Swedish viking metallers Amon Amarth recently put out their latest album “Deceiver Of The God’s” which has been received well by the fans and critics alike. I spoke to drummer Fredrik Andersson during their trek through the US leg of their tour to discuss the new album. Unfortunately our interview was cut short midway due to some problem with the phone line connection but we did manage to get a good chunk down for you so here is what we did get.
Andrew: OK so let’s get right to it, you guys have just released your latest album “Deceiver of the gods”, tell us a bit about the album and the story behind the music and lyrics?
Fredrik: Well it’s the usual stuff, 10 new songs. We tried to write a more aggressive album this time, we went with a little more aggressive approach on the album. Deceiver Of The God’s character Loki from Norse mythology who hates the god’s, so that’s what the album’s about.
Andrew: Messiah Marcolin (ex-Candlemass singer) does a guest spot on one of the tracks, how did this come about?
Fredrik: I think it was our singer who met him a couple of years ago for the first time and they hung out and he came to one of our shows in Stockholm and we hung out on the bus drinking beer until late in the morning and then started talking about it there. And when we wrote the song we thought it would be a cool idea to try to have him on that song so we called him and asked him if he wanted to do it and he was interested so that’s how that happened.
Andrew: Are you guys fans of Candlemass at all?
Fredrik: Yeah we are all big fans of Candlemass, we were really glad to have him in the studio. We were like 5 fanboys smiling when we heard him singing on the music, it was very cool to hear that.
Andrew: You worked with Andy Sneap as well who has obviously worked with big bands like Megadeth and Arch Enemy, what was it like working with him on this album?
Fredrik: It was way more relaxed than we expected I guess. We met him before and had a chat with him, we knew he was a cool person. But I think Jens Bogren who we recorded with on the last album, he’s a very 9 to 5 kind of guy, it was very strict everyday. Far from when I showed up to the studio everything was way more relaxed, we started recording sometime afternoon and just kept on going for as long as we felt like it, sometimes to 3 in the morning or sometimes we just stopped and went to the pub and had a couple of beers instead. Sometimes we went to the pub and came back and went recording afterwards so it was a more relaxed atmoshphere and I think that was a lot better actually. It takes the pressure away from the actual stress that comes with the recording where you have to perform 100 times all the time. Everyone was cool and relaxed about it, it’s much easier to work like that.
Andrew: Did he have much effect on the final outcome of some of the songs that appeared on the album?
Fredrik: Most of the songs were written already when we entered the studio so we didn’t change very much in the studio. But maybe in terms with the approach we had to the recording we decided to make it more old school and not as clinical like some of the newer production and in combination with the relaxed approach it helped make everything less strict. We allowed for playing around a little bit and also having fun.
Andrew: Is the recording and writing process usually the same on previous albums or do you usually change things from album to album?
Fredrik: Well the writing process is pretty much the same, I guess like we’ve done in the past. The main music writers, the guitar players Olavi and Johan write most of the riffs at home and bring it to the rehearsal, sometimes they have full ideas on the whole song or sometimes they have just part of the song and we just work from there. Everybody tries to contribute as much as possible, come with ideas and so on. And in the studio, we pretty much did the same as the last album this time, when we tracked the drums everybody is playing together in the same room and kinda have a natural rehearsal space feeling or live feeling to it. And after the drums are done we are just tracking guitars and bass and vocals.
Andrew: The album seems to be doing really well, it’s been in the charts all over in the US and Europe so it’s obviously been received really well. You guys have been around for quite a while now and the 20th anniversary of your first demo is actually this year, did you ever think the band would get as far as it’s come now?
Fredrik: I don’t think there was ever really a goal to become a big band or anything like that. We were just playing and having fun and touring and it just kinda snowballed. We were doing one tour for the first album then two tours for the 2nd and then keep on going more and more. Our success didn’t come until very late in our career so it’s just feeling very natural. I don’t think anyone really expected from the beginning that we would have the music as our main income. Since it’s been growing since day one it’s just been coming naturally to us so we haven’t really reflected much over it either. I think we are amazed that we are here today, just thankful and take it day by day I guess.
And it was at that point the line dropped out…
