It’s that time again once more for the darlings of the world’s festival stages, the one true Viking metal band Amon Amarth to set sail again across the vast oceans of the world to bring forth their very special blend of the Nordic saga and brutal extreme metal. Since 1992 this band of brothers has opened the eyes and ears of all that have fallen in their path. Taking a unique approach to what was becoming a stale and stagnant medium they brought back the fist-shaking and head-banging rhythmic fun again. Quaffing their ale and singing their unique songs of battle, monsters, love, and war. Many have tried to copy and many have failed this new album thrusts this statement into stark reality. At 9 fast-paced tracks bounced from one chilly snow-covered scenario to another. It has it all Oden, Norsemen, Saxons, Vikings, and the great heathen army it’s quite possibly their best work in a few years.
Like the speed at which they smote their enemies to the ground this record is not hanging around. I have much admiration for bands that know just how many tracks are enough. Quality over quantity and boy is their quality here. You sense the pedigree that is in all 9 tracks. Opening with Get In The Ring an epic melodic moment of modern metal. Cold breathtaking drumming fills the whole track and almost threatens to consume it brought back from the brink by a vocal performance that steals the show entirely.
And in a moment like the Norse winds that carried it to us, it is passed and its last note is left lingering on the breeze just a faint echo of the majesty that it once was.
But as the sorrow takes hold it is swiftly swept aside by The Great Heathen Army the title track. A stone-cold classic if I have ever heard one.
This one going to be a crowd favorite for years to come, this is not to say that all the other tracks on this tightly paced and highly entertaining album are just fillers, by no means is this the case. Each one from the wind-swept epic saga of Heidrun, to the strangely beautiful The Serpents tail, that closes out the album demands your full attention.
One of the pleasures of Viking metal and really most pagan-infused metal are the stories and the history that lives deep within its DNA. Part of the reason we come back time and time again to this band is its love for Nordic traditions and the tradition of storytelling. Bombastic overly triumphant and almost Disney-like imagery can often blight the genre. This alone might put people off but if you tread the right path and trust in what your elders and guides say you will find Valhalla. And this dear friends is it, a true focused love of music and its part as a vehicle for ancient fables, mysticism, magic, and lore.
All wrapped up in a very well-produced and intensely heavy metal package there would be very few bands that could produce the tonality and precision to back up such a big project such as this Amon Amarth truly are the masters of the genre and if they keep making albums like this I doubt that’s going to change for a very long time to come.
Amon Amarth: Facebook
Release Year: 2022
Label: Metal Blade Records
Category: Album
Country: Sweden
Reviewed by Tony Evans
