Amon Amarth
Once Sent From The Golden Hall

THE REVIEW

The reissue by Metal Blade of the first four Amon Amarth albums prompted me to write this review. And this is because I have developed the impression that the first, legendary LP of the beloved Men of the North is almost semi-unknown… I mean, what metalhead nowadays hasn't seen at least one 'like-minded person' wearing a shirt adorned with the logo of the five Swedes and some Nordic icon? Few, surely. And yet 'Once Sent From The Golden Hall' (1998) remains unknown, or worse, underrated! It's time to put an end to this injustice, I told myself...

Preamble: it is not an easy album to digest for those who fell in love with the Vikings listening to their latest masterpiece 'Twilight Of The Thunder God'. On 'Once Sent From The Golden Hall,' the production is not as clean and massive as on the album that consecrated them as sacred monsters of Swedish melodic death, Johan Hegg's robust voice is dirtier and more lacerating, just like Olavi Mikkonen and Anders Hansson's guitars (at the time the second guitarist of Amon Amarth before the excellent Johan Soderberg took over) sound more 'imprecise' and 'black' (obviously referring to the impossibility of capturing all the nuances of the excellent technique of the two 'ax' masters), Ted Lundstrom's bass is barely audible and Martin Lopez's drumming (predecessor of Fredrik Andersson who then joined Opeth) is more focused on the violent execution, but equally technical and devastating. The miracle is that all these elements blend perfectly into what was the sound that Amon Amarth intended to offer at the beginning, namely a perfectly successful and balanced blend of the most uncompromising Swedish death metal (the older among you will have made comparisons between Johan and L.G. Petrov of Entombed more than once), the raging cold of black and melodies that would easily appear even in a power album.

To amalgamate everything and make it irresistible takes the culture (yes, you read that right, the culture) Nordic. Culture that manifests itself forcefully in Johan's belligerent and deeply anti-Christian lyrics (incidentally the person responsible for Amon Amarth's transition from their grindcore beginnings to melodic death metal), in epic atmospheres that immediately evoke furious rides and inhuman battles and, most importantly of all, in the passionate and almost fierce attachment the five feel for their land, their origins, and their past, an attachment they seem to want to unleash with every note of their instruments. And it is a passion that is felt because it is concrete, there are not yet the hints of mythology and the Nordic pantheon that will come later, the lyrics speak of the history and real life of Viking warriors, of the hatred for a Christianity that has produced only millennial rancor in a Scandinavia that certainly did not need lessons in spirituality, of the blood shed and the wounds suffered. The piercing roars of Johan interpreting the furious and desperate father for the death of his son at the hands of the 'men with only one god' in 'Ride For Vengeance' (in my opinion, the best song of the five) shake the soul, as do the repeated cries of 'Without Fear', where the dying warrior declares himself fearless and ready to die, confident that the Valkyries will come down to take his soul and bring it to Valhalla. And how can we not mention the wonderful 'The Dragon's Flight Across The Wave', the crushing 'Victorious March', the fierce 'Abandoned', where all the furious and pagan hatred of the band for Christianity is released ('From the fury of the men of the North save us, O Lord'), and the epic (but in the end, which Amon Amarth song isn't?) 'Friends Of The Suncross'? 'Amon Amarth', with its black atmosphere and sampled battle sounds, is the self-celebration of the Viking myth and the title track is the worthy and triumphant closure.

'Once Sent From The Golden Hall' is one of those albums made with the heart, which you don't expect will open the gates to the metal Olympus (or would Valhalla be more appropriate?) overnight, but you create, compose and sweat because you believe in it. I don't know what Amon Amarth expected when they released this album, but I'm sure they were convinced they had done their duty.