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When it comes to Viking Metal — the union of death metal’s gruff vocals, frenzied guitar and hyperactive drumming with mythological lyrics and imagery — there aren’t many bands with more tenacity, fire and honesty than Tumba, Sweden’s Amon Amarth.
Rolling around Middle-Earth (the band is named in honour of Mount Doom in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy) since 1992, the fierce quintet has just released its seventh Metal Blade Records release, Twilight of the Thunder Gods. As guitarist Johan Söderberg relates, he’s more than pleased with the results.
“We achieved the goal of topping the last album. It’s definitely my favourite,” Söderberg says in a thick accent. “We always have the goal to top the last album. It’s never easy, but that’s what we’re striving for. We never want to try something very different. No big changes. We want to keep the sound as we’ve always had it, but perfect it more, and I think we’ve done that.”
Hearing a band trumpet their newest release as their best holds little weight these days. We’ve all read interviews in which bands initially claim their recent work to be light years beyond previous recordings, only to slash it down in retrospect. However, when coming from Amon Amarth, the statement means more.
“I haven’t always felt that way in the past, and I’ve let it be known,” says Söderberg. “When we did [2001’s] The Crusher, I liked the album before it [1999’s The Avenger] way more. I’m not afraid to admit that. I would rather be honest about an album so people know what to expect than deflate them when they realize it’s not a step above what you’ve already done. I’m not saying that The Crusher was bad, though. I just liked The Avenger more. I learned from that feeling.”
Like the plundering Vikings before them, Amon Amarth are sticking with a winning formula. Twilight of the Thunder Gods finds the band instigating few changes to the sound, style and approach that has defined their previous efforts. That said, the album does boast a few important tweaks that bolster its overall attack. Not only does guitarist Olavi Mikkonen pick up half of the writing (which previously fell solely on Söderberg), infusing a fresh dynamic, but Twilight is also their first album to feature outside talent. Entombed’s L.G. Petrov, Children of Bodom guitarist Roope Latvala and string quartet Apocalyptica all lend a hand. Describing the experience, Söderberg is brutally honest once again, admitting that some of his guests may have bested him at his own game.
“Having guests [was] the only thing we really did differently on this record,” he says. “We wanted to try that for a change, and it turned out well. I was excited to have L.G. on the album, but as a guitarist, Roope’s solo was the coolest thing to me. We knew it would be great to have his fierce guitar solos on the record. I had to make a new solo for the live show because it would suck to have it on a backing track instead of a live solo. I try to sound like him but it’s definitely simpler. I could never play like him.”
