ELIZE RYD: AMARANTHE's Upcoming Album Will Feature 'Back-To-The-Roots Gothenburg Metal Sound'

In a new interview with Finland's Chaoszine, AMARANTHE singer Elize Ryd spoke about a possible follow-up to the band's latest album, "The Catalyst", which came out in February 2024. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "We have booked a drum recording with [longtime collaborator, Danish producer] Jacob Hansen in two and a half weeks from now. So it means we will start the recording of the upcoming album, and like always, you start with the drums, and then the rest of the instruments and the vocals. And I am not sure when we will be ready, but it is in the making, and we hope... We think it's gonna be awesome."

Regarding the musical direction of the new AMARANTHE material, Elize said: "This will be the second album with Mikael Sehlin [who joined the band in 2023] on the growls. Yeah, it's been three years since 'The Catalyst' was released, which feels, to me, insane. I can't believe it's been three years already. But it was a very different kind of album, like we did, actually, for a couple of years now. A couple of albums we have experimented a lot. And if I can say anything about the upcoming album, it's a little bit back-to-the-roots kind of Gothenburg metal sound. A lot of those extraordinary 'Gothenburg sound' riffs which we all love. Yeah, I hope it's gonna be as we imagine in our minds, at least. But most of it is done, so we can already say what kind of direction it will be going to. And we have Mikael on the growls, which is great."

On the topic of how Mikael joined AMARANTHE, Elize said: "It is actually quite funny because we toured with [Mikael's previous band] ENGEL back in 2015. If I don't remember wrong, we did a European tour and a U.S tour. Also SANTA CRUZ was on that tour — funnily enough, a Finnish band. And that's when I first got to know Mikael, but he's been, of course, in the Swedish music scene for a long time. [AMARANTHE guitarist] Olof [Mörck] reached out to him and asked if he would like to put some growls on a couple of demos before we recorded 'The Catalyst' album. And he said 'yes', and it sounded awesome, because, yeah, he is like [former AMARANTHE vocalist] Henrik [Englund Wilhelmsson] — they have very similar styles in growling. And we knew he could do all the old songs and new songs. And he's been doing great so far, and we're very happy with him. And I know the fans are too. So, yeah, we look forward. But, yeah, that's how it worked out. I guess it's the same in Finland — you know people. It's not so big world, what we do. Yeah, so he was a great fit, and luckily he had the opportunity to join as well."

In February 2026, AMARANTHE released the official music video for its brand new single, "Chaos Theory". The clip was directed by Jens De Vos of Belgium's Panda Productions. The song was mixed and mastered by AMARANTHE's longtime collaborator, Danish producer Jacob Hansen.

Prior to "Chaos Theory"'s release, AMARANTHE had been performing the song live during the band's European "Arcane Dimensions Tour" with EPICA.

Earlier this year, Mörck spoke to MikeP of TotalRock's "The Autopsy" radio show about what Sehlin has added to AMARANTHE's sound. Olof said: "Obviously, he's one sixth of AMARANTHE, and as soon as you change a member, it's gonna change the flavor of things. And I'm not saying that it changes stuff dramatically, because at the end of the day, me and Elize, we write all music and I do most of the growl writing, basically. So I'm gonna do it in a similar way, as before, but I'm still gonna base it upon what Mikael is good at. And Mikael adds a lot of his own flavor to it also. He gets my ideas… For 'Chaos Theory', this new song, for example, he listens to my ideas and then he just spits out, 'This is what I think about this.' And I didn't change a thing from his ideas. But it was the same thing when [male clean vocalist] Nils [Molin] joined the band [in 2017]. It radically changed how the band sounded like because he has a very different kind of male voice and really took it to the next level. So, these changes can really affect things. And it's been really exciting with Mikael so far."

Formed in 2008, AMARANTHE have always walked their own path from the start. With absurdly catchy and crushing pop-metal anthems and euphoric live performances all over the globe, their impact on the scene has been immediate. Their latest album, "The Catalyst" once again delivered the sharpest, cutting edges of melodic metal and electronic rock and with no less than three vocalists on stage and over one billion accumulated streams and 500,000 sold units worldwide, AMARANTHE have long proven that they're masters of their genre.

Led by the endlessly ingenious songwriting of guitarist Mörck and powerhouse vocalist Ryd, AMARANTHE has spent nearly two decades establishing itself as a formidable, positive and fervently melodic force for metallic good. From their explosive self-titled debut in 2011 to the more sophisticated, streamlined likes of 2014's "Massive Addictive" and its immaculate follow-up "Maximalism" (2016),AMARANTHE have masterfully blurred the lines between melodic metal, crushing brutality, cinematic sweep and futuristic sparkle.

"The Catalyst" was the most conceptually coherent piece of work in AMARANTHE's storied history. Dedicated to notions of transformation and revelation, it delved deeper than any previous album.