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Amon Amarth: Twilight of the thunder god
16/09/08 || Lord K Philipson
I’m not going to do an overly lengthy coverage of this one, Amon Amarth’s latest recording. Instead I’m going to keep it short and effective, and just long enough to get my point through to your thick skulls. It took Amon Amarth some 400 albums and a 65 year old career until they managed to get it pretty much all right. I really liked “Versus the world” and believed they peaked with that one since “Fate of Norns” wasn’t close to the quality of said album. Then came “With Opeth by our side” and the bar was raised a little bit. And here we are today, “Twilight of the thunder god” surfaces and never have these guys composed such a bunch of killer tunes on one single album. To make it simple: they have never been more precise as far as catchy and memorable riffs and songs go. I guess that me visiting them in the studio this summer played a part. I usually have that effect on people. With an intro like that you’d think it’s all penis and coke in AA’s beer-ridden battle ground, right? Let’s take it easy here, shall we?
There’s but a few songs that don’t rattle my snake all the way through, making it stand up like a pissed off cobra ready to attack. “No Fear For the Setting Sun” is a low mark and fucks with the overall impression a (tiny) bit. “Where is your god?” is the second track that doesn’t live up to the rest of the material, despite its quite catchy chorus. If those 2 tunes were left out, Amon Amarth would have ended up with a better (and shorter, duh) album. But make no mistake now, fuckos, despite the small criticism, “Twilight of the thunder penis” sure is yet another journey into the well traveled path that Amon Amarth like to use when they rape and pillage. It’s only a matter of it being a much more enjoyable trip now. It feels like they finally came up with all those fancy, melodic riffs they always wanted to create but for some reason weren’t completely able to conjure. They are here now, most of the time anyways, and I take a bow.
I might have mentioned this before, but fuck it; Amon Amarth is a huge name outside of their native Sweden for a reason – they have their style nailed down and perfected completely. I’ll be fucked if that wasn’t the case after playing v****g metal (I fucken hate that genre moniker so much it’s being censored here) for a millennium or 2. They know that their style is selling albums by the shitloads and work accordingly. And why wouldn’t they? More power to them. They have a formula that definitely works (for retarded Germans first and foremost, they prolly even believe Amon Amarth are real vikings) in the world of metal. These guys are becoming a household name to some extent playing their melodic cheese metal. As said: more power to them. And more cheese to the masses.
To name a few things that took me by surprise: the fantastically beautiful violin/strings part of “Live for the kill”. That’s how you do it, bitch. But there’s more – the huge amount of riffs that I could hum after just one listen. Take the opening shit of the title track for example. There’s no way that stuff do not stick in yer head in a second. Or the absolute catchiness of galloping tune “Varyags of Miklagaard”. If you don’t nod yer head approvingly while listening to this – you are so fucken retarded you deserve a good beating. Fredrik’s drumming is better than ever and that was the first thing that struck me (ok, second, those catchy ass riffs hit me first). I always thought Fredrik was a bit of a drawback for Amon Amarth, but not so anymore. Not this time. I’m actually starting to like the guy a little and yes, it hurts to admit it.
So, let’s wrap this up then, huh? The few weak tunes of this album are forgiven by the fact that, as a whole, it includes so many incredibly strong songs it makes the overall impression better than it possibly should be. And I don’t fucken care. I have never enjoyed Amon Amarth as much as I do on “Twilight of the thunder god”. And I’m fucken positive that neither have they, the band themselves.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckbucket. This one turned out way longer (and more confused) than I initially planned it. That is usually what good albums do to ya, you know.
I gave “With Otep by our side” an 8 when I reviewed it some time ago. I like this one more, but thanx to the few weak songs I don’t feel like handing out an 8,5 so I’ll declare another 8 out of 10 for Amon Amarth. But these following words should weigh more than a simple score:
Amon Amarth’s never been better.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: www.amonamarth.com
- Band
- Johan Hegg: vocals
- Olavi Mikkonen: guitars
- Johan Söderberg: guitars
- Ted Lundström: bass
- Fredrik Andersson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Twilight of the Thunder God
- 02. Free Will Sacrifice
- 03. Guardians of Asgaard
- 04. Where is Your God?
- 05. Varyags of Miklagaard
- 06. Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags
- 07. No Fear for the Setting Sun
- 08. The Hero
- 09. Live for the Kill
- 10. Embrace of the Endless Ocean
