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 Its been out for a while now (Sept. 2008 release) which means that this is piece is woefully out of date; however, its whats been in my WMP for the last 24 hours, so I thought it deserves a mention here.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.