Amon Amarth

Surtur Rising (Metal Blade)

Double-decade Swedish vikings surf their ninth LP on Metal Blade into trademark waters with tales of Odin and the “Destroyer of the Universe,” Surtur (“I am pure and endless pain”). Full of old-school gallop and intelligible vox, the Digipak configuration bonuses a DVD plundering three unflagging hours of live footage from Germany, a run of nights covering peak LPs The Avenger (1999), The Crusher (2001), and Versus the World (2002).

***.5

This article appears in August 26 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.