‘The Vikings are coming!’ In olden times this cry would have been enough to curdle the blood of every villager in sight and send them scurrying for cover, but times have changed. Named after J.R.R. Tolkien’s infamous Mount Doom, Swedish stalwarts Amon Amarth refer to their music as melodic death metal. Together with Behemoth and Gojira they are one of just a handful of death metal acts capable of selling out arenas, a status they worked extremely hard to achieve. ‘The Great Heathen Army’ (2022) is their twelfth album and although they continue to regale us with Viking tales and there are no real surprises on a musical level either, the new slab lives up to the high quality standards they have set for themselves over the years. Riffs with balls of steel, guitar leads in the best Iron Maiden tradition and impressive stage productions have endeared them to audiences far beyond the death metal scene. Are you ready for their seventh GMM raid? #GMM23
