AMON AMARTH Members Talk Recording Process For Upcoming Album 'The Allfather Awakens': 'It Was Very Smooth Sailing'

In a new interview with Steve Harkins of TalkShopLive, AMON AMARTH members Johan Hegg (vocals) and Ted Lundström (bass) spoke about the band's upcoming album "The Allfather Awakens", which will arrive on October 2 via Metal Blade Records.

As with previous records, Oden, the Norse "all father" who is a deity of war, wisdom, death, magic, and poetry, is the through-line in AMON AMARTH's lyrics and artwork. Once again, Oden is the band's inspiration, but "The Allfather Awakens" is not a concept album, rather a collection of historically inspired epic tales of conflict and sacrifice for a greater good.

Johan stated about the lyrical themes covered on "The Allfather Awakens" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " It's a themed album, I would say, where most of the songs, not all of the songs, but most of the songs, they are in one way or another connected to the Norse god Oden. And it's dipped into a lot of the mythological aspects of Oden from Norse mythology, but also some historical motifs as well, when it comes to Viking history and the Vikings' relations to that god, so to speak."

Asked if he and his bandmates were "enthralled with Viking folklore" when they were growing up, Johan said: "I was interested in Vikings from when I was very young. And I think it started in a really silly way in a way because I was interested in history in general. Obviously I knew about Vikings, but I didn't get interested in them until my sister actually wrote with pencil runes on her wall. And I was amazed. I was maybe, like, nine or 10, and I was amazed that we had this written language in Sweden from a thousand years ago. So that's kind of where my interest started, and then I found that this awesome comic book series called the Valhalla series by a Danish cartoonist. And, yeah, it just rolled on from there, basically."

Ted chimed in: "[Vikings were] an interest from a young age. And then when we started the band, when we [began working on music in] '92, we were just looking for our own little genre, to stand out from all the other bands in Stockholm and Sweden at the time. So we kind of put our interest from the Viking mythology into the band, which worked really good for us. There were a couple of bands before us that wrote about Vikings, but it was not too many, so it was kind of like a very small genre."

Hegg and Lundström also talked about AMON AMARTH's working relationship with Danish producer Jacob Hansen, who helmed "The Allfather Awakens". Johan said: "It was the first time we worked with him, and it was great. He's a good guy."

Ted added: "We went to [Jacob] on a previous tour we did in Europe. We had a day off in Denmark, so we called him up and said, 'We wanna come and have a chat and have a look at the studio.' So we got a good day talking to him about what we wanted to do and asking him what he could bring from his side to the new production, and everything felt really good. So he was very, very easy to work with. It was very smooth sailing, the whole recording session."

Asked if there were any moments when he wanted to get Jacob "in a headlock and tell him to leave", Johan said: "No, no, definitely not. I think maybe the other way around because I kept wanting to do other new takes and different versions of what I already did. But no, it was super smooth. I think he was very open to our ideas, I think, and what we wanted out of this recording. And then he came up, as far as I remember anyways, he came up with some cool ideas to enhance the whole production."

Regarding the songwriting process for "The Allfather Awakens", Ted said: "In the past, after we were finished with touring, we started the new album. But this time, since the touring was much longer than we anticipated in the beginning — we got a lot of cool tours we couldn't say no to — so we started, or mainly the guitar players, Olavi [Mikkonen] and Johan [Söderberg], they were starting riffing already and bouncing ideas on the tour, actually. So when we were finished touring for the last album, we already had a head start with a couple of good songs already in the backpack."

Johan added: "I also remember that for the first time... One of the things is that we haven't had a proper rehearsal room for over a decade. And I know especially Olavi misses the chance to work on his ideas in a rehearsal room environment. And I think one of the reasons why it worked really well to work on tour was that we could have a warm-up room with a setup with drums, like digital drums and small amplifiers, and they could jam out the songs in there, which I know that Olavi really likes to do. So I think that's also one of the reasons why it worked so well, that we had to write on tour, that we had that opportunity."

Hegg and Lundström confirmed that AMON AMARTH opted to record "The Allfather Awakens" by focusing on one track at a time as opposed to building the entire album by recording each instrument separately for all the songs that appear on the final LP.

"Yeah, that was one of the ideas we brought to Jacob, asking him if he was okay with doing [it] song by song," Ted explained. "And we also divided the whole album into two studio sessions. So we basically just had five or six songs each time, just to be able to focus 100 percent on each song. Because if you record 10 songs in a row, you really get like... It's so much riffs in your head, so it just gets less quality in a way. So we recorded like one song at the time with drums, bass, guitars, vocals, and it also gave Johan a lot of time to rest his voice until the next song was ready for vocals. So it was kind of a very relaxing and 100% focus on each song."

Added Johan: "And also the benefit is that you record the full song, and then you can leave it. And then at the end of the session, you come back and listen to the songs and see, 'All right, is there anything here we need to change? Is there anything that doesn't really work here? Would it be better to have this kind of drum fill instead of that?' And working the way we used to in the past, where you record all the drums for all the songs and then you break down the drums, then you can't change any drums, for instance, at the end of the recording session. So it is a good way to work because you can always do a bit of changes here and there… For the first session we had six songs, and we recorded those. And then we had to record a couple of more songs, but we had to write them first as well."

As mentioned above, AMON AMARTH took a new songwriting approach for "The Allfather Awakens", the band's 13th album since 1998's "Once Sent From The Golden Hall". The album came to life across two recording sessions, months apart, at producer Jacob Hansen's studio in Denmark. AMON AMARTH began writing songs while touring, rather than waiting until they were off the road. The first session was spring 2025; the final recording was completed in March 2026. The writing and recording process allowed the musicians to intensely focus on each track, resulting in an album where each song was treated as a single.

"We worked on one song at a time and made each song as good as possible," Olavi previously said. "Then we recorded one song at a time until each track was totally finished — drums, guitars, and vocals. Only then did we start on the next one."

Guitar-wise, AMON AMARTH opted for a slightly less modern approach sonically, moving away from 5150 amps and back to Marshalls. Music is written before lyrics, and often sets the tone for the words. The song that inspired the album title, "The Allfather Awakes", was the last written for the album. With Oden as the titular "Allfather", there is no shortage of historical influences heard across new songs like "Eight Legs Of Thunder", "Kvasir's Blood" and "Die With A War Cry", with the brutally beautiful lyrical rallying cry: "Facing destruction / Annihilation / Master your thoughts and mind." "The Allfather Awakens" cover art is a powerful portrait of Oden by Tom Thiel, who created seven of the quintet's album covers.

Over 30 years later, AMON AMARTH remains a band of brothers, and that loyalty and unity allow for harmony and a united front that conquers both the stage and record. Frontman Johann Hegg's powerfully rendered lyrics on "The Allfather Awakens" on "We Rule The Waves" sum up the band's unrelenting intent. "From cradle until the grave / As long as the sun sets in the west / We rule the waves / Our restless hearts / Have brought us far / As far as Vinland's shores / We've gone further / Than any man has ever gone before."

From AMON AMARTH's 1992 formation in Tumba, Sweden, to the worldwide fame they've found in the ensuing years, their lyrical, live and recorded musical legacy speaks for itself. Over the past few years the band have performed globally and alongside legendary acts such as SLAYER, IRON MAIDEN, SLIPKNOT and PANTERA, in addition to monumental takeovers of Los Angeles's The Forum and Denver's historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, to name a few. Across seas, AMON AMARTH have headlined multiple major rock and metal fests including an epic performance at Germany's Wacken Open Air in 2024 for 85,000. Elsewhere on European soil, the Viking lords have twice headlined the U.K.'s storied Bloodstock Open Air festival, made four appearances at Download (2008 - 2019),and performed at Summer Breeze eight times (2003 - 2024),six of them as headliner.

Their rapidly increasing sales and touring numbers, plus pre-release buzz to AMON AMARTH's 2026 North American tour with DETHKLOK and CASTLE RAT, has managed to garner mainstream success without sacrificing either of their constantly evolving creativity or heaviness. Audience demographics run the gamut from pre-teens to 60-somethings, an inclusive metal experience for those who appreciate epic positivity and powerfully inspirational lyrics.

Their cultural influence cannot be overstated. To wit: The Row. The consensus is that the legendary "Viking row" by audience members first began during the 2009 AMON AMARTH set at Bloodstock. Fans get on the ground and, in unison, imitate rowing an invisible longship in a powerfully unifying experience. With the 2022 release of the single and video "Put Your Back Into The Oar", Hegg said, "we thought it was a good idea to write a song about The Row! This one is for you, the fans, wherever you are–and may Oden guide you as you row to your destiny in uncharted seas!"

Over the years the phenomenon has spread to other artists' concerts and global events including 2026 World Cup audiences — but thanks to video footage, it's safe to say AMON AMARTH audiences began the now-iconic trend.

"The Allfather Awakens" is yet another step up, introducing previously untried efforts, an impressive and conscious musical and lyrical feat after three decades of band-dom.

This autumn, "The Allfather Awakens" will take physical form on stage as the band unveils an entirely new production inspired by Oden's legendary Golden Hall, transforming their iconic concert experience into a living extension of the new album.

"The Allfather Awakens" track listing:

01. Gjallarhorn
02. Eight Legs Of Thunder
03. Kvasir's Blood
04. We Rule The Waves
05. Upphaf
06. Die With A War Cry
07. Raven God
08. The Allfather Awakes
09. Oden's Hunt
10. Ascending Like An Eagle

AMON AMARTH is:

Johan Hegg - Vocals
Olavi Mikkonen - Guitar
Johan Söderberg - Guitar
Ted Lundström - Bass
Jocke Wallgren - Drums

Photo credit: Sylwia Makris and Christian Martin Weiss