Here’s Part 4 of my list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. I promised that new installments of this list would appear each day (more or less) until it’s finished, but four days have passed since the last one. I’ll make no excuses, but simply make a new promise that from here on I’ll do better.
For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the two I’m announcing today, click here.
CNOC AN TURSA
Cnoc An Tursa’s magnificent 2013 album The Giants of Auld made many of the year-end lists we’ve posted at NCS, including this one by Panopticon’s Austin Lunn. He wrote this about the album: “EPIC Scottish metal. This is the album I have been waiting for…” Speaking as someone with only the most remote Scottish ancestry but a strong affinity for almost all things Scottish, it’s the album I’ve been waiting for as well.
I first wrote about this band in October 2012 after seeing the news that they’d been signed by Candlelight Records. In that first post I included all of the music from them that I could then find, including a portion of a song called “The Lion of Scotland”. In all its full glory, it later became the first advance track to appear from the album.
It’s a genuinely soul-stirring song, with a skirling tremolo melody, an epic keyboard overlay, hard-charging rhythms, and passionate harsh vocals. It still gets my blood racing and my fist pumping every time I hear it. I’ve never had any doubt that it would be on this list. Listen:
AMON AMARTH
As DGR wrote when he reviewed Deceiver of the Gods for us, Amon Amarth have reached the point when they are almost beyond musical discussion. They’ve become a kind of cultural staple, their music having settled into a largely predictable style, but one that for many of us is no less attractive despite the fact that many Amon Amarth songs have come to bear a strong resemblance to many others.
And yet, as DGR observed in his review, Deceiver of the Gods is worth more than the instinctive brush-off, “it’s another Amon Amarth album”. Yes, it has its fair share of melodic death metal battle anthems (many of them quite strong), but it also includes some genuine surprises.
Perhaps the most surprising is the song “Hel”, which features an appearance by famed Candlemass vocalist Messiah Marcolin. It’s slower than anything else on the album, and quite different from what anyone would have expected. But something about the slow chugging verses, the serpentine chorus melody, and the dismal lyrics have rooted themselves firmly in my cranium, and the contrasting voices in the duet by Johan Hegg and Marcolin work very well.
I have no doubt that others will fight me over this choice, given the highly infectious nature of many other more up-tempo tracks on the album, but I will not be daunted! “I welcome you to Hel…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoeRe8IYWPE
17 Responses to “OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 4”
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Hel is probably my favorite song on the new album. It’s cool to see them do something a little different.
It is almost unbelievable, your list until now is about all therecords I’ve listened last year. “Hel” is stuck in my head too since the first time I heard it, another good candidate could be “As Loke Falls” in my opinion, however “The Lion of Scotland” is another strong piece of music, very intense, this list is proceeding well. I will wait the fifth part!
Eventually I will surely pick something you haven’t heard yet — but nice to know that we’re in sync so far.
Hel is actually my least favorite song off the new one. I’m happy the AA are experimenting, but I don’t feel like this one worked. I personally would’ve gone for As Loke Falls or Shape Shifter. Nevertheless, this reminds me that I’m seeing them in a month, so thanks for getting me excited again.
Also, The Lion of Scotland is awesome. The effect is heightened when listening to it in rural parts of Scotland, as I’ve mentioned before.
i’m partial to “Hel”, but they’re both great picks!
Gah…”Hel” is by far the worst track off of a completely average album. At least “Deceiver of the Gods” has a great intro riff
Cvrmvdgeon
Not so much when it comes to Amon Amarth. Theyre actually one of my favorite bands, but their last couple albums have been pretty lackluster.
For me, “Surtur…” had some really great tracks, but there was way too much filler. “Deceiver…” was just incredibly bland…almost nothing sticks out to me on that album
I agree completely; I think Deceiver was their worst album by far.
I welcome dissent at this site. However, the loris hordes do not. They have dispatched a cadre of ninja assassins to your addresses. Because the ninja lorises are very slow, you will probably die of prostate cancer before they arrive.
Ninja hordes dont scare me. The inverse Ninja rule always applies..the more that show up, the less competent they actually are
Don’t be so cocky. They will eat you like a peeled grape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNqt3zO9UMg
It’s a toss up between Hel and Father Of The Wolf for me. I know Hel gets on people’s nerves but it felt like such a great change of pace and refresher when it hit on that disc, otherwise it would’ve been a largely good collection of battle anthems and nothing else – IE ‘another Amon Amarth disc’
Totally forgot to mention “Father Of The Wolf”. Definitely one of the catchier/better songs off that record.
“Father of the Wolf”, “As Loke Falls”, and the title track were all on my list of candidates. I may have been influenced by a desire to go a bit off the beaten track.
Cnoc An Tursa kicks some serious ass! Earlier this year I didn’t really give it a chance, but now I will certainly do!
Love Cnoc An Tursa. Criminally underrated.