Style: Viking infused melodic death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Grab your horn and axe, we row for victory!
Thoughts: This is a story of a warrior before they became great. Every tale starts somewhere, and this is the beginning of the mighty tale that would become Amon Amarth.
The music is raw, it's furious, it has an energy of a band that put their all into this release. It's truly epic. The rawness has nothing to do with the production. It has everything to do with the way that the band is playing. They come out of the gate swinging with Ride for Vengeance. The opening riff rips my face right off and the band never lets up... not once.
Johan's vocals are unrefined and tend to rely more on his upper register, something that would be changed in later albums. While I prefer his vocal style from Vs. The World and later, there is an undeniable charm to the early albums, especially this one.
The drums - courtesy of Martin Lopez - also are much more active than they ever would be in future albums. While the typical "Amon Amarth" beat is there, there is so much more to the drumming on this album than there is on any of the later ones. The accents on the symbols, the off beat hits on the snare. The fills worked in-between each of the main sections. This is phenomenal drumming, and it stands as Amon's only album that is at this level.
That leaves the riffs... oh mama the riffs. Olavi knew how to write back then, and still does. But damn, on here it was something special. These riffs already have a distinct sound to them, and that combined with the rawness of the album gives it an undeniable allure to me.
When was the last time you heard an epic from Amon Amarth? Something that stretched to nearly ten minutes long? I can't even remember the last time... on here there are two epics. The powerful Victorious March and the bands self titled song... both are crazy good, particularly Victorious March which may be my favorite song of theirs.
Not everything here though is amazing. Without Fear is... a bit lacking. The vocals are a shouted yell that don't work for me, and the riffs don't have the same punch that the other songs do. One bad song out of eight? Not too bad though, especially since its one of the shortest ones here.
Once Sent from the Golden Hall is one of the better debut albums in my collection. Amon Amarth are arguably the AC/DC of melodic death metal at this point, but here - here they were something special.
Written May 1st 2024
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