Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side (2006)

Amon Amarth is a swedish death metal band who usually use Viking themes for their songs. They get their name from one of the places in Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It translates to Mount Doom in Sindarin (one of Tolkien's Elvish languages). Like any other death metal band, the songs are punctuated with deep growls and powerful lyrics. Backed by decent guitarists and one kick ass drummer, their music definitely leaves an impression.



The album With Oden On Our Side released in 2006 was their 6th studio album and the 1st to make it to Billboard Charts. Like most Scandinavian metal bands, their listeners were limited to scandinavian countries only. But they gained a lot of popularity in the U.S. with this particular album.

Their lyrics tend to be quite poetic, simple yet fitting. Personally I don't usually enjoy growling, but I guess this band along with Wintersun are the exceptions. The drumming in the song With Oden On Our Side along with others is very impressive.

When Johan Hegg (vocals) was asked what the album's name meant. He said "Well, it kind of has several meanings to it. Oden is of course the highest god in Scandinavian mythology, and he's the god of warfare, wisdom, poetry and artistry. The reason we chose the title is that it suited the lyrical concepts of the album and signified the feeling we had during the writing and recording of the album. We literally felt as if we had the Gods on our side."

Album Art: the three overlapped triangles (valknut) points to the Germanic Alamanni tribe's flag insignia. The font seen on the sides of the triangles show ancient Runic letters that were used by Germanic tribes, showing strong relation to the Dark Age warring tribes.

You could check out thier songs at: http://www.jumpgates.com/matthias/music/music_gothic_angel/Amon%20Amarth/With%20Oden%20On%20Our%20Side/
Also a very interesting Lord of the Rings video with Gods Of War Arise as its background can be found on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0XcZAuTZNM
If not the whole album I would suggest any rock lover to atleast listen to Gods Of War Arise. Its one awesome song.