''The Great Heathen Army'' is the twelfth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Swedish
melodic death metal
Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...
band
Amon Amarth
Amon Amarth () is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Tumba, formed in 1992. The band takes its name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Their lyrics mostly deal with Viking mythology and hi ...
. It was released on 5 August 2022, through
Metal Blade Records
Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distrib ...
.
Critical reception
Dan Slessor of ''
Kerrang!
''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...
'' described the album as "a step back towards their melodic death metal origins, and it is definitely to their betterment, delivering perhaps the strongest collection since 2008's ''
Twilight of the Thunder God
''Twilight of the Thunder God'' is the seventh studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth. ''Twilight of the Thunder God'' was released in September 2008. The album's name and title track refer to Thor's slaying of the Midg ...
''".
[
]Blabbermouth.net
Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001; in Octob ...
portrayed the album as "Both an unapologetic, festival-ready dose of new, gleaming, Viking-populated anthems, and one of the darkest and most brutal albums they have yet made".[
]
Track listing
Personnel
Amon Amarth
* Olavi Mikkonen − lead guitar
* Johan Hegg − vocals
* Ted Lundström − bass
* Johan Söderberg − rhythm guitar
* Jocke Wallgren − drums
Other personnel
* Biff Byford
Peter Rodney "Biff" Byford (born 15 January 1951) is an English singer best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Saxon.
Early life
Byford was born in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire, the youngest of four children to Ernest Cha ...
− vocals (track 7)
* Andy Sneap
Andy Sneap (born 18 July 1969) is an English guitarist, record producer and composer with over 100 albums to his name, most of which have been produced at his Backstage Recording studios in rural Derbyshire. Some of the most critically acclaime ...
− production, mixing, mastering
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
2022 albums
Amon Amarth albums
Metal Blade Records albums
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