NOW THIS IS A DRUM-CAM CLIP I CAN GET BEHIND

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

On July 24, 2011, Amon Amarth played the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival in Helsinki Finland. The first song on their set was “War of the Gods”. The video after the jump records the performance from just behind and to the left of drummer Fredrik Andersson. It helps if you know the song already — as well you should — because the sound of the other instruments and Johan Hegg’s vocals are muffled on the audio track, given the camera’s position — but this is still very, very cool.

I don’t know shit about drumming. Basically, to me, watching any capable extreme metal drummer in action is like witnessing a form of supernatural achievement. This is no different. Maybe what Andersson is doing on this song would be basic, ho-hum stuff to a metal drummer watching it. To me, it’s phenomenal.

But that’s only part of the attraction. That supernatural quality is enhanced in this clip by the eruptions of flame that occur throughout the video, as if ejected from the drum kit itself, and by the smoke that eventually enshrouds Andersson before ultimately clearing near the end. True Viking shit.

This gave me a giant [insert slang term for erect penis]. It fucking [insert verb] my [insert testicle reference]. I shot [insert semen idiom] all over my computer screen.  Video after the jump. Continue reading »

A NEW AMON AMARTH VIDEO

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Jun 272011
 

 

I just saw this. Looks like it went up yesterday. It’s the new official Amon Amarth video for “Destroyer of the Universe”, one of the tracks from the absolutely wonderful Surtur Rising. It’s a live video that was shot on the band’s May 6th stop in Philadelphia, PA at the Theatre Of Living Arts.

The first YouTube comment I saw beneath this video cracked me up. But, figuratively speaking, it pretty much captures my reaction to the video: “its 4am. ive been watching porn for the past 2 hours. i decided to come to youtube and i saw a new video from amon amarth. and guess what. i came in 2minutos.”

AMON AMARTH EURO TOUR (AND “GUARDIANS OF ASGARD” WITH LG PETROV)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Jun 032011
 

I’m a day or two late reporting the schedule for Amon Amarth‘s European tour, but I forgive myself. What other U.S. metal blog is going to say anything about a European tour at all?

Exactly.   So there.

Yes, Amon Amarth will be embarking on a 15-country tour of the UK and the Continent beginning on October 12 in Stuttgart, Germany. Can you guess who will be supporting them on that tour? Go ahead — close your eyes so you don’t see the answer and take a guess.

If you guessed As I Lay Dying, then you’re a fucking genius. I sure wouldn’t have guessed that match-up, even though I like both bands and they’re both in the Metal Blade stable. If you do a word-association exercise, and you say the first band that comes to mind when someone says “AMON AMARTH!”, the odds are you’re not going to say “AS I LAY DYING!”

A band like Entombed would have been closer to what I would have guessed. But as it happens, you can sort of have that cake and eat it, too, because LG Petrov of Entombed provided guest vocals on “Guardians of Asgard” with Amon Amarth when the band played the Metalfest festival in Switzerland on May 29 — and of course it was captured on video. This is fan-filmed footage, so the audio quality isn’t ideal (though it isn’t terrible), but the video quality is pretty good.

Plus, I mean, it’s LG Petrov singing with Amon Amarth on “Guardians of Asgard”. If you’re as big a metal geek as I am (no need for you to confess out loud), you know you have to watch this, just so you’ll be able to die happy if you get flattened by a beer truck while crossing the street today. So, after the jump — Euro tour dates and that video. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH LIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Apr 222011
 

I really needed a palate-cleanser after that last post about the Revolver “Golden Gods” Award, and man, did I find one: good quality film of Amon Amarth‘s performance in Denver on April 17.

They played Seattle on the night of April 20. My two NCS co-founders Alexis and IntoTheDarkness were at that show and reported that it was indeed epic. I was out of town and missed it. I am not happy about that.

I’m having to console myself with these Denver clips. The first one is the band playing “Destroyer of the Universe” and the second is “Tock’s Taunt – Loke’s Treachery Part II”. Both songs are from Amon Amarth’s new album, Surtur Rising, which is one of our favorites of the year-to-date. Check them out after the jump. Fuck yes. Continue reading »

SYSTEM OF AN AMON AMARTH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  20 Responses »
Mar 122011
 

Sometimes, the Internet is a very bad thing. It offers temptations, sometimes temptations that I find irresistible. And I’m not talking about porn. I’m talking about . . . what you’ll find in this post.

The backstory: Amon Amarth was one of the bands on that 70,000 TONS OF METAL cruise that we started making fun of more than a year ago. In fact, in the first of several posts about the cruise, as it was being announced and promoted, we said this on February 2, 2010, imagining what we would be asking a year later as the cruise ship limped back to port:

  • Is there anything left of the ship?
  • “70,000 Tons of Metal” — but what was the total tonnage of weed smuggled on board?
  • How many people went over the side, never to be seen again?
  • How many people were hospitalized along the way?
  • How many passengers are still in jail on Cozumel?
  • How many tourists signed up for this, thinking it was just a normal Caribbean cruise?
  • Did Amon Amarth eat any of those tourists?
  • Was the bilge big enough to hold all the projectile vomiting?
  • Did anyone actually go up on deck into the sunlight?
  • Have photos surfaced on the interwebs?

Well, the cruise is now over, and as far as we know, Amon Amarth didn’t eat any wayward tourists. But Johan Hegg did do a karaoke performance of the best song on System Of A Down‘s Toxicity album, “Aerials”. And yes, his performance did surface on YouTube, and it was, and is, a wondrous thing.

So wondrous, in fact, that Amon Amarth is including a cover of the song as an iTunes-exclusive bonus track on the forthcoming Surtur Rising album. Wanna hear it? Stay with us after the jump, then . . . Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “FOR VICTORY OR DEATH”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Mar 102011
 

And our Surtur Rising watch continues . . .

Just hours ago, Metal Hammer debuted the third song from Amon Amarth‘s forthcoming album. This song is called “For Victory Or Death”. Amazingly, the song sounds like Amon Amarth, which means it’s another immediately recognizable melodeath gallop. I’m not quite as enamored of this one as I was of the first two (both of which we slapped up on this site as fast as humanly possible after their release), but I do like it, and it certainly does nothing to dim my enthusiasm for this album.

I couldn’t hack the Metal Hammer site in a way that would allow me to embed the song here at NCS — but I then discovered that the song made its way to YouTube about one hour ago.  So . . . click past the jump and you can hear “For Victory Or Death” without leaving the grasping claws of NCS. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “SLAVES OF FEAR”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Feb 142011
 

You can’t say no one gave you a Valentine today. Not only did we give you one, in the form of an Amorphis video and a nice skull-with-flowers card, but Amon Amarth have given you one, too.

It’s evident that Amon Amarth is a huge favorite at this site, so we thought it was worth alerting you to the fact that within the last hour, Metal Blade has released another track from Surtur Rising — the new album due for release on March 29. This one is called “Slaves of Fear”. Here’s what AA’s drummer Fredrik Andersson had to say about the song:

“‘Slaves Of Fear’ is not the all-typical Amon Amarth song. It was one of the last songs we finished for the album and what makes this song a little bit different is the collaboration between me and [guitarist] Olavi [Mikkonen] as songwriters. Usually, most songs are written by Olavi and [guitarist] Johan [Söderberg]. It’s definitely one of the darkest songs we’ve ever written and the main/intro riff is my personal tribute to the passing of Ronnie James Dio as the riff came to me after listening to Holy Diver. Lyrically, it’s about how religions keep people under its control and  from thinking for themselves. It includes some of the most angry lyrics [vocalist] Johan [Hegg] has written and they kind of remind me of ‘The Sound Of Eight Hooves’ [off 2001’s The Crusher full-length] in a way. It works exceptionally well with the melancholic feel of the riffs.”

I sure wish we could stick the song right here for you to hear, but that will have to wait — because for now, it’s streaming exclusively at the Deciblog. But much as we hate to ever send you away from NCS, you really ought to hear this song. So — here is the link.

UPDATE: Now we’ve got the song for you to hear at NCS –right after the jump. Continue reading »

AMON AMARTH: “WAR OF THE GODS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  16 Responses »
Jan 312011
 

This will be quick, but it will be good, I promise.

Everyone knows that Amon Amarth has a new album on the way —“Surtur Rising”. I am very much looking forward to it. Very much.

This past weekend, the first track from the album — “War of the Gods” — debuted on Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show. And as I had hoped, someone has now uploaded the track (which includes Jackie’s quick intro) onto YouTube.

It is classic Amon Amarth — which means if you’re not a big fan, this won’t change your life. But if you are a big fan (as I am), it is just a fucking killer way to start the week. It’s a phalanx of raging Vikings pounding down at you at a full charge, with Johan Hegg barking like a big wolf. It’s got a massively infectious little melody grooved into it, and a boiling guitar solo to boot.

UPDATE: After the jump, we now have the official stream of “WAR OF THE GODS” — not the version ripped from the radio on YouTube, with its imperfections.

Go past the jump and listen . . . and then get your battle ax out of the closet and run into the streets looking for a worthy foe to butcher! Continue reading »

TODAY’S “A” LIST: AMON AMARTH, ARCH ENEMY, AND ARCHSPIRE

 Metal News  46 Responses »
Jan 182011
 

Yeah, I know I’m taxing your attention span with our third post of the day, but I continue to see eye-catching items and just can’t resist. But I will keep this one short and sweet. It’s about breaking news from three of our favorite bands.

ITEM ONE

You’re looking at Item One: The just-released cover art for Amon Amarth‘s new album, Surtur Rising. Talk about a fucking metal album cover. The art is by Tom Thiel. The album will be released in North America on March 29, 2011 via Metal Blade Records.

The track listing for the album is out, too, and includes such juicy titles as “Destroyer of the Universe”, “Live Without Regrets”, “For Victory Or Death”, and my favorite: “A Beast Am I”. I’m expecting epic levels of epicness.

Did you know that Surtur was (is?) the leader of the fire giants of Muspelheim (“flame land”) and the oldest being in the nine worlds of Norse mythology? Oh, fuck me, sorry about that; I said I would keep this short. On to the next item (after the jump). Continue reading »

MORE 2010 SICKNESS (Part 11)

 Forthcoming Albums  18 Responses »
Dec 012010
 

November is now in our rear-view mirror. December lies ahead of us: A perfectly good stretch of road marred by the speed bumps of the cataclysm that is Christmas. And on the other side of those speed bumps is the end of the year – the roadkill that is New Year’s Eve. And you know what the run-up to year-end brings — year-end lists. It’s already started, but the coming weeks will bring us a slew of Best of 2010 album lists. We’ll probably do our own Best of 2010 list — not the best albums of the year, but, as we did last year, the most infectious extreme metal songs of the year.

But we’re not quite ready to launch that list. Instead, we’re looking off into the future, not backward at the music that’s rattled our skulls over the past year. Yes, it’s time for another monthly installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we cobble together a list of forthcoming new albums, cribbing like rag-gatherers and lint-pickers from PR releases and metal news sites like Blabbermouth in order to construct a line-up of new music that we’re interested in hearing.

All of our previous monthly updates can be found via the “Forthcoming Albums” category link on the right side of our pages, and because we’re not keeping a cumulative list, you might want to check the last couple months of these posts if you want to get a full picture of what’s coming. The list that follows, in alphabetical order, are albums we didn’t know about at the time of our last installment, or updated info about albums we’d previously heard were on the way. After the jump, of course . . .

Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries