Twilight of the Thunder God by Amon Amarth

Twilight Of The Thunder God is the seventh full-length studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth. Twilight of the Thunder God was released in September, 2008 through Metal Blade Records. Twilight Of The Thunder God was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden during May–June, 2008. It was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered for Northern Music Co. In anticipation for this album, there was a series of studio diaries in the form of vlogs that discussed the recording process of Twilight Of The Thunder God in the studio. There were six vlogs recorded. The first focused on Fredrik Andersson recording drums. The second vlog focused on Olavi Mikkonen recording the rhythm guitar position. The third vlog focused on Ted Lundström recording bass guitars 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 and a sneak peek of the album was also unveiled. A series of 8-page comics were made during the production of the album, eponymously entitled Twilight Of The Thunder God and released in magazines throughout Europe. On June 27th, 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 BodomStone guitarist Roope Latvala who contributes a solo on the track "Twilight Of The Thunder God", and cello metal band Apocalyptica as a guest appearance on "Live for the Kill". Approximately a month later on July 25th, 2008 the album artwork was revealed. It features Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, in battle with Jörmungandr from the Ragnarok myth. On August 27th, 2008 Amon Amarth released information about having recently finished work on a video clip for "Twilight of the Thunder God". The video clip was shot in Jomsborg, Poland. 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. 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 (2006). Initial critical response to Twilight Of The Thunder God was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 80, based on 5 reviews. The album was ranked number six on Metal Hammer's Top 50 Albums of 2008. ℗ 2008 Metal Blade Records