Versus The World (Metal Blade~2002)
Many metal bands write songs about ancient battles, blood, pain, courage, death and despair. The guys in Amon Amarth don't just write and perform songs about those things -- they transport me to another time and place, where I can almost sense the drama and fury, hear the screams of anguish seeping into my soul and feel the blood dripping from my hands. And they don´t accomplish such feelings with sound effects or samples, they do it with music. One of the most consistent and productive bands in death metal, Amon Amarth delivers another masterpiece, its third album in four years. I like to call their brand of music "epic battle metal", but maybe the best way to describe it is simply "great". Some bands bore me to death with simplicity and repetition, but Amon Amarth is able to take those two components and craft them into something epic and majestic without ever being boring. Johan Hegg´s vocals are especially effective. Among the killer songs are the title track, "Where Silent Gods Stand Guard", "Down The Slopes Of Death" and "Thousand Years Of Oppression".