Amon Amarth
| Amon Amarth | |
|---|---|
 |
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 Amon Amarth at the Reload Festival 2017 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Melodic Death Metal |
| founding | 1992 |
| Website | http://www.amonamarth.com/ |
| Founding members | |
| Johan Hegg | |
| Anders Hansson (until 1998) | |
guitar |
Olavi Mikkonen |
| Ted Lundström | |
| Nico Kaukinen (until 1996) | |
| Current occupation | |
Singing, growling |
Johan Hegg |
guitar |
Johan Söderberg (since 1998) |
guitar |
Olavi Mikkonen |
bass |
Ted Lundström |
Drums |
Jocke Wallgren (since 2016) |
| former members | |
Drums |
Martin Lopez (1996-1998) |
Drums |
Fredrik Andersson (1998-2015) |
Drums |
Tobias Gustafsson (2015-2016) (studio drummer for "Jomsviking") |
Amon Amarth is a melodic death metal band from Tumba , a suburb of the Swedish capital Stockholm . It was formed in 1992 from the band Scum and is under contract with the US record label Metal Blade Records . Amon Amarth have released eleven studio albums to date. Her DVD Wrath of the Norsemen won gold in the US and Canada .
Band history
The roots of Amon Amarth will be founded in 1988 death metal band Scum ( Engl. For "scum"). The band included "Themgoroth" (later Dark Funeral ), Olavi Mikkonen and Ted Lundström (ex-Eternal Oath). The band recorded a demo that was never released due to the bad sound. After singer Johan Hegg joined the band in 1992, the band changed their name to Amon Amarth and turned to death metal . In 1994 the demo The Arrival of the Fimbul Winter was the band's first musical sign of life. Amon Amarth were signed to the Singapore- based company Pulverized Records .
"Eventually we got a contract with a record company from a country we didn't even know where it was."
The only release for Pulverized Records was the mini CD Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds , which was released in 1996. In the summer of 1996, drummer Nico Kaukinen was replaced by Martin Lopez. Amon Amarth were signed to Metal Blade Records . The band recorded their first album Once Sent from the Golden Hall in the renowned Sunlight Studio . Not satisfied with the sound, the album was mixed again in Peter Tägegren's Abyss Studio before it was released in 1998. Amon Amarth went on tour with Deicide , Six Feet Under and Brutal Truth . In the same year Anders Hansson and Martin Lopez left the band and were replaced by Johan Söderberg and Frederik Andersson (ex-A Canourous quintet). This was the last line-up change until Frederik Andersson left in 2015.
In 1999 the second album followed with The Avenger . Amon Amarth will play for the first time at the Wacken Open Air and the X-Mas Festivals '99 with Morbid Angel , Krisiun , Gorgoroth and God Dethroned . With The Crusher in 2001, the band further expanded their status. In August 2001 Amon Amarth played their first concert in the United States at the Milwaukee Metal Festival . The first headlining tours through the USA and Europe followed.
With the album Versus the World , released in 2002 , the band made their breakthrough. The German Metal Hammer named the album "Album of the Month". The song "Death in Fire" developed into a hit and the accompanying music video was broadcast regularly on VIVA PLUS . Through numerous other tours with Kreator , Nile , Destruction or Misery Index, the band consolidated their reputation as an excellent live band.
With the album Fate of Norns , released in 2004, Amon Amarth was able to build on this success. However, it was often criticized that the songs are similar due to the slower tempo. The German Rock Hard magazine voted the album “Album of the Month”. The performance at the Wacken Open Air became a highlight of the band's career. Even though the concert didn't start until two o'clock in the morning, around 30,000 fans stood in front of the stage. A tour with Impious and Disillusion followed before Amon Amarth played concerts in Mexico for the first time .
In May 2006 the triple DVD Wrath of the Norsemen was released. The package contains five complete concerts and spent six weeks in the German music DVD charts. In the USA and Canada the DVD was gold-plated. After that, the band played at various festivals, such as the Rock Hard Festival . The studio album With Oden on Our Side was released in September 2006 and reached number 21 in the German album charts. The following tour took the band across Europe together with Wintersun and Týr . In 2007 they toured with Dimmu Borgir and Engel on the "Invaluable Darkness" tour.
In May 2008 the songs for their seventh studio album Twilight of the Thunder God were recorded at Fascination Street Studio in Örebro , Sweden. This album entered the top 10 of the album charts in Germany straight away (6th place), making it the band's most successful to date.
The recording of Amon Amarth's eighth studio album Surtur Rising began on October 1, 2010. It was released on March 25, 2011 in the DACH region . The release tour took place from May 13th to 29th, 2011.
For the 20th anniversary, the band played a birthday tour in August 2012 through five cities in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. The band also performed again at the Wacken Open Air and the Summer Breeze . Amon Amarth then began work on a new album.
The ninth studio album by the band Deceiver of the Gods was released on June 21, 2013. The album cover was released on April 12 on Reddit . On April 13th, the band posted their first single on their website for streaming and free download. In early 2015, the band announced that they had split up with their drummer Frederik Andersson.
On January 25, 2016 Amon Amarth announced the release of their new album Jomsviking for March 25, 2016. At the same time, First Kill, a song from the new album was released, for which a music video was shot. Tobias Gustafsson from Vomitory was the drummer for the studio recordings and in the music video for First Kill . According to guitarist Johan Söderberg, this should not inherit drummer Frederik Andersson, who left the band at the beginning of 2015, as a permanent member. A short time later, the song At Dawn's First Light was also released with a music video. On March 22nd, Jocke Wallgren ( October Tide , Valkyrja ) was temporarily introduced as the new drummer. One week after the release, Jomsviking went straight to number 1 in the German album charts. In the same year, the band took Jocke Wallgren on as a regular drummer in the band.
style
music
Amon Amarth plays melodic Death Metal, many of the songs are based on the minor scales of the circle of fifths .
Texts and genre allocation
Amon Amarth cannot be clearly classified into a subgenre of metal . Musically, the band corresponds to Death Metal . Since the lyrics deal exclusively with topics from the Vikings and Norse mythology , the band is often assigned to the genre of Viking Metal . Against this assignment, however, speaks that this variety musically comes from Black Metal and not Death Metal. The band itself rejects the Viking Metal designation; Singer Johan Hegg stated in an interview:
“We play death metal. Our lyrics are about Vikings, so some people think we're a Viking metal band, but I have no idea what that is. "
Guitarist Olavi Mikkonen distances himself even more clearly:
“I mean, we never had to stick the Viking Metal etiquette to our chests. What for? What should Viking Metal actually be? Was there electricity back then that could be used to operate guitars? We're nothing more than a fucking death metal band and nothing more. Maybe our lyrics are a bit more about times gone by than other bands, but nothing more. When I see bands claim to be one of the very few honorable Viking Metal and then use cover art of Vikings with horned helmets, it's just ridiculous. "
Occasionally the songs have a deeper meaning than it appears at first glance. Especially in the early days, the musicians "still had the feeling of sacrificing everything and getting nothing back". Drummer Fredrik Andersson made this statement from his bandmates more concrete to Legacy magazine:
“We have seen a lot of frustrating things. Nevertheless, we never thought of giving up. Not even when the rehearsal room was stolen completely empty from us in our early days. "
This event and other strokes of fate inspired Johan Hegg when writing the lyrics for the song Versus the World , from the 2002 album of the same name. Metaphorically, he processes the setbacks in the early days and the iron will of Amon Amarth and weaves this into the plot of the lyrics. This becomes clear in the refrain:
"We've been battered and left for dead
We've been beaten and we have bled
But we always made it through - Versus the world"
"We were
beaten up and left to die We were beaten and we bled
But we always managed to get back on our feet - Against the rest of the world"
The song title Friends of the suncross (. English friends of the sun Cross ) aroused the "latent [n] allegation that Sweden would be racists and Nazis - the dedication of the new CD to those friends of the sun cross' [...] appears as the picture to fit ". According to the band, "[the] problem [...] is that Nazis, skins and all the racist idiots misuse symbols of the Viking Age for their own purposes". The band pointed out in the context that their former drummer was Indian and his replacement came from Paraguay. The fascists had "destroyed the values of the Viking Age, we are trying to bring back a little of them".
Instruments
On the first five albums up to With Oden on Our Side , the guitarists used guitars that were tuned down by five semitones. The lowest string is tuned to B (HEADf # h). This tuning was also used for the sixth studio album Twilight of the Thunder God , and for the three songs "Guardians of Asgaard", "No Fear for the Setting Sun" and "The Hero", the low B-string was added two semitones to A tuned down, so that the tuning is comparable to the dropped D tuning , but five semitones lower (AEADf # h). The bassist Ted Lundström uses, among other things, a five-string bass in standard tuning (HEADg) or a four-string bass in HEAD tuning.
The band name
The name Amon Amarth (in German : 'Schicksalsberg') comes from JRR Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings . In an interview, singer Johan Hegg stated:
“Ted [Lundström] suggested the band name. Don't ask me how he came up with it. Neither of us are huge Lord of the Rings fan, but the name sounded cool and the meaning is a killer. [...] The name symbolizes what we stand for. "
On the album Once Sent from the Golden Hall , which was released in 1998, the song "Amon Amarth" tells how five hundred warriors set out for the Mount of Fate, that is, Amon Amarth:
"Thunder breaks the silence
Of five hundred men assembled ashore
Gazing through the misty rain
At the mountain not a mile away
So dark and silent it stands there
The mighty Amon Amarth
Reaching for the cloudcloaked skies
So grim and fearful in might"
Band members
- Amon Amarth live at Rockharz 2019
Singer Johan Hegg
Guitarist Johan Söderberg
Guitarist Olavi Mikkonen
Bass player Ted Lundström
Drummer Jocke Wallgren
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 SE
|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
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| 1998 |
Once Sent from the Golden Hall Metal Blade |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: February 10, 1998
|
| 1999 |
The Avenger Metal Blade |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: September 2, 1999
|
| 2001 |
The Crusher Metal Blade |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: May 8, 2001
|
| 2002 |
Versus the World Metal Blade |
- | - | - | - | - | - |
First published: November 18, 2002
|
| 2004 |
Fate of Norns Metal Blade |
- |
DE31 (2 weeks) DE |
AT56 (2 weeks) AT |
- | - | - |
First published: September 6, 2004
|
| 2006 |
With Oden on Our Side Metal Blade |
SE21 (1 week) SE |
DE21 (4 weeks) DE |
AT27 (4 weeks) AT |
- | - | - |
First published: September 22, 2006
|
| 2008 |
Twilight of the Thunder God Metal Blade |
SE11 (4 weeks) SE |
DE6 (7 weeks) DE |
AT14 (5 weeks) AT |
CH21 (4 weeks) CH |
- |
US50 (4 weeks) US |
First published: September 17, 2008
|
| 2011 |
Surtur Rising Metal Blade |
SE8 (5 weeks) SE |
DE8 (11 weeks) DE |
AT12 (5 weeks) AT |
CH20 (5 weeks) CH |
UK75 (1 week) UK |
US34 (2 weeks) US |
First published: March 29, 2011
|
| 2013 |
Deceiver of the Gods Metal Blade |
SE9 (9 weeks) SE |
DE3 (9 weeks) DE |
AT7 (6 weeks) AT |
CH9 (8 weeks) CH |
UK67 (1 week) UK |
US19 (5 weeks) US |
First published: June 25, 2013
|
| 2016 |
Jomsviking Metal Blade |
SE5 (3 weeks) SE |
DE1  (14 weeks)DE |
AT1 (8 weeks) AT |
CH3 (6 weeks) CH |
UK30 (1 week) UK |
US19 (2 weeks) US |
First published: March 25, 2016
Sales: + 100,000 |
| 2019 |
Berserk Metal Blade |
SE5 (2 weeks) SE |
DE1 (14 weeks) DE |
AT2 (7 weeks) AT |
CH1 (8 weeks) CH |
UK25 (1 week) UK |
US47 (1 week) US |
First published: May 3, 2019
|
swell
- ↑ Eckart Maronde: Amon Amarth - Interview with Johan Hegg on "Twilight Of The Thunder God" . September 11, 2008. Accessed December 20, 2018.
- ↑ a b Amon Amarth Extends Contract With Metal Blade Records. . blabbermouth.net . February 8, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d Laut.de biography of Amon Amarth . laut.de. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e Biography ( Memento from February 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (via archive.org) In: amonamarth.com
- ↑ Amon Amarth: the new album is halfway done . metal-hammer.de. January 9, 2011. Accessed December 20, 2018.
- ↑ 20th year anniversary shows! ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: amonamarth.com , accessed April 14, 2013
- ↑ Wacken 2012: Saturday in pictures and videos. In: metal-hammer.de , accessed on April 14, 2013
- ↑ Amon Amarth - 'Deceiver of the Gods' album cover. In: reddit.com , accessed April 14, 2013
- ^ Deceiver of the Gods. In: amonamarth.com , accessed April 14, 2013
- ↑ stormbringer.at: AMON AMARTH - 'Deceiver Of The Gods' title track as FREE DOWNLOAD (accessed April 14, 2013)
- ↑ Drummer Fredrik Andersson leaves Amon Amarth. In: metal-hammer.de , accessed on March 19, 2015
- ↑ Amon Amarth: Video for 'First Kill', new album JOMSVIKING announced. In: metal-hammer.de , accessed on February 6, 2016
- ↑ Amon Amarth: Looking for a permanent drummer. In: rockhard.de , accessed on February 6, 2016
- ↑ Amon Amarth: Video for 'At Dawn's First Light'. In: metal-hammer.de , accessed on April 4, 2016
- ↑ http://www.metal-hammer.de/amon-amarth-neuer-schlagzeuger-vorektiven-600971/ (accessed on April 4, 2016)
- ↑ http://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Jocke_Wallgren/120801 (accessed April 4, 2016)
- ↑ Official German Charts April 2016 (accessed on April 3, 2016)
- ↑ Rock Hard Magazine (accessed October 5, 2016)
- ↑ a b Dawn: Amon Amarth Interview ( memento from January 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on July 1, 2013.
- ^ Volkmar Weber: Amon Amarth . legacy.de. August 7, 1999. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ↑ a b Ursula Kohl: Amon Amarth Interview / Report Vikings who drink beer and an insane bus driver . In: Pagan Fire - The Legacy Chronicles I (special issue), Devil.Inc, Saarbrücken 2007, p. 78.
- ↑ Versus The World lyrics . genius.com. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^ Robert Müller: Amon Amarth . From old times… . In: New Rock & Metal Hammer , No. 5, 1998, p. 62.
- ↑ Information from the band's MySpace blog from July 16, 2008. Cf. there the quote: “We tune down to B, and we use 013-062 strings. 3 of the new songs, Guardings of Asgaard, No Fear for the Setting Sun and The Hero we dropped down to A. / Olavi. "
- ↑ Amon Amarth lyrics . genius.com. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
