Lock up the women and children!  Try and save your livestock!  The Vikings have landed, ready to pillage and plunder in the name of Odin.  Viking masters Amon Amarth have unleashed another slab of blood, guts and eternal glory in the form of the their new offering With Oden On Our Side(Metal Blade). 
   
After 15 years together, Amon Amarth have pretty much nailed their sound down to driving rhythms and death metal growlings. They haven't taken a more prog bent like fellow Viking addicts Enslaved.  No.  For Amon Amarth, the thick guitar sounds and dense rhythm section provides the perfect soundtrack for such mundane activities like burning down villages, slaying enemies with a battle axe to the noggin or rowing galleys on to the next unsuspecting country.  The album opens with "Valhall Awaits Me" and wastes no time getting right to the point when Johan Hegg growls, "Blood gushes from the wound/The cut is wide and deep/And before I turn around/He falls to his knees." If you're the sort that's easily queasy and can't stand hearing about bloodshed, this record isn't for you since nearly every song talks about battle, killing and dying, with the title track being a particularly grisly experience. 

Musically, though, With Oden On Our Side is somewhat hypnotic.  Guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and  Johan Söderberg lay down a thick wall of sound for Hegg to growl over making it almost sound like he's a Norse god screaming down from the sky during a storm, such as in  "Hermod's Ride to Hel- Lokes Treachery Part I".  The rhythm section of bassist Ted Lundstrom and drummer Frederik Andersson lay down such a tight mid-tempo groove that you will find your head bobbing along involuntarily to these bloody tales.  Only on "Asator" does the pace pick up to a headbanging gallop.  Which leads to the one downside of this record- the lack of tempo change.  With mostly mid-tempo songs, With Oden On Our Side begins to get a bit repetitive by the seventh cut, the wondrous "Cry of the Black Birds".

Amon Amarth are masters of Viking metal, a field that is getting more and more crowded.  With Oden On Our Side will easily beat the pretenders to the throne back handily.