Twilight of the Thunder God
| Twilight of the Thunder God | ||||
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| Studio album by Amon Amarth | ||||
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Publication |
September 19, 2008 |
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| Label (s) | Metal Blade Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
43 min 31 s |
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Studio (s) |
Fascination Street Studios, Örebro |
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Twilight of the Thunder God ( English for Twilight of the Thunder God ) is the seventh studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth . It was released on September 19, 2008 via Metal Blade Records . With this album, the band made it into the top 10 of the German album charts for the first time.
Emergence
The songwriting process began in autumn 2007 after completing the European tour with Dimmu Borgir and Engel . For the first time, the second guitarist Johan Söderberg also contributed ideas. Most of the material still comes from Olavi Mikkonen. Between January and April 2008, the band members met five times a week to compose new songs from the ideas they had gathered. In the meantime, the band extended their contract with Metal Blade Records for three more studio albums.
On May 1st, 2008, the recordings began in Fascination Street Studios in Örebro . As with the previous album , Twilight of the Thunder God was produced by Jens Bogren . Bogren also did the mixing and mastering . First the drums were recorded. For this a guitar track was played, which was accompanied by a metronome . This was to give drummer Frederik Andersson a point of reference. Then rhythm guitar , bass , solo guitar and vocals were recorded, with the solo guitar and vocals alternating. According to singer Johan Hegg , this saved the band time and money.
For the first time in the band's history, Amon Amarth used guest musicians. Roope Latvala from Children of Bodom contributed a guitar solo for the theme song . Entombed singer Lars-Göran Petrov can be heard on "Guardians of Asgaard" . Most recently Apocalyptica appear with their cellos on “Live for the Kill”.
During the recording, the band released six studio diaries as videos. The recordings ended on June 13, 2008. In early August 2008, the band traveled to Poland to film a music video for the theme song . A short time later the band presented the title song and later also “Guardians of Asgaard” on their Myspace page.
background
The title song is about Thor's battle with the Midgard Serpent during Ragnarök . Thor slays the snake and dies. This story was also implemented as a comic. Excerpts from it appeared in advance in various music magazines. The complete comic is included in the box set, which is limited to 1000 copies. "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags" deals with the run-up to the great final battle of Ragnarök . "Free Will Sacrifice" depicts the situation of an outnumbered group of fighters who take on 10,000 men. “No Fear for the Setting Sun” is about how a person stands up for his or her beliefs and beliefs. "Embrace of the Endless Ocean" is about a Viking who is allowed to return home after many years in captivity. His ship gets caught in a storm and sinks.
"Guardians of Asgaard" describes how the residence of the gods Asgaard is defended against attacks by the giants . “Where Is Your God?” Describes the situation of villagers who are being attacked. Your prayers to the Christian God are not answered. The piece "Varyags of Miklagaard" describes returning warriors who served the Emperor of Miklagard , the Emperor of Byzantium. "The Hero" depicts the situation of a mercenary who falls on the battlefield and is finally mourned by strangers.
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Twilight of the Thunder God was named "Album of the Month" in a total of four German metal magazines ( Rock Hard , Metal Hammer , Legacy and Heavy or what? ). Metal Hammer editor-in-chief Thorsten Zahn describes the album as a “masterpiece of the melodic death metal”, which “wins the battle in a nutshell”. For Stefan Hofmann from the online magazine Bloodchamber, Twilight of the Thunder God is a "multi-layered album that is one of the highlights of the band's history without any real failures".
Twilight of the Thunder God entered the album charts at number 6 in Germany . There were other high chart positions in Finland (10th place), Sweden (11th place), Austria (14th place) and Switzerland (21st place). In the US , the album reached number 48 and sold over 11,000 copies in the first week.
Versions
Twilight of the Thunder God appeared in four versions. In addition to the regular CD , the album was released as a double LP . In Europe, a limited edition was released which, in addition to the album, contains a recording of the performance at the Summer Breeze Festival 2007 on CD and DVD . Finally, there is a box set limited to 1000 copies, in which you can find wobbly figures of the individual band members, a poster and a comic.
Covers
The theme song Twilight of the Thunder God has been covered several times. Examples are:
- Sabaton on your Carolus Rex album
- Corvus Corax on your album Gimlie
Track list
Regular album
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Bonus CD / DVD: Live at Summer Breeze 2007
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Individual evidence
- ^ "Götterdämmerung" ( Metal Hammer , October 2008, pp. 28–33)
- ↑ blabbermouth.net: AMON AMARTH Extends Contract With METAL BLADE RECORDS ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b blabbermouth.net: AMON AMARTH Completes Recording New Album ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rock Hard , October 2008, p. 84
- ↑ a b metal.de: Our fans want us to sound like AMON AMARTH!
- ^ "Bloodbath at Disneyland" (Rock Hard, October 2008, pp. 28-30)
- ↑ officialcharts.de: Twilight of the Thunder God in the German album charts
- ↑ austriancharts.at: A Twilight of the Thunder God in the Austrian charts
- ↑ hitparade.ch: Twilight of the Thunder God in the Swiss hit parade
- ↑ swedishcharts.com: Twilight of the Thunder God in the Swedish charts
- ^ Metal Hammer, October 2008, p. 102
- ↑ bloodchamber.de: Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
- ↑ blabbermouth.net: AMON AMARTH's 'Thunder God' Cracks US Top 50 ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
