Unleashed - Odalheim

Published April 23 2012

*=Staff's pick	Fimbulwinter* Odalheim White Christ The Hour Of Defeat Gathering The Battalions Vinland* Rise Of The Maya Warriors By Celtic And British Shores The Soil Of Our Fathers Germania The Great Battle Of Odalheim

Genre	Death Metal	Johnny Hedlund	Vocals
Tracks	11	Tomas Olsson	Guitar
Running time	43 Min.	Fredrik Folkare	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Johnny Hedlund	Bass
Release	20 April 2012	Anders Schultz	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Fredrik Folkare
Similar artists	Amon Amarth

Odalheim is the eleventh album from Swedish death metal band Unleashed. It is a concept album following up the story from the preceding album, As Yggdrasil Trembles, about the aftermath of the end of the world and the building of the new world, Odalheim.

The songs are what you would expect; focused around pretty simple choruses and with the usual lyrical themes - "We are the warriors of Midgard", "Raise your hammers", "Ride into battle" etcetera. The first track, Fimbulwinter, stands out with riffs that sound a lot more black metal than we're used to, influences that can be heard throughout the album.

One song that stands out is Rise Of The Maya Warriors - not because it's musically deviant but it feels really, really strange to hear Johnny growling things like "Sierra Madre Occidental" and "Central America arise!".

Odalheim isn't a bad album but it fails to capture my interest. There are barely any memorable riffs, the guitar solos are nothing special, Johnny's singing is boring and the drumming sounds a little lazy at times. While I don't suffer when listening to the album, there isn't really anything special about it. The second I turn it off, it's out of my mind. Then again, Unleashed has never been my favourite band from the Swedish death metal scene although the first two albums are pretty good. If you really like them, or stuff like Amon Amarth, maybe you should give this album a chance and make up your own opinion.

See also review of: As Yggdrasil Trembles , Hell's Unleashed

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
4	3	5	4	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Bjorn