Swedish melodic death/viking metallers Amon Amarth are back with their 6th full length offering With Oden On Our Side. Being a long-time fan of the group I was expecting to be instantly enthralled with their latest opus, however, I was surprised to find it took me many listens to warm up to the newest Amon Amarth release.

When listening to With Oden On Our Side back-to-back with the group’s last full length offering Fate Of Norns you can hear a strong difference in the songwriting and overall sound and production. While Fate Of Norns has the typically simplistic bass-heavy powerful sound the new effort is distinctly more emotive and guitar-driven which gives the material as a whole an entirely different vibe. In no way is that a negative, however, as the material displays the musical abilities of all of the members a lot more clearly with the more mature song structures and clearer production.

With past Amon Amarth releases the songs all felt very predictable as you knew exactly what the next riff, drum beat and vocal pattern would be, however With Oden On Our Side sees a huge improvement in the group’s songwriting as each track has elements I wasn’t expecting from this release, especially on the emotional front. The music is exactly what you’d expect from an Amon Amarth full length; heavy, aggressive, catchy and fun to listen to, but with more melodic and thrashy riffing strewn throughout.

With past Amon Amarth releases I’d just press play and start banging my head and snarling at my stereo, but on this effort I find my head swaying to the music a lot more as the melodic elements are put on display. Overall, this is by far the most dynamic Amon Amarth release to date with the best songwriting and song structures, but I still find myself having trouble listening to the full album beginning to end without skipping a track or two, something I’ve never done on an Amon Amarth disc in the past. While I greatly enjoy the more guitar-driven style, I do find myself missing the mindless simplicity of the past efforts. That said, this is is still a solid album definitely worth adding to your collection.

If you happen to come across the digipak version of this release be sure to pick it up, as the live tracks, demo tracks and unreleased material, while not must-own material, are still worth many listens.

Review byTeufel