Originally written by Jordan Campbell
Hot off the heels of their stellar reissue of Once Sent From The Golden Hall, Metal Blade gives Amon Amarth‘s sophomore outing the same treatment. On the surface, it seems that this rapid-fire relaunching of the band’s catalog is merely a shallow business tactic; an advantageous and shrewd penstroke in the wake of the band’s unexpected, late-career explosion. But these two albums are absolutely essential. Where Once Sent… showcased the Viking warriors at their most visceral, The Avenger shapes their primal rage into a evocative (and forcefully concise) tour-de-force that expertly balances sweeping majesty with full-on annihilation. The Avenger is the most complete album of the band’s impressive career and comfortably resides among the greatest melodic death metal albums of all-time.
The opening seconds of “Bleed For Ancient Gods” hit like a fifteen-ton hammer. Peter Tagtgren’s murderous production lends a scythe-like quality to Olavi Mikkonen’s riffing, rendering the The Avenger a heavier affair than Once Sent…, but still supplying that jagged, youthful edge that has since been replaced by lumbering groove. Throughout these seven songs (the album clocks in at a perfectly-paced thirty-seven minutes), the band employs every trick in their arsenal. “North Sea Storm” is as soulful and melodic as the band gets; its climactic guitar solo hammers this point home. Colored with shades of Tagtgren’s own Hypocrisy, “Avenger” is a folk-ish tale of malice and revenge. Featuring one of Johan Hegg’s most impressive vocal performances, this mid-paced steamroller is cut from the same cloth as album closer “Legend of a Banished Man;” both songs dependent on new (at the time) drummer Fredrik Andersson’s boiling fury to keep their steel stiches together.
“God, His Son, and Holy Whore” and “Metalwrath” are the album’s true giants, however. The former song is absolutely incinerating–an ultra-fast Fuck You! crafted in stripped-down, bullshit-free style. Amon Amarth has always been at their best when they slam the gas pedal to the floor, and this spine-shattering burner does just that. And “Metalwrath” stands as one of the band’s most exhilirating expulsions. Ironically, while among the most intense songs the band has ever penned, it was written with tongues firmly in cheek. Hegg’s shouted intro is nothing less than classic, and the lyrics are as anthemic as they are ridiculous (references to song titles, poseur-slaying, and band rivalries are on full display). Most importantly, the skull-crushing, smile-cracking riff that explodes at the 1:50 mark is among their most vicious.
Metal Blade has packaged this killer album in a rock-solid double-gatefold digipak, fortified with a Dismember-flavored, metal-up-your-ass bonus track (“Thor Arise”) and a second disc that features a live performance of The Avenger in its entirety. Taken from 2008’s marathon ‘Bloodshed over Bochem’ career retrospective, this live set is well captured, but unlikely to steal the source material’s spot in your playlist. The moderately-extensive liner notes are a fun read, giving the impression that the brilliance of this record was almost accidental, as much the result of drunken mayhem and happenstance as anything cerebral. Perhaps that’s the key to this record’s timelessness: the spontaneity and crackling energy that The Avenger spews forth still ignites the same chills of excitement today as it did ten years ago.
