First off, it's fucking awesome that I got it 4 days before it comes out in the US. Good work, Metal Blade.
Anyhow, these are just first impressions. I've listened to it about 6 times, and I'll probably write a full review tomorrow.
Okay, so.
Going in I was expecting WOoOS pt 2. The two songs that had been released (Twilight and Guardians) had had a production sound that was somewhat different from With Oden (much thicker guitar sound, but sounds somehow a little less heavy, and somewhat more studio'd voxx), but definitely sounded great. I had noticed far more palm mutes and chugs than normal on Guardians, but assumed this was an aberration.
My list of the first six goes like so:
Once Sent From The Golden Hall
Versus The World
With Oden On Our Side
Fate Of Norns
The Crusher
Avenger
Now, obviously there was no chance that the album would top Once Sent. Absolutely fucking none. That wasn't even a question. I expected it would fall either above or below WOoOS, although I held out hope that it might top Versus (a mighty feat, but probably not impossible).
I expected predominately tremelo-picked melodies, though with more chugs than there were on the first four. I hoped for more of the badass vocals from Asator, and generally just more badassery from Johan Hegg.
So now you know the mindset with which I approached the album.
The first song, Twilight of the Thunder God, held few surprises (none, actually), seeing as I'd already listened to it many times.
Free Will Sacrifice, however, was all new. It surprised me with it's heavy reliance on chugging palm muted riffs, but the verse was quite badass and I totally dug it. When it got to the chorus the familiar tremelo melodies came back in and I noticed that Johan's screams, which are used far more sparingly here, sound great, but also very studio'd. I also noted that his growls have ascended to new fucking heights. There can no longer be any question of his vocal supremacy. On a side note I'm worried the lyrics are about 300. Would it kill them to just say "Thor" at some point or something so we know we're talking about Vikings?
Guardians Of Asgaard I was also familiar with. I can't tell when LG Petrov sings. Frankly, I don't think AA needs guest vocals. Why have a guest vocalist when you already have the best? Unless they were gonna do female vocals, but the day AA use female guest vocals is the day I burn my AA posters (fortunately, it's also the day hell freezes over and we all go ice skating). Anyhoo, the song is badass. As I mentioned before, the chorus sounds very much written for a live audience but while that usually annoys me here it made me want to go see them. 18 October bitches!
Moving on, Where Is Your God? This was the first genuine disappointment. I'm a huge fan of things that are not George Fisher growling way to fast, so you can see how I wouldn't dig this. The verse riff is just weird, as well. The prechorus was pretty cool. At first the chorus annoyed me. Right now I'm neutral on it, but I could see it wearing on me. The song in general has gotten better with successive listens. But it still stinks of an attempt to be BURTAL. My least favorite on the album. I'm mostly worried that they'll play it live. Not that I don't like it or wouldn't want to see it live, just that it'll take up precious time that could be devoted to much better songs.
Varyags Of Miklagaard FUCK YEAH. Best song on the album hands down. When I first heard that verse riff with those epic shifting roots and Johan's voxx I came. Really hard. The prechorus is good but not as good as the verse and chorus. The chorus melody is awesome and folky, although it sounds more like Einsiferum than Amon Amarth. Still, a fucking fantastic song and an instant AA classic. The lyrics are cool, and remind me of Bathory's Great Hall Awaits A Fallen Brother (or was it Death And Resurrection of a Northern Son? Yeah, I think that was it. About the Vikings who traveled and served a foreign king? I think the lyrics are actually historical Someone who knows shit can fill me in).
Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags is also quite sweet. Again, mix of melodies and chugs. Suffers a bit from being right after Varyags of Miklagaard (which is probably why I can't remember it all that well), but yeah, definitely a solid song.
No Fear For The Setting Sun is quite epic. The lyrics are cool, I love their story-telling lyrics. Nothing quite as detailed as Once Sealed In Blood or The Sound Of Eight Hooves, but good stuff. Johan sounds great, sweet chorus, memorable riffs, etc.
The Hero was okay. It seems to run out of gas for me part way through. The lyrics are also kind of weird. I guess they're kind of running out of ideas for songs that aren't about vikings battling. Not bad at all, but one of the more forgettable songs on the album.
Live For The Kill. Sure. Not bad. Again, relatively forgettable, although more tremelo-picked melodies here. But...Apocalyptica? I mean, that part was sweet, totally. I loved it. But then I looked at my played and realized I was listening to Amon Amarth and it was weird. Cool, though. Won't be played live, which is fine by me.
Embrace Of The Endless Ocean was, to me, the most traditional song on the album. Classic AA, though not at their best. Good song, but a little lengthy and stuff. A good closer, though.
Overall I felt the album was quite good, well worth my purchase of the picture disc, but not quite as good as With Oden On Our Side. Still, it beats (to me) Fate Of Norns, and that is indeed a heroic deed. I was disappointed only because my expectations were incredibly high. If another band had delivered this I would have shat myself. Amon Amarth have set very high standards for themselves, and it's no shame at all that this doesn't (in the opinion of some guy on the internet) live up to the last one.
One thing worth noting is the stylistic change. More standard death metal type riffs, fewer tremelo-picked melodies, mostly on the choruses, and the vocal lines are more...vocal line-y. Before they didn't really feel like vocal lines, I guess.
I'm not gonna go speculating about what this means (THEY SOLD OUT TO THAT HUGE CROWD OF PEOPLE WHO DIG DEATH METAL VOCALS BUT DON'T LIKE TREMELO-PICKED MELODIES!), though I will note the absence of anti-Christian lyrics (Where is your god? is vague and not very harsh). This has been a trend since Versus; A Thousand Years of Oppression was the last anti-Christian song they wrote. Obviously I didn't listen to AA for the anti-Christian lyrics, but they did them better than most, and some of their best songs (masters of war, the sound of eight hooves, victorious march, a thousand years of oppression, etc) have anti-Christian lyrics, and they were a good topic. besides which, with that gone they're down to writing about either viking battles or norse mythology or something weird, like wolves. Maybe they stopped writing them because they felt they were alienating potential fans. Or, far, far more likely they got tired of writing them or something. Whatever.
Now then, I want to talk about something else. This something else is the DVD. Anyone with half a brain purchased the digipack. I found that the DVD alone was worth the price of admission. It was not just a bonus disc, it was a professionally filmed, brilliantly played show with a great stage set and setlist. This is another example of how fucking cool AA are that they just give us this shit.
Now then, I came extra hard for the following reasons:
1. Songs from WOoOS on DVD! Hell yeah. And they picked my faves. How considerate. If only they did Under The Northern Star...
2. Without Fear! I missed this on WotN, and it's one of my favorites by them, and it was fucking awesome seeing them play it live.
3. Death In Fire. First there was Johan playing with the crowd, which was awesome. I love his smile.
Then there was the fact that that was probably the tightest performance of that song they've ever laid down.
Seriously, did anyone else notice how bitchin' it was? The excellent sound contributed as well. Johan sounded great. The only thing was that for the first 3 verses he didn't sing "Death in fire" but god damn the tapping part was epic. Who's with me?
btw this is probably the longest post I'll ever make.
Anyhow, these are just first impressions. I've listened to it about 6 times, and I'll probably write a full review tomorrow.
Okay, so.
Going in I was expecting WOoOS pt 2. The two songs that had been released (Twilight and Guardians) had had a production sound that was somewhat different from With Oden (much thicker guitar sound, but sounds somehow a little less heavy, and somewhat more studio'd voxx), but definitely sounded great. I had noticed far more palm mutes and chugs than normal on Guardians, but assumed this was an aberration.
My list of the first six goes like so:
Once Sent From The Golden Hall
Versus The World
With Oden On Our Side
Fate Of Norns
The Crusher
Avenger
Now, obviously there was no chance that the album would top Once Sent. Absolutely fucking none. That wasn't even a question. I expected it would fall either above or below WOoOS, although I held out hope that it might top Versus (a mighty feat, but probably not impossible).
I expected predominately tremelo-picked melodies, though with more chugs than there were on the first four. I hoped for more of the badass vocals from Asator, and generally just more badassery from Johan Hegg.
So now you know the mindset with which I approached the album.
The first song, Twilight of the Thunder God, held few surprises (none, actually), seeing as I'd already listened to it many times.
Free Will Sacrifice, however, was all new. It surprised me with it's heavy reliance on chugging palm muted riffs, but the verse was quite badass and I totally dug it. When it got to the chorus the familiar tremelo melodies came back in and I noticed that Johan's screams, which are used far more sparingly here, sound great, but also very studio'd. I also noted that his growls have ascended to new fucking heights. There can no longer be any question of his vocal supremacy. On a side note I'm worried the lyrics are about 300. Would it kill them to just say "Thor" at some point or something so we know we're talking about Vikings?
Guardians Of Asgaard I was also familiar with. I can't tell when LG Petrov sings. Frankly, I don't think AA needs guest vocals. Why have a guest vocalist when you already have the best? Unless they were gonna do female vocals, but the day AA use female guest vocals is the day I burn my AA posters (fortunately, it's also the day hell freezes over and we all go ice skating). Anyhoo, the song is badass. As I mentioned before, the chorus sounds very much written for a live audience but while that usually annoys me here it made me want to go see them. 18 October bitches!
Moving on, Where Is Your God? This was the first genuine disappointment. I'm a huge fan of things that are not George Fisher growling way to fast, so you can see how I wouldn't dig this. The verse riff is just weird, as well. The prechorus was pretty cool. At first the chorus annoyed me. Right now I'm neutral on it, but I could see it wearing on me. The song in general has gotten better with successive listens. But it still stinks of an attempt to be BURTAL. My least favorite on the album. I'm mostly worried that they'll play it live. Not that I don't like it or wouldn't want to see it live, just that it'll take up precious time that could be devoted to much better songs.
Varyags Of Miklagaard FUCK YEAH. Best song on the album hands down. When I first heard that verse riff with those epic shifting roots and Johan's voxx I came. Really hard. The prechorus is good but not as good as the verse and chorus. The chorus melody is awesome and folky, although it sounds more like Einsiferum than Amon Amarth. Still, a fucking fantastic song and an instant AA classic. The lyrics are cool, and remind me of Bathory's Great Hall Awaits A Fallen Brother (or was it Death And Resurrection of a Northern Son? Yeah, I think that was it. About the Vikings who traveled and served a foreign king? I think the lyrics are actually historical Someone who knows shit can fill me in).
Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags is also quite sweet. Again, mix of melodies and chugs. Suffers a bit from being right after Varyags of Miklagaard (which is probably why I can't remember it all that well), but yeah, definitely a solid song.
No Fear For The Setting Sun is quite epic. The lyrics are cool, I love their story-telling lyrics. Nothing quite as detailed as Once Sealed In Blood or The Sound Of Eight Hooves, but good stuff. Johan sounds great, sweet chorus, memorable riffs, etc.
The Hero was okay. It seems to run out of gas for me part way through. The lyrics are also kind of weird. I guess they're kind of running out of ideas for songs that aren't about vikings battling. Not bad at all, but one of the more forgettable songs on the album.
Live For The Kill. Sure. Not bad. Again, relatively forgettable, although more tremelo-picked melodies here. But...Apocalyptica? I mean, that part was sweet, totally. I loved it. But then I looked at my played and realized I was listening to Amon Amarth and it was weird. Cool, though. Won't be played live, which is fine by me.
Embrace Of The Endless Ocean was, to me, the most traditional song on the album. Classic AA, though not at their best. Good song, but a little lengthy and stuff. A good closer, though.
Overall I felt the album was quite good, well worth my purchase of the picture disc, but not quite as good as With Oden On Our Side. Still, it beats (to me) Fate Of Norns, and that is indeed a heroic deed. I was disappointed only because my expectations were incredibly high. If another band had delivered this I would have shat myself. Amon Amarth have set very high standards for themselves, and it's no shame at all that this doesn't (in the opinion of some guy on the internet) live up to the last one.
One thing worth noting is the stylistic change. More standard death metal type riffs, fewer tremelo-picked melodies, mostly on the choruses, and the vocal lines are more...vocal line-y. Before they didn't really feel like vocal lines, I guess.
I'm not gonna go speculating about what this means (THEY SOLD OUT TO THAT HUGE CROWD OF PEOPLE WHO DIG DEATH METAL VOCALS BUT DON'T LIKE TREMELO-PICKED MELODIES!), though I will note the absence of anti-Christian lyrics (Where is your god? is vague and not very harsh). This has been a trend since Versus; A Thousand Years of Oppression was the last anti-Christian song they wrote. Obviously I didn't listen to AA for the anti-Christian lyrics, but they did them better than most, and some of their best songs (masters of war, the sound of eight hooves, victorious march, a thousand years of oppression, etc) have anti-Christian lyrics, and they were a good topic. besides which, with that gone they're down to writing about either viking battles or norse mythology or something weird, like wolves. Maybe they stopped writing them because they felt they were alienating potential fans. Or, far, far more likely they got tired of writing them or something. Whatever.
Now then, I want to talk about something else. This something else is the DVD. Anyone with half a brain purchased the digipack. I found that the DVD alone was worth the price of admission. It was not just a bonus disc, it was a professionally filmed, brilliantly played show with a great stage set and setlist. This is another example of how fucking cool AA are that they just give us this shit.
Now then, I came extra hard for the following reasons:
1. Songs from WOoOS on DVD! Hell yeah. And they picked my faves. How considerate. If only they did Under The Northern Star...
2. Without Fear! I missed this on WotN, and it's one of my favorites by them, and it was fucking awesome seeing them play it live.
3. Death In Fire. First there was Johan playing with the crowd, which was awesome. I love his smile.
Then there was the fact that that was probably the tightest performance of that song they've ever laid down.
Seriously, did anyone else notice how bitchin' it was? The excellent sound contributed as well. Johan sounded great. The only thing was that for the first 3 verses he didn't sing "Death in fire" but god damn the tapping part was epic. Who's with me?
btw this is probably the longest post I'll ever make.
