Amon Amarth Berserker (Box Set)

Comprising 12 monstrous heavy metal anthems that bulge with irresistible melodic hooks, bursts of thrilling savagery and moments of spine-tingling dynamic drama, Berserker is the result of the huge surge of creativity and a collective desire to keep moving forward with no compromise. From the disarming melodrama and explosive riffing of opener "Fafner's Gold" and the brutish simplicity of the rampaging "Crack The Sky" to the epic fury of "Raven's Flight" and the grim, gritty storytelling of "Ironside" and "Skoll and Hati", Berserker is an album full of trademark Amon Amarth bluster and bite but with every aspect of the band's sound somehow refined, sonically enhanced and made vastly more potent, both in terms of metal oomph and emotional power. Neatly summing up the spirit behind these exhilarating new songs is the album's semi-title track, "The Berserker At Stamford Bridge": a visceral but vivid historical tale, recounting the Vikings last stand against the English army in 1066 and the mind-bending heroics of one axe-wielding warrior.

"For me, this is Amon Amarth 2.0," vocalist Johan Hegg declares. "I think what we've done here is give ourselves the space to explore other parts of our musicality and who we are as a band. If you're content with where you're at, what's the point of continuing? We always want to come up with new ideas and find new ways of doing things and to create bigger and better shows and really try to improve every aspect of what the band is. We want to try to keep growing and to do this for as long as we have the possibility to do so, because this is the best fucking job in the world."