You have to give these Swedish Vikings in Amon Amarth credit. What a fantastic career they have already had. Who would have thought it back when they got together in Tumba sometime around 1992 and started a band? Who could ever have imagined that after Once Sent From The Golden Hall, a damn fine record by the way, released in 1998, there would be a whole slew of releases and more albums to follow? In the meantime, Amon Amarth has grown into a household name, or even a monument within the world of extreme metal. Everyone knows the band fronted by the towering Hegg, an imposing figure on stage who also knows how to hold his own during interviews.
And now we have album number thirteen, if I have counted correctly: The Allfather Awakens, the successor to the 2023 album The Great Heathen Army. Once again, it is Metal Blade Records that has the band under its wing, although the question is whether they still need that kind of support. These big, burly lads could probably conquer the world all by themselves. I have seen the band at Graspop several times. What a fiery and powerful show they put on! I believe that particular performance must have been in 2019.
As usual, several singles were released ahead of the album, only one of which I listened to beforehand: Gjallarhorn, which you can hear below. Perhaps that will leave me alert and clear-headed enough to fully grasp the latest album.
Brace yourself and sing along to the opening bars at the top of your lungs! In typically thunderous fashion, the first sounds come rumbling and rolling down the hill. The vocals have not changed, nor have the guitar parts. Mr Wallgren, the most recent addition to the ranks, certainly knows his way around his collection of pots, pans and drums.vProduction-wise, everything sounds pretty beefy, although perhaps just a little too tame. At least, that is the first impression. Which is somewhat strange, considering the guys spent quite some time at Jakob Hansen’s Studio in Denmark. Perhaps it has something to do with the use of a different type of guitar amplifier; I honestly don’t know. Mr. Mikkonen did say that they went back to using Marshall amplifiers. Well, I’m no sound engineer.
I know there is quite a story behind both the album title and the song titles. You can look all that up and read about it for yourself; what matters most to me is how these Swedes drape their music around those stories, as they do on the heavily steaming and stomping Kvasir’s Blood. Just listen to those exceptionally deep grunts from Mr Hegg. Or take that all-enveloping guitar solo in the same song. Grab your oars for We Rule The Waves, a highly infectious track that sounds every bit as heavy as we have come to expect from this band. Still, I could certainly have done without a Viking ballad in the shape of Upphaf. At times, you wonder whether there isn’t room for a little blast-beat frenzy, for example in Die With A War Cry, but Mr. Wallgrenn keeps himself on a rather tight leash. Gloriously angry and thunderous, we then roll straight into the epic-sounding Raven God. The strong title track exudes that same sense of grandeur and heroism.
Look, folks: do not hesitate. Even on album number thirteen, The Allfather Awakens, the thundering and rumbling Swedish Viking/death metal formation Amon Amarth plants an axe firmly into the skull of anyone who has doubted this band for even a second. Strong!
Score:
85/100
Label:
Metal Blade Records, 2026
Tracklisting:
- Gjallarhorn
- Eight Legs Of Thunder
- Kvasir’s Blood
- We Rule The Waves
- Upphaf
- Die With A War Cry
- Raven God
- The Allfather Awakes
- Oden’s Hunt
- Ascending Like An Eagle
Line-up:
- Ted Lundström – Bass guitar
- Olavi Mikkonen – Guitar
- Johan Hegg – Vocals
- Johan Söderberg – Guitar
- Jocke Wallgrenn – Drums
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