I quite like Amon Amarth and this their debut Once Sent from the Golden Hall is their first album from 1998. I have to say I didn’t realise the band had been kicking around so long but I guess you learn something every day.
From the outset this is basically Amon Amarth but a much less stylized version of the band. The band is a little “embryonic” in some senses but even from these early days this is a band that already sounds good. From the first song “Ride for Vengeance” you can hear the attitude is already there. The band sound formidable, and you can hear a bit of the viking metal influnece (think Unleashed etc…) mixed it with fair straight down the line death metal (like Dismember).
The album has that European feel, cold and quite melodic whilst still being crushingly heavy. I’m not going to say this is an awesome album compared to what was going on at the time or what the band would later release but it’s definitely pretty solid effort and would put the band in a great position to begin their future ascent into the realms of heavy metal royalty.
Metal Blade records obviously saw the potential in this band too and to get signed to that label on a first release is no mean feat either. Initially the label only printed up 1000 copies of this album, but it did mean. the band would get selected to open for a tour with Deicide, Brutal Truth and Six Feet under which would have set the band up nicely.
Over all this is a really cool album and an enjoyable listen for the few that were lucky enough to hear the band in this formative phase. For more great heavy metal reviews and other cool stuff be sure to keep checking back on https://www.metalhed.com as reguarly as you can!
.