Lightningman_42 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2017 8:04 pm
Recently I've been listening to Amon Amarth. I've heard their entire Jomsviking album now, as well as parts of one other album, which I don't remember the title of at the moment. My favorite individual songs so far are
Raise Your Horns,
Under the Northern Star,
Embrace of the Endless Ocean, and
Where Silent Gods Stand Guard.
Dream Sphere, are there any Amon Amarth songs that you consider to be particularly noteworthy, that I should check out?
I still have many other bands which I need to further investigate, like:
Ensiferum, Bran Barr, Forefather, Saor, Catuvolcus, Manegarm, Ulver, and Empyrium (a few that you've recommended to me before)
I only have heard three albums from AA, those being With Odin on Our Side, TotTG, and Surtur Rising.
Embrace of the Endless Ocean is also one of my favs from TotTG. Others from that album include Where is Your God?, and No Fear for the Setting Sun.
From Surtur Rising, War of the Gods is good. I haven't heard the album in a long time so I don't remember it very well.
I just got WOoOS recently. Asator is a highlight, as well as Valhalla Awaits Me, Runes to My Memory, Gods of War Arise, and Cry of the Blackbirds. Probably their most solid album I know.
With Ensiferum the debut self titled album is the only essential one. Iron is really good too, and Victory songs has a few good ones like Wanderer, Deathbringer from the Sky, and One More Magic Potion, but it's less consistent. I've found it hard to get into From Afar. iirc I liked Unsung Heroes more than From Afar, but neither did I love like their debut or even really like like Iron. I'm unfamiliar with their most recent output, since their first two are all I really care for.
With Bran Barr I've only checked out their sophomore album Sidh, but that's worth hearing in full.
Forefather's two essentials are Steadfast, and Curse of the Cwelled. There are plenty of other good songs in their discography, but those two albums are the best.
Saor's Aura is better than Guardians. I haven't heard Roots.
Catuvolcus' masterpiece is Gergovia, though Voyageurs de l'Aube is a close second.
All of Manegarm's albums are worthwhile in some way. Their debut is their most black metal sounding one. Havets Vargar is agressive and expands on their folk roots. Dodsfard is like a catchier less agressive Havets Vargar. Then Vredens Tid, and Vargstenen are their most progressive folk/black metal albums and imo their best. Nattvasen is like a more black metal version of the two that preceded it, very good too. Then their two most recent are more pop-y folk metal but with the occasional song which is really agressive or brooding with great vocals like Blodorn.
Ulver had three albums I'm familiar with. Bergtatt is for atmospheric black metal w/ folk lovers, Kveldssanger is for dark/neo-folk lovers, and Nattens Madrigal is for aggressive raw black metal lovers.
All of Empyrium's albums are good. Some much more folk than metal, and vice versa. I haven't listened to them much recently, so can't really recommend anything more specific.
A couple other bands you might like are the hard/arena rock/folk/power metal band called Running Wild, their albums from Under Jolly Roger to The Rivalry all have at least one great song, and all those albums are solid. They get a bit samey though.
Another is Amorphis. The albums with their most recent singer are all great, from Eclipse to Under the Red Cloud. But, I'd start with Skyforger out of those. Another good album from them is Tales from the Thousand Lakes. Elegy is also considered good and is similar to Tales... but I haven't gotten into it as much as others say I should given that it's a slight evolution from Tales... but I find Elegy a little boring.
