''Surtur Rising'' is the eighth studio album by Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Amon Amarth Amon Amarth () are a Swedish melodic death metal band from Tumba, Sweden, Tumba, formed in 1992. The band take its name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Their lyrics mostly deal with Viking myt ...

. It is named after the mythical giant,

Surtr In Norse mythology, Surtr (Old Norse "black"Orchard (1997:154). or more narrowly "swart",Simek (2007:303–304) Surtur in modern Icelandic language, Icelandic), also sometimes written Surt in English, is a jötunn; he is the greatest of the fire ...

. The album was released on 29 March 2011. The album debuted at number 34 on the American Billboard 200 chart as well as number 19 on the Canadian album charts. On 27 June 2011, the band released a music video, with footage taken during a live performance in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and directed by David Brodsky, for the third track on the album, "Destroyer of the Universe".

Reception

''Surtur Rising'' was released to universal acclaim. Germany's ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' chose the album as the album of the month in March 2011.

Track listing

; Digipak edition The digipack edition includes a 10-track audio CD and a bonus Live DVD. The length of the last track, "Doom over dead Man", is listed as 7:32 on the back of the album, but skipping to the track or

ripping Ripping is the extraction of digital content from a container, such as a CD, onto a new digital location. Originally, the term meant to rip music from Commodore 64 games. Later, the term was applied to ripping WAV or MP3 files from digital audio ...

it produces a song length of 5:56. An instrumental part 1:36 long is hidden in the pregap between tracks 9 and 10, which can only be heard by rewinding or playing straight through. ;Live DVD This DVD, included in the digipack and deluxe editions, contains over four hours of live concert footage filmed during the "Bloodshed Over Bochum" concert series in 2008 where Amon Amarth played the first four albums on four successive nights. ;Vinyl picture disc editions A 2-sided vinyl LP picture disc is also available in the North American market with the following 10 tracks, and the European market edition includes a 4-sided vinyl LP picture disc with the following 10 tracks and "Balls to the Wall" (Accept cover) bonus track, with the fourth side etched.

Personnel

Production and performance credits are adapted from the album liner notes. ;Amon Amarth * Johan Hegg –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Olavi Mikkonen –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Johan Söderberg –

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

* Ted Lundström –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Fredrik Andersson –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;Production *

Jens Bogren Jens Peter Daniel Bogren (born 13 November 1979) is a Swedish record producer, mixer and recording engineer specializing in heavy metal music. He has worked on albums by Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Sepultura, Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Katatonia, Bab ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, mixing, mastering * Urban Näsvall – drumtech * Martin Jacobsson – orchestral arrangements * Dark Passenger Orchestra – orchestra * Tom Thiel – cover artwork * Thomas Ewerhard – design, layout * Steve Brown – photos ;Guest musicians * Simon Solomon –

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

on "The last Stand of Frej" and "A Beast am I"

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Amon Amarth albums Metal Blade Records albums Albums produced by Jens Bogren