Amon Amarth bring a new sense of drama and destruction to the world of heavy music

For the last two decades Amon Amarth have stood true as being one of metal’s most known and renowned acts. Forming in 1992 and unintentionally starting a genre of ‘Viking Metal’ (although, the band doesn’t necessarily agree with that term,) the Swedish juggernauts have now gone on to release 10 studio albums of their unique and technical brand of heavy metal. Most recently, the bands first ever concept album, Jomsviking.
As the bands’ founding member and guitarist Olavi Mikkonen explains, the writing process of Jomsviking was “a little bit different.”
“I think the recording itself was pretty similar to what we have always done; the writing was a little bit different. Because it was a themed album, we knew the story and we kind of knew all the lyrics so we had to write the music to match the lyrics, which was really fun to do,” Mikkonen says.
“We were not always together when we were writing, but we do have these writing sessions where we all get together and write for a week or so and then we separate for a point,” he continues. “During the time of separation when we were all working individually, we were all still sharing ideas. We have always worked together, it doesn’t matter which album it is. That’s the best way to make albums.”
Although writing a concept album was something Amon Amarth enjoyed doing, Mikkonen expanded on their material that is currently in the works and how it doesn’t quite follow a specific theme.
“If we come across the right idea we would love to do it again. You don’t make a concept album for no reason; you need to have the idea first,” he says. “The next album that we’re working on now won’t be a concept album, mainly because I don’t think we had an idea that we wanted to do. It was a really fun approach and I would love to do it again, but just not this time around.
“During the festivals last summer, I was writing behind the scenes, I was jamming all these ideas I had. When we stopped touring in early September, I wrote two song ideas and then had a couple of months off and now we have started to write some more stuff… But that [new music] might take a while. The fans won’t hear any of it until at least mid 2019.”
Now Amon Amarth will be taking their revered live show to the stage at this year’s inaugural Download Festival.
“It will actually be the first time we have played any of Jomsviking in Australia, but it will be the last few shows of that tour cycle so we will be playing a bunch of songs off that album,” he says.
“It will be awesome to get back on the road and we can’t wait to get back to Australia because we haven’t been there since Soundwave a few years ago. It’s exciting; it’s always exciting to be part of something that is new. It’s going to be fun and we will see you there!”
When & Where: Download Festival @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne – March 24 2018.
Visit www.downloadfestival.com.au/ for more info.
Written by Alex Callan