284 753 fans
Put Your Back Into The Oar | Amon Amarth | 04:37 | |
Raise Your Horns | Amon Amarth | 04:23 | |
Guardians Of Asgaard | Amon Amarth | 04:23 | |
Shield Wall | Amon Amarth | 03:46 | |
Twilight Of The Thunder God | Amon Amarth | 04:08 | |
Raven's Flight | Amon Amarth | 05:20 | |
The Pursuit Of Vikings | Amon Amarth | 04:30 | |
Valkyria | Amon Amarth | 04:43 | |
Mjolner, Hammer of Thor | Amon Amarth | 04:42 | |
Fafner's Gold | Amon Amarth | 05:00 |
Heavy metal isnât just music: itâs a way of life. No current band embodies the spirit of metalâs immersive culture with more fervour and might than Amon Amarth: Swedenâs celebrated Viking overlords and undisputed modern masters of epic heavy metal. Today, Amon Amarth stand tall and unassailable: over 25 years into a career that has seen them evolve from humble origins in the dark, dank rehearsal rooms of their native Tumba to their current status as explosive festival headliners and one of the metal worldâs most widely adored bands. Their most recent album, 2015âs Jomsviking, hit the #1 spot in Germanyâs official album chart and swiftly became their most successful worldwide release to date. As a result, Amon Amarth are very much at the height of their powers as they prepare to return to action in 2019, with their biggest, boldest and most bombastic musical statement to date. Formed in 1992, Amon Amarth became modern metal greats the hard way. Ruthlessly dedicated to creating new music and taking it out on the road, the Swedes steadily built a formidable reputation as a ferocious live band and, as the years passed, were increasingly recognised for their recorded achievements too. Since the dawn of the millennium, Amon Amarth have been unstoppable. Breakthrough releases like 2006âs With Oden On Our Side and its now legendary follow-up, 2008âs Twilight Of The Thunder God, further cemented their popularity throughout the metal world, while the bandâs stage show evolved with each successive tour, transforming into one of modern metalâs truly great spectacles. All of this and more has been captured in the bandâs recent live DVD and documentary, The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm, which put a stylish seal on one of modern musicâs most unlikely success stories. Meanwhile, in 2019, Amon Amarth âcompleted by vocalist Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and drummer Jocke Wallgren -know that expectations for their next move are at an all-time high. The excellent news is that the bandâs 11th studio album, the aptly-named Berserker, is guaranteed to have all discerning metal fans punching the air with joy. Comprising 12 monstrous Viking metal anthems that bulge with irresistible melodic hooks, bursts of thrilling savagery and moments of spine-tingling dynamic drama, itâs the results of the huge surge of creativity and a collective desire to keep moving forward with no compromise. âThe previous album was a concept album but we didnât want to get into a situation where every album has to be a concept record, so this is different,â states Johan. âWe wanted to step away from that and look at being a little bit more diverse, with the lyrics and everything else. I got ideas from lots of different things,from history stuff and mythological sources. Sometimes you just get something in your head and there doesnât have to be a bigger meaning behind it âsometimes itâs just a great metal lyric that fits with a great metal song. And these are fucking great metal songs!â From the disarming melodrama and explosive riffing of opener Fafnerâs Gold and the brutish simplicity of the rampaging Crack The Sky to the epic fury of Ravenâs Flight and the grim, gritty storytelling of Ironside and Skoll and Hati, Berserkeris an album full of trademark Amon Amarth bluster and bite, but with every aspect of the bandâs sound somehow refined, sonically enhanced and made vastly more potent, both in terms of metal oomph and emotional power. Neatly summing up the spirit behind these exhilarating new songs is the albumâs semi-title track, The Berserker At Stamford Bridge: a visceral but vivid historical tale, recounting the Vikings last stand against the English army in 1066 and the mind-bending heroics of one axe- wielding warrior.â The Vikings were cut off from their supply ships, so they had to retreat over Stamford Bridge, with the whole English army hard on their heels,â Johan notes. âThe Vikings sent just one man out on the bridge to hold the whole English army back, about 15,000 men. So this guy, equipped with a Dane Axe, I think he killed between 40 and 70 people before they got him. And the only way they could get him was to send four guys onto the river on a raft, and they got him from beneath with spears! So itâs the perfect story for a great metal song.â Showcasing an undeniable and startling upgrade for every aspect of Amon Amarthâs iconic sound, Berserker was recorded in Los Angeles with renowned studio guru Jay Ruston (Anthrax/Stone Sour/Steel Panther) manning the controls. After recording several rounds of professional demos for the new songs (initially with fellow Swedish metal icon Peter TĂ€gtgren and then later with Ruston himself) the band crossed the Atlantic to make final recordings in LA, eager to take a fresh approach to the album-making process. âWorking with Jay was great,â Johan recalls. âThe studio was amazing, and Jayâs methodology was new to us -he suggested that we record one song at a time, so that you can go back and change things and then itâs easy because everything is already set up. It was interesting, and we had a great time.â Emboldened by their recent triumphs and unerring longevity, Amon Amarth return in 2019 with Odinâs breath billowing their sails with more strength than ever before. Encapsulating everything that fans love about the band while boldly stepping into new territory, Berserker is a career-best tour-de-force from 21st century metalâs most dedicated foot-soldiers. The march to glory continues!â For me, this is Amon Amarth 2.0.I think what weâve done here is give ourselves the space to explore other parts of our musicality and who we are as a band. If youâre content with where youâre at, whatâs the point of continuing? We always want to come up with new ideas and find new ways of doing things and to create bigger and better shows and really try to improve every aspect of what the band is. We want to try to keep growing and to do this for as long as we have the possibility to do so, because this is the best fucking job in the world.â