Tag Archives: viking metal

(review) Amon Amarth – The Great Heathen Army (Metal Blade)

Swedish masters of melodic death metal Amon Amarth are back with their new opus. This new full length contains nine songs. Some of the songs have usual Viking melodic death metal themes with great epic melodies and catchy hooks crossbred with brutality of primordial mid tempo death metal which somehow became courtesy trademark of this great band. Get In The Ring is a classic epic Amon Amarth opener with lyrics a bit different from their themes. The title song has too many groove moments and kind of not so powerful chorus, so it did not impress me so much. Heidrun is one of my personal favorites on this album, somehow reminding me of Thyrfing, in riffs and songwriting. Johan Hegg´s voice is powerful and brutal, but I love how I understand almost everything he is singing and that is a trademark of excellent death metal singer. Oden Owns You All reminds by title of Einherjer but music is vintage Amon Amarth with such sweet melodic guitar work, making it one of the best on this opus. Find A Way Or Make One is hard hitter with uplifting warrior lyrics and anthemic chorus, some say that Amon rehash all their albums over and over again, but I beg the differ. Or if they do it, they do it perfectly. Dawn Of Norsemen did not sit for me right, maybe because it lacks something, just to be a great song, this way it is only a decent one. Now we come on best part of this opus, Saxons And Vikings, featuring excellent guest performance by Saxon´s Biff Byford, thus creating a perfect mixture of these two warrior folk. I listened to this one over and over again. Skagul Rides With Me is an epic decent anthem of warrior pride and never surrendering defiance. The Serpent´s Trail is the longest song on this opus and finishes this record with rolling and epic guitar work, great lyrics and songwriting. Good album.

Extreme Norwegian metal vikings :BOLVERK: announce ‘Uaar’ album!

Hailing from the cold North, Extreme Norwegian Metal Vikings :BOLVERK: will release their debut album “Uaar” on May the 27th , 2022 via Wormholedeath worldwide.

:BOLVERK: is the latest musical adventure from brothers in arms:

 Christopher “Rammr” Rakkestad (Elvarhøi, Jordskip, ex. Ragnarok)

 Lucass Edquist (Gnida, ex. Mork)

 Bjørn “Narrenschiff” Holter (Images at Twilight, ex. Illnath, ex. Aasmegin)

 Thomas Bolverk (Under the Oak, Welcome to Hell, ex. Ragnarok, ex. Images at Twilight, ex. Darkness, ex. Black Currant etc…)

:BOLVERK: is EXTREME NORWEGIAN METAL aiming to be as sad and melodic as Solstafir in one end and as brutal as Marduk in the other. We are exploring the borders of the Extreme Metal genre and are actively working with the contrasts that all our inspirations have embedded in us. Our music is about melody as well as brutality. We want you to sing along as well as wanting to furiously bang your head. Good music makes you want to move, and that is one of the goals we aim to achieve with :BOLVERK:
The name “Bolverk” is originally one of Odin’s personas. He used the name Bolverk when he went out to steal the mead of poetry, and there was a lot of blood-splatter and killing in the process. Later adaptations see the word used as a description for something solid and impenetrable. We even have it in our local dialect as “bælværk” where it means something like a big, sturdy unformly mass. Anyway, all this, maybe apart from the unformly mass, are things that comply with our music. Melody, poetry, brutality, tightness and a sturdy and down-to-earth attitude.
The title of the album, “Uaar”, means a bad year in older Norwegian language. This was usually used when the crops failed and people starved. It fits well with the state of the world for the last two years, we think.
Release date for the album is the 27th of May 2022. A lot of material is already written for its successor which will be unleashed as early as late spring 2023. The release of “Uaar” will be accompanied by a release-party the 11th of June, where we will treat you to free music that will challenge your listening skills and everything will be filmed and recorded for a live video.
:BOLVERK: “Uaar”Side A:Death the Whore 05:58Uaar 05:27Time for Chaos 04:38Svovelpredikant 05:36
Side BSecterian Bloodshed 06:57Prevail in Silence 06:23Bride of Christ 06:47
Bonus song CD only:From the Depths 06:12

(news) TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH: Debut album out June 18 on Black Sunset!

Viking/Melodic Death Metallers Tragedy And Triumph (a project of Marius Berendsen – Mallevs Maleficarvm, Antares, Ex-Thyrgrim) announce their debut album “Where Mountains Rise and Hearts Fall” to be released on June 18 via Black Sunset / MDD. 


It contains 11 tracks full of Viking/ Melodic Death Metal, powerful, groovy and of course melodic.