AMON AMARTH Shares Video Recap Of Surprise Performance At This Year's WACKEN OPEN AIR Festival

Swedish melodic death metallers AMON AMARTH played a surprise set at this year's Wacken Open Air festival on August 4 in Wacken, Germany. An official video recap of the performance is available below.

In a recent interview with Ireland's Overdrive, AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Makkonen spoke about the surprise set, saying: "We knew about it for about six months. And you know what? It was kept as a pretty solid secret for the best part of five and a half months or so. Which is not bad, considering how many people are involved in events like that."

According to Makkonen, the stripped-down performance was "more stressful" than a regular AMON AMARTH show because "there is a lot of pyro and lights that hides me [at a proper AMON AMARTH gig] if I want to be hidden for a while. But this was just us and the instruments and it was an intense feeling that so many eyes were on us in the sunlight."

He continued: "The original plan was that we wanted to play the smallest stage they had but there was a lot of concern for the safety of people, so it was decided that would put a small stage in the middle of the main two stages in the arena. It was a really awesome experience and we all had such a good time. We really didn't know how people were going to react but now looking back… it was incredible."

A few days before AMON AMARTH's appearance at Wacken Open Air, the Swedish death metallers teased the show as an appearance from a band called GUARDIANS OF ASGAARD, which, they said, would make "a brief appearance at Wacken on Thursday to play some of your favorite AMON AMARTH hits."

Wacken Open Air takes place annually in the village of Wacken, which has a population of just about 2,000.

Up to 85,000 people attend the event, which is 32 years old.

200 bands performed at this year's Wacken Open Air, including headliners SLIPKNOT, POWERWOLF and JUDAS PRIEST.

Wacken Open Air was forced to take a break for two years due to coronavirus restrictions.

AMON AMARTH has just released its twelfth studio album, "The Great Heathen Army", via Metal Blade Records. The LP was recorded with acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap, who previously worked with the band on 2013's "Deceiver Of The Gods" and 2016's "Jomsviking" albums.

AMON AMARTH will team up with MACHINE HEAD for the "Vikings And Lionhearts" co-headlining European arena tour in September and October. A North American tour with CARCASS, OBITUARY and CATTLE DECAPITATION will follow in November and December.

AMON AMARTH stands tall and unassailable: 30 years into a career that has seen them evolve from humble origins in the dark, dank rehearsal rooms of their native Tumba to their current status as explosive festival headliners and one of the metal world's most widely adored bands.

Formed in 1992, AMON AMARTH became modern metal greats the hard way. Ruthlessly dedicated to creating new music and taking it out on the road, the Swedes steadily built a formidable reputation as a ferocious live band and, as the years passed, were increasingly recognized for their recorded achievements too. Since the dawn of the millennium, AMON AMARTH has been unstoppable.

Breakthrough releases like 2006's "With Oden On Our Side" and its now-legendary follow-up, 2008's "Twilight Of The Thunder God" further cemented their popularity throughout the metal world, while the band's stage show evolved with each successive tour, transforming into one of modern metal's truly great spectacles. "Berserker" brought with it an epic, history-making trek across North America with fellow Swedes ARCH ENEMY, AT THE GATES and GRAND MAGUS and saw multiple sell-outs.