As we wade through an era increasingly dominated by bands with only a superficial connection to heavy metal’s cherished principles, there is something hugely reassuring about the ongoing rise and rise of Amon Amarth. With proud death metal roots and an instinctive understanding of what made the genre’s greatest bands endure and prosper, the Swedes have evolved into unassailable avatars for elevated traditionalism.
If you want thunderous bombast and songs about bloody battles and mischievous Norse gods, Amon Amarth are the ultimate contemporary source of such humble thrills. As a result, there has never been any real need for the band to reinvent themselves. Instead, they’ve simply focused on becoming bigger and better at what they do. That, in a nutshell, is what their latest album is about: heavy metal with a Viking heart, strategically designed to level arenas and festival sites the world over.
The Allfather Awakens is instantly recognisable as another pummelling tour de force, with 10 new paeans to the age of Viking supremacy and a suitably momentous and imperious atmosphere. Polished to skull-shattering perfection by producer Jacob Hansen, the Swedes’ 13th album sounds as vast and unstoppable as a fleet of marauding longboats.
Its grimly ornate artwork will inevitably lend itself to a new, dazzling stage show, presumably featuring more costumed miscreants whacking the merry fuck out of each other with plastic weapons. One of the few major modern bands that seem utterly impervious to passing trends, Amon Amarth’s blinkered progress continues to be an absolute joy.
The Allfather Awakens does include one significant curveball, albeit one that belongs firmly in this band’s long-established ballpark. Upphaf is a brooding, acoustic confection, borne of moonlit campfires and mythological contemplation. But despite its lack of scything riffs and pounding drums, it fits perfectly into the musical and thematic worlds that Amon Amarth have been thoughtfully constructing over the last 34 years.
That one minor side-step aside, Amon Amarth are not in the business of surprises and shocks. Mindful of their lofty status, they’ve simply written a set of blistering new anthems to meet the moment. From the cataclysmic fury of the opening Gjallarhorn and the Maiden-tinged gallop of Eight Legs Of Thunder, to the rabble-rousing victory squall of We Rule The Waves and the monstrous rush of might and melody that is the closing Ascending Like An Eagle, every song is alive with electrifying confidence and unwavering authority.
The infectious hooks and raucous choruses that fans have come to expect over the years are as finely honed and forceful as they have ever been. Sword-wielding standouts include the hulking menace of Kvasir’s Blood, the uplifting muscularity of Die With A War Cry and the brutally catchy Oden’s Hunt, but The Allfather Awakens is as cohesive and coherent as any record in Amon Amarth’s illustrious canon, and the most unified body of work they have made since 2008’s Twilight Of The Thunder God. Onwards to Valhalla they row, these heavy metal warriors, as we raise our horns yet again.
The Allfather Awakens is out now via Metal Blade. Amon Amarth tour the UK from October 9.
(LouderSound)
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