Amon Amarth

After dropping the name Scum and emerging as Amon Amarth in 1992, the Swedish horde from Stockholm have been on a steady climb in the metal world ever since. Being dubbed as Viking Metal for its fascination with Vikings and 13th Century pre-Christian Norse mythology, Amon Amarth create original, aggressive-yet-melodic death metal like no other band.

With its first full-length release, "Once Sent From The Golden Hall" in 1998, Amon Amarth's brand of metal set them apart from their Swedish death metal brethren such as Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed.

With last year’s release, "Twilight of the Thunder God," the band has reached an unprecedented level of popularity for such an extreme metal band.

Goliath-like frontman Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Soderberg, bassist Ted Lundstrom and drummer Fredrik Andersson, have paid their dues and are now reaping the recognition they so deserve.

Speaking by e-mail before the band embarks on its European tour, Johan Hegg talked about the upcoming tour, his distinct growl-vocal technique and why he can't wait to get out and perform.

Metal Mayhem: Tell me about the spectacular package with Entombed, Evile and yourselves on the upcoming European tour.
Johan Hegg: Yeah, I think it’s a fucking awesome package. Entombed is of course a legendary band and Evile is a very promising and interesting UK band. I think it’s going to be a great tour!

MM: LG Petrov sang on "Guardians of Asgaard" on your latest CD, now Entombed will be on the European tour with you. Will LG be singing with you onstage nightly on that song?
JH: We’ve talked to him about it, but of course it’s not the reason Entombed are on the tour. At the end of the day, it depends on if he’s up for it or not. I mean, I’m sure he would like to kick back with a few cold ones after their set, so we’ll see.

MM: The last date of your Scandinavian tour is in Stockholm. What type of feeling do you get playing to the hometown crowd? Do you ever get nervous?
JH: I don’t think any of us really get nervous anymore, but playing the hometown is a bit special. At least I know I get a little bit nervous before playing Stockholm. But on the other hand, it’s just a show, so that “nervousness” usually goes away as soon as we enter the stage.

MM: With Amon Amarth's Viking theme and Norse mythology lyrical content, how do you keep things fresh without running out of ideas for songs?
JH: I haven’t really felt that I’m running out of ideas yet, but it is easy to get stuck repeating yourself anyhow. I try to add a lot of other elements into the theme every now and then, using the history and mythology as a backdrop or metaphor for more philosophical and temporary ideas I want to discuss. I guess you never know what will happen in the future, but right now I don’t see any limits to the Viking theme. There are a lot of historical and mythological topics I haven’t used yet.

MM: Your brutal growl-vocals mixed with melodic heavy metal are the perfect match, how did the band come up with such a musical mixture?
JH: It wasn’t like we planned it really. When we started out we had a more traditional Death Metal sound with growl-vocals, although we had some melodies and heavy metal influences in there, but soon we started writing stuff with more melodies and guitar harmonies, moving more towards a Death/Heavy Metal style of music. But we’ve kept the brutality of the vocals although they have evolved during the years as well.