AMON AMARTH: “THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 092022
 

(DGR has finally gotten around to reviewing the latest album by Amon Amarth, which was released last Friday by Metal Blade Records.)

While digging around in old files and folders I came across the old draft of my review for Amon Amarth‘s Berzerker, wherein the opening line – since scratched – was ‘fuck it, let’s do this’.

Even then, and especially around the release of Amon Amarth‘s Jomsviking album, it had become clear that the band that I’ve long referred to as one of a small handful of fantastic shuffle bands in the world were getting to be huge and had started to ascend in their career to the point of becoming more spectacle than music.

That’s fine but it just represents a shift in priority for seeing them live, much in the same way one might see Kiss, Iron Maiden, Gwar, or Tool. Yeah, you get a bonus and it feels great actually knowing the music, but you really don’t need to any more, because the band have become a spectacle to witness. The recent release of Amon Amarth‘s 12th album The Great Heathen Army hammers this fact home. Instead of Amon Amarth being the super-heavy melodeath-skirting Viking pillagers, they’ve become a spectacle themselves. Fewer runes and gravesites and a whole lot more medieval times.

However, since I’ve been the one to write about Amon Amarth releases here for a while now – though I skipped Jomsviking – l felt weirdly drawn to The Great Heathen Army. The traveling show that is Amon Amarth doesn’t really need our corner of the internet much these days, but there’s some amusing stuff happening within this album, so as the old draft for Berzerker said ages ago,

Fuck it, let’s do this. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: MASSACRE, FLESHROT, ENTRAILS, AMON AMARTH, ANTIGAMA, ANCIENT DEATH, NEGATIVE 13, SUFFER IN SILENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 042022
 

 

This has been a discombobulating week for me, which began with a long trip back to Seattle on Monday from a crazy time at Maryland Deathfast and stumbling into my house at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Apart from being worn out, I had the thrill over the next few days of learning that about half the people I traveled and hung out with at MDF, all of whom were vaxxed-up, were testing positive for covid. (If you were at MDF you need to get tested even if you feel fine, because MDF is showing strong signs of being a super-spreader event.)

I also had a ton of shit to catch up with at my day job, and things to do in the planning for Northwest Terror Fest, which is fast approaching. On top of that, my spouse and I had a house guest for one of those days. And on top of that, I paid almost no attention to new releases while I was in Baltimore.

Long story short, I’m way behind on what’s been happening with new songs and videos. That makes today’s selections even more random than usual.

MASSACRE (U.S./Sweden)

I decided to begin with a heaping helping of rotten red meat for lovers of old school death metal, beginning with a track off a forthcoming EP by the venerable Massacre. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2019’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 12): ROTTING CHRIST AND AMON AMARTH

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2019  1 Response »
Jan 212020
 

 

For tomorrow’s installment of this list I’m diving deep into the underground again, but for this 12th Part I decided to include music from a couple of the biggest names in extreme metal. Both bands also seem to have arrived at a place where they’ve become… institutions (for want of a better word)… with a sound of their own that isn’t subject to significant change but is still usually appealing.

ROTTING CHRIST

DGR began his extensive NCS review of The Heretics in this way: “To say that they’ve found a sound would be putting it politely; Rotting Christ not only found a sound, but they also basically defined it and then later let it define them. Especially in more recent years they have basically shifted from being a fire-fueled black metal nightmare into an almost Hollywood-esque war-drums-and-all hybrid of martial rhythms, ’70s prog guitar influences, and the straightforward guitar stomp and lead work that has made them so insanely catchy over the years. The group’s latest disc, The Heretics, is a giant block of that specific sound.” Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “BERSERKER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
May 152019
 

 

(This is DGR’s review of Amon Amarth‘s 11th album, which was released by Metal Blade Records on May 3rd.)

Amon Amarth are fun when Amon Amarth get “weird” around the fringes of their music.

Well, let’s walk that back a bit, since there’s a lot of power in those quotation marks around weird. It’s not weird in the usual sense, as Amon Amarth remain fairly conventional, and hew pretty closely to all of the traits that make them recognizable, on their latest album Berserker. They are one of the trope vanguards of the term ‘shuffle band’, in that their music has found such a consistent bar of quality that you don’t really need to do full-album runs any more. You can throw their whole discography onto a playlist, shuffle it up, and still have a good time.

That happens to a lot of bands when they strike upon a sound that they then make their own, and Amon Amarth did that sooo long ago — about the time of Fate Of Norns and With Oden On Our Side — and since then their discography has felt like iterations upon that particular formula. Huge and epic for Twilight Of The Thundergod, surprisingly death metal for Surtur Rising, weirdly experimental on the fringes of their sound on Deceiver Of The Gods, and a big old block of a lot of the ‘same’ on the concept album – about Vikings – that was Berserker’s immediate predecessor, Jomsviking. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (BY DGR): BELPHEGOR, SEPTICFLESH, INANIMATE EXISTENCE, AMON AMARTH, INCANTATION, THE LURKING FEAR, ABHORRENT DECIMATION, THENIGHTTIMEPROJECT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 172017
 

 

(DGR takes over round-up duties again, with this collection of new songs and videos from eight bands.)

The end-of-the-week news flood was insane, as we have settled well into summer now and a lot of bands are either gearing up to hit the road or are already out making numerous loops on the festival circuit. Of course, this also means that there are a lot of albums in the hopper, getting ready to come out within weeks, or you’ll start seeing a lot of press for albums set to hit when the first leaves of fall drop.

That’s how you wind up with posts like this SEEN AND HEARD that helped kick off the weekend — not even counting our own fuel that we added to the fire, and the one that you’re reading now, which is basically just a gigantic dragnet for bands that had premieres elsewhere throughout the tail end of last week, or just blasted that thing right out to the world to see.

This episode of SEEN AND HEARD is eight (!) bands deep and skews death-metal heavy, so prepare yourselves for a lot of gigantic grooves, growled vocals, enough blasts to reach gunfire status, and enough chainsaw guitar destruction to fuel the planet. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (PART 1): MARYLAND DEATHFEST XV, ASPHYX, OPETH, MEGADETH, AMON AMARTH, MESHUGGAH, HIGH ON FIRE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Jul 192016
 

MDF XV revised flyer

 

Ten days have passed since the last time I put together a round-up of news and recommended new music, which is an unusually long gap. Perhaps needless to say, trying to catch up is out of the question. What I’m going to do instead is just pull together some big news announcements from the last 24 hours in this post (plus one related recent song), and then collect a few more recent music streams in a second part that I’ll post a bit later today.

MARYLAND DEATHFEST ANNOUNCES SECOND ROUND OF CONFIRMED BANDS FOR 2017

On June 30, as we dutifully reported, the organizers of Maryland Deathfest announced the first round of confirmed bands for the XVth edition of the festival, scheduled to take place on May 25-28, 2017, in Baltimore. Just minutes ago, MDF announced a second round of confirmed bands — plus some surprising news about where the festival will, and won’t, take place next year. Here are the new confirmed names: Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH’S “JOMSVIKING”: NEW ALBUM, NEW SONG, NEW NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  8 Responses »
Jan 252016
 

Amon Amarth-Jomsviking

 

On March 25, those Swedish vikings in Amon Amarth will release a new concept album named Jomsviking, and just an hour ago they premiered a video for the first advance track, a song named “First Kill”. And on top of that, they announced dates for a North American tour that begins in April, with Entombed A.D. and Exmortus along for the trip. Before that, the band will play album release shows in four European cities.

“First Kill” tells the story of a son’s banishment by his father after he takes his first life, leading him on the bloodstained path of a lone warrior and outcast. The song offers no surprises — it’s another galloping Amon Amarth ear-worm that makes me want to reach for my axe and drinking horn, though not in that order. I have no doubt it will quickly become a live staple, because it will get people fired up at shows in short order. The video is fun to watch, too. Continue reading »

THE JOHAN HEGG SHOW: NEW VIDEOS FROM AMON AMARTH AND AUDREY HORNE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Sep 202014
 

 

I’ve never met Johan Hegg, but I sure would like to. As metal celebrities go, he seems like an especially interesting, fun-loving guy. On the one hand, he is the badass face and voice of “Viking metal” (and I put those words in quotes to acknowledge the intellectual debate over whether that really is a definable genre of music). On the other hand, he cruises around in convertibles with muppets. And when he smiles, that warrior persona just melts away like ice in the summertime.

Two videos have just premiered in which Johan Hegg plays a starring role, and they show both sides of his personality — one from Amon Amarth, and one from Audrey Horne.

AMON AMARTH

Yesterday Bloody-Disgusting premiered a video for the song “Deceiver Of The Gods” from Amon Amarth’s latest album of the same name. It includes clips from a forthcoming film, Northmen – A Viking Saga, which stars Tom Hopper, Ryan Kwanten, Ken Duken — and Johan Hegg in the role of Valli.  Continue reading »

TOURISM: AMON AMARTH, EYEHATEGOD, FIELDS OF ELYSIUM

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  9 Responses »
May 302014
 

I’m slowly moving back into what I normally do at this site after more than a week of living in the world of Maryland Deathfest, first by attending it and then by re-living the experience in NCS posts. And part of what I do is attempt to highlight news items of interest. I’m a bit late featuring the three collected here, but I think they’re worth mentioning, even if tardily.

AMON AMARTH

Beginning in September and running into November, Sweden’s Amon Amarth will be touring the US and Canada. Sadly, they will only have the Viking ship on stage at the October 18 New York City (Manhattan)  date, which is a show that’s part of Decibel magazine’s 10th anniversary celebrations. At that show, the UK’s Vallenfyre will also be appearing.  I would give your left arm to see that show.

Except for that New York City event, Skeletonwitch will also be a part of this tour, which makes it doubly enticing. Sabaton will be on the tour as well. However, although Vallenfyre will be playing the Manhattan date in place of Skeletonwitch, Skeletonwitch and Evoken will be playing later that same night at St Vitus Bar in Brooklyn; that show is also part of the Decibel anniversary festivities. I would give your right arm to see that one. Continue reading »

GETTING SCREWED: AMON AMARTH AND THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

 Metal News  17 Responses »
Feb 052014
 

You may have noticed that about the only metal news we focus on here concerns new songs, forthcoming album details, and tours. Even then, we make no effort to be comprehensive. If you want to find a place that relentlessly copy/pastes press releases, talks about the latest bass player to quit his band, or gossips about the metal scandal of the day, this ain’t it. However, I’ve been peppered with reader messages about the two “scandals” in this post, so I’m relenting.

AMON AMARTH

I would enthusiastically fork over money to see the current Deceiver of the Gods Tour with Amon Amarth/Enslaved/Skeletonwitch if it came within spitting distance of Seattle. But it isn’t, so I won’t. However, I can easily imagine the magnitude of my hot smoking rage if I had paid to see this tour In Charlotte, NC, on January 29. The event was to have occurred at a place called The Fillmore, but the venue cancelled the show 6 hours before doors.

Why did they cancel it? Well duh, because of the polar vortex gripping Charlotte — as evidenced by the above photo taken by Johan Hegg from the window of Amon Amarth’s tour bus. Here’s the statement that appeared on The Fillmore’s FB page:

“Due to inclement weather, local road conditions and the current State Of Emergency in NC the Amon Amarth show scheduled for tonight at The Fillmore Charlotte has been CANCELLED. All online and phone orders will be refunded. Other tickets may be refunded at their place of purchase. We’re sorry for any inconvenience. Stay safe NC.” Continue reading »

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