''Twilight of the Thunder God'' is the seventh studio album by the 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 heavine ...

band Amon Amarth. ''Twilight of the Thunder God'' was released in September 2008. The album's name and title track refer to

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

's slaying of the Midgard Serpent

Jörmungandr In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr ( non, Jǫrmungandr, lit=the Vast gand, see Etymology), also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent ( non, Miðgarðsormr), is an unfathomably large sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encir ...

Background

In anticipation of this album, there was a series of six

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded i ...

-format studio diaries which displayed the recording process of this album in the studio. The first focused on Fredrik Andersson recording the drums. The second vlog focused on Olavi Mikkonen recording the rhythm guitar position. The third vlog focused on Ted Lundström recording bass guitar and band members preparing food. The fourth episode focused on Johan Hegg recording vocals. The fifth video was Johan Söderberg performing and recording guitar solos. The final vlog featured Olavi Mikkonen and Ted Lundström packing up the studio, as well as an album preview. A series of 8-page comics were made during the production of the album, eponymously entitled "Twilight of the Thunder God", released in magazines throughout Europe. On 27 June 2008, the title of this album was announced. ''Twilight of the Thunder God'' features several guest appearances featuring Entombed vocalist Lars-Göran Petrov on "Guardians of Asgaard",

Children of Bodom Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Sepp ...

and

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

guitarist

Roope Latvala Roope Juhani Latvala (born 25 June 1970) is a Finnish guitarist, best known as the former rhythm guitarist for the band Children of Bodom from 2003 to 2015 and the co-lead electric guitarist for Sinergy. He was also one of the founding members ...

who contributes a

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...

on the track "Twilight of the Thunder God", and Finnish cello metal band

Apocalyptica Apocalyptica is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Helsinki, formed in 1993. The band is composed of classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso, and jazz drummer Mikko Sirén. Originally a classical- ...

guesting on "Live for the Kill". Approximately a month later on 25 July 2008, the album artwork was revealed, featuring

, the Norse God of Thunder, in battle with

. On 27 August 2008, Amon Amarth released the information that they had recently finished work on a video clip for the title track of the album. The video clip was shot in

Jomsborg Jomsborg or Jómsborg (german: Jomsburg) was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (medieval Wendland, modern Pomerania), that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Jom ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The band notes that while they were there, a heavy storm came through the town, resulting in the roughest conditions the band has ever shot a music video in.

Reception

The album debuted at number 50 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and debuted at number 11 on the Swedish album charts. This makes the band's first album to chart on the top 200, and also the band's highest chart debut in their native country of Sweden, debuting 10 places higher than their previous release, '' With Oden on Our Side''. Initial critical response to ''Twilight of the Thunder God'' was positive. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 80, based on 5 reviews. The album was ranked number six on

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 available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

's Top 50 Albums of 2008.

Legacy

Swedish heavy metal band

Sabaton A sabaton or solleret is part of a knight's body armor that covers the foot. History Fourteenth and fifteenth century sabatons typically end in a tapered point well past the actual toes of the wearer's foot, following fashionable shoe shapes ...

covered "Twilight of the Thunder God" as a bonus track on various renditions of their 2012 album '' Carolus Rex''. In 2013,

Corvus Corax The common raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. It is a raven known by many names at the subspecies level; there are at least e ...

released a cover of "Twilight of the Thunder God" on their album '' Gimlie'' In 2017, Swiss metal band Rage of Light released a cover version of "Twilight of the Thunder God". In 2021, Feuerschwanz released a cover of "Twilight of the Thunder God" on the Deluxe Edition of their album ''Memento Mori''.

Track listing

Personnel

Band members

*Johan Hegg −

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

*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 featu ...

*Johan Söderberg − rhythm guitar *Ted Lundström − bass *Fredrik Andersson − drums

Guest musicians

* Lars-Göran Petrov ( Entombed) − vocals on "Guardians of Asgaard" *

(

) − guitar solo on "Twilight of the Thunder God" *

−

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

s on "Live for the Kill" *Ronny Milianowicz (ex-

Sinergy Sinergy was a Finnish/Swedish heavy metal band started in 1997 by American musician Kimberly Goss. The idea for a "balls-out female-fronted metal band" was first formed when Kimberly Goss of Dimmu Borgir met Jesper Strömblad of In Flames w ...

) –

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

vocals

Credits

*Tom Thiel − album artworkThe Story Behind Metal's Greatest Album Covers; This Month: Amon Amarth's 'Twilight of the Thunder God', ''

Revolver Magazine ''Revolver'' is a heavy metal music and hard rock magazine, published in North America. It has been in print since 2000, and is about both established acts and up-and-comers in heavy music. In the fall of 2017, ''Revolver'' underwent a brand re ...

'', May 2009, Page 82 *Peter Damin − drum technician

Release history

References

{{Authority control Amon Amarth albums Metal Blade Records albums 2008 albums Albums produced by Jens Bogren