Amon Amarth has been around for quite some time viking it up on the melodic death metal scene and are the favorites of many; so much so that on the r/metal subreddit it is against the rules to post anything Amon Amarth related because shit, everybody knows them. Love them or hate them Amon Amarth are one of the most popular melodic death metal bands in recent memory that haven’t really “sold out” to mainstream fame, keeping true to their roots and original sound/themes. I see a viking on the cover just ruining some dude, fresh off the boat with rain, invading and gonna plunder some shit. Yep, that’s exactly what I want for a metal cover. In fact all of Amon Amarth’s covers are very well illustrated and bad-ass, like shit, come on, vikings and Norse gods/mythology! Can’t go wrong.
One of the main criticisms of Amon Amarth is that every album sounds the same, there is a certain truth to that but unless you really know their music you can tell that every album is going for a different feel and well, story. While in the past they have had albums focusing on Thor, Odin, Valhalla and the like of Norse mythology, this time, they are largely committing themselves to songs about vikings and the viking way of life, most evident in the song “The Way Of Vikings” literally a song about two vikings fighting each and being so hardcore and serious, that you would never know that they were best friends™. The title track, “First Kill” is also outstanding as well as “Vengeance Is My Name”; actually pretty much every track on this thing is damn good.
Guitar work and riffs are excellent, death growls solid, melodies appropriate with a large variety of song speeds with varying subject matter relating to Vikings. All good. I don’t understand why people complain when some bands never change and everything that they produce sounds the same, it’s alright by me as long as it’s consistent and they get progressively get better doing what they’ve always done. I don’t need to see some revolutionary bullshit, I just need some good shit. Top tier melodic viking metal, gonna see these guys in concert since they are coming to Toronto at the end of the month. Hype.
Score: 9