voila_la_scorie About a year ago or so, a friend showed me some Amon Amarth videos. Man, were they cool. Really big productions like small movies. I was to learn that one video was actually scenes from a movie starring lead vocalist, Johan Hegg. I finally got around to bringing an album home, this first purchase being recommended by my friend who assured me that this was a great album.

What first struck me about the music was how melodic it often was. It was sometimes like a faster version of Iron Maiden but included riffs like Judas Priest and Accept. Labeled melodic death metal, I personally feel that the music here is more traditional metal with the Cookie Monster-style of deeply growled vocals. Tracks like “Free Will Sacrifice” and “No Fear for the Setting Sun” remind me of Judas Priest and “Live for the Kill” makes me think of Accept.

Another observation is the regular use of very strong battle-song melodies. “Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags” and “Live for the Kill” may conjure up images of Vikings standing in their ship and swinging pumped fists as they sing these songs.

This feels like an album done by a very experienced band who are comfortable where they are. They have reached their comfort zone and are producing a string of above avergae albums. Looking as the ratings on MMA, I see other albums are rated higher and this one. Some songs are really good and the main riff for “Guardians of Asgaard” is an awesome one to easily be hooked on.

Probably not their most groundbreaking album, but “Twilight of the Thunder God” is still a solid piece of work in my opinion.

Warthur At this stage in their career assigning ratings to an Amon Amarth album is a slightly arbitrary exercise; you always know what you're going to get (solid melodic death metal inspired by a range of Scandinavian myths), and you know the band are going to deliver it with the quality and polish we've all come to expect from them, and whaddya know it? Twilight of the Thunder God delivers all that in a compact, no-nonsense 44 minutes. Some may accuse Amon Amarth of making the same album over and over, but when the album in question is this good I can't get too upset about that.

Kingcrimsonprog Amon Amrth’s seventh studio album Twilight Of The Thunder God helped bring the band more much deserved attention when it was released back in 2008.

The album is a very strong rendition of the formula that Amon Amarth have been perfecting over the last decade, the perfect slick and professional culmination of a formula that was developed throughout their career.

Twilight Of The Thunder God is an album of intensely high quality, no one track is weak or out of place, the production couldn’t be better and the band all are skilled musicians who deserve the accolades now being given to them.

The twin guitar leads, thundering double-kick lines and roaring death-vocals are all still there, the Norse/Viking themes are still present , everything that Amon Amarth do is done, and done well.

The choice to include guest musicians seems a little out of character for Amon Amarth, but then it works well within the context of the album so isn’t something to worry about.

The album is of such a consistent quality that it is difficult to choose highlights, the title track and Guardians of Asgaard are my personal favourites but everything on this album is good.

To summarize, Twilight Of The Thunder God is a strong album, delivering the trademark Amon Amarth style with a remarkably good execution. If you like the band it is certainly an album you should to buy.

UMUR "Twilight of the Thunder God" is the 7th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Amon Amarth. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in September 2008. For Amon Amarth Tthe album worked as a consolidation of their position as one of the most successful contemporary death metal acts. A position they earned with the predecessor "With Oden on Our Side (2006)". An album that even made it to the Billboard charts. Before that Amon Amarth had more of a cult following. While "With Oden on Our Side" gave the band great success, "Twilight of the Thunder God" is an even more successful album in terms of sales.

If you are familiar with Amon Amarth, the music style on the album isn´t going to surprise you one bit. This is melodic viking themed death metal like Amon Amarth have more or less delivered since day one (they apparently played grindcore in their formative years, but that was before releasing albums). We´re not talking melodeath here, but rather a heavy, simple structured and effective melodic death metal style with anthemic choruses. It´s not every day you´ll hear death metal with sing along choruses. Tracks like the powerful opening title track or the heavy "Guardians of Asgaard" (which features a guest vocal performance by Entombed frontman Lars Göran Petrov) are examples of when the formula works well, but there are also more standard quality tracks on the album, that don´t stand out as much. It´s a bit of a shame really because when Amon Amarth shine, they shine brightly.

The musicianship are generally strong and the deep growling vocals by frontman Johan Hegg are powerful and add an epic element to the music which of course suits the viking themed lyrics well. "Twilight of the Thunder God" is a well produced, well performed and for the most part really well composed melodic death metal album. If the band were able to make all tracks stand out like the best tracks on this album, they could really go far. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

topofsm Amon Amarth is like the AC/DC of melodic death metal. Their songs are energetic, anthemic, and result in a chest-pounding good time. They never deviate from the formula and it works.

Twilight of the Thunder God is no different. It's a solid piece of work by Amon Amarth with some great songwriting and some haunting melodies. It's pretty standard sounding for melodic death, but it's well constructed. Although the album tends to lull a few songs in, the rest make up for it.

The opening title track grabs the listener immediately, with energetic quick tempo riffs and well constructed guitar solos. This is probably one of the best tracks on the album, as it hits the ground running with all the energetic speed it needs to. Unfortunately, there are quite a few of the next songs that are more by-the-numbers Amon.

"Guardians of Asgaard" is one of these. It's a basic midtempo song that seems like they just made it to give the album more time. "Varyags Of Miklagaard" seems to be similar, it contains regular riffs similar to the "Pursuit of Vikings" rhythms, only slowed down. "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags" is also like this, though the opening riffs are creative and well made, the song just suffers from too-familiar song structure.

That being said, the last couple of songs make up for those tracks. "Live for the Kill" contains beautiful haunting melodies at a well-paced tempo, and is most remembered for the quiet bridge section where Apocalyptica plays the song's mournful melody on cellos, a welcome addition to the song. The final track, "Embrace of the Endless Ocean" starts off with a sorrowful riff that builds into a crushing melody when the drums kick in. This final song is sad and well placed, successfully evoking a viking dying at sea.

This album is far from perfect. Like AC/DC, there tend to be plenty of tracks that are standard fare apart from the well known ones they play at concerts. However, the good tracks are great and Amon Amarth has a working formula. This album would be recommended to anyone into some of the lighter forms of metal, and of course all Amon Amarth fans need to have it in their collection.

LoudTrax.com Sweden's Melodic, Viking, Death Metal band AMON AMARTH has become one of Metal's most important artists since their 1994 debut release of the limited edition "Burning Creation" EP. Their last official album release "Thunder of the Twilight Gods" plays a big part in their fight for metal domination.

The album is rock solid. Catchy guitar riffs and epic melodies with lightning fast beats. Practically every song has a sing along anthem feel to it. The band referred to the track "Where Is Your God?", as probably the most brutal AMON AMARTH track of all time and the album follows in that path.

Key trax on this album are "Twilight of the Thunder Gods", "Guardians Of Asgaard" which features a duet with L.G. Petrov, Entombed singer, & "Varyags Of Miklagaard".

Raise your fists to the Thunder Gods!!!

by loudtrax.com (rock, metal, punk downloads)