Belgar said:
Of course, I am not judging them on personnal level; they are great people ... it is my honest opinion that they come nowhere near bands like Bathory,... and yes they are all the way up there with the great bands and are on their way for the hall of fame in metal. If only they could give us more in the vein of OSFTGH ....
I hear this often, a lot of people share this sediment, but to compare them to Bathory is very hard to do. Much of the metal scene has been already pioneered by bands like Bathory, who are eternally legends, so to expect the same level of creation from today's bands is something they'd be unfairly hardpressed to achieve, I think, and maybe a little unrealistic.
I think Amon Amarth has taken immense influence from bands like Bathory, rich in Viking Black Metal, and taken it to a higher level. With today's equipment, and ever-increasing extremeness in metal, I find that Amon Amarth performs at the highest level of any Pagan Extreme Metal band, letalone Viking Death Metal, and that is precisely where they gain my ultimate reverance. The themery of Pagan Metal parallels my own beliefs in spirituality, roots, ancestry (Irish Druidic Pagan) and way of life, so the matter of difference in performance is what separates them from the rest. There are tons of bands which meet the theme standard there, but aren't as wicked in performance, I don't think. Sure, there are rivals, and even some from the past (like Bathory), definitely still stand up to today's bands.
I am also a big fan of Waylander, Marduk, Immortal, Bathory, Hellacaust, and many other Pagan Extreme Metal bands, but yeah obviously Amon Amarth is best I think.
As for their percieved decline in album quality, I don't much share that sediment in their overall quality. Maybe they are evolving to be less extreme like Metallica, Kreator, or many other post-Extreme Metal bands, but I don't think so. Although Fate Of Norns would be at the bottom of my top Amon Amarth albums list, I think that it still beats out most other releases, maybe all but a hundred, or so. Bands have their off-albums, and this may simply be one of those, maybe an overreach into achieving a bit of a newer sound, or something. You'd have to ask them, but I think that album is wicked as fuck, and impossible it is to compare Bathory to Amon Amarth, totally. Irregardless of everything but pure album quality, Amon Amarth destroys Bathory, the Viking Metal kings, but Bathory influenced all of that, so therein lies the impossibility of contrasting them. Amon Amarth is better, surely, especially with today's technology, but Bathory is a huge part of that, so as opposed to being combatants, they are moreso a team...
Anyways, Amon Amarth Slays!!
Can't wait to see them... All I need is the full versions of the first two demos, and Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds, which I've heard a few of the tracks from, and man those rule too, and otherwise, I have all the rest...
\m/
