It’s album release day again. And unknowingly this album became a long awaited one for me: Somehow, Amon Amarth never fail to amaze me. It’s entertaining because it feels like their formular is simple and not exactly innovative. Which, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why I love their music so much: It’s been reliable for several decades now. Their new album The Allfather Awakens is yet another example of that: An album I feel deeply satisfied with while listening to it for the first time.
I already liked the single releases of this album so far. Out of the 10 tracks on the album, 4 had been released since mid-2025: We Rule The Waves, Upphaf, Gjallarhorn and Eight Legs of Thunder. Each one, in my opinion, was a very Amon Amarth-typical banger, although I was pretty surprised when Upphaf was released because it was more of an acoustic song. The single gave me a vibe of the sort of campfire evening at a viking camp, if you know what I mean. It was a refresher and, if you wanna put it that way, the most innovation I’ve seen from Amon Amarth in years.
That might sound harsh, but I mean this in the best possible way. Amon Amarth are one of those bands I grew up with and I grew very very very fond of them from the exact moment I’ve heard The Pursuit of Vikings for the first time. I think they were one of the first bands I’ve been listening to with growls and guttural vocals and honestly, at first I hated it and I slightly had to force myself to try and like them (because I had a crush on a guy who was an Amon Amarth fan, haha). The Pursuit of Vikings back then changed my mind completely because it gave my brain something very simple to focus on: catchy guitar riffs. That was basically the key to a gate that made me stumble into the world of metal. And up to this day, this is what I love Amon Amarth for: Catchy guitar riffs, very clear rhythms, something you can hum along to.
There’s a lot of that on The Allfather Awakens. Especially Eight Legs of Thunder caught me from the very first listen in a way that I got stuck with songs like Guardians of Asgaard or Twilight of the Thunder God. Out of the previously unreleased songs, Oden’s Hunt really struck a nerve with me. It has a great vibe and yet another very catchy tune. All in all I really like the sound of this album very much and with about 45 minutes it also has a satisfying length for me. Guess I will have to listen a few more times to name some favourites, but so far Amon Amarth have once again made a good job in entertaining me.
Another thing that never fails to amaze me is that after more than 3 decades they still find viking-topics to turn into songs. I am generally a great admirer of folk-ish music with „historical“ topics and I’m a die hard fan of a lot of German medieval folk rock/metal bands and one thing they all have in common is that almost all of them at some point ditched the medieval-y topics and turned to slightly different contents, at least that’s how it feels to me. As if they ran out of stuff because at some point, everything has been turned into a song. And there we have Amon Amarth, making music about vikings for about 34 years now. Iconic.
All in all, this album makes me even more excited to see them at the end of this month with Orbit Culture and Soilwork. In a weird way, Amon Amarth are my comfort band: So far, they’ve never let me down. Reliable. Stable. Catering my need for routines, predictability and a great rhythm. (Basically they make good songs for my anxiety playlist and it feels weird to say that about a band whose topics are manslaughter and war in a wider sense, but those rhythms calm my anxious brain). And I know that all this must sound pretty negative to everyone else but you know, from someone who’s been diagnosed with autism, this is a huge compliment. Their music caters my brain’s basic needs. I love them. I will love them forever.
