Amon Amarth released The Allfather Awakens today through Metal Blade, and the method behind it is the part worth reading twice. The ten songs came together across two recording sessions months apart at Jacob Hansen's studio in Denmark, and the band wrote while they were on the road rather than waiting to come home. The effect, they say, is that each song got the attention a single would get.
The other deliberate change is the guitar sound. They moved off 5150 amps and back to Marshalls, for something slightly less modern. The music was written before the lyrics, which is the reverse of how a band with this much narrative in its words might be expected to work.
Oden is the through line in the lyrics and artwork again, though the band are clear that this is not a concept album, just historically inspired tales of conflict and sacrifice. Upphaf is their first acoustic piece. The singles Gjallarhorn and Eight Legs of Thunder came out ahead of the record, and the opener was the first thing they showed.
Today's focus track is the title song, The Allfather Awakes. Frontman and lyricist Johan Hegg ties it to the whole record: "wisdom, knowledge and facts need to become the guide for the future." Next week the band start a run through the United Kingdom and Europe with a new stage production built after Oden's Golden Hall.