Swedish viking metallers Amon Amarth have returned with their seventh full length opus entitled Twilight Of The Thunder God. Over the course of the past sixteen years the sound of Amon Amarth has slowly changed as their fan base has grown. Sixteen years ago Amon Amarth were a blackened death metal outfit. Eight years ago they were a pure death metal metal band.

In 2008 Amon Amarth have taken their biggest step towards mainstream acceptance as they continue to wriggle free from the confines of extreme metal and have morphed into a rocking melodic death metal ensemble. I first noticed the change with Amon Amarth’s sound on 2006’s With Oden On Our Side. The captivating crushing riffs of the earlier releases were quickly becoming phased out as the band introduced a more modern melodic death metal sound to their material. With Oden On Our Side was still a good album, but it wasn’t as catchy as previous Amon Amarth releases and I found myself beginning to skip songs when listening to that release.

On their latest full length effort, Twilight Of The Thunder God, Amon Amarth have marched further into the melodic death metal domain and, again, the material suffers for it. Twilight Of The Thunder God still sounds like an Amon Amarth album… sort of. The production retains the thick meaty guitar tone, there’s still the same intensity to the drumming, listening to the riffs you can tell it was written by the same guys who released Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds and the vocals of Johan Hegg are as powerful as ever. What’s different is that on Twilight Of The Thunder God is that the emphasis of the material isn’t on being heavy and catchy, it’s to sell records.

I won’t come straight out and say that the band has sold out, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s a fucking duck. The experience of listening to Twilight Of The Thunder God can be best described as listening to With Oden On Our Side and a generic Swedish melodic death rock album at the same time. It sounds as though the guitarists of Amon Amarth are getting blown by a fairy (I’m thinking magical pixie, but the other connotation certainly applies in this instance as well) in the studio while recording their riffs. There’s just so much generic melodic death metal riffing on Twilight Of The Thunder God that I can’t even get into any of the songs. It’s just so ridiculously obvious that the band no longer cares about being a good death metal band, they just want their 15 minutes of fame and, I mean, good for them, but… the material borderline sucks.

It’s still Amon Amarth so there’s just enough of value to keep me from grabbing this CD and throwing it against the wall, but just barely. Earlier Amon Amarth material had a really dark feel to it, it got me pumped up and made me want to air guitar with a battle axe while wearing a goat horned viking helmet. Twilight Of The Thunder God has such an upbeat and “Hey, let’s have fun!” vibe to it that I can literally taste the bile rising in my throat as I listen to the fruity riffs on "Guardians Of Asgaard". Sure, the vocals are deep and brutal, but those happy little riffs are about as death metal as an episode of American Idol.

Twilight Of The Thunder God is going to appeal to a much broader audience than Amon Amarth’s earlier material and, honestly, that doesn’t bother me. As long as these new fans go back in the band’s catalog and learn to appreciate their earlier work just as much, if not more, than this new release. Personally, as a fan of the band for the past 10 years, someone who owns all of their albums, and demos and a couple of t-shirts, I can honestly say I’m greatly disappointed by this release. I think most long time fans will be just as disappointed as I am.

I’m just glad I only pre-ordered the basic no-frills CD and didn’t invest in any of the special editions, because if I’d spent $30-100 on this, I’d be fucking pissed! If you want to listen to something powerful, catchy and heavy, check out Amon Amarth’s first six releases, starting with Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds. It’s just straight forward, no nonsense powerful death metal. If you want to listen to something melodic, fun, and more style than substance… what the fuck is wrong with you? Get the fuck out of here, your kind is not welcome here!

Written By: Teufel