Review Summary: Yeah, Amon Amarth is a fun band fo sho…
…but also a very safe one, since almost every one of their albums fail to stick out from the crowd much. Sure, there are (mostly moderate) differences between them, and everything they’ve released so far
has been pretty enjoyable, but they still always feel like they’re cruising by on auto-pilot… always, that is,
except for on ‘04’s Fate Of Norns, where Amarthoholics Anonymous really put some effort into their songwriting, infusing each track here with its own unique, distinct personality, which ends up making Norns feel almost like eight mini-concept albums in one (I know, I know, sounds weird, but it really does work).
Norns starts off with “An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm”, an incredibly powerful mid-tempo number with some of, if not
the, most vivid lyrics the band has ever written about battle: “Blood red bows plough the waves/The dragon heads grin!/Twenty ships with horsemen braves/Riding the northern wind/They left their shores at early dawn, as a red sun was rising in the east/An ancient sign of coming storm/Thunder of sword and shield”.
The same drama in those lyrics, the same WEIGHT, is reflected perfectly in every aspect of “Storm”’s music, from its driving guitar lines, to Frederik Andersson’s diverse, precise drumming, to John Hegg’s sore-throated growling, which is fortunately quite intelligible, making it easier for us to understand those awesome lyrics. And, not only does the song read like it was written by a bunch of blood-thirsty Vikings pumping themselves up for battle, but
sounds like it as well, a strength which continues for the rest of the album, with each track’s music matching the diverse moods of their lyrics
perfectly, especially on the following song, “Where Death Seems To Dwell”, with its tortuously-slow tempo, Hegg’s ominous, spoken-word vocals, and the harsh wind sample that runs throughout the song, which all combine to make you feel like you really are walking through “a dark and desolate valley”, where “the land is dead” and “the water is poisonous”. Brilliant.
From there, the title track contrasts the most upbeat tempo and guitar work on the entire album with shockingly sincere and honest lyrics about the tragedy of death, and the record closes out with a nifty one-two punch story about a merciless ambush and a subsequent pact for vengeance among friends, with the first part, “Arson”, recalling the slow forebodingness of “Where Death Seems...”, and “Once Sealed In Blood” being the furious, “rip-roaring rampage of revenge” pay-off, as they say. But on the way there, you do get some more straightforward, unpretentious headbangers like “The Pursuit Of Vikings” and “Valkyries Ride”, which prove that the band hasn't gotten all serious on us and forgotten how to simply entertain.
So, factor in the good production all-around, the good-to-great performances, the excellent balance between melody and aggression all the way, and the varied, spot-on, and extremely expressive songwriting here, and you have yourself an excellent specimen of AA's Viking-themed melo death with Fate Of Norns, as well as their only truly “great” album to date. Amon Amarth, you know I love ya, but this one just conquers ‘em all.
