AMON AMARTH — Surtur Rising (review)

AMON AMARTH — Surtur Rising album cover Album · 2011 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Surtur Rising is the eighth album by long-running Viking themed melodic death metal act Amon Amarth, released in 2011. Surtur Rising admittedly represents more of the same from this Swedish band; however it maintains the high level of quality heard on the band’s previous releases, and has a real good go at going one better.

Opener War of the Gods has what I’d consider to be a typical Amon Amarth groove to it, with plenty of melody on offer and powerful growls from frontman Johan Hegg. Lead guitar work is also used to great effect. If you’re an existing fan listening to this you know what you’re getting and can rest assured that you’re going to like the album, because quite frankly if you liked their previous albums there is no reason not to like this. It fact with that assured you probably don’t even need to read the rest of this review, because it’s as I said above, Surtur Rising does indeed represent more of the same from Amon Amarth, but while the album doesn’t really break any new ground (although there’s an interesting System of a Down cover available for the iTunes download version), it also contains some real belters of tracks among its number, and War of the Gods represents just the first of them.

Other really great tracks include Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II (a sequel to Hermod's Ride to Hel - Lokes Treachery, Part 1 from With Oden on Our Side), For Victory or Death, and Destroyer of the Universe, which is certainly one of my personal favourites from the album along with later tracks Wrath Of The Norsemen and A Beast I Am.

If the album could keep to the same level as those tracks mentioned above them it could easily rival the band’s best works such as With Oden on Our Side, but unfortunately every now and then there’s a track which will still pretty good, just lacks the same sort of punch. An example of this is Slaves of Fear. Others such as Live Without Regrets are an improvement on ones such as Slaves of Fear, but represent the middle of the road part of the album. Fortunately the album has its share of the really good songs in a bigger dose than the ones which are something of a letdown to the overall experience.

Overall though Surtur Rising is another solid Amon Amarth album that will please existing fans and could even still make them some new ones if for some reason you’re a metalhead who still hasn’t heard these guys (if not, where have you been?).

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

… And the Universe Keeps Silent Death Metal
MAERE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 11 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed