AMON AMARTH Guitarist Says Band's Newer Songs Are Getting Better Audience Reaction Than Older Material

Canal Metal conducted an interview with guitarist Johan Söderberg and drummer Jocke Wallgren of Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH at the tenth edition of the Alcatraz Hard Rock & Metal Festival, which was held August 11-13 in Kortrijk, Belgium. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about AMON AMARTH's steady rise in popularity over the course of band's two-and-a-half-decade career, Johan said: "I think that's very good for us, because it's not the old material people wanna hear. For us, it's always they wanna hear the new stuff, and the new stuff becomes more popular for each album. And I think it's great, to have it like that, instead of just going around and it's only the old songs people wanna hear. For us as musicians, it's much more fun to play the new stuff. And to see that that gets a better reaction is also very rewarding."

According to Söderberg, at least part of the reason the new AMON AMARTH music is getting such a positive response from the band's fans is the fact that "we get better and better [at] writing songs" every time the group puts out another album.

Johan also talked about AMON AMARTH's songwriting process, including the band's decision to make its latest album, 2016's "Jomsviking', its first concept effort.

"We usually have a bunch of ideas when we start a new album, and then we go for the one we feel the most gut feeling for," he said. "We just try to do what we wanna do and what feels right to us."

"Jomsviking" debuted at No. 19 on The Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 21,000 equivalent album units. The record tells a tragic tale of love and revenge, backed by the Swedes' trademark melodic, anthemic metal, which was produced and mixed once again by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT). The epic original story is set in the world of the Jomsvikings, the legendary order of mercenary Vikings.