AMON AMARTH — Surtur Rising (review)

AMON AMARTH — Surtur Rising album cover Album · 2011 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
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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