Church of Metal

This morning it shall be the debut album from Amon Amarth.

“Once Sent from the Golden Hall is the first full-length studio album released by the death metal band Amon Amarth, released by Metal Blade Records. ”

The album was originally limited and only 1000 copies were sold on CD and LP versions. Later the album was re-released by Metal Blade in 2005 on Picture LP with 500 hand-counted copies. – from wikipedia

More melodic death metal with Norse themes.

Amon Amarth Once Sent From The Golden Hall

Amon Amarth – Once Sent from the Golden Hall (1998)

Disc 1

1. Ride For Vengeance 4:27
2. The Dragons’ Flight Across The Waves 4:35
3. Without Fear 4:50
4. Victorious March 7:55
5. Friends Of The Suncross 4:42
6. Abandoned 6:01
7. Amon Amarth 8:06
8. Once Sent From The Golden Hall 4:14
9. Siegreicher Marsch ( Victorious March – Bonus Track)

Disc 2

1. Ride For Vengeance (Live) 4:37
2. The Dragons’ Flight Across The Waves (Live) 5:01
3. Without Fear (Live) 4:18
4. Victorious March (Live) 7:31
5. Friends Of The Suncross (Live) 4:33
6. Abandoned (Live) 5:58
7. Amon Amarth (Live) 8:27
8. Once Sent From The Golden Hall (Live) 4:32

A deluxe edition was released in 2009 that featured the album remastered by Jens Bogren, and a bonus cd of the original album played live in its entirety in Bochum, Germany and this is the version of Amon Amarth – Once Sent from the Golden Hall we are blogging this morning.

Here is another band I like, but honestly do not know much about, Falchion. I looked them up on wikipedia, and this is all there was:

“Falchion was a Finnish heavy metal band formed in 2002. Their debut album, Legacy of Heathens, was released in 2005″ But it did not mention the second album, ….

Their follow up album Chronicles of the Dead was released in 2008.

“The vocalist and lead guitarist Juho Kauppinen and drummer Matti Johansson perform with the Finnish folk metal group Korpiklaani, as the accordion player and drummer, respectively. The band split up in 2009.”

The album I am listening to as I type this is Chronicles of the Dead and it is melodic death metal. I really like the vocals, however there are no clean vocals on this one. I never discuss production or technical ability, I just post good stuff so enjoy.

Falchion Chronicles of the Dead

1. Primitive Again
2. Chronicles Of The Dead
3. Shadows In The Wasteland
4. Kingdom Of Dust
5. Desert Breeze
6. Shades Of Gray
7. Dying Dreams
8. Mayhem Machine
9. Evolution In Reverse

Falchion Chronicles of the Dead is a combination of many types of metal including melodic death and power metal.

The Avenger is the second full-length studio album by the Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth, released by Metal Blade Records on September 2, 1999.

More viking themed metal from Amon Amarth. From the very beginning it is an onslaught of double bass and guitars as if sailing into war! The first two songs of the album will blow you away, it is melodic death metal at its finest.

Amon Amarth – The Avenger (2009)

Amon Amarth The Avenger

1. Bleed For Ancient Gods 4:31
2. The Last With Pagan Blood 5:39
3. North Sea Storm 4:56
4. Avenger 7:11
5. God, His Son And Holy Whore 4:00
6. Metalwrath 3:50
7. Legend Of A Banished Man 6:05
8. Thor Arise (Bonus Track) 5:14
9. Bleed For Ancient Gods (Live) 4:28
10. The Last With Pagan Blood (Live) 5:00
11. North Sea Storm (Live) 5:12
12. Avenger (Live) 7:14
13. God, His Son And Holy Whore (Live) 4:08
14. Metalwrath (Live) 3:56
15. Legend Of A Banished Man (Live) 6:02

Amon Amrth are helping erect pagan pride with Amon Amarth – The Avenger (2009)

“Pride and glory in our hearts!” \m/

There is something that separates bands like Before the Dawn and the countless other melodic death metal bands out there.

The proper use of clean vocals and death metal growls can produce outstanding results if performed correctly, and Before The Dawn have done it again with The Ghost.

“Before The Dawn saw daylight in 1999 and was created as a solo project. Tuomas (vocals & guitar) made the first demo all by himself, but later the project developed into a solid band with a full line-up.

In 2003 the band released their first album “My Darkness” on Locomotive Records. One year later the second record “4:17am” followed, and after numerous changes in the line up, Tuomas decided to designate BTD again as a solo project.

Before The Dawn The Ghost

Before The Dawn – The Ghost (2006)

1. Disappear 4:14
2. Repentance 3:23
3. Fade Away 3:32
4. Scar 4:28
5. Angel’s Tombstone 4:45
6. Black Dawn 3:59
7. Enemy 4:22
8. Stormbringer 3:27
9. Ghost Town 3:12
10. Nowhere 5:21

Tuomas spent weeks and month to compose new songs for the next album, which now will be available on 27th June 2006 with title The Ghost”. Marked by obscure melodies, and a mixture of Gothicvibes together with a modern metal impact, the album is an essential masterpiece for all Darkmetal lovers. “Before The Dawn – The Ghost” will take the metalscene by storm!

Hate, Malice, Revenge is the debut album by American deathcore band All Shall Perish. Originally, the album was distributed by the small Japanese label Amputated Vein, and was then re-released by Nuclear Blast two years later.

Hate, Malice, Revenge lets you know exactly what to expect from the moment it starts, awesome death metal vocals with intense deathcore to back it up! The band is well rounded as the musicians are good, and even the vocals are not one trick throughout… if you haven’t heard these bay area death band check it out now.

All Shall Perish - Hate Malice Revenge

Hate, Malice, Revenge (2005) Was released 2003 in Japan.

1. Deconstruction 2:50
2. Laid to rest 4:39
3. Our own grave 4:07
4. The spreading disease 4:30
5. Sever the memory 5:10
6. So far too long? 4:01
7. Never ending war 6:23
8. Herding the brainwashed 4:14

Big core breakdowns with death metal vocals and kill metal guitar! When I found out the guitarist was a Deicide fan, I understood why this album is so good… the combination of core and death is awesome and these guys nailed it with Hate Malice Revenge.

Lyrics deal with death, love, and even politics… Certain parts are melodic and it deteriorates into blast beats and unrelenting and brutal metal. All Shall Perish released a classic with Hate Malice Revenge. There are probably three albums you could throw out your collection and replace with this one album.

Sometimes when I hear something I just say to myself “this is what I’ve been wanting to hear!” And that is exactly how I feel about Hooded Menace Fulfill The Curse.

Hooded Menace – Fulfill The Curse is the first full length album released by Finnish Death/Doom metal band Hooded Menace.

Hooded Menace - Fulfill The Curse (2008)

Hooded Menace – Fulfill The Curse (2008)

1. Rotting Rampage
2. Fulfill the Curse
3. Grasp of the Beastwoman
4. Laboratory of Nightmares
5. Beauty and the Feast
6. They Eyeless Horde
7. The Love Song of Gotho, Hunchback of the Morgue
8. Arcane Epitaph
9. Theme From Manhattan Baby

As if death itself was creeping up on you slowly, Hooded menace shakes the ground and the shadows as they sludge their way through the deep and dark ends of doom and death!

Fate of Norns is the fifth full-length studio album by the Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth. It was released on September 6, 2004 through Metal Blade Records.

Amon Amarth – Fate of Norns (2004)

When asked to comment on the album, lead vocalist Johan Hegg, remarked: “The sound is more mature than on previous albums. I think the foundation for this sound started when we changed studios from Abyss to Berno when we got to working with Berno Paulsson. We improved the sound a lot for this album. We were able to make all the instruments work better together and still make them prominent one by one in the production as well. We were also able to keep the heaviness and brutality we need to be Amon Amarth.

Amon Amarth Fate of Norns

Amon Amarth – Fate of Norns (2004)

1. An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm 4:38
2. Where Death Seems To Dwell 4:58
3. Fate Of Norns 5:57
4. The Pursuit Of Vikings 4:30
5. Valkyries Ride 4:57
6. The Beheading Of A King 3:23
7. Arson 6:48
8. Once Sealed In Blood 4:50

This is some of the finest melodic death metal in my opinion. The vocals never relent or vary from clean to dirty – Johann Hegg knows how to lay down death metal vocals along as fellow vikings assault us with pummeling drums, bass, and melodic death metal guitar riffs!

The new Amon Amarth is set to be released March 29, 2011. The title is Surtur Rising.

In May of 2010, Amon Amarth – Hegg, guitarist Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Soderberg, bassist Ted Lundstrom and drummer Fredrik Andersson – began writing what would become Surtur Rising.

Recorded at Park Studios and Fascination Street Studios and produced at Fascination Street Studios by Jens Bogren, the offering is named in tribute to Surtur, leader of the fire giants of Muspelheim (“flame land”) and the oldest being in the nine worlds of Norse mythology.

Here is the track listing for Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising

1. War of the Gods
2. Tock’s Taunt – Loke’s Treachery Part II
3. Destroyer of the Universe
4. Slaves of Fear
5. Live Without Regrets
6. The Last Stand of Frej
7. For Victory or Death
8. Wrath of the Norsemen
9. A Beast Am I
10. Doom Over Dead Man

Amon Amarth Surtur Rising

According to legend, when Surtur lights his sword in the Eternal Flame, he will be given the power to raze the nine worlds. It’s a gripping story – both visually and thematically – for what is easily Amon Amarth’s most sonically monolithic offering to date.

“It was a cool story and character,” elaborates Hegg, “and one we knew we could write a really brutal song around.” The eighth long-player in Amon Amarth’s winding discography, Surtur Rising offers ten tracks of fist-raising, peck-flexing, hyper climactic fight anthems led by the fiery lungs of Hegg, searing rhythms and a volatile twin riff assault with a courser, more organic-sounding production to add more depth to their already consuming tone.

“A major change for us on this album was the sound and production,” comments the frontman. “It was one of the main things we had discussed before going into the studio. We thought we needed to be a bit more aggressive and rougher than the previous two. We wanted a harder, tougher sound and I definitely think we got that.”

Each track writhes under the weight of its own valiant heaviness with the band’s signature Viking themes pulling it all together. From the first world war between the two clans of gods in “War Of The Gods” to the return of Loke, the god of treachery, in “Tock’s Taunt – Loke’s Treachery Part II,” (Loke first appeared on 2006′s With Oden On Our Side studio offering in “Hermod’s Ride To Hel – Lokes Treachery, Part 1″), Amon Amarth manage to keep the Norse gods glued to their headphones for 48 minutes. “We basically deal with Loke’s actual deceit on ‘Loke’s Treachery Part II.’ When he totally told the gods to go fuck off,” laughs Johan. ”

Then there’s the title track which talks about Surtur and his fight against Frej [the ruler of peace and fertility and the son of the sea god Njord] at the end of the world,” he continues. “It’s told from the perspective of Surtur himself. Then we did something kind of cool and have ‘The Last Stand Of Frej,’ which is derived from the same Norse myth but told from a totally different perspective. I thought that was pretty cool to do. to have that kind of mirror effect.”

Woke up to rain and thunder this morning and felt like hearing some Dark Tranquillity so I grabbed my Fiction CD and started my day.

Fiction is the eighth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band, Dark Tranquillity. and it was released on April 17, 2007.

Some bands strive for years to find their sound, Dark Tranquillity have that under their grasp and prove it time and time again with each melodic death metal album they release.

Dark Tranquillity – Fiction (2007)

1. Nothing To No One
2. The Lesser Faith
3. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
4. Blind At Heart
5. Icipher
6. Inside The Particle Storm
7. Empty Me
8. Misery’s Crown
9. Focus Shift
10. The Mundane And The Magic

Two of the songs “Misery’s Crown” and “The Mundane and the Magic” are the only tracks to have clean vocals, all other songs feature vocalist Mikael Stanne’s great death metal vocals.

Inferno is the eighth full length album by Swedish death metal band Entombed. It was released in August 2003.

Entombed – Inferno The album starts out the blood pumping and heavy track “Retaliation” which features some of the coolest Entombed vocals to date, as well as, cool imagery and lyrics to match the overall feel of the album.

By the time you make it to track “That’s When I Became A Satanist” you’ll be headbanging along with these Swedish death n rollers.

Entombed – Inferno (2003)

1. Retaliation
2. The Fix Is In
3. Incinerator
4. Children of the Underworld
5. That’s When I Became a Satanist
6. Nobodaddy
7. Intermission
8. Young & Dead
9. Descent into Inferno
10. Public Burning
11. Flexing Muscles
12. Skeleton of Steel
13. Night for Day

Although early Entombed material is quite different they continue to deliver quality metal albums.