Author: Sebastijan Videc
Artist: Amon Amarth
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: March 25, 2016
Length: 52:08
Rating: 4/5
Amon Amarth are back. And they came back in the style the Vikings used to return to English monasteries in the 9th century – brutal, loud and conquering! The jubilee tenth studio album ‘Jomsviking’ is also the band’s first ever concept album. Sure, earlier records followed a common thread (Thor – Twilight of the…, Loki – Deceiver…), but this time the music tells the story of a young Viking who is hopelessly in love with a girl who has to marry another man. He kills the guy by accident, and that sends him fleeing into the ranks of a mercenary elite called the Jomsvikings. Of course, the young Viking is haunted by thoughts of the injustice done to him, and a deep hunger for revenge starts to boil inside him.
To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect from the new album. While the band seems to have peaked with ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’, ‘Surtur Rising’ and ‘Deceiver of the Gods’ left more or less a lukewarm aftertaste. Not that they were bad albums, they just felt kind of faceless and repetitive. Luckily, any fears I had were blown away by the very first listen. Just like ‘Deceiver’ before it, the album was produced by the excellent Andy Sneap, so sonically it sounds a lot like its predecessor. Musically, Amon Amarth once again deliver their trademark, unmistakable brand of melodic death metal, only this time they even reached back into the past a bit, because at moments the style of the older albums takes over. Above all, the whole record sounds much punchier, more warlike and more epic than the previous two.
Because of the story tying the album together, the Swedes decided to give Johann, on top of his vocal duties, the role of narrator, and his deep bass voice handles it superbly. The album kicks off with ‘First Kill’, a fast, classic Amon Amarth track with infectious melodies, a quick rhythm and the story of that unfortunate killing which sends the young Scandinavian down the road to his fate – the Jomsvikings. The album then slows down slightly with ‘The Wanderer’, which right from the start serves up excellent guitar harmonies in thirds, the kind that have so defined the melodic death metal genre. Then things really start »happening«, as the fast and punchy ‘On the Sea of Blood’ and ‘One Against All’ follow, featuring some thrash metal riffs too, and stand-in drummer Tobias Gustafsson shows off his chops as well. At a pace not much slower comes what is definitely a new live hit, ‘Raise Your Horns’. After the beer-soaked revelry there’s another battle anthem, ‘The Way of Vikings’ and the hard-hitting ‘At Dawn’s First Light’. The tempo then drops a little with ‘One Thousand Burning Arrows’, a melodic celebration of death in battle and an ode to the Viking way of thinking. On the last two albums Amon Amarth also hosted other well-known musicians, Apocalyptica on Surtur and singer Messiah Marcolin (ex-Candlemass) on Deceiver. Jomsviking is no different, as the legendary Doro Pesch lends her voice to the track ‘A Dream That Cannot Be’! With her hard-rock voice she holds her own against Hegg’s growling vocals. The album closes with the epic ‘Back on Northern Shores’.
Amon Amarth have proved they’re masters of their craft, and after two albums that were average by their standards, they’ve delivered a record that doesn’t disappoint. Sure, there’s always room for improvement, but the fact is that, just like the monks at Lindisfarne, hordes of fans, new and old, won’t be able to resist the onslaught of the Swedish Vikings.
Til Valhal!
Lineup
Johan Hegg − vocals
Olavi Mikkonen − guitar
Johan Söderberg − guitar
Ted Lundström − bass guitar
Guests:
Tobias Gustafsson − drums
Doro Pesch – vocals on ‘A Dream That Cannot Be’
Production
Andy Sneap
Tracklist
1. First Kill
2. Wanderer
3. On a Sea of Blood
4. One Against All
5. Raise Your Horns
6. The Way of Vikings
7. At Dawn’s First Light
8. One Thousand Burning Arrows
9. Vengeance is my Name
10. A Dream That Cannot Be
11. Back On Northern Shores
