AMON AMARTH — Surtur Rising

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AMON AMARTH - Surtur Rising cover
4.06 | 35 ratings | 3 reviews
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Album · 2011

Tracklist

1. War of the Gods (4:33)
2. Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II (5:58)
3. Destroyer of the Universe (3:41)
4. Slaves of Fear (4:25)
5. Live Without Regrets (5:03)
6. The Last Stand of Frej (5:37)
7. For Victory Or Death (4:30)
8. Wrath of the Norsemen (3:44)
9. A Beast Am I (5:14)
10. Doom Over Dead Man (5:55)

Total time: 48:40

Line-up/Musicians

- Johan Hegg / Vocals
- Olavi Mikkonen / Guitars
- Johan Söderberg / Guitars
- Ted Lundström / Bass
- Fredrik Andersson / Drums

About this release

Full-length, Metal Blade Records, March 25th, 2011

Release dates:
Germany/Austria/Switzerland - March 25th
Rest of Europe - March 28th
USA - March 29th

Recorded at Fascination Street Studios Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogre.

Cover artwork by Tom Thiel.

Available editions for Europe:
-Standard CD
-CD+DVD Digibook edition with 28-page booklet
-Gatefold 2-LP with bonus track "Balls to the Wall" (Accept cover); also
available as red/black splatter and red/yellow splatter vinyl.
-Special boxset with Surtur Rising figure; contains the CD/DVD Edition as above,
the Accept cover song and additionally the Kiss cover track "War Machine". EMP
exclusively offers a poster flag together with this box edition.

Available editions for USA:
-Multi-panel digipak edition CD+DVD with 28-page booklet
-Picture Disc vinyl with die-cut gatefold sleeve
-Box set as the European version

The Bonus DVD contains all 4 exclusive Bochum shows in which the band played their first 4 albums in their entirety.

The pre-order for "Sutur Rising" has the following bonus tracks.
11. War Machine (Kiss Cover)
12. Balls to the Wall (Accept Cover)


Thanks to UMUR for the addition and adg211288 for the updates

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AMON AMARTH SURTUR RISING reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

Warthur
If you want to get someone hooked on Amon Amarth's personal brand of Viking-flavoured melodic death metal, Surtur Rising is the perfect gateway drug - not only is it the finest collection of songs from the band I've heard so far, but it's also immediately likeable, grabbing the listener's attention from the opening and not letting go until the conclusion of Doom Over Dead Man. Amon Amarth wrest maximal advantage from the high production standards of the album, crafting a release which easily pulls off the difficult task of being accessible without compromising the band's sound. Of course, the fact that the album is all about a fire giant with a giant burning sword who even the Gods fear helps.
Kingcrimsonprog
Amon Amarth have been on an upward trend over the last few studio albums, rising from relative unkowns to cult heroes to a genuine big deal, especially with the previous two albums which launched the band into the wider public consciousness and resultantly lead this album to be one of metal’s most anticipated albums in years.

The band do not disappoint and deliver more of their trademark Norse themed, twin guitar melodic death metal from the beginning of the album to the end. The songs are as catchy yet savage as ever, the musicianship is phenomenal (especially guitar solos) and the production job is top notch making the album sound absolutely fantastic on all levels.

Whether you enjoy the album or not will depend largely on whether you have had enough of the Amon Amarth formula, this album presents no large shift in musical direction and no abandoning of the lyrical or vocal styles associated with the band up until this point and what you get is essentially another Amon Amarth record along the same lines as the previous two, with all the technical and songwriting progress the band had made until that point.

Should you have tired of this forumla then by all means, feel free to give Surtur Rising a miss, but if you haven’t then this album is something you will want to be getting in on as soon as possible.

Opener ‘War Of The Gods,’ and the fast and dramatic ‘A Beast Am I’ are easily among the best songs the band have released in recent years, and the album draws to a close with the grand and melodic ‘Doom Over Dead Men,’ which distills perfectly everything Amon Amarth have come to represent.

In summary if you want a flawless sounding, perfectly executed Amon Amarth record, with great songs, great musicianship and the trademark Amon Amarth sound then Surtur Rising will not disappoint.
adg211288
Surtur Rising is the eighth album by long-running Viking themed melodic death metal act Amon Amarth, released in 2011. Surtur Rising admittedly represents more of the same from this Swedish band; however it maintains the high level of quality heard on the band’s previous releases, and has a real good go at going one better.

Opener War of the Gods has what I’d consider to be a typical Amon Amarth groove to it, with plenty of melody on offer and powerful growls from frontman Johan Hegg. Lead guitar work is also used to great effect. If you’re an existing fan listening to this you know what you’re getting and can rest assured that you’re going to like the album, because quite frankly if you liked their previous albums there is no reason not to like this. It fact with that assured you probably don’t even need to read the rest of this review, because it’s as I said above, Surtur Rising does indeed represent more of the same from Amon Amarth, but while the album doesn’t really break any new ground (although there’s an interesting System of a Down cover available for the iTunes download version), it also contains some real belters of tracks among its number, and War of the Gods represents just the first of them.

Other really great tracks include Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II (a sequel to Hermod's Ride to Hel - Lokes Treachery, Part 1 from With Oden on Our Side), For Victory or Death, and Destroyer of the Universe, which is certainly one of my personal favourites from the album along with later tracks Wrath Of The Norsemen and A Beast I Am.

If the album could keep to the same level as those tracks mentioned above them it could easily rival the band’s best works such as With Oden on Our Side, but unfortunately every now and then there’s a track which will still pretty good, just lacks the same sort of punch. An example of this is Slaves of Fear. Others such as Live Without Regrets are an improvement on ones such as Slaves of Fear, but represent the middle of the road part of the album. Fortunately the album has its share of the really good songs in a bigger dose than the ones which are something of a letdown to the overall experience.

Overall though Surtur Rising is another solid Amon Amarth album that will please existing fans and could even still make them some new ones if for some reason you’re a metalhead who still hasn’t heard these guys (if not, where have you been?).

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

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