Hellnoise Metal Blog

01. Valhall Awaits Me
02. Runes To My Memory
03. Asator
04. Hermod’s Ride To Hell (Lokes Treachery Part 1)
05. Gods of War Arise
06. With Oden On Our Side
07. Cry of the Black Birds
08. Under The Northern Star
09. Prediction of Warfare

Viking Metal giants Amon Amarth arise again, with Oden on their side. The god of war, poetry, wisdom and death gathered a portion of slain Metal warriors in his hall of Valhalla. The coast line was rocky and the sea rough with the wind blowing, but nothing would stop them from returning victorious. As the ship is coming closer to shore, it is time to pick up swords, axes and shields!

After their Fate of Norns release, which received great and lesser ratings, Amon Amarth provide us with a new voyage into the Nordic mythology. And this time, they are truly in a fighting shape. The performance is flawless. The lyrics are bloody. The pathos of death is again perfectly described in songs such as Runes To My Memory. If you take some time to carefully listen through the songs and lyrics, you can feel the fluidness of how Amon Amarth captured the scene’s emotion of battle, carefully connecting melodies to words.

The songs most worthy of mentioning are Valhall Awaits Me, Asator, Hermod’s Ride To Hell (Lokes Treachery Part 1) and Under The Northern Star. They couldn’t have created a better opening track than Valhall Awaits Me. It simply breathes a march to war, inviting every warrior to come and join them in their fight. The album’s most aggressive and fast song is Asator, a dark, Gothenburg-Death-Metal-influenced track. This being followed up by a prime example of pure Amon Amarth Metal, Hermod’s Ride To Hell (Lokes Treachery Part 1): atmospheric, Black-Metal-influenced mid-paced guitar and drum work combined with Johan’s deathly roars. Under The Northern Star is one of the most melodic tracks ever created by our Nordic Metal gods. This makes sure it is not as dark as the other tracks, though without losing the overall emotion of the album. To top this all, the production sound is amazingly clear, making the album even more intense.

If you are looking for a band who is continuously progressing, Amon Amarth probably won’t satisfy your Metal needs. They are happy with their formula, and it works, accomplishing one successful anthem after the other, which is reason enough to praise them. This release will surely satisfy any Amon Amarth fan again. So put on your horned Viking helmet and enjoy Amon Amarth’s metallic bliss once again.

&#x20Blow the war horns. The Vikings are coming. The Vikings are coming…”

9/10 Points – reviewed by Lyra

official Website: http://www.amonamarth.com

When I read about this band, I always confused them with AngelDUST which sounds okay. But recently I discovered my mistake and purchased my first AngelCORPSE CD. This one sounded even better! Angelcorpse is an American black metalband. And while some US death metalbands say they play black metal, this band REALLY plays that music style. Opening song ‘Christhammer’ completely overwhelmed me. Positively I go through the rest of the album. Angelcorpse plays the same kind of black metal as Marduk and Dark Funeral but to be honest, those two bands lack in comparison to Angelcorpse. Although this CD dates back to 1997, the production is very good and the music sounds very heavy. These four madmen constantly play at top speed, but build in occasional solo’s or odd guitar loops to keep things interesting. Or listen to ‘Embrace’ and hear vocalist Pete Helmkamp spit out extra sick demonic growls in the chorus. Although at the end of the CD I was a bit exhausted from the constant skull-smashing blasts, my end conclusion is as follows:

If you like intense and fast black metal with slight death metal influences, this is an album you really shouldn’t miss.

9/10 Points – reviewed by Bloodreaver

Es gibt tatsächlich noch genügend Black Metal-Projekte, die auf Kassetten aufgenommen werden, um „den Geist des Undergrounds aufrechtzuerhalten“. So schildern es zumindest die Jungs von Dehemur Morti Productions, die nun drei Demos im MC-Format veröffentlicht haben. Ars Diavolis kaltes und melancholisches „The Abscence Of Light“ bildet dabei den Beginn dieser Kette.

Was die Portugiesen hierbei dem Schwarzmetall-Freund auf vier Tracks liefern, ist eine gute Orientierungsmöglichkeit in welche Richtung sich Ars Diavoli in Zukunft durchkämpfen werden. Teils schneller, eiszapfenkalter Black Metal prügelt sich durch 22 Minuten Todeskampf und bedient sich reichlich atmosphärisch untermauernder Effekte, wie etwa Hintergrundgeräuschen und stellenweise verzerrter Stimme. Eigentlich ein interessantes Werk, allerdings bestimmt nichts Außergewöhnliches, das jetzt einem vom Hocker reißen könnte. Desweiteren fällt die be…scheidene Soundqualität sofort auf bzw. kratzt sich ins Ohr. Underground-Feeling hin oder her – wer auf besseren Garagen-Schwarzmetall nicht steht, sollte eine Kurve um „The Abscence Of Light“ machen. Diejenigen, die sich in den Wäldern des Underground- Black Metals wohl fühlen, können eines der 300 Demo-Exemplare kaufen, dürfen dabei aber nicht all zu viel erwarten als Durchschnittsware mit bisschen Untergrund-Flair.

Tracklist:

1.Essência corrompida

2.Penúria

3.Human mass suicide

4.Horizontes perdidos

5/10 Points – reviewed by Agarr

official Website: http://www.debemur-morti.com

Genre: Black Metal

Tracklist:

01. Evil Calling (Intro)

02. The Devils Throat

03. Black Sunday

04. Mongrel Monument

05. Thou Shalt Suffer

06. Where Witches Burnt

07. My Mortal Flesh

08. Narrow Refuse

09. I’m the Vanity

10. Last Sheep Smashed

Atritas has quite a big status in the Underground Black Metal scene.

This is not very suprising. Where Witches Burnt is their fifth release, and first full length CD. Then I ask myself: Why do talented bands like Atritas not find a deal with a label? This is truly a shame. I can’t say Black Metal is really my thing, but this was one of the rare moments I was immediately convinced by a Black Metal album. You can already consider this as a big plus.

The sextet plays their very own kind of Melodic Black Metal which reminds me of some of the old work of Dimmu Borgir, Old Man’s Child and Cradle of Filth. The music is a combination of hateful drum blastings, cold melodic guitars and spherical keyboards. The atmosphere is mainly setted by the very clever use of these keyboards. Sometimes they even lean towards an epic and majestic sound. Within the songs, variety is the key. They never indulge in countless repetitions or the same tempo throughout a track but combine heaviness, tensity, speed and very interesting dynamics. Acoustic parts even appear, as in Thou Shalt Suffer.

Now I definitely need to say something about the vocals. They are excellent and a delight for all Black Metal fans. Gier’s vocals are even more extreme than the usual Black Metal vocals. They are some kind of high, hysteric screaming.

If I need to go look for a down point, then I would say the bass line doesn’t really come out. You can hardly hear it at times. But this doesn’t bother me at all when listening. Also, their production could be perfectionised. These are just minor flaws though, because I love the album.

I can conclude by saying the whole album sounds hateful, but really beautiful at the same time. Old Man’s Child was the first Black Metalband to intrigue me, and now Atritas did it again. Thumbs up!

9/10 Points – reviewed by Lyra

official Website: http://www.atritas.ch

Most people won’t now Autumn, so first a little introduction. Autumn is a Dutch gothic metal band which was founded in 1995. They are now quite well known in the dutch underground metal scene and are having concerts all over the Netherlands. They will even be playing on M’era Luna this year, although I won’t be attending the festival unfortunatly.

Their first album came out on the 24th of June 2002 and I bought it right away. I had only heard them from some samples that could be downloaded from their site. I was already impressed, but after seeing them live on Wâldrock the 23th of June 2002 I was sold. Unfortunatly I must say that the album isn’t that good as I (and a lot more fans) expected it to be and even the bandmembers weren’t that satisfied with it.

The problem was that they were assigned to a producer which was more rock-orientated. They actually wanted to go to someone else, but were advised to go to this producer (Dick Kemper). The sound is a little less bombastic, then other bands in this genre. The instruments (guitars) aren’t that good to hear on the album.

But this shouldn’t keep anyone from checking out this cd or this band.

The cd is good enough, but could be better and unfortunatly not very representive for the band, although they play the same songs live as well. If you like the album, you will definitely like them live! Live they are a very powerfull band and they have a very good connection with the audience.

They now hope to start on their second album soon and they promised us that this one will be better then their last.

9/10 – reviewed by Corvus Corax