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Pursuit of Vikings
An interview with Johan Hegg of Amon
Amarth
By Bob
Ignizio |
Lots of heavy metal bands use Viking imagery, but few
do it as well as Amon Amarth (Johan Hegg – vocals, Olli Mikkonen – guitar,
Johan Söderberg – guitar, Ted Lundström – bass, and Fredrik Andersson -
drums). For them, Viking lore isn’t just a gimmick, it’s a way of life.
This Swedish death metal band started their invasion of the metal scene in
1992. 1996 saw the release of Amon Amarth’s debut MCD ‘Sorrow Throughout
the NineWorlds, and with each subsequent release the band continued to hone
its craft. Now with the recent release of ‘Fate of Norns’, Amon Amarth seem
poised to break into the first rank of metal bands playing today. They’ve
already conquered Europe, where they’ll be headlining for the first time
this year, and it’s only a matter of time before America follows suit.
Utter Trash: You mention in the press info that I was
sent that the major difference between your past albums and this one is
"stronger songs". I'd have to agree, but how do you think that happened?
Were there things on the last album that you heard and consciously wanted to
change or improve on, or was it just lucky inspiration?
Johan Hegg: We’re always very spontaneous when we
write the material for a new album, but we’re also very picky with what
finally ends up on the album. For every release we discarded a lot of
material that we don’t think quite add up to our own demands on quality, but
for this album we pretty much were satisfied with all the material we had,
probably because we had more time to work on each song than is usually the
case. I also think that the fact that we chose to take a more melodic
direction on this album helped creating more depth in the material, which in
my opinion definitely added to a higher quality.
UT: Although you're typically considered a death metal
band, your sound to me seems very rooted in traditional metal bands like
Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Do you consider yourselves death metal, or
is that just a label other people have given you?
JH: We’ve always considered ourselves a Death Metal
band, ‘cause that’s where our roots are. Then again we’ve developed a lot
through the years and the stuff we wrote 12 years ago seems very distant
when you compare it to newer stuff. But still it’s very much a part of our
new material in many ways. I can’t see that we’d ever leave our Death Metal
heritage. That just wouldn’t be Amon Amarth.
UT: The title track of the new album, "Fate of Norns",
is actually quite moving [Ed: The song is about a Viking father whose young
son has died]. Was that inspired by any personal loss, or was it just a
universal topic that you knew people could relate to?
JH: The song “Fate of Norns” is very personal, though
in a metaphorical point of view. When I wrote the lyrics for that song I
was going through a rough period in my life.
UT: Another thing mentioned in your press info is that
people assume, because you're a Viking themed band, that you're racist. Is
that all the fault of Varg Vikernes? Although it's obviously not your
belief, why do you think some people have mixed pride in Viking heritage
with racism?
JH: No, not at all. Racists have been abusing our
ancestor’s history for ages. Here in Sweden we’ve had a bunch of
Skinhead-bands using the Viking history and symbols for their own political
agendas. Though not as common today, they were pretty popular about ten
years ago. We’ve never been a political band, and personally I can’t
understand the connection made between Vikings and racism. If anything,
Vikings were very open minded to other cultures and people. They traded with
people from Africa, the Middle East and even the Chinese, so historically I
fail to see the connection. I think it’s more a romantic notion of what
racists see as a “superior race”, and Vikings were the “giants” of their
time.
UT: Speaking of the Viking stuff, do you think you'll
continue using those themes for the foreseeable future, or would you like to
write a song or two that strays from that?
JH: I have written songs with different topics in the
past, and I probably will for the future as well, but the Viking theme is
our thing, and I don’t think we’ll ever abandon that completely.
UT: After years of hard work, you've reached the point
where you can now tour Europe as headliners and draw a good crowd. Now that
you've achieved that level of success, what are your goals for the future?
JH: Our immediate goals are to get bigger in the US
and also, hopefully, be able to go to Japan and South America to play.
UT: For your last album, you toured the U.S. three
different times. Do you plan on hitting America just as hard this time
around? Will you be headlining here, or doing support slots?
JH: We are working on getting over there, but at the
moment we don’t have any dates settled. Still, we do have some offers we’re
looking into. It all has to do with getting the best deal. It doesn’t
necessary has to be the best money, but we want to go on a tour where we
feel we can expose our band to as much people as possible.
UT: Your songs obviously would lend themselves well to
videos. Now that MTV2 is actually playing metal videos on 'Headbanger's
Ball', will you be doing any for this album?
JH: We’ve just completed a video for “Pursuit of
Vikings”, and as far as I know it’ll be available within a month or two.
UT: Considering how much you tour, you probably don't
get much free time. When you do get to relax, though, what sort of
interests do you have outside of music?
JH: In the summertime I watch a lot of soccer, hang
out with my friends, going to the pub. I also like watching movies and
playing computer games.
UT: What has been the coolest thing for you personally
that you've gotten out of being in Amon Amarth?
JH: To have had the opportunity to travel the world
and see so much of it, meeting so many cool people… That and a lot of free
beer…
UT: Anything I didn't ask about that you wanted to
say?
JH: Nah, I think that’s pretty much it. Cheers!
Visit the Amon Amarth
website.
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