Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH have tapped British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, EXODUS, MACHINE HEAD, ARCH ENEMY, ACCEPT) to helm their next studio album, tentatively due in June 2013 via Metal Blade Records.

"We are still in the writing process, and are right now working on finishing the last pieces," AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Mikkonen tells Decibel magazine.

Regarding AMON AMARTH's decision to work with Sneap after utilizing Jens Bogren for the band's last three studio efforts (2006's "With Oden On Our Side", 2008's "Twilight Of The Thunder God" and 2011's "Surtur Rising"), Mikkonen said, "We were looking for a change, and Andy has been in our thoughts for some years now. After meeting with him, we felt a good connection. We think this is going to be a ripper."

AMON AMARTH's eighth studio album, "Surtur Rising", sold around 15,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 34 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, "Twilight of the Thunder God", opened with more than 11,000 copies back in 2008 to land at No. 48.

In a March 2011 interview on Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, AMON AMARTH vocalist Johan Hegg stated about working with Bogren on "Surtur Rising": "He's very meticulous, he's very thorough in his work, and he cares very much about the production and we felt that when we sat down and talked to him about some of the stuff that we wanted to develop and [achieve] with this recording, we felt that he really had good ideas and we felt that he had a commitment to the band and to the recording that was really something that we wanted to have other than the production. And he's just a great guy to work with; he's almost like a slavedriver when you're in the studio, but then again he gets results, and that's also what we need — somebody to kick us in the butt to get things the way they should be. [laughs]"