Search - Amon Amarth :: Crusher

High energy death-metal

Ilya Malafeyev | Russia | 09/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Amon Amarth are a kind of a band that you don't have to guess what their other album sounds like. Yes, throughout their not so long career they mostly played the same type of music, the hybrid of the so-called Gothenburg sound, or Swedish melodic death, with viking-metal, and a bit of black-metal thrown in to spice things up. If you liked one of their albums, you'll like them all. That's the case with me, as I fell in love with this furious sonic attack since I first put it in a CD-player.



Make no mistake, Amon Amarth don't reinvent the wheel, and all the elements you are to hear on "The Crusher" you've probably already heard somewhere. But it's the emotional sincerity and dedication to their music that work favorably here. The band presents us with 9 tracks, each of them having its own touch. The songs mostly fall into 2 types, either they are a ferocious high-speed death metal attack, backed with incredibly fast double bass kicks and black-metal styled rhythm-guitar, or they are a slower, kind of epic sounding songs, whose influence goes back to legendary Swedish band Bathory of the 80s (the type of epic Nordic feel that, to the best of my knowledge, first appeared on "Enter the Eternal Fire" from Bathory's album "Under the Sign..."). The singer, or to be precise, the growler Johan Hegg does excellent job conveying his rage and fury in each line he sings. The guitars sound not very typical, with only a scarce few solos thrown in, and a peculiar way to provide melodics to songs, which is more of a black metal feel than a death metal. The drumming is absolutely superb! Either on fast or slower tracks, it sounds like a powerful group of barbarian battle drums that pound hard rhythms to pump up the blood in fierce warriors' hearts.



The lyrics suit this Nordic battle feeling excellently, but its the lyrics that might be a major turn-off here. Centered around Nordic mythology and vikings' military traditions, the lyrics have a lot of lines about merciless killing and terrorising christians, and throwing Christianity out of Nordic lands. I know that many people would be highly offended by such matters. But that's Amon Amarth. These guys provide genuine Nordic battle style death metal, and they seem not to care at all whether this naturalism is appreciated by people or not. So either you're like me and love it, or you better stay away from this band's records.



The tenth song on the CD is a cover-song originally performed by cult proto-death metallers Possessed. I hardly understand the cult status of Possessed, and I feel this song is out of tune with the rest of the album. Other than that, the album's incredible energy and furious power are very addictive, and every time I put it in a player, it stays there for a long time."

Every kind of genre mix in just one album...

Angelofdarkness666 | Hell | 10/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Amon amarth plays all kinds of music which means, you'll find something you either love and be obsses with...From a little blackmetal feel to viking metal to straight melodic deathmetal and more? You'll fall in love with amon amarth's music! The minute i began listining to amon amarth's "crusher" i thought to myself... Masterpiece? Yes. I love am and i always been a fan, because their one talented band! I recommend!!"

Amon Amarth "The Crusher"

Lord Bryan | Tennessee, USA | 03/09/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I love the way the Amazon editors misclassify, and at times, are just flat out uninformed when it comes to the albums they review. Like calling Dimmu Borgir's album "great death metal." Yeah, that's a genius remark for sure. You guys need to hire somebody who actually knows what they're talking about. Now to the Amon Amarth album at hand...Unfortunately, Martin Lopez did not continue playing with Amon Amarth, his drumming is superb. That doesn't really effect the quality of Amon Amarth's music, however, as The Crusher proves to be the strongest, most aggressive album thus far. Johan Hegg relies mostly on his battle-screams, while the band concentrates on crushing, semi-melodic death metal riffs and blasts. After you buy "Versus The World", get The Crusher. Or better yet, order them at the same time.Standout Tracks: Annihilation Of Hammerfest, Bastards Of A Lying Breed, Masters Of War, As Long As The Raven Flies, The Sound Of Eight Hooves"