Amon Amarth - Surtur Rising

I am trying to resist the urge to begin this review with “this album will melt your fucking face”, but, well, it will. Amon Amarth have managed to bring together the brutal elements of their earlier releases with the head-crushing riffs of their later sound into a cohesive, brutal, melodic massacre of an album. The songs move from strength to strength, from the classic Amon Amarth opener “War of the Gods”, to the stunning guitar in “Töck’s Taunt – Loke’s Treachery Part II” to the almost power metal feel of “For Victory or Death”. Tracks like “Destroyer of the Universe” and “Doom Over Dead Man” will become classics for sure. “Live without Regrets” is my new theme song.

The rougher, dirtier mix on this album moves away from the exquisitely clean production of the last two releases, and reminds me of the production on my favorite album, Fate of Norns. The songs, however, blow that album out of Valhalla. The band show their maturity, their unparalleled mastery of their subject. These boys aren’t playing at vikings, they are fucking vikings.

And, as such, it couldn’t be an Amon Amarth album without suitably epic and Viking-ish themes. Here, Surtur, leader of the giants of Muspelheim, takes centre stage. He graces the cover – a monolithic giant who dwarfs the Norsemen he’s about to slay with his flaming sword. He dips that huge-ass sword in the Eternal Flame and gains the power to raze the nine worlds. He fights a grueling battle with Frej (ruler of fertility and peace) at the end of the world. He causes chaos and carnage, and he leaves us broken, destroyed … munted, as we say in NZ.