Well, how do you categorize Amon Amarth? Given that one of their albums is called "With Oden on our Side" and most of their lyrical content revolves around dying gloriously in battle and sailing the seas with their bands of men, what better to call them than Viking Metal? I realize they don't have the folk-tinge that many other Viking style groups have, like Ensiferum, but I don't think the instruments necessarily dictate the category. Either way, AA kick some serious butt.
Amon Amarth = kick ass, just saw them on Saturday!
Now, I am going to take a shortcut here and re-post what I have written in a facebook group regarding Amon Amarth's genre. It's a bit of a read, but some might find it both or either interesting and enlightening.
[sblock]I am compelled, whilst headbanging away in my chair to a thunderous, majestic viking soundtrack consisting of Bathory, Thyrfing and others, to set straight certain mis-conceptions in the modern Metal scene of Amon Amarth and to what specific sub-genre their music pertains to.
And to get to this, we have to delve into a considerable amount of history.
Amon Amarth play a brand of extreme Metal ultilizing a vocalist, two guitarists (though only a single guitarist on their first full-length record 'Once Sent from the Golden Hall'), a bass guitar player and a drummer. The vocal style is of a standard Death Metal variety, with deep, “Cookie Monster” vocals interspersed with the occasional, more high-pitched Black Metal scream along with various bellows, shouts, and other gutturals. Under the moniker of 'Scum', Amon Amarth was first formed in 1988, playing a fairly standard brand of Death Metal on a single demo, and then, with a name change sometime in 1992, they assumed their now-familiar mantle of Amon Amarth.
In 1993, something happened in the Death Metal scene which resonates to this day – Carcass, a UK band already reknowned for creating the Deathgrind sub-genre of Goregrind in their early career, released 'Heartwork', which was a complete divergence from their previous records into something which could only be later identifyed as the first Melodic Death Metal album.
Soon thereafter, this new brand of “Melodic” Death Metal was quickly picked up by various Swedish bands – At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames being the founding fathers of this movement, hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden. Tumba, the hometown of our buddies Amon Amarth is geographically on the opposite end of southern penisula of Sweden, but it is in the south. We can only assume in the years from the name change in 1992 to the release of the full-length 'Once Sent from the Golden Hall' in 1998 that Amon Amarth were exposed to this growing scene, and that they thereafter were a part of it. Their sound, musically, is without a doubt Death Metal with a large, melodic, “splash” of flavour. Not to be under-emphasized, Amon Amarth have also frequently used the decidedly Black Metal style of guitar riffing called “tremelo picking” which is a repiticious style of picking focusing on a few cords and the like (admittantly, I am no expert on exact guitar terminology, but I can pick out tremelo picking as well as the next guy – probably better, actually). In short, Amon Amarth have always had a certain “Blackened Death Metal” style to their music, alongside their more important (and more prominent) Melodic Death Metal style.
In any case, now that we have the history of Amon Amarth down-pat, we need to focus on why people seem to always want to call them “Viking Metal” or “Odinistic Viking Metal” or something else entirely mis-leading. Another history lesson coming right up!
Viking Metal all began with Bathory; more specifically the founder, song-writer, and master-mind Tomas “Quorthon” Forsberg. In 1988 he released what was to be the start of Viking Metal: 'Blood Fire Death.' An epic, driven album; it notably has three main elements which can be traced to all later works in his “Viking Metal” discography:
1) an extreme metal element, specifically of the Black Metal variety, which Quorthon also helped found, alongside bands such as Venom, Mercyful Fate, Sarcófago and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost.
2) a Folk music element, specifically that of a Norse/Scandinavian variety. Quorthon essentually romaticised him heritage through his music, using his native styles to accuentuate and take hold of his music.
3) an epic atmosphere and feel to the music. Emotionally charged and inspired, Quorthon's music stands the test of time even today as a staple of extreme metal – and an Epic, bombastic one at that.
Now, we must define certain other things before we go on.
Folk music, combined with Heavy Metal, had never been done before Bathory came along and did it, and indeed this inspired the next generation of musicians. However, what Bathory did was not, in the sense of what we define Folk Metal as today, “Folk Metal”. That title is reserved for the 1991 release of Skyclad's full-length 'The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth', which was the first true merger of Folk music and Metal music. What Bathory did with an Epic, Folky version of Black Metal is DISTINCT from Skyclad's fusion of Heavy Metal and Folk Music.
Now, with all of THAT in mind, let us reconcile Viking Metal with Amon Amarth.
Amon Amarth play a style of (slightly Blackened) Melodic Death Metal. They do not use Folk melodies or instruments in their music whatsoever. They are from the Death Metal school of music, whereas Viking Metal is certainly descended from Black Metal, and while they have their Epic moments in their music, Amon Amarth are most certainly not Epic in that certain atmospheric, melancholic way that Bathory was.
Amon Amarth are bloody fantastic! I can't stress this enough. I was lucky enough to check them out live in concert last year at Winnipeg's very own Royal Albert bar, and what with a thunderstorm raging outside, with pouring rain and a great crashing of lighting bolts and wanton clouds, even I felt like we were there with Oden at our sides (
). Without a doubt in my mind, without a shred of regret, I can say THAT will be the defining metal concert of my life. Freaking EPIC!
But, I can also say, as one who loves a good debate and the dissection of Heavy Metal and it's plethora of off-shoots, fusions and otherwise tangled web of genres and sub-genres, I cannot NOT speak out when someone foolishly trys to pass off Amon Amarth as Viking Metal. They simply don't fit the bill. Stylistically, the only thing they mirror Bathory in is their slight Black Metal leanings, and the use of Vikings in their lyrics. That's all folks. Nothing more.
So, feel free to go ahead and enjoy Heavy Metal, Folk music and whateverotherkindof music you enjoy, but if you've taken the time to read through this diatribe of Amon Amarth and that bands supposed connection with Viking Metal, perhaps you have learned something not entirely un-useful for the day. As Aristotle put it “everything in moderation - except for knowledge.”
Also appropriate at this time would likely be a word of wisdom from Amon Amarth themselves, wouldn't you think? From the frontman himself, here's Johan Hegg's (rather cheeky) words of wisom, from this (
The Metal Web - Amon Amarth Interview) The Metal Web interveiw:
“We play Death Metal. We write about Vikings so therefor some refer us to Viking metal, but I have no idea what that is. I can't imagine the Viking’s veer into metal at all except on the swords and stuff. And musically, I guess they only played these strange lip instruments and some bongos or whatever.”
keep it heavy,
--N[/sblock]
So, that is my full reasoning as to why Amon Amarth are not Viking Metal. My apollogies for any cheeky attitude contained in the above, it was focused towards a rather annoying folk and viking metal enthusiast in my city who cheezed me off enough in the first place to write all that
cheers,
--N
