Somewhere in the last decade, Amon Amarth sold out: that is the truth of it, to be blunt. The band that once celebrated tales of Norse Gods and epic battles on records like 2008’s ‘Twilight Of The Thunder God’ have slowly but surely stepped into the spotlight themselves— new single ‘We Rule the Waves’ sees their lyricism devolving to the level of “we are, we are vikings,” a low that once seemed unthinkable. ‘The Allfather Awakens’ isn’t necessarily their worst album, but it is the one that proves the Gjallarhorn has well-and-truly run dry.

This latest endeavour follows in the footsteps of ‘Berserker’ and ‘The Great Heathen Army,’ both of which dwell in the shadow of the group’s classic albums, in its attempts to simplify and streamline Amon Amarth’s grasp on Norse mythology: one look at the Dr Seuss-esque repetition of ‘Kvasir’s Blood’ makes the band’s level of operations quite clear. ‘The Allfather Awakens’ is content to coast on its viking aesthetic, an appeal that continues to make the band’s live show one of the most celebrated around— here in the studio, the halls of Asgard are as mundane as your local IKEA showroom. Whether they’re returning to stories they’ve already done to death on ‘Eight Legs of Thunder’ or recycling meaningless buzzwords on ‘Die with a War Cry,’ Hegg and company leave you without much meat to chew on.

To pump the brakes a little, let’s get a simple truth off the chest: vikings are still pretty cool, even after hearing about them for almost thirty years. If ‘The Allfather Awakens’ deserves any credit, it’s for the moments where the band attempt to break through their own formula and rediscover some of the fire from ‘Surtur Rising,’ brief as they may be. Opener ‘Gjallarhorn’ is a suitably grandiose note to kick things off on this time around, filling itself with enough triumphant lead guitar lines and urgent drum patterns to really earn the title of ‘melodic death metal’— the following ‘Eight Legs of Thunder’ is similarly dependable, even if neither song is fully able to escape the pitfalls that drag the rest of the record down. Elsewhere, you can count on the distinctly modern-sounding ‘Die with a War Cry’ to get you head banging, meat-headed as the cut may be.

It’s once the rumbling guitar chugs of ‘Kvasir’s Blood’ make their entrance that Amon Amarth sit back in their chairs, pour themselves some mead and let the album coast on autopilot: like ‘The Great Heathen Army’ before it, ‘The Allfather Awakens’ is a lethargic affair, indicative of how the band are thinking about Norse mythology these days. There’s very little separating the obvious songwriting of ‘Raven God’ or ‘Ascending Like an Eagle’ from the work of a band like Sabaton, who’ve been similarly criticised for their strict adherence to formulas and tropes— these songs may have a thin coat of death metal slapped over them, but it can hardly mask the mundanity that lies beneath. Somehow, Amon Amarth have managed to take some of the grandest stories ever told and make them dull, an achievement you almost have to congratulate them for.

The issue doesn’t necessarily lie in the band’s execution of their signature style— in terms of performance and production, this is a perfectly average showing from the group— but in their approach to songwriting of late (that being a decidedly corporate one). You can hear how the infectiously dark riffs that underpin ‘Oden’s Hunt’ crash headfirst into Hegg and company’s need for crowd engagement, ultimately drowning the song’s own lead work out under scores of monotonous gang vocals: it’s a similar story for ‘We Rule the Waves,’ which is allowed mere moments of swashbuckling fun before its dismally poor chorus barges back in once more. If Amon Amarth are taking any risks at all, it’s on the fully-acoustic ‘Upphaf,’ not that the song is much to write home about on its own.

‘The Allfather Awakens’ is not a disappointing release, because it was always going to end up this way— as a viking army charges into battle, Amon Amarth have thrown themselves into mediocrity. There are reminders of the larger-than-life melodic death metal spectacle the group used to put on here and there, but they’re scattered and brushed aside. For the most part, the Gods will not be pleased with this offering.