When I first started mentally writing this review, I had a whole idea about doing a bit about bands shadow dropping albums, and how Amon Amarth just shadow dropped a new album this summer, without telling anyone, and that it was one of their better albums of the last few efforts.
Then I thought that was doing a disservice to France’s Hrothgar, and also that if a reader has clicked on this link, they already know who the band is.
So, I’ll get right to it and tell you about Hrothgar’s second album, Tales of Valhöll.
It’s like Amon Amarth shadow dropped a new album.
Fuck.
So there are plenty of unashamed, spot-on homages, odes and borderline rip-offs littered all over the place in metal; Wizardthrone (Bal Sagoth), Forlorn Citadel and Urdôl Ur (Summoning), the countless Dismember clones, and of late, the Lorna Shore wanna bes. And the line between homage and rip-off is very thin. And it’s a line Hrothgar often comes close to, and blasts right over.
Along with the bands I mentioned above, Hrothgar is easily one of the more…… mimicking? Seriously, if one of these songs came on, and you were not paying attention, you could easily just assume it’s a song from any Amon Amarth album, old or new. Quentin Peyrouse is a dead ringer for Johan Hegg, and I mean a dead fucking ringer. The riffs are that rousing, chunky but melodic, Viking-tinged style, and the production is beefy but clear. Hell, even the album cover art.
The thing is…. I dig it. It’s as good as, if not better than, some of Amon Amarth‘s more recent efforts over the years, and certainly better than Amon Amarth‘s lazier efforts. The riffs are absolutely on point in capturing that epic, rousing, beer hall or ‘Viking long ship ploughing through the waves’ mood. I mean, just listen to opener “Jörmungandr”, “Face to Face”, “Fight You Like a Beast”, “Ulfhednar”, and that’s just in the album’s first half…The second half has the likes of “Fenrir’s Tale”, but the overtly idolizing formula is the same. But also still enjoyable.
The album’s back end has more of that beefy melancholy similar to “As Loke Falls” or “Cry of the Black Birds” on songs like “Hræsvelgr”, “Giant”, “Blazing Shores”, “The Voyager”, and closer “The Kraken”, which actually kinda kills. Amon Amarth might wish they could have penned some of these riffs, as they are more entertainingly Amon Amarth than Amon Amarth can be at times.
They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, well if that’s the case, Amon Amarth should be flattered into fucking oblivion by what Hrothgar has kicked out on Tales of Valhöll.
