Ex-AMON AMARTH Drummer FREDRIK ANDERSSON Says He Felt Frustrated As A Musician At The End Of His Time With The Band

In a new interview with "HRH Metal With Dan Chan", former AMON AMARTH drummer Fredrik Andersson spoke about his evolution as a musician. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When I was young, before, I guess, [the age of] 35, up until 35, I didn't think about anything. I just thought about playing shows and drink[ing] beer. I mean, there was nothing else back then. I'll be honest, I didn't care about anything else. And also because back then, there wasn't so much focus… I mean, obviously, being a drummer in a death metal band back then — you have to remember that the death metal scene was really small, so it was never on the map to even be recognized as the drummer in this band. That's something that came much later. I guess that came with… Even back then, when you had drummers like Sean Reinert [DEATH, CYNIC] or Gene Hoglan [DARK ANGEL, DEATH, TESTAMENT], sure, everybody in the scene knew that they were good, but it's not like they were in [drum] magazines and they weren't really recognized in the business like it is now… So, when that started taking off, I guess somewhere in the 2000s, or maybe a little bit before that — it's hard to think about what year exactly — it was frustrating for me playing drums in AMON AMARTH where I was… I wouldn't say I was held back, but since I didn't practice… We were in the rehearsal room, like, eight hours a day writing songs; we were there at least. And I wasn't really allowed to play on the drums, unless we were playing together. I can't just sit there and practice by myself because they're also in the room. So I never took the time for myself to stay extra long. I wanted to go home as well after those eight hours. So I didn't have, I guess, the energy and the passion to try to become better at my instrument back then. And that was frustrating when I noticed that all these other drummers started to get recognition also outside in the world. Like Daniel [Erlandsson] from ARCH ENEMY got a lot of recognition, and I wanted to compete with that; I wanted people to notice me as well. And I never really — at least I didn't get the backup from my bandmembers, because we always said in the band, like, 'It's not about one guy. We're a team. It's more about our group performance than the individual performance.' And I was, like, 'Yeah, okay, that's fine. But I want to evolve. I wanna try to become better at my instrument.' And I would say I was a little bit held back on that even during recording sessions. If I tried to do something more technical, they were, like, 'Oh don't try to make it too complicated or so complicated. Just play play something simpler.' And if you're not super confident in what you're trying to do and someone is telling you, 'Yeah, you should you should not do that,' you're, like, 'Okay.' In that sense, the last few years I was in AMON AMARTH was more frustrating as a musician and as a drummer. But that time was also when I started to actually become a better drummer, so I did get some lines in there, some parts that I'm really proud of."

Andersson was fired from AMON AMARTH in March 2015, just as the band was preparing to enter the studio to begin work on its 2016 album "Jomsviking". AMON AMARTH opted to enlist a session drummer, Tobias Gustafsson (VOMITORY, CUT UP),during the recording sessions for the disc, but hired Jocke Wallgren to join them on the road. Wallgren was named a permanent member of AMON AMARTH in September 2016.

In a 2016 interview with Brazil's "Wikimetal" podcast, AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Mikkonen stated about the band's split with Andersson: "I don't really wanna go into details regarding Fredrik, but, basically, we just separated. It's kind of like a marriage that doesn't work, and you get divorced. And that's kind of what happened to our band."

Andersson and two other former AMON AMARTH members, Niko Kaukinen on drums and Anders Biazzi (formerly Anders Hansson) on guitar, have joined forces in a new band called FIMBUL WINTER. The project, which sees Andersson playing lead guitar, is completed by Gustav Myrin on bass and Clint Williams on vocals.

FIMBUL WINTER made its first official live appearance on the Close-Up Båten cruise earlier in September. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

When FIMBUL WINTER's formation was first announced, the band said in a statement: "The focus for now is to play the old demo and classic songs we were all involved with in some way but we already have five original new songs written and demoed, some songs including riffs that were originally written for AMON AMARTH, which will be recorded and released at some point.

"The idea started with Niko wanting to play the demo 'The Arrival Of The Fimbul Winter', which he recorded over 30 years ago, at his 50th-birthday party. Fredrik thought it sounded like fun and offered to play the guitar. After that Anders was asked to join in and then with the addition of friends Linus Nirbrant on bass and Clint on vocals, a selected amount of friends got to experience this unique lineup and hear the tracks that once laid the foundation to what was to become. Having so much fun playing together and realizing all three former members had a ton of killer old-school material, the decision to keep on playing and to eventually record new songs was made."