Amon Amarth

I've listened to it twice. I'm not the biggest AA fan but I enjoyed it (especially the Doro track!).
 
I'll need to listen again but my first thoughts were that it definitely has more melodic hooks (guitars and vocals) than the last couple albums. Whatever it is, this album sounded better to me on the initial "spin" than the last two.
 
This is shaping up quite nicely after a couple of spins. Amon Amarth just aren't ever likely to do anything completely different, but they've certainly varied their usual fare. It does sound more melodic to me on the whole, with some stand-out soaring leads and solos you might not expect in hear in AA. Tracks currently jumping out are Wanderer, At Dawn's First Light, One Thousand Burning Arrows and A Dream That Cannot Be - Doro's guest appearance definitely breaks things up. I suspect the album needs to be listened to as a whole, though, I don't know how well anything other than First Kill and At Dawn's First Light will work when listening to individual songs out of album context.

Edit: And I like the use of the speaking parts, Johan's speaking voice is impressive.
 
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I'm listening to it right now and it's really starting to click. There are a lot of songs here that would sound awesome live.

I love Doro's performance on this, but then again I'm a big fan of her's anyway so I might be biased. :p I really think it gives the album some variety and something new for AA (from what I've heard).
 
First Kill: Solid song. Another attempt at outdoing Twilight Of The Thunder God though, but definitely better than the previous one (War Of The Gods). Chorus is very catchy.
Wanderer: Interesting song, structure and riffs sound quite fresh and unexpected for Amon Amarth. At least it's not a rehash.
On A Sea Of Blood: This song is classic Amon Amarth with sharp riffs and melodies and a singalong chorus. Solo section is total Maiden worship in the vein of Gothenburg melodeath bands.
One Against All: Catchy chorus but not much else.
Raise Your Horns: Didn't expect much with such a generic title... chorus is pretty cheesy and sounds like something Alestorm would record :S
The Way Of Vikings: Pre-chorus is super cheesy... Keyboards are out of place... Pretty bad song.
At Dawn's First Light: Chorus would've been great if not for the annoying melody beneath that kills the atmosphere completely. Main riff and the verses are good though.
One Thousand Burning Arrows: Solid main riff but nothing else.
Vengeance Is My Name: Super forgettable.
A Dream That Cannot Be: Doro really ruined this song for me. Great opening riff and chorus but can't stand Doro.
Back On Northern Shores: I expected the most from this song since it's the closing epic / longest song. It was meh.

Overall: Meh. Not enough epic riffs or epicness in general, too many watered down melodies. Also not dark enough.
 
With a different set of lyrics I could totally see Raise Your Horns being a Sabaton song.
 
Are you saying you can hear Sabaton in Amon Amarth?

They're playing in Montreal at the end of April, I'm thinking about going.
 
Amazing show in Chicago last night! Was definitely pretty drubl for the opening bands, but ExMortus kicked ass. Amazing guitar work, especially during their take on Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Entombed was...a pretty generic grunt-n-scream-n-double bass death metal band that had zero impact on me.

Amon Amarth was incredible. Their energy was off the charts and the crowd was feeding into it hardcore without becoming annoyingly rowdy or violent. The Jomsviking material sounded awesome, definitely very high energy and full of power. This was my first time seeing AA and I would definitely go again.

Favorite quote from Johan: "Sing along with this next one! It doesn't matter if you don't know the words: it's death metal."

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Nice horns. I assume they'll bring that to Download too. I'm looking forward to seeing them in a bigger setting. I saw them at Leeds Uni last year and it was quite a small venue, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, was quite loud and sweaty.
 
With the power of Thor I resurrect this thread

Seeing these boys with testament on Friday. Loving the New Testament album and been playing jomsviking a lot recently too to get me in the mood. Can't wait.
 
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