AMON AMARTH Frontman Says Touring With SLAYER Is 'A Great Opportunity'

Chad Bowar of About Heavy Metal recently conducted an interview with AMON AMARTH vocalist Johan Hegg. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

About Heavy Metal: AMON AMARTH's sound doesn't change dramatically from CD to CD, but what's different about "Twilight Of The Thunder God"?

Johan Hegg: The most significant difference on this album is that we lifted the melodies. They've always been there, but we lifted them in the production and gave them more space.

About Heavy Metal: With the success of your last CD, did you feel any added pressure going into the studio to record this one?

Johan Hegg: Not really. Obviously there's always pressure, but most of it comes from ourselves. It wasn't anything we couldn't handle. If anything, it was more inspiring than anything else.

About Heavy Metal: For the first time ever you had guest musicians. How did you hook up with L.G. Petrov from ENTOMBED?

Johan Hegg: L.G. was quite easy. We know him, and he lives here in Stockholm. We met him at a bar in Stockholm. We were drunk, of course. We asked him if he was willing to sing on the album, and he said sure. We went from there.

About Heavy Metal: The most unique guest musicians on the album are the metal cellists APOCALYPTICA. That's not something you'd expect from AMON AMARTH.

Johan Hegg: That's something different. It's an idea we've had for quite a while, to use cellos on one of our songs. We never really had the opportunity to actually try that idea out. Originally it wasn't really intended to be APOCALYPTICA, but we asked them if they were willing to do it. We felt that they understand metal more than a normal cellist. It was important for us to have someone who knew about the music we play so they could contribute with something special. Rather than telling somebody what to do, we wanted them to come up with their own ideas.

About Heavy Metal: What tours do you having coming up?

Johan Hegg: We're heading out next week on a headlining tour in the United States to support the album. We start in Anaheim, California on the second of October and finish in Springfield, Virginia on the 21st. Then we have a tour coming up in Europe. We're supporting SLAYER on the Unholy Alliance tour, which I'm sure is going to be a great show. We're really looking forward to that. SLAYER are legends, and it is a great opportunity for us to be playing with them.

About Heavy Metal: Do you have any concerns about SLAYER's crowd, which has known to be a bit rough on opening acts?

Johan Hegg: If we didn't believe that we could contribute to this tour, we wouldn't be on the tour. We wouldn't have said yes. We're confident that we have something to bring to the package, and I think that it's a great opportunity to present our stuff to a wider audience. If anything, I think our music may suit the tour package a bit better than TRIVIUM and MASTODON, but that's speculating. You never know what's going to happen. I think it's a great bill and we'll have a good tour with SLAYER and those guys.

Read the entire interview from About Heavy Metal.