"Deceiver of the Gods" by Amon Amarth

Looking at this album cover it really does have everything. The  name of the band is strange. (NOTE: Upon a google search, this band named themselves after the Sindarin name of Mt. Doom. Nerds. 2nd Note: I was defeated in Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit, again.) The font is unusual. The heavens have parted and a man with giant horns is taking on a god in battle.

Seriously, this is Iron Maiden level cover art here.

Though this was my first experience hearing this band, they are a long time veteran band who bills themselves as a "melodic death metal" band. They hail from Tumba, Sweden. We all remember Nathan Explosion's Iowa and Scandanavia comparison right? OK good. Well, with their having recently played in town supported by a couple acts I enjoy, checking them out seem the only logical thing to do.

They look too much like Dethklok.

It made a great deal of sense to me that this band has been around since 1992. It seemed like the first three or four tunes started with the traditional death metal rawwwwha! Just like every ultra heavy track in the nineties did. Well, they're from then and just haven't changed up their style too much.

The vocals sounded like I was listening to Napalm Death or Morbid Angel. It was really striking to me. That 90's death metal growl. It has really been quite a long time since it's been heard. It was almost kind of refreshing instead of the screeching growl that so many "deathcore" bands nowadays employ, which is even more annoying for forty five minutes.

Nearly every other lyric was intelligible so I think there was some vivid stuff going on in these songs, but they didn't sing about Satan at all. I had completely forgotten that bands could sing all evil and such without singing about the Lord of this World.

Much like the vocals, the guitars completely relied on 90's metal cliche. Harmony legato runs were the order of the day. Nearly after every finishing growl there was a do doo da doo doo doo with the boys going to town on it. They were missing the over the top shredding solos. You can take the time to set up the legato, but not the flashy shred? That's about the only reason I can stomach the Golum being tortured by the orcs vocals. You have to give up the flashy guitar work and it just wasn't there.

That's about the best way to describe this album: It just wasn't all there.

Year: 2013
Genre: Metal

Tracklisting:
1) Deceiver of the Gods
2) As Loke Falls
3) Father of the Wolf
4) Shape Shifter
5) Under Siege
6) Blood Eagle
7) We Shall Destroy
8) Hel
9) Coming of the Tide
10) Warriors of the North