AMON AMARTH — The Great Heathen Army (review)

AMON AMARTH — The Great Heathen Army album cover

Album · 2022 · Melodic Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-08-30
siLLy puPPy

And then it hit me one time when i was watching Dethklok on Metalocalypse. Much of melodic death metal = melo-death is really just traditional classic 80s heavy metal with growly vocals. These two distinct features of metal have created a great divide in the world of metal. Those who hate growly vocals yet love melodic dominance gravitate towards Dio, Judas Priest, Metallica and all those old school metal bands however those who gravitate towards the world of extreme metal seem to have an aversion towards melody and sugary sweetness in their metal. Well, then there are those like me who can endure the most saccharine of metal experiences and outshine the most extreme metalheads in avant-garde adventurism. Seriously it’s not a competitive sport. It’s just where you can derive pleasure from in an unjust universe.

AMON AMARTH has been around 30 years having formed in Tumba, Sweden all the way back in 1992 and has steadfastly crafted one melo-death album after another as well as enjoying a popularity unlike any other in the world of death metal. As a result this band has been disdained by some in the extreme metal community for selling out while others who enjoy a melodic hook underpinning have found this band to be their top dog in providing that necessary bridge between heavy metal and death metal. I for the life of me can’t understand why metalheads can’t have a varied diet and experience the joys of both dissonant mayhem as well as melodic downtime that doesn’t resort to dipping back to the 1950s with calypso hits from Harry Belofante. (hey, i do dig that music from time to time!)

Thirty years into its career and AMON AMARTH is still going strong with its twelfth album THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY. It is very true that AMON AMARTH plays it way too safe but that is the fate of many successful metal bands that simply don’t want to risk fanbase alienation for the sake of experimenting. It’s a capitalist world, ya know? Well it’s true that AMON AMARTH stopped evolving around the “Surtur Rising” album which personally i feel the band hit its stride and now is simply recycling the stylistic approach that it had been working up to until about 10 years ago. This is very common and not surprising one bit. THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY basically carries on with business as usual but that doesn’t for a second mean that B.A.U. can’t be enjoyable! This album basically continues where “Berserker” left off. Love it or leave it, AMON AMARTH has established its sound and not likely to release an electronic album soon!

Really not much to say about this one. If you are already indoctrinated into the AMON AMARTH fan club then this album will deliver exactly what you want. If you expect the band to evolve and move on to the next chapter of its logical conclusion then you will be sorely disappointed. It’s definitely AMON-by-the-numbers. When i say this i have to admit that i really love the melodic deathened metal sound of AMON AMARTH and despite its commercial appeal adds enough extreme metal grit to get my juices flowing. Yeah, this is the new pop metal but so what. There’s more than enough twisted convoluted metal to keep my extreme interests activated. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit back and enjoy the ride without any head trips. One thing that i can say about AMON AMARTH and that is that this band is consistent in delivering the goods of its craft. A very pleasant new offering if not as satisfying as previous efforts.