Band:	Amon Amarth
Album:	Fate Of Norns
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	September 06, 2004
A review by:	Malcolm

Disc I
01. An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm
02. Where Death Seems To Dwell
03. The Fate Of Norns
04. The Pursuit Of Vikings
05. Valkyries Ride
06. The Beheading Of A King
07. Arson
08. Once Sealed In Blood

Disc II [limited edition bonus DVD - Amon Amarth live at Grand Rokk Reykjavik]
01. Death In Fire
02. The Last With Pagan Blood
03. For The Stabwounds In Our Backs
04. Masters Of War
05. The Sound Of Eight Hooves
06. Bloodshed
07. Versus The World
08. Victorious March

Sweden's melodic death Vikings Amon Amarth is back once again with another melodic blast.

Since the release of "The Crusher" in 2001, Amon Amarth has grown in our metal society, with 2002's "Versus the World" they took even a bigger step, and now it's time for "Fate of Norns" to continue the tale of Sweden's best melodic and hard Death metal band.

All of you that know Amon Amarth know what you have to expect: much melodies, heaviness and good lyrics that's growled out in a good way, and "Fate of Norns" isn't an exception. Everything mentioned is here, and it's impossible not to head-bang with it.

"Fate of Norns" continues where "Versus the World" left us, at least musically, with this majestic sound, perfect production, very well written songs and with a "gaia" that could nearly kill.
But if I shall try to find any bad things about it, I would pick up the very unoriginal word "original", because this is a bit monotonous, of course, and the originality isn't really the strongest part, but what band is really original today?
So even if it's really nothing, that is the only bad side of this album, but it's a side that you can easily look above and really enjoy the album.

And so shall we enter the part of the review that takes care of the songs, I shall prize some, and maybe even kill some (who knows?).

We'll start with the third one actually, it's the title track, and I'll compare it with the title-track from the last album, and by doing that I can say that it have no chance against "Versus the World", because that song is one of the best ever with AA.
But "Fate of Norns" isn't bad; it's just not a "Versus the World".
So then, which is the best song? Well, it's a matter of taste, of course, but personally I holding "Pursuit of Vikings" as my favourite, but I think it might change after some time, because the material is very even, there are no song that really is so much better than another, so this album is holding really high class, higher than many others nowadays.

So in the end I will say just a few words. This album, "Fate of Norns" might be the best MeloDeath release of the year. It totally crushes the latest In Flames by miles, and other bands can't really come up in the same class that Amon Amarth does, this IS how melodic Death shall sound like.

Check Out: The entire album, "Fate of Norns", it's going to fight about the title "Death Metal Album of the Year", without doubts.