Surtur Rising is the eighth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth. It is named after the mythical giant, Surtr. 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.[1]

Surtur Rising
Studio album by
Released29 March 2011 (2011-03-29)
StudioFascination Street Studio, Örebro, Sweden
GenreMelodic death metal
Length48:40
LabelMetal Blade, Sony Music
ProducerJens Bogren
Amon Amarth chronology
Twilight of the Thunder God
(2008)
Surtur Rising
(2011)
Deceiver of the Gods
(2013)

On 27 June 2011, the band released a music video, with footage taken during a live performance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and directed by David Brodsky, for the third track on the album, "Destroyer of the Universe".[2]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic82/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [4]
Blabbermouth.net          [5]
Metal Hammer       [6]
PopMatters          [7]
Revolver     [8]

Surtur Rising was released to universal acclaim. Germany's Metal Hammer chose the album as the album of the month in March 2011.[6]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Amon Amarth

Standard CD edition[4]
No.TitleLength
1."War of the Gods"4:33
2."Töck's Taunt – Loke's Treachery Part II[9]"5:58
3."Destroyer of the Universe"3:41
4."Slaves of Fear"4:25
5."Live Without Regrets"5:03
6."The Last Stand of Frej"5:37
7."For Victory or Death"4:30
8."Wrath of the Norsemen"3:44
9."A Beast Am I"5:14
10."Doom Over Dead Man"5:55
Total length:48:40
iTunes edition bonus track[10][11]
No.TitleLength
11."Aerials" (System of a Down cover)3:39
Japanese edition bonus track[10]
No.TitleLength
11."War Machine" (Kiss cover)3:35
Deluxe CD/DVD edition bonus tracks[12][10]
No.TitleLength
11."Balls to the Wall" (Accept Cover)5:22
12."War Machine" (Kiss cover)3:35
Digipak edition

The digipack edition includes a 10-track audio CD and a bonus Live DVD.[12]

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 it produces a song length of 5:55. An instrumental part 1:37 long is hidden in the pregap between tracks 9 and 10, which can only be heard by rewinding or playing straight through.[10]

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.[12]

Once Sent from the Golden Hall
No.TitleLength
1."Ride for Vengeance" 
2."The Dragon's Flight Across the Waves" 
3."Without Fear" 
4."Victorious March" 
5."Friends of the Suncross" 
6."Abandoned" 
7."Amon Amarth" 
8."Once Sent from the Golden Hall" 
The Avenger
No.TitleLength
1."Bleed for Ancient Gods" 
2."The Last with Pagan Blood" 
3."North Sea Storm" 
4."Avenger" 
5."God, His Son and Holy Whore" 
6."Metalwrath" 
7."Legend of a Banished Man" 
The Crusher
No.TitleLength
1."Bastards of a Lying Breed" 
2."Masters of War" 
3."The Sound of Eight Hooves" 
4."Risen from the Sea" 
5."As Long as the Raven Flies" 
6."A Fury Divine" 
7."Annihilation of Hammerfest" 
8."The Fall Through Ginnungagap" 
9."Releasing Surtur's Fire" 
Versus the World
No.TitleLength
1."Death in Fire" 
2."For the Stabwounds in Our Backs" 
3."Where Silent Gods Stand Guard" 
4."Versus the World" 
5."Across the Rainbow Bridge" 
6."Down the Slopes of Death" 
7."Thousand Years of Oppression" 
8."Bloodshed" 
9."...And Soon the World Will Cease to Be" 
Vinyl picture disc editions

A 2-sided vinyl LP picture disc is also available in the North American market with the following 10 tracks,[13] 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.[14]

Personnel

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Production and performance credits are adapted from the album liner notes.

Amon Amarth
Production
  • Jens Bogrenproduction, 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

Charts

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Chart (2011) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[15] 12
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[16] 45
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[17] 54
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[18] 19
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[19] 62
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[20] 16
French Albums (SNEP)[21] 146
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] 8
Irish Albums (IRMA)[23] 76
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[24] 8
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[25] 20
UK Albums (OCC)[26] 75
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[27] 10
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[28] 6
US Billboard 200[29] 34
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[30] 6
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[31] 1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[32] 7
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[33] 10

References

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  1. ^ Surtur Rising - Amon Amarth billboard.com. Retrieved on 18 April 2011.
  2. ^ "New Video: Amon Amarth: Destroyer of the Universe". Metal Call Out. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Surtur Rising". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  4. ^ a b Surtur Rising at AllMusic
  5. ^ Ryan Ogle, Surtur Rising Archived 2 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Blabbermouth.net
  6. ^ a b Surtur Rising Review on Metal Hammer Retrieved 25 March 2011 (German)
  7. ^ Surtur Rising Review on PopMatters Retrieved on 20 April 2018
  8. ^ Surtur Rising Review on Revolver Retrieved on 20 April 2018
  9. ^ Misprinted as Töcks's Taunt on most back covers.
  10. ^ a b c d "Surtur Rising: Additional Notes". Metal-archives.com. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  11. ^ "Surtur Rising". iTunes Preview. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  12. ^ a b c Fisher, Jason. Amon Amarth reveal Surtur Rising editions thegauntlet.com. 31 January 2011. Retrieved on 2011-03-08.
  13. ^ "Suture Rising North America Pre-Order". Metal Blade. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  14. ^ "Suture Rising Europe Pre-Order". Metal Blade. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  15. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising" (in German). Hung Medien.
  16. ^ "Ultratop.be – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  17. ^ "Ultratop.be – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising" (in French). Hung Medien.
  18. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard.
  19. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  20. ^ "Amon Amarth: Surtur Rising" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  21. ^ "Lescharts.com – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising". Hung Medien.
  22. ^ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  23. ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Amon Amarth". Hung Medien.
  24. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising". Hung Medien.
  25. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising". Hung Medien.
  26. ^ "Amon Amarth | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart.
  27. ^ April 2011/131/ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company.
  28. ^ "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company.
  29. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
  30. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard.
  31. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Top Hard Rock Albums)". Billboard.
  32. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard.
  33. ^ "Amon Amarth Chart History (Top Tastemaker Albums)". Billboard.