Friday, July 1, 2022

CD Odyssey Disc 1568: Amon Amarth

Happy Canada Day! Here’s a review to get your holiday off on the right foot.

Disc 1568 is…. Berserker

Artist: Amon Amarth

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? Our titular character, wading fearlessly into battle against a host of spearmen. Of course, a lot of these guys would have died behaving this way, but Amon Amarth has decided to capture that moment in time when the berserker is really feeling it.

Right at this moment, everything is looking rosy. Sure he’s been cut a couple of times, but there’s more blood on his axe blade than his chest, so it’s all good. Later, that rosy outlook will probably be replaced with the frothy pink blood that suggests one of those spears has pierced a lung. For right now things are looking up, and there’s more killin’ to do, ‘ere the end.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Greg played me a song off of this album called “Shield Wall”. It was pretty awesome and from there I’ve fallen pretty hard for this band, buying five of their albums over the past six months or so.

How It Stacks Up: I previously reviewed “Twilight of the Thunder God” and “Jomsviking” and, wanting to leave room for this record to beat them out. But having listened to all three, and with a better understanding of the band overall I think they are both better, dropping “Berserker” into #5.

Ratings: 3 stars

On “Berserker” Amon Amarth lighten up. In fact, this record is positively cheery by their standards – a couple songs even have intros featuring classical guitar and cellos. These don’t last long though, and it is important to understand that “cheery” here still means you will be enjoying an onslaught of Viking melodic death metal. This record is the most melodic of what I’ve heard from them so far though, so cheery within that context only.

The hallmarks of the band remain, with the guttural screams of Johan Hegg and the driving crunchy rhythm of Johan Soderberg’s guitar. These two things alone should be enough to get your head banging with enthusiasm. Soderberg is a stalwart of the band from the beginning. Amon Amarth is one of those bands, like ACDC, where the rhythm guy is king. He is the reason this stuff has a melodic structure and a gem of a musician. Lead Olavi Mikkonen is no slouch either. Together, these guys are magic.

Hegg’s vocals are a bit less guttural than usual here, but since that’s not angry rasp isn’t typically in my wheelhouse anyway, I was happy that the lyrics were easier to understand. If you are feeling participatory, I still wouldn’t try to sing along; with death metal you are better off employing air guitar or drums if you don’t want to hurt your throat.  It was awesome to be able to better hear the stories unfold, though.

With those stories you will be treated to a whole lot of Viking history and mythology. If you don’t consider that a treat, you should probably find a different band to listen to. I happen to roll just fine with that, and “Berserker” has a number of killer tracks that fit the bill.

The most notable is “Shield Wall,” the song that first drew me to the band. This song has an urgency and power that perfectly captures what I imagine what it would have felt like to stand in a shield wall, your trusted companions on either side of you, feeling invulnerable. Likely you’d also be wondering at the lunacy of the berserkers who’d torn their shirts off and run out in front. Like what the hell, man, get back here where we can help you! Big I digress…

Shield Wall” is a masterful display of Jocke Wallgren’s drumming. Wallgren’s work is a perfect blend of furious, precise, and heavy as fuck. It is only his second album with the band, and while we could all sit around bemoaning the loss of the brilliant Fredrik Andersson, I’m just thrilled to have one great drummer replaced with another.

On this record I also mused that Viking metal bands sing about Thor a lot. I mean, there is lots of Norse mythology to go around, but Thor is the guy who gets the most airtime. That he tends to fill that air with thunder and lightning must add to the appeal. On this record “Crack the Sky” edges out “Mjolner, Hammer of Thor” as “best Thor song” but they’re both solid.

Less good is “Ironside,” which is about a real-life historical figure that fans of the TV show “Vikings” will be familiar with. Here the band tells the story, but it feels like they sacrifice poetry in service to ensuring all the details are right. A good song needs to employ imagery and emotion as well as the specifics of the events.

But this is a minor quibble. After all, “The Berserker at Stamford Bridge” does the same thing, and it is tons of fun (spoiler alert – he eventually dies and probably should have stayed in the shield wall). Overall, this record is another brilliant entry in Amon Amarth’s discography and has me looking forward to the release of “the Great Heathen Army” due out in August. Bring it on!

Best tracks: Crack the Sky, Shield Wall, Raven’s Flight, Into the Dark

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