Nearly thirty years into their career and Amon Amarth are at a peak that most bands can only dream about. They are about to embark on tours that include heavy metal royalty in the forms of Cannibal Corpse, Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy and a little band that you probably haven’t heard of… Slayer, who are doing their final lap to the U.S.
To cap all that off May 3rd sees the release of an album that could well be described (and has by HEAVY Mag as a masterpiece). HEAVY Mag sat down with Amon Amarth guitarist Olavi Mikkonen to find out a little more about Berserker.
“The last time with Johan we were working on a concept album so we had to write music for the lyrics because Johan had a who story completed,” he explains when we begin to talk about the fact that Berserker saw the music written before the lyrics something that Amon Amarth haven’t done for a while. “But this time we went back to what we had done previously or what we had done on the old albums. We kind of wrote the music first and then listened to the songs and the ideas and then wrote the words that fit the songs. So we kind of went back to what we did before.”
“I think that I certainly have to be in the right kind of mood,” Mikkonen says when I ask what inspires him to write. “I think it is all different because what I felt for this cycle was I realised that what really triggers me is when things are going really well for our band. Like when we finished the Jomsviking touring cycle, and it was such a successful cycle, it was the best tours that we had to date and also the vibe in the band has been amazing during that cycle. So the very next day when we got back from the last show I went into the studio and started writing songs. So when the band is going really well and there is that positive energy that really triggers me to write.”
You can listen to our full Amon Amarth interview on Spotify.
Berserker is out on May 3rd – available here: http://smarturl.it/AA.BERSERKER
