The Great Heathen Army

After the monolithic With Oden on Our Side and Twilight of the Thunder God duology, Amon Amarth found themselves on an auto-pilot-induced decline. The band had admitted a few years back in an interview that getting out new albums are a… necessary evil for them to tour. As long as they put together something good and familiar enough to keep people coming back, they can keep putting on a hell of a show. Not to mention, Amon Amarth at least do have a style that they could call their own. Like, you hear something from The Avenger, With Oden on Our Side or even Deceiver of the Gods, and immediately think “yep, that’s Amon Amarth alright”. You get Johan Hegg’s signature viking growls atop melodic Swedeath riffs none too dissimilar from Unleashed’s debut but with an even more straightforward approach. As was in the excellent The Avenger, as was in the fun but flawed Surtur Rising, as was also in the lethargic Jomsviking...

...and yeah, The Great Heathen Army sure maintains that sound. Granted, “Heidrun” couldn’t be any bouncier without actually being a bouncy castle, and songs like “Find a Way or Make One”, “Dawn of Norsemen” and “Skagul Rides with Me” sound more like they were left on the cutting room floor of the Surtur Rising recording sessions. There are many of the right ideas behind them to potentially make them good Amon Amarth songs – like, you get some hummable leads and riffs in spurts, particularly the lead and riff combo in “Dawn of Norsemen” – but when stacked up against their former repute, these songs don’t quite stack up. There isn’t as much energy to the riffs, which are a bit simpler and thus the rhythms are even more straightforward, which leave less room for any truly memorable hits. Considering Amon Amarth’s strengths include anthemic hooks, this does leave The Great Heathen Army behind a fair bit. Still ahead of the last two albums and a fair chunk of Deceiver of the Gods, yes, but it does lend credence to what the band had said about them making new albums these days.

Thankfully, it’s not doomed to just be a lesser retread of previous albums, because songs like “Get in the Ring” and “Saxons and Vikings” – the latter featuring Saxon vocalist Biff Byford’s still-stellar pipes – show them still having it where it counts. An invigorating rhythm section generating these simple yet effective cholera-catchy grooves – I mean this shit is Amon Amarth’s bread and butter! Even for as much shit as I gave it above, “Heidrun” is a pretty fun song nonetheless, honestly due to how dumb it is. Just got a soft spot for those stupidly catchy, bouncy songs. Although I have to say, “The Serpent’s Trail” does well to have quieter, spoken-word-esque verses build up to a momentous mid-paced chorus, and its ending third sends the album off on a higher note of faster, harder riffing before disappearing into the night sky. I wouldn’t put these songs as high as, say, “Twilight of the Thunder God” or “Bleed for Ancient Gods”. However, I would certainly say that they have many of the usual Amon Amarth qualities that do make them such a fun band to listen to that it’s hard to take any real issue with these songs. Can’t wait to hear these live!

I get that any Amon Amarth album could be somebody’s first, but I do have some complaints about the album just on its own terms. In general, the production doesn’t have a ton of punch, which pulls back some of the impact of the songs throughout. “The Great Heathen Army” and “Oden Owns You All” drag their feet with a stodgier riffset, attempting to be mid-paced anthems but plod far too much to really hit that note. “The Serpent’s Trail” avoids this pitfall due to its aforementioned finale-esque qualities. “Dawn of Norsemen” has some cool melodic bits, like its leads that keep you hooked in, and it’s got an overall peppy rhythm that would’ve made it one of the better songs on the album. But it just fucking drags - like it could’ve ended either at or right after the quiet bit in the middle, because basically having the song again as a refrain definitely shows its shallower qualities. Amon Amarth stick to a very straightforward style that leaves not very much room for nuance, and with a simpler batch of riffs, well, let’s just say “Dawn of Norsemen” is a bit too long.

A few songs on here are still good and – a couple of songs aside – The Great Heathen Army is an improvement over their last couple of albums. I doubt we’ll ever get something like With Oden on Our Side or even Surtur Rising again, but as long as they bring out the hits and don’t degenerate into dull background noise like their last two albums, there’ll at least be some new tracks to look forward to during the inevitable tour that follows.