Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God CD Review

Amon Amarth are back with a powerful new album, Twilight Of The Thunder God. The bands 7th studio album was recorded at Fascination Street Studio in Örebro, Sweden, and was produced by Jen Borgen. The album features Johan Hegg on vocals, Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg on guitars, Ted Lundström on bass and Fredrik Andersson on drums. the album also features a few high profile guests including Lars Göran Petrov of Entombed doing some vocals on the track "Guardians of Asgaard", Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom adding some guitars on the title track and Apocalyptica adding some cellos on "Live for the Kill".

This yet another solid release for Amon Amarth, with 10 tracks of pure metal glory. Twilight Of The Thunder God, the title track, and the first song on the CD, is a great start for this record, with all the classic Amon Amarth style we've come to know and love. If you couldn't guess, they're still pushing the viking themes, which is great. They day they stop doing that is the day we'll mourn the loss of Amon Amarth, but if this album is any indication of the bands end, it's not for a very long time.

Highlights for me include Guardians of Asgard, Varyags of Miklagaard, The Hero, Live for the Kill and Embrace The Endless Ocean. The album also came with a live DVD that contains footage of the bands entire Summer Breeze 2007 show, which included a set of 13 songs, including Valhall Awaits Me, Asator, The Pursuit of Vikings, Fate Of Norns, and so forth. A great addition to an already awesome package.

The production on this album is really good, an improvement even on With Oden On our Side. The guitars are nice and heavy, and everything is in good balance with each other and sounds great. Jens has really outdone himself this time around. If you're a fan, or haven't heard this band before, get this album and give it a good listen, because it's bloody great! Worth it even just for the live DVD.

Twilight Of The Thunder God is now out through Metal Blade.

Ironwood - Debut EP Review

Ironwood are a self acclaimed progressive folk metal band from Sydney, Australia. I picked up a copy of their debut self-titled EP featuring the three songs Yggr, The Tree and Song Of The Danes. This 24 minute EP is a great starting point for Ironwood, with Yggr starting out on a softer note, with rain and thunder sounds under some clean guitar (is it more metal of me to actually have listened to this during a real storm here too? I sh!t you not) and progressing into some nice aggressive metal. It's sometimes a hard thing to go from soft to heavy so smoothly, but these guys have the transition working perfectly, and with the sound they have it makes it a very enjoyable listen.
Track two, The Tree is a wonderful 'ballad' so to speak, since it is all clean instruments. Although the next song, Song Of The Danes, returns to the aggressive heavy sound of the previous song in full force. But this song is not without it's softer moments aswell, with a nice break about 2 mins in. This song includes the most awesome solo you'll hear on this cd, although I can't help but think it was too short.

The vocals themselves are something I haven't heard much before, and in relation to the music, it's f!cking awesome. The bass guitar does more than play root notes here aswell, I can actually hear some technicality within the rhythm section. Something that more bassists should do way more often. It has a sort-of Steve Harris galloping sound to it, and although this band doesn't sound much like Iron Maiden, it does kind of remind me of them (which is a good thing). But, if you're after full-on comparisons here, you're not going to get any. I honestly can't think of any other band I've heard that sounds like them. A feat very little accomplished in the metal scene these days.

Basically, this EP works as an introduction to the band, a great intorduction that is. after listening to it all through, I can't wait for more. The production isn't that of 'professional' quality, and by that I mean it's not over-produced, which is no bother for me. Everything was still understandable and sounded great to my ears. The nordic themes give it some extra credit points for me aswell, as it's a subject I enjoy thoroughly (enter epic lightning bolt here). Basically, this is a band that everyone should give a listen at some point, I hear very good things about their live show aswell. Other reviews that I have read only act as support to my statements that this band is destined for something good in the near future.

Check them out now! And keep an eye out for an album sometime soon.
http://www.myspace.com/ironwoodband

http://www.ironwoodsound.com.au

Unleashed - Hammer Batallion

Since their formation in 1989 by front-man, vocalist and bassist Johnny Hedlund, Swedish death metal band Unleashed have released 9 albums and one EP in total, ranging in different styles of death metal.
Since then they've come a long way in their 19 year history, after a hiatus in 1997, lasting until 2001, when they announced their return returned with the epic album Hells Unleashed (released in 1992), and then since, some of their best material was recorded and released in form of another 3 albums, the latest of which being Hammer Battalion, released in June of this year (2008, for those who have forgotten).

This album marks a high point in the career of Unleashed within the metal ranks, continuing their themes of pre-christian worlds and viking mythology, amongst others. This band is not afraid to 'talk' about some of the most controversial topics in the world today, most notably their extreme anti-christian themes, present throughout pretty much all albums, with songs from the early days such as "I Am God" from their 1993 album Across The Open Sea which boasts the lyrics "I am God, I kill people just for pleasure", amongst other, possibly more graphic subjects included in the package. Basically, they say what they want to say, and aren't afraid of saying it.
Hammer Battalion opens with such theme, in the song "The Greatest of All Lies", which speaks of 'the passion of the christ', with the themes continuing into the next song "Long Before Winters Call". " Your Children Will Burn" being the title of the third track, in which serves as a warning of the consequences of blind faith. It's obvious now that Unleashed don't care for what they'd call organized religion, blind faith and so forth, which is, on some sence what the band is all about - voicing against what they believe to be false.

Unleashed certainly are influenced by Nordic and viking culture, aswell as battle themes present in songs such as "This Day Belongs To Me", which represents a soldier in battle calling to Odin to set him free and "Warriors of Midgard". This war theme is also a constantly used topic throughout Unleashed's history as a band. Their albums also feature songs about political matters, mass genocide (see "Triumph of Genocide" on the Midvinterblot album), partying hard and... The lord of The Rings.

Hammer Battalion is a solid addition to the Unleashed discography, with all their trademarks, and more! The album promises pure death metal, no compromise, and delivers! As Johnny says in an interview regarding new material, "We feel very strongly that Hammer Battalion is likely our best album so far, so we don't see new material opting towards a major change. We don't want to walk away from Hammer Battalion's concept, at least not a lot."

Hammer Battalion is now available through SPV records. I recommend you getting yourself a copy.

http://www.myspace.com/666unleashed

unleashed.se

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