Already when you look at the awesome cover art of this album you know you are in for a treat. Everything about this album screams EPIC at 200 db’s. Interestingly enough 200 db’s is the minimum volume this album can be played at – my neighbors really hate me at this moment.
So… We have the “usual” fight-the-Saxons-metal cocktail of thrash, power and black that makes up Amon Amarth’s sound, this time with a solid measure of doom-inspired bass riffs and some mind-boggling blast beats. Its pagan metal at its best and nothing more can be said about that really. It starts out with the brutal no-bullshit title song – and yes: you get the impression that Thor is struggling for his life, the entire world burning and the heavens crashing down all around him. This album is the postmodern take on Ragnarok, it’s the recipe of destruction. By now, it should be obvious that I like this album A LOT! The Wagnerian connection is evident in every song, and in the structure of the album, as a whole, but I’ll leave it to the audience to figure out all this. It can’t be explained fully in this short review anyway. Aside from the title song, three songs deserve special mention:
Guadians of Asgaard because it is the new hit. This song is so well-written and perfectly produced, I’m ready to bet my next tattoo that it’s the future crowd pleaser at Amon Amarth shows. It has a booming doom quality based as a fundament below elegant guitar compositions, and a perfect sing-along chorus. Definitely the next hit.
No Fear for the Setting Sun because it kicks ass! The militant rhythm of the verses, combined with a speedy black metal chorus and some groovy solo work by the strings… Damn!
And lastly: Embrace of the Endless Ocean, because it’s the one weak spot in this otherwise impenetrable “skjaldborg” of pagan metal. As the last track on the album, it should round up the larger-than-life mood of the 9 first songs. The listeners expect to be blown out of the room by a grand finale of Gods against Monsters, to witness this, the greatest and bloodiest of all wars. Instead, what the listener gets is a rather dull and sad song that FADES AWAY! Its just disappears slowly into silence. As a student of the Nordic mythology I’m aware of the fact, that Ragnarok is not the end, it’s a new beginning. In that context the song works. But seen from a purely musical point of view, this song doesn’t live up to the rest of the album at all. This, however, shouldn’t deter any pagan metal fan from immediately buying this fantastic album.
Note: This review is disturbingly late. It nobodies fault but mine, the reviewers. That’s it.
