HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: The Avenger – Amon Amarth
Hailing from the Swedish capital of Stockholm and taking their name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien‘s Middle-earth, melodic death metal band and Viking history enthusiast AMON AMARTH need no introduction. Forming in 1992, over the last 32 years they have grown to become a household name in heavy metal – headlining huge tours, festivals and even castles (King John’s Castle Limerick, 2019). However, in 1999, they were still a long way of from that prestigious status. The band released their second album The Avenger on September 2nd that year via Metal Blade Records/Sony Music.
Before The Avenger was recorded, in 1998 guitarist Anders Hansson and drummer Martin Lopez left the band, the latter went on to join Swedish prog metal giants OPETH. So, this was the first album with new guitarist Johan Söderberg and drummer Fredrik Andersson, thus completing the classic AMON AMARTH line up that would last until 2015 – the year Andersson would depart the band.
The Avenger follows on from the release of Once Sent From The Golden Hall, the band’s debut album which earned them international accolades from critics and fans alike, being described by the band in an old website biography as “a compelling fusion of buzzsaw riff work, melodic harmonies and soul-crushing rhythms punctuated by Hegg‘s callous black/death roar and accounts of Norse battles and treachery”. With AllMusic’s Jason Ankeny describing the song that bares their name as the most memorable from that album, with all “the chaotic noises of battle, the screams of the dying, and much sword-clashing to boot”. So, AMON AMARTH certainly had some pressure going into the writing and recording of The Avenger.
Although it received good reviews at the time – there was also a short lived feud between AMON AMARTH and Swedish power metal band HAMMERFALL about the album’s artwork, however with the relentless march of time, the details are now sketchy – it is one of those album’s that slowly grew on audiences on its way to be come a cult classic in AMON AMARTH’s discography.
Chris Dick from Teeth of the Divine stating in 1999, “In the grand tradition of death metal classics, the true magnitude of Avenger doesn’t hit on the first listen” and that the album’s closer “Legend Of A Banished Man display(s) AMON AMARTH’s ability to balance melody and power without sacrificing a lick of the band’s patented aggression”. While, Paul Schwarz from Chronicles of Chaos stated “Once Sent From the Golden Hall, AMON AMARTH‘s last album, lacked definition and variation. It failed to hold my attention for its forty-five minute duration. As all bands with potential and talent do, AMON AMARTH have not rested on their laurels and the effort they have thus put into their music has paid off, resulting in the powerful creation of brutal melodic Swedish death metal,” closing his review with “The result is an album with character and punch which provides a rock-solid platform from which AMON AMARTH can take their craft to the next, more difficult level of musical achievement”.
While on the other hand, some were not so kind about The Avenger, with AllMusic’s Simone Appolloni stating “In particular, their first albums were horribly produced, since this Black Metal sound didn’t really seem that much pertinent with the style and didn’t help to make their albums more digestible or catchy, quite the opposite. This one features 7 songs, but the infernal attack of the production is excessive to the point of being unlistenable, and the tremolos sound like sticking viscera flowing from a carnal fissure in an infernal wall, and it doesn’t help that the drums sound like professional drum-machines. Definitely not evocative, but the band were starting to set their footing with the songwriting, as confused as it may sound.”
In hindsight, The Avenger can be considered as a turning point for the band, as it’s the confused middle child in between their acclaimed debut and their most aggressive album The Crusher. While the trademark approach to melody that AMON AMARTH are known for is in its infancy here, there is still a lot of black and death metal influences driving this album forward. While it was an improvement on Once Sent from the Golden Hall, it trod the fine line of being another run of the mill death metal record. This dictated the lyrical direction, predominately revolving around war and pleasing the Norse gods with blood – which lacks the more nuanced subject matter that the band would later go on to produce.
Even so the roughness of the album was part of its charm. Metal Blade Records re-released the album in 2005 on Picture LP, which was limited to 500 hand-counted copies. Then in 2009 a deluxe edition CD was released that featured a fully remastered version of the album by Jens Bogren (OPETH, DIMMU BORGIR, KATATONIA, ARCH ENEMY etc.), alongside a bonus CD of the original album played live in its entirety in Bochum, Germany.
At 25 years old and in the shadow of AMON AMARTH’s current achievements, The Avenger has become nothing more than a footnote in the introductory chapter of the band’s career. Yes, it is a fundamental step in the AMON AMARTH journey. Although it is round the edges and confused in its creative direction, we can see the foundations of what was to become the most visceral and powerful melodic death metal band in the world.
The Avenger was originally released on September 2nd, 1999 via Metal Blade Records.
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