Amon Amarth: Deceiver of the Gods (2013)

We March Again to Reach Valhalla’s Mighty Royal Gates

This would be the second entirely unnecessary review in as many weeks. Instead of writing a typical review, I considered writing a vignette of a Viking battle scene. At the thought of inviting such a direct comparison between my words and the experience of hearing Amon Amarth, I decided against that option.

Deceiver of the Gods is the eighth full-length record from the mighty Amon Amarth. They only need one more to have as many albums as there are homeworlds in Norse cosmology. If you’ve got any of their previous seven records you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you don’t have any of their previous seven, you need to buy this one, buy another one, or get the Hel out of here. There’s not another way. If you don’t love Amon Amarth, then you can’t claim to be a metalhead.


What else is there to say? The only distinguishing feature is the guest spot by erstwhile-Candlemass-vocalist-slash-living-legend Messiah Marcolin on the fantastic “Hel.” His powerful vibrato-rich voice is a nice touch that works surprisingly well with Amon Amarth’s slightly-blackened melodic death metal, and Johan Hegg wisely deepened his death growl on the track to emphasize the contrast. Otherwise, all I can say is that this is an Amon Amarth album, and it sounds just like one. As that goes, it’s about as good as all the others, which is to say that it’s awesome.

If there is one reliable band in metal that we can all agree on, it’s this one.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars