The vanir gods are waiting with increasing anger for a song honouring their tribe

[Metal Ambition]

Ok, I haven't studied all amon amarth lyrics in detail but It seems that most or all of the mythological songs are focusing on the aesir - only one half of the norse pantheon. Now that's pretty natural to start off with as it seems like the aesir were inherently more metal but I believe that it would probably be possible to honour some of the vanir as well while staying manly.

You have Njord, the god of the wind and the oceans and according to some traditions also the first king of Sweden and a song about the sexy fertility godess freya would be interesting to see if they could pull off. How about a duet with Angela Gossow? She looks and perhaps also sounds the part? Actuallly I felt earlier that her addition to arch enemy was perhaps a bit gimmicky but she definitely makes their act stand out. However I feel that she is a bit in the same position as Roope Latvala - a lot of talent that could be lifted to even greater heights together with Amon. They do utilize her voice greatly but It could be even more epic.

Ok, I realize that it's more important for Amon to stay metal than to explore all the ins and outs of nordic mythology and history and be polite to people in the business (though I like their cooperations and the contributions of the others) but I feel that as long as they could pull it off, it would be nice to see.

Or perhaps not?

 

[waif]

A duet? With a female vocalist?
God no. Amon Amarth is Amon Amarth.
Also there would be no point since she doesn't sound particularly feminine; it would just be Johan shitting on her vocals with his far manlier roars.

That said, other lyrical topics would be nice. I'm getting a bit tired of people lying in their own blood and sacrificing. Maybe a return to killing Christians? Or, even better, how about a return to more historical lyrics like on The Beheading Of A King? Although there was Varyaags of Miklagaard...(there's an extra A in there somewhere, I know).

 

[Metal Ambition]

A duet? With a female vocalist?
God no. Amon Amarth is Amon Amarth.
Also there would be no point since she doesn't sound particularly feminine; it would just be Johan shitting on her vocals with his far manlier roars.

That said, other lyrical topics would be nice. I'm getting a bit tired of people lying in their own blood and sacrificing. Maybe a return to killing Christians? Or, even better, how about a return to more historical lyrics like on The Beheading Of A King? Although there was Varyaags of Miklagaard...(there's an extra A in there somewhere, I know).

I'm not confident that it's a good idea but I'm curious about the outcome - it doesn't have to be a duet though but could be a standalong song for Gossow. They should of course not tempt their fates by diverging into sillyness or by breaking the fourth wall. That's one of the things though which amazes me about them. They churn out amazing metal about vikings and it all seems so bloody natural and without speculation. More honest than most bands who sing about the society or everyday life.

I have said earlier that I'm curious about some type of movie project involving their songs. For that they would perhaps need to widen the themes a bit and creat some "generic" songs covering other situations and emotional spectras - but there are of course possible pitfalls with that (literally not the least).

Regarding history there is of course the "discovering" of america the infighting between sviar, goths and danes (such as told of in beowulf), the expeditions in normandy and the mediterranean.

However a great "undiscovered" part of the viking age according to my interpretation is the germanic "völkerwanderung" down to the south of the continent. In this age preceding the official viking age you have epic germanic kings such as Alaric - the invader of the city of Rome after three sieges (I see the romans, greeks and germanics as europe's shared common heritage and their infighting therefore as uncontroversial). He was supposedly buried on bottom of a riverbed after slaves and soldiers had rerouted the river of busento or some river close by. Some say that enormous riches of the roman empire lie with him. Furthermore Odoacer (suspiciously close in name to Odin the aesir), the germanic herul who in 476 deposed the last roman emperor with the fitting name Romulus Augustus to become king of Italy. Lastly Theoderic who made war with Odoacer at the mission of the east roman emperor. He won many battles but didn't manage to invade the capital city of the heruls after many sieges. However he used his "smartness" instead. Inviting Odoacer to negotiations and then after proposing a toast at the big banquet - killing him with his bare hands (at least according to the goths). He then became the king of Italy. Ok, granted that most of them were newly christianized due to continental influences but they belonged to the arian faith which saw Jesus as a wise philosopher - not a God and this was often combined with pagan traditions and tolerance of the pagan faith.

 

[waif]

Yeah, a lot of that would work. However, I think Amon Amarth need to sing about Vikings; I can't really hear their musical approach working with any other theme simply because they connect so well.

 

[Metal Ambition]

On the other hand when talking about godly themes you have the aesir baldr whose destiny is very central in norse mythology. He is sort of the chosen one who is brought back to life after Ragnarrök to start a new "race" of people. In life he was like - blessed from being hurt by anything but his "achilles heal" was the mistletoe who alone in the plant kindom had abstained from making a vow to his godess mother, not to hurt him (ok, a bit silly perhaps) Loke made an arrow or spear from this plant and gave it to baldrs blind brother, Hödr. A popular pastime among the gods were appearently to throw weapons at baldr since everyone knew that he was invincible. The blind Hödr throw or shot the mistletoe "weapon" which he had received from the deceiutful Loke - at Baldr and thereby inadvertatly killed his brother. This was seen as the first tragedy in the chain of events that would lead to the ragnarrök. Baldr would though as the chosen one later be resurected after the Ragnarrök.

So one or two songs about baldrs life and death and another promising one about his resurection would be pretty nice as long as they would kill his lifestory with an arrow made of hard-quality compressed metal - perhaps he is to similar to Jesus though?


Though songs with timeless themes other than war are probably the best road to universal recognition (if that is not abhorred ). Songs placed in the viking era but dealing with subjects that are relevant for everyday people today as well. "Fate of norns" comes to mind as a good earlier example of that.

I realize that some subjects that would perhaps be needed to be covered in a viking movie are perhaps not those that are best suited for touring or for the regular deathmetal crowd but there is of course no rule that they have to tour with all their material. A trilogy about three generations of a viking family would not be wrong. These people could have very different destinies. Apart from the main story you could then have flashes of norse mythology interwoven in it - told sometimes by the campfire.

 

[Metal Ambition]

The god Tyr (not the same as Thor) and his sacrifice of one arm to the fenris wolf seems like a story that was made to be metallized. He was also an aesir though. There aren't that many stories about the vanir that have survived.

 

[Tyra]

There aren't that many stories about the vanir that have survived.

Excuse me??

 

[Metal Ambition]

Excuse me??

You should know the norse mythology better than me but there are to my knowledge at least many more aesir gods whose actions are described in detail and within a narrative in the surviving norse sagas and their are few vanir gods who you get to know in flesh and blood. I didn't mean that there were no stories where Frey, freya and Njord took part. I also meant as a possible hindrance that the stories about the vanir were perhaps less ideal to metallize though of course not a impossible task for Amon - and the point of the thread was of course that it would be nice with a song about a vanir God if it would work.

Hej, från Sverige förresten! Jag har länge trott (flera album sen) att din brors band kommer bli Sveriges största band och ett av de största banden genom tiderna internationellt, alla kategorier. De håller så pass hög kvalitet rakt igenom låtmässigt och livespelsmässigt och är så pass unika i sitt sound och i sin image att de kommer stå ut även på lång sikt. Det ska bli spännande att se hur de utvecklas framöver samt att se hur stora de blir publikmässigt och i kritikers, metalfans och allmänhetens ögon! Jag tycker de har ett lite väl tufft tour-schema dock även om jag inser att många fans inte håller med mig! Jag tycker de borde få mer tid i studion så att de kunde släppa en skiva varje år - de behöver ju inte toura med allt material. Det skulle sätta snöbollen rejält i rullning! Ok, jag inser att de kanske inte själva vill det och livespelningar är ju den största födkroken nuförtiden och även ett väldigt bra sätt att få nya fans och sälja album men precis som momentum är viktigt på slagfältet så tror jag också att det är centralt för de band som vill bli riktigt stora. Deras vikingagimmick är kanske ett hinder för erkännande i alla musikkretsar (vilket givetvis inte är något självklart mål) men mer "djupa" sånger med tidlösa teman skulle nog kunna få de flesta skeptiker att se igenom även den.

 

[The Slopes Of Death]

They could definitely do some songs about the attacks on Muslim Spain.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/articles/medieval_world/moors_against_majus/

 

[Tyra]

You should know the norse mythology better than me but there are to my knowledge at least many more aesir gods whose actions are described in detail and within a narrative in the surviving norse sagas and their are few vanir gods who you get to know in flesh and blood. I didn't mean that there were no stories where Frey, freya and Njord took part. I also meant as a possible hindrance that the stories about the vanir were perhaps less ideal to metallize though of course not a impossible task for Amon - and the point of the thread was of course that it would be nice with a song about a vanir God if it would work.

Hej, från Sverige förresten! Jag har länge trott (flera album sen) att din brors band kommer bli Sveriges största band och ett av de största banden genom tiderna internationellt, alla kategorier. De håller så pass hög kvalitet rakt igenom låtmässigt och livespelsmässigt och är så pass unika i sitt sound och i sin image att de kommer stå ut även på lång sikt. Det ska bli spännande att se hur de utvecklas framöver samt att se hur stora de blir publikmässigt och i kritikers, metalfans och allmänhetens ögon! Jag tycker de har ett lite väl tufft tour-schema dock även om jag inser att många fans inte håller med mig! Jag tycker de borde få mer tid i studion så att de kunde släppa en skiva varje år - de behöver ju inte toura med allt material. Det skulle sätta snöbollen rejält i rullning! Ok, jag inser att de kanske inte själva vill det och livespelningar är ju den största födkroken nuförtiden och även ett väldigt bra sätt att få nya fans och sälja album men precis som momentum är viktigt på slagfältet så tror jag också att det är centralt för de band som vill bli riktigt stora. Deras vikingagimmick är kanske ett hinder för erkännande i alla musikkretsar (vilket givetvis inte är något självklart mål) men mer "djupa" sånger med tidlösa teman skulle nog kunna få de flesta skeptiker att se igenom även den.

OK, fair enough. The written material does not give you as much, but it still gives you, for example, Freja's loss of her beloved husband, Loke's reaming them all out in Lokasenna, and it was her necklace that got stolen so that Thor had to "be a bride", and she does take half of all the slain warriors. I'd like to hear a song about the farmer who was so devoted to Frej that he devoted his best horse to him, and after someone rode it in an emergency gave up his faith altogether. The oral tradition gives us many more stories about the vanir, though. For that, you'll have to look at books like those by Ebbe Schön. They're in Swedish, so I'd recommend it to you.

Hej själv! Jag tror att det är så, att vissa delar i världen släpar efter vad gäller försäljning av både musik och tröjor o s v. Det är väl därför som skivbolaget nu satsat på relativt många stora nordamerikanska turnéer, kanske, för det är nog (men jag gissar bara) här som man inte riktigt slagit igenom. På radion och på TV spelas t ex Sonic Syndicate, Lamb of God och en del andra band hela tiden, men jag har inte hört AA mer än några ggr. Samtidigt kan man inte glömma bort de europeiska fansen, vilket innebär att man måste åka på turné var och varannan vecka. Kan tänka mig att det nog är ganska slitsamt ibland, särskilt om man har fru och barn eller flickvän. För att inte tala om gnälliga systrar och systerdöttrar som vill träffas hela tiden...LOL.

 

[Bates]

Wow, lots of practice material there.

 

[Tyra]

Ja, Bates, nu får du öva. Fuska inte med Google!

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Am I the only one that thinks this thread is stupid and that people like this take away Amon Amarth's coolness by the second?

 

[Metal Ambition]

Am I the only one that thinks this thread is stupid and that people like this take away Amon Amarth's coolness by the second?

I guess you have a point. Can't help being a history buff as well as a fan of quality metal. I apologize for the silly thread title, it's unfortunately written in stone - at least from my user perspective. Regarding the subject matter - creative or narrative discussion and thought is perhaps not as "cool" as rather mindless chat between "thoughtless" consumers of popular culture about their everyday life, their favourite song or their next concert visit - though that I feel can be debated. Now this was not meant as a diss aganist you or anyone on this board but just a general reflection. Though I can see how extensive creative discussion can be seen as a bit disrespectful towards the band.

I also believe that Amon should focus on churning out good metal and perhaps going the metaphorical way - and not burying themselves to deep in norse mythology or history - at least not for the sake of it - contrary to perhaps the impression of this thread. Though I think they make a valuable cultural contribution by covering norse themes and I'm curious about the prospect of a quality movie about the viking era with Amon Amarth soundtrack - I actually think it could be done in an uncompromising and non cheezy way.

Perhaps, in a few years time the world will be ready for death metal on the silverscreen?

Lastly, If you wan't this thread to be forgotten - don't bumb it! (but thanks for the critique anyway)

Made som edits.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Cool response dude. I just think Amon Amarth is a badass metal band and I think it's kinda silly that people take them as professors in norse mythology trying to bestow their knowledge onto unsuspecting fans with their br00tal riffz and tasty melodies. Their lyrics are cool/good for making me bang my head and have a good time, but that's it. If I wanna learn about norse mythology I'd read a book haha.

 

[Tyra]

Ah, but contrary to popular belief, you are not the centre of the universe. I am.

 

[Bates]

Hmm, that must make me the off-center.

 

[Shadow77]

Guess I will settle for having the sun rise and set on my ass then.

 

[NewWorld]

I would like to be at the extreme top of everything so keep that spot open for me willya?





nice thread-derail guys XD

 

[Bates]

Guess I will settle for having the sun rise and set on my ass then.

That calls for a semi-dirty reply, but alas, my brain is kaput today.