece is consistently one of the most adored live bands in the genre, their North American fanbase growing by leaps and bounds over the last four years....full text |
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| Sputnikmusic |
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It's kind of hard not to like Amon Amarth. While it's undeniable that the Swedes have hardly deviated from their tried and true formula over the past sixteen years, the band just kicks so much *** that the lack of progression isn't difficult to overlook. Factor in their constant improvement as well as the overall fun-ness (for lack of better term), and not even the band's ridiculously 'metal' image is off-putting. What separates Amon Amarth from a band like Motorhead, who release the same good album every other year, or a DragonForce/ACDC-type band that has written perhaps three songs over their careers, is that Amon Amarth manage to somehow stay fresh and interesting. Unsurprisingly, Twilight of the Thunder God does little to alter such sentiments. Indeed, most should be aware by now of Amon Amarth's formula. Guitar-centric melodic death metal (you know, the kind with actual death metal) makes up the bulk of Twilight of the Thunder God, backed up by Norse lyrical themes, though fortunately without the folky melodies of your typical Viking metal band. That isn't to say that medieval passages fail to pervade the album's forty-three minute runtime; "Varyags of Miklagaard" and "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags" each feature such melodies, but in both cases it's more of a subtle theme than anything else. Regardless, the blistering rhythm guitar tandem of Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Soderberg is much more prominent. The virtual backbone of Amon Amarth's sound, Mikkonen and Soderberg maintain an extremely accessible tone without sacrificing their aggression. Guitar harmonies accentuate the heavy riffing throughout much of Twilight of the Thunder God, and play a vital role in closing track, "Embrace of the Endless Ocean", a solemn piece more akin to Dark Tranquillity than anything else on the album. On the flipside, with "Where is Your God?" and parts of "Free Will Sacrifice", Amon Amarth opts for a more straight up death metal, with excellent results. Vocalist Johan Hegg is especially impressive in "Where is Your God?", leading the way with his rather frenzied, energetic growls. The remainder of the album simply ties the two styles together, highlighted by the anthemic title track and "The Hero", particularly the former, which is among the year's strongest opening tracks....full text |
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