amon amarth - the great heathen army

i skipped the last album "berserker" but the single for the new album was pretty good and so was their surprise appearance at wacken open air. so i took a shot on "the great heathen army". quite a belter right here. love those marble vinyl records metal blade presses for their releases. 2022.

amon amarth - the avenger

one of the last gaps in my amon full length collection. a few years back when metal blade did already re-press the band's back catalogue, i somehow missed out on "the avenger". well, not again. orange pastel marble vinyl looks classy. metal blade. 1999/2022.

amon amarth - twilight of the thunder god

one of the last missing pieces in the amon amarth full length puzzle. i actually ordered one of the green olive marble vinyl copies that were exclusively sold via emp mailorder. but a few days after i completed the order process together with the orange "surtur rising" lp, i got a notification that emp could not deliver because the supplier ran out of copies. hell knows why. at the time i didn't pursue an imidiate replacement.

when time went on i felt a stronger need to get a copy eventually in cause of fear the vinyl might sell out. i went for the flame splatter variant which was sold through the metal blade ebay store. metal blade produced for every amon re-issue such a colour variant as their store exclusive and i already have "the crusher" on that colour-way. it didn't seem like a perfect match for the cover art but beggars can't be choosers.

musically i think that this album from 2008 is one of their strongest. i mean, ultimately amon amarth never did a bad album but as whole "twilight of the thunder god" is a full-scale viking metal attack which takes no prisoners. the presentation does the greatness of the record justice. slip sleeve of matte cardboard, big double-sided poster, insert and clear orange with red a.k.a. "flame" splatter vinyl out of 200 copies. metal blade records. 2008/2017.

amon amarth - jomsviking

the final amon amarth album in the line of the metal blade re-issue campaign: their latest record "jomsviking" from 2016. i never listened to this piece although i could have bought a clear green copy from regular sources upon time of release. back then i wasn't really interested but when i started to buy the re-issues with the re-release of "fate of norns" and "with oden on our side", i was excited for every new re-press. therefore it was out of question that i would buy a copy of "jomsviking" too.

again i was buying the record from emp mailorder because they are the official retailer of metal blade europe. they offered two colour-ways. a clear brown with black smoke as the most limited edition and a baby blue marble edition as the lesser limited. in this case i didn't care about limitations because the baby blue version was looking very nice in the mock-ups and so i ordered one. the actual outcome is even better. yummy.

musically amon amarth doesn't reinvent itself. it's actually remarkable how a band just repeats itself record after record and does not become dull, at least not to me. that's an ac/dc quality here. anyway the coolest song is, just like on "deciever of the gods", the one with a guest singer. "a dream that cannot be" with doro pesch is a rager. this edition comes with two inserts, a double-sided big poster and 180g vinyl. blue marble is out of 500 copies. metal blade. 2016/2018.

amon amarth - deciever of the gods

another release in the huge re-issue campaign of all amon amarth full lengths so far (which makes them ten). "deciever of the gods" was the first amon record i bought upon release. it was more of an impulse buy and it wasn't the vinyl version but the cd box set instead. my local media market was selling them for cheap and so i grabbed a copy. i wasn't that much into the record though and so i never pursued the vinyl version.

when i started to jump on the metal blade re-issue train for amon's full length records, i knew that i would buy them all. there was no point in getting just my favourite ones. i mean, come on, we're talking about record collecting here, ok?! so when my vinyl copy of the limited european colour-way arrived and i dropped the needle on it, i was surprised at how good this record actually was. it may not be their strongest effort but it still rock solid with some real pearls among the ten songs.

"shape shifter" and especially "hel" featuring candlemass' vocalist messiah marcolin are so good. the vinyl edition metal blade came up with does the album justice. nice slip sleeve with matte finish, an insert with lyrics, a big poster with cover art and band pic on the flip side and lovely rusty marbled vinyl. this edition is numbered out of 300 copies. mine is #169. metal blade records. 2013/2018.

amon amarth - surtur rising

the next part of the metal blade re-issue series for the whole amon amarth back catalogue. i actually wanted to write about "twilight of the thunder god" first because they were scheduled for the same release date and i ordered both. unfortunately i am still waiting for my copy and am not sure if i will get it at all. but now to the record i do got - "surtur rising". it was the first amon amarth album i heard from start to finish.

it must have been in early 2011, shortly before i got into vinyl collecting. a very good friend of mine and me were working together at the time and we drove there together every day. i still didn't have a car back then and so we drove in his over twenty years old ford fiesta. he had a few cd's on board and i remember him being excited about the new amon amarth record. he had the digipak version which was nice with extra artwork and all. we did spin the cd very often.

i remember being a bit let down by the last third of the record. an opinion i cannot relate to anymore. now with the vinyl spinning on my turntable i enjoy this beast all the way through. amon modernised their sound here and there but basically stood true to their strengths - epic melodic death metal. i love the opener "war of the gods" in particular. metal blade re-pressed this record on single vinyl this time. i ordered this on the less limited but nicer looking signal orange colour way out of 500 copies. metal blade. 2011/2017.

amon amarth - the crusher

another record from amon amarth's early days. "the crusher" is the band's third full length album from 2001. again the guys recorded their material at the abyss studios where peter tägtgren mixed and mastered it. the album was well recieved by fans and i can see why. it's fourty five minutes of all amon amarth stands for. if you know any stuff of the band and liked it, you can't go wrong with "the crusher". because of the really bad cover i was always sceptical about this album but with repeated listens, it may even attack the top position of "versus the world" in my personal ranking.

there are so many strong songs on this record, that i fail to name a favourite. check out "as long as the raven flies", "a fury divine" and "the fall through ginnungagap" for some amon amarth melodic death metal supremacy. i bought my copy, just like the "once sent from the golden hall" copy of the last post, from the metal blade europe ebay store. for all of their amon amarth vinyl re-presses they sold a special ebay store exclusive version. all come on "flame" splattered vinyl, a clear orange with red splatter variant.

i opted for this edition because it is limited to 200 copies for "the crusher", whereas for "once sent..." and "the avenger" they were limited to 300 copies. in this case metal blade didn't stand true to the original pressing as the first press came on a double lp edition. still this re-issue looks super lovely. matte cardboard sleeve, a poster, cool custom metal blade dust sleeve and this nice colour-way. all hand-numbered with my copy being #72. metal blade records. 2001/2017.

amon amarth - once sent from the golden hall

continuing the recent re-press series of amon amarth complete back catalogue by metal blade with their first full length. "once sent from the golden hall" was already released in 1998. man, this is almost twenty years. the album itself is actually twenty years old because the first take was recorded in 1997 in stockholm's sunlight studios. the band wasn't satisfied with the end result and therefore looked for an improvement.

they found help in the person of peter tägtgren of hypocrisiy fame. at the time tägtgren was already a producer of renown throughout the metal world with his own abyss studios. amon amarth and tägtgren re-mixed andre-mastered album so it would meet the demands of the band. with a little delay "once sent from the golden hall" was unleashed in early 1998 via metal blade records.

the album wasn't a huge success but it put amon amarth on the map of the metal world. still the album recieved mostly positive reviews and is now considered a classic. musically i wasn't sure what i would get here. the earliest work of amon i know is "versus the world" (which i still consider their finest moment) and i somehow imagined their previous records to be musically not as well written as the stuff i knew.

that fear was washed away with the forst notes of the opening track "ride for vengeance". it's all there, the band's unique feeling for epic melodies, the groove-driven riffs and, of course, the viking lyrics. an absolutely rock solid debut with a few hits (check "friends of the suncross"). the re-press is part of the "original series"and thus is detailed replica of the initial lp version from '98 except the vinyl colour. 500 copies on orange black marble. metal blade. 1998/2017.

amon amarth - with oden on our side

back from the dead. i wasn't too dead actually because i attended the reload festival in sulingen, germany. two good friends and me were at the festival last year as well (i wrote about my festival pick up here) and we wanted to kind of establish a custom. this year's fest saw great shows of terror, august burns red, whitechapel, life of agony and amon amarth. yepp, amon amarth again. i saw them a few weeks ago at wacken festival and at reload they were the saturday headliner.

the guys played pretty much the same show but this time i had a better view at the stage because there were not as many crowdsurfers as at wacken and so i didn't have to turn around every two minutes to pass another body to the front of the stage. of course, the stage show was a bit cheesy with the viking duel, a guy costumed as loki and the huge midgard snake and johan hegg fighting it with a plastic thor's hammer, but at the same time it was pure entertainment. i really liked it and am now on a little amon amarth kick.

the second record i ordered along with the "fate of norns" record was the band's sixth full length, called "with oden on our side". it was released in 2006 and marked the first recording for the band as a full time job. they recorded the album with all members being present at fascination street studios in örebro, sweden and the outcome was one of the strongest amon records in their history. check out the whole album here.

this new pressing consists of a slip sleeve, which differs from the original and back on black pressings as they have a gatefold sleeve, a double sided insert, a poster and the record on lovely yellow marbled vinyl. i opted for the less limited version out of 500 copies because the most limited comes on clear gold with black marble and tends to look a bit dark. the opaque colour is super bright. nice! i am out for more amon amarth vinyl. metal blade records. 2006/2017.

amon amarth - fate of norns

so this is my wacken post. at least kind of. i didn't buy any vinyl at this years festival because there wasn't any interesting stuff. but i saw amon amarth and as their stage show and the whole gig were nothing short of amazing, i thought it might be apt to write about my recent purchase in combination with the biggest metal festival in europe. again it was raining the week before the festival started and left sodden ground. a heavy shower on thursday and the ground was soaking wet. again rain boots were my best friends.

next to great shows by nile and the dillinger escape plan, i was eagerly awaiting the performance of amon amarth. i saw them once at elbriot fest 2015 and they were a blast. this time on an even bigger stage, promised a great show. the stage show looked real sharp with the drum kit set on an over dimensional viking helmet. during the set two viking performers fought a duel on stage, the vocalist johan hegg lit fireworks with the hit of thor's hammer and a huge midgard snake crawled on stage at the end of the show.

amon amarth absolutely killed it and the guys had one of the best performances of the whole festival. good for me that metal blade re-releases the whole amon back catalogue on some fancy vinyl options. i missed out on the first four records but "fate of norns" and "with oden on our side" caught my interest. metal blade releases two albums at a time and so i pre-ordered both records at emp mailorder. for "fate of norns" i chose the limited european colour-way on grey marble vinyl.

of course everybody knows "the pursuit of vikings", which was the opening track of their wacken set by the way, but the rest of the album is at least equally as good. a great melodic death metal album through and through. the recording process was pretty stressful for the band because amon amarth was still no full-time job at the time and the guys could only work on the record after their day jobs. the stress isn't noticeable on all accounts. "fate of norns" was the first to even enter the german album charts. great edition with additional poster and insert in a slip sleeve. #109/300. metal blade. 2004/2017.

nuclear blast: amon amarth

amon amarth - versus the world

some serious metal this time! 

i cannot say that i like amon amarth unconditonally. i like 'twilight of the thunder god' and this one (while i have to admit that i don't know 'with oden on our side' and 'fate of norns' just partially), the rest of their discography is ok but gets lost in the swarm of just-ok-music. 'versus the world' whereas is kind of epic to me. i remember watching the video to 'death in fire' (which featured live footage only) and how i loved the constant synchrone head banging and hair swinging of the band :)

i have it on cd already and it was available on white vinyl for quite some time (the first back on black re-press). thing is that i didn't think that white is a matching colour for this release and that's why i was never really attracted to it. spotting it on yellow vinyl at nuclear blast the time had come for me :) i couldn't resist. only thing which is quite bugging is the distribution of only 9 songs (of normal length) on 4 sides and constant turning after 2 songs. 2 sides aka one lp would have made it perfectly.

i like the cover art even though the he-man is a bit embarrassing (but that's just viking metal, i guess), the colouring is rad. 

as the picture of the inner sleeve shows amon amarth is quite a good live band. lots of beer drinking out of horns, some viking ships as decoration and stuff like that. pretty metal, right. as i wouldn't pay the money to see them on a single show, i have to catch them on a festival by chance.

clear yellow double vinyl. don't know about pressing numbers. gatefold sleeve. back on black.