Amon Amarth has Oden on their side

October 9, 2006 —

Amon Amarth has been making music for 14 years, and is only just beginning to get mainstream recognition. Their sixth full length album, With Oden on Our Side, brings all that can be expected of an Amon Amarth album, while somehow managing to be fresh and very enjoyable.

Amon Amarth plays a brand of very melodic death metal, which is commonly referred to as Viking metal due to lyrical themes revolving around Norse mythology, and the band's Scandinavian heritage in general. One thing that has always separated Amon Amarth from many other bands associated with death metal is their extremely melodic playing and song structures. Rather than the dissonant chords and spastic progressions that seem to have taken over much of death metal, Amon Amarth opts for very melodic speed-picked guitar riffs and easy to comprehend verse/chorus structures.

As a result, their music is pretty easy to listen to, perhaps even for those unfamiliar with death metal. Rather than sickening guttural belches and growls, vocalist Johan Hegg employs a more contained roar, which surprisingly enough, allows for comprehension of what words are actually coming from his mouth, lack of which is a key factor in turning many people off from other metal bands.

With Oden on Our Side sounds a good deal like the last two Amon Amarth releases, Versus the World and Fate of Norns. The production is superb, and every instrument rings out with clarity while still coming together as a unified whole.

All nine tracks are metal of the Amon Amarth flair, but they are catchy and well-written. It's obvious that more work went into this album than any of their previous releases. One marvels that a band could use essentially the same ideas for so long and continue to improve in this fashion.

Things almost start to drag a few songs in, with a couple of five-minute long tracks, which may be a little lengthy for this kind of material, but all doubts as to the quality of the album are cast aside when the title track, With Oden on Our Side gets underway. Some excellent drumming that breaks from the standard long double bass runs along with a punchy guitar riff opens the best song on the album.

With Oden on Our Side is a fine example of a band that has stuck to a tried and true formula, and relentlessly refined it to be the best it can be. It will be interesting to see if this strain of metal can be done any better in the future. While not the most creative or risky bands out there, if the Vikings were as dedicated a people as Amon Amarth, they might have just taken over the world.