Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God

A few days back, I thought of browsing through my music collection to check for updates of some bands. In the course of this pursuit, I found that there's been a new Amon Amarth album, Twilight of the Thunder God. Its been out for a while now (Sept. 2008 release) which means that this is piece is woefully out of date; however, its whats been in my WMP for the last 24 hours, so I thought it deserves a mention here.

First off, something about the band. Amon Amarth are a Death Metal band, whose lyrics are derived from Norse mythology. Twilight of the Thunder God is their seventh studio album. For those of us not familiar with Norse Mythology, the album title speaks of the battle between the Thunder God Thor and the World Serpent, Jormugandr, as is shown in the album artwork below:


Music wise, Id say this is the among the best Amon Amarth. My personal favourite albums were 2002's Versus The World, 2004's Fate of Norns and 2007's With Oden on Our Side. Twilight of the Thunder God features a lot of new things for the band: A slew of high-profile guest performances (Children of Bodom guitarist Roope Latvala performs a shred solo on the title track, Entombed vocalist Lars Goran Petrov on Guardians of Asgaard and Apocalyptica on the track Live for the Kill). Another new addition to this album is that the overall tempo of most songs is quicker, giving the album a more mainstream sound. On the first hearing, its definitely more palatable to the Amon Amarth newbie than say, Versus The World, and songs like Free Will Sacrifice, No Fear for the Setting Sun and even the title track, Twilight of the Thunder God, have a distinctly In Flames ring to them.

Video: Twilight Of The Thunder God

That's not to say that it doesnt stay true to the band's trademark sound; far from it. The riffage and drumming on the other songs is classic Amon Amarth; Power Chord riffs and heavy bass drumming once more feature on the album, in addition to faster solos. Songs in this package to watch out for are Guardians of Asgaard (This song practically got me high out of headbanging... It deserves to be heard on a sound system with a good bass setup) No Fear for the Setting Sun and a special mention for the song Where is your God, which sounds like a fusion of Nevermore and Amon Amarth, definitely a good thing.

A noteworthy point about this album is the production and track listing. The production of the album is definitely better than previous albums, with each track sounding very clean. To get an idea, place Guardians of Asgaard opposite Death in Fire, and you'll get what I'm talking about. Track listing has been done in a way that will get a newbie hooked immediately, while priming him/her properly for the Amon Amarth "sound". This is sure to get a lot of people attracted to the band, and I do expect it to do very well commercially.

Video: Guardians Of Asgaard

Rating:
Lyrics: 8/10, Riffs: 9/10, Solos: 9/10. Overall : 8.67/10
Its a good album, up there with the best of Amon Amarth, like I've already said. I wouldn't call it their best effort though; it is however a unique effort. From a critical point of view, one could accuse the band of having gone for a more mainstream death metal sound. Then again, mainstream death metal is an oxymoron, so there shouldn't be anything to complain about.

Weekly Picks

Megadeth - Endgame

Statutory Warning : Listening to the album might result in Brain Freeze, Loss of Motor muscle control , Blindness etc. due to pure awesomeness!

Megadeth, one of the great four thrash metal bands, released its 12th studio album - Endgame.
The band saw its peak earlier with the albums Rust In Peace
and Countdown To Extinction
after which was a period of decline, multiple changes in the band line-up and injury. After Dave Mustaine's recovery the band has brought out three albums so far - The System Has Failed, United Abominations and Endgame. In times when other thrash metal acts like Metallica are going from bad to worse, Megadeth and its music has been on the rise.

Megadeth has reached a new peak with the album Endgame. It is easily the best thrash metal album in over a decade!

The band's current line up is:
Dave Mustaine
Chris Broderick
Shawn Drover
James LoMenzo
Broderick has been a perfect find for Mustaine. Drover has done a fine job with drums and LoMenzo is a good fit with the bass. All songs in the album have multiple solos. Both the lead guitarists complement each other very well. Dialectic Chaos, the instrumental intro song, is just mind blowing and sets the tone for the album. Songs like 1320, This Day We Fight and Head Crusher have high tempo riffs and fearless solos. How The Story Ends, Bodies and 44 Minutes are more groovy and have elements similar to the older albums Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction. The lyrics, like older Megadeth albums, have political themes; the song Endgame paints a very morbid picture of a future world. The only odd song is The Hardest Part of Letting Go...Sealed With a Kiss which is more like some of the songs in Cryptic Writing and Risk. The songs in Endgame have speed and power metal elements in them like United Abominations.


Ratings: (Lyrics - 9, Riffs - 10, Solos - 10) - 9.67/10.

On the whole one can expect a power packed, intense album that would definitely blow your mind. I cannot say with certainty now, that Rust In Peace is the best of Megadeth. Endgame comes really close. It is definitely a must listen to all metal fans. Ryan Ogle of the Blabbermouth says, "Regardless of whether you're a newbie retro-thrasher or a veteran who has recently released your own comeback album, grab a pencil because Professor Mustaine is taking us all to school. Glaring down from his pulpit made of bone, the wild-eyed, fire-breathing Dave of old snarls out a sermon consisting of some of the most ferocious MEGADETH songs to assail the world in some time now." Bottom line is:
Mustaine has still got what Metallica lost long ago....

Video: 1320

Evergrey - The Inner Circle

I have always wondered why do progressive metal bands suffer from very non-male high pitched vocals. Symphony X, Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Spheric Universe Experience, Angra, Ark, etc. all have similar vocals. Many times I have seen people dislike progressive metal because of the vocals. Amongst a small set of bands which do not follow the trend is Evergrey.

This Swedish progressive power metal band formed in 1996 is 8 albums old. I will review their fifth studio album The Inner Circle. This album received a very positive review by the Metal Observer and rightly so. The lyrical themes of Evergrey in general are of despair. Unlike some bands which may tend to over do the 'man in pain' ideology, Evergrey's lyrics are quite poetic well within acceptable bounds of anguish. The Inner Circle is a concept album like most other Evergrey albums dealing with child abuse, cults and religion. Though the choros now and then is shrill (the chorus has female backup vocals as well) does resemble other progressive metal bands, the lead vocals definitely has a grunge feel to it and is a welcome respite for people who love the progressive metal music without the vocals.

The music involves brilliant harmonized solos and symphonic keys. The keyboard compositions have many similarities with melodic death metal bands like norther and children of bodom. In that sense the genre of this band should actually have been melodic progressive grunge metal or the likes. The album offers something for everyone, A touch of blessing and More than ever are have stronger elements of power metal and, songs like Ambassador and The essence of conviction are more progressive while Harmless wishes and Faith restored are beautiful ballads. Throughout the album, there are many portions where words are spoken, which the front man Tom Englund says are of an actual person.

Video: A Touch Of Blessing
Video: More Than Ever

On the whole, it is a must for all progressive metal fans and a good starting point for power/grunge metal fans exploring progressive metal.

Ratings: (Lyrics - 10, Riffs - 8.5, Novelty - 9) - 9.17/10.