“Swedish metal Vikings Amon Amarth are back with a new album! The band stays firmly rooted in their lyrical themes and musical identity, but this time they’re playing around with some new elements.”
Label: Metal Blade / Sony
Release date: May 3, 2019
Production: Jay Ruston
Album length: 56:45
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Over their more than 20-year history, Amon Amarth have become one of the biggest names on the heavy metal scene right now, and probably the most commercially successful death metal band too. Sold-out shows all over the world are proof of that, but as we know, success doesn’t just fall into your lap. With their eleventh album, the band stays true to themselves – stories about Vikings, their history and their mythology made them what they are. As a result, they also stay true to a sound that carries on the style introduced by ‘Deceiver of the Gods’. Despite the title, though, the album isn’t dedicated solely to berserkers, those famously fearless warriors who, dressed in the pelts of wild beasts complete with the heads, charged at their enemies in a trance, usually without shields, counting on a surefire dinner in Valhalla.
The album kicks off with an acoustic intro that vaguely recalls the early acoustic parts of their fellow Swedes In Flames. ‘Fafner’s Gold’ is a relatively fast album opener that hints at another classic AA record, and it’s immediately followed by the first Thor-dedicated anthem on the album, ‘Crack the sky’ – “Thor! Let your hammer fly! Let the lightning crack the blackened skies!”, a sure favorite at upcoming shows. And so we don’t leave the god of thunder and lightning and protector of mankind too soon, next comes ‘Mjolner, Hammer of Thor’, which flirts heavily with power metal rhythmically and has the potential to become another one of the band’s big hits. The aggressive start of the album carries on with the warrior-minded ‘Shieldwall’ – yet another sure live favorite with the chorus “Vikings! Raise the shieldwall! Hold the frontline! Fight till death!”, which firmly takes its place alongside similar warrior tracks from their repertoire like ‘The Way of Vikings’ and ‘Warriors of the North’.
‘Valkyria’ returns to the true essence of melodic death metal, while ‘Raven’s Flight’ is a great showcase of the Amon Amarth sound from the last three albums and was the obvious pick for the first single. ‘Ironside’ introduces Johan with a clean vocal line, which doesn’t quite suit him, and with that voice of his he’d serve better as a storyteller by the winter hearth of a longhouse. ‘The Berserker at the Stamford Bridge’ tells the story of the famous warrior who single-handedly held off the entire English army on the bridge in the last major Viking battle. ‘When Once Again We Set Our Sails’ sails on infectious melodies, strongly backed by a galloping rhythm and triple guitars, while the wolves ‘Skoll and Hati’ fast and hard herald the start of Ragnarök. ‘Wings of Eagles’ takes us on a journey across Iceland and Greenland to North America and back, while the album closes with the epic, emotional and dark ‘Into the Dark’, with a piano and orchestral intro and ending that lyrically takes the listener through the inner struggle of good and evil.
With ‘Berserker’, Amon Amarth have made another excellent album that faithfully follows their sound. Even though they’re boxed in by the limits of their genre, this time they do experiment with extra elements, which mostly complement their style well. The only gripe is the running time. At almost an hour, the album is somehow too long compared to the standard 45 minutes and gets a little repetitive, which might make listeners quit before they reach the two really strong tracks sitting right at the end.
author: Sebastijan Videc
rating: 8/10
Tracklist:
1. Fafner’s Gold
2. Crack the Sky
3. Mjölner, Hammer of Thor
4. Shieldwall
5. Valkyria
6. Raven’s Flight
7. Ironside
8. The Berserker At Stamford Bridge
9. When Once Again We Can Set Our Sails
10. Skoll And Hati
11. Wings of Eagles
12. Into the Dark
Musicians:
Johan Hegg – vocals
Olavi Mikkonen – lead guitar
Johan Söderberg – rhythm guitar
Ted Lundström – bass guitar
Jocke Wallgren – drums
