On May 1st, (Labour day here in Sweden) we enter Fascination Street Studio to start recording our seventh full-length album.
We have 10 killer songs, some classic Amon Amarth tunes, some really epic moments and some of the most brutal stuff we've ever written! We are confident that this will be our best and most diverse album to date! Jens Bogren will be producing the album, he produced With Oden On Our Side. We're looking forward to yet another successful collaboration.
We'll barricade ourselves for the next month and a half. The album will be recorded in the traditional way, starting with drums, followed by guitars, bass, and vocals.
There are plans for some cool guest appearance but nothing we can reveal just yet.
We will try our best to keep you updated with vlogs, photos and a studio diary. Provided that we can tear ourselves away from the PS3, wii and of course... a healthy serving of Swedish vodka.
In other news, we've added two UK shows this summer.
We're pleased to announce that we'll be appearing for the first time at this year's Download festival. We are scheduled to play second stage on Saturday, June 14th.
Since we're already on Brittish soil, we figure that we might as well do some further pillaging. We will be making an appearance at Metal Hammer's Golden Gods Award show on June 16.
Upcoming shows 2008:
14.06 Download Festival (UK) - LONDON 16.06 Metal Hammer Golden Awards (UK) - LONDON 27.06 Tuska Festival (SF) - HELSINKI 28.06 Metal Town Festival (S) - Frihamnen, GÖTEBORG 04.07 Castle Festival (SRB) - SMEDEREVO 05.07 Metalcamp (SLO) - TOLMIN 12.07 Masters Of Rock Festival (CZ) - VIZOVICE 17-19.07 Rock Harz Open Air (D) - OSTERODE 25.07 Lorca Festival (E) - LORCA
We are proud to announce that we will do our very first appearance in Serbia this summer. The show will take place at the Catle Festival on July 4. We are also happy to announce that we will be appearing at this years Lorca Rock in Spain on July 25.
27-29.06 Tuska Festival (SF) - HELSINKI
28.06 Metal Town Festival (S) - Frihamnen, GÖTEBORG
Back from a two-week vacation we’ve continued working on new songs for our upcoming release. We have a hand full of great songs already, soon to be Amon Amarth classics, and we still have plenty of great song ideas. On March 27 we’re taking a break from the song writing, heading out to sea, raiding and pillaging (the bars) at the Sweden Rock Cruise
Amon Amarth, the Swedish metal band that has taken the world by storm with their brand of intense and melodic Viking influenced music, has just renewed their contract with Metal Blade Records. The 3 album, worldwide deal, will kick off with the band's follow up release to 2006's highly praised With Oden on Our Side, which the band is currently hard at work writing. "The plan is to return to Fascination Street Studios in May to record the new album, once again working with Jens Bogren as engineer and producer" states the band. There will be more details to come in the following weeks & months so stay tuned for more updates from the band.
Here is what the band has to say in regards to extending their contact with Metal Blade Records:
"After 11 years with the same label we have grown into a relationship that easily could go by the term 'Family'. We had their support, confidence and commitment from the start and it has only got stronger for each year that passed. We are proud and happy to continue this amazing journey together with Metal Blade for many years to come, this has just begun."
Metal Blade Records Owner and CEO Brian Slagel comments:
"We are very happy to continue our great relationship with Amon Amarth. They have been part of the Metal Blade family for a long time and we look forward to many more years with them."
Amon Amarth has recently returned home from an extensive world tour including their first ever headlining US tour, where the band played several shows to sell out crowds. Amon Amarth also achieved gold record sales awards in both the US and Canada for their 3 disc DVD Wrath of the Norsemen, which features footage from a show in Cologne from 2005 filmed with 11 cameras, professionally filmed shows from Summer Breeze 2005, the Metal Blade Rrroooaaarrr 2005, Wacken Open Air 2004 and the release show for Fates Of Norns in Ludwigsburg (Germany) in 2004!
Our North America tour started a week ago and it's been one hell of a week. Every night, the crowd has been more than awesome. Finally we get to play a full set for our North American fans, and on our own terms. We've been trying out some different songs to make the "perfect" setlist, and it feels like we got it now. The response we've got about the setlist has been surprisingly positive!
Both Himsa and Sonic Syndicate are great guys to tour with and we're happy to have them with us.
Meet and greets have been very successful in the past week. We are very happy to have met many of our fans in person and to have had the chances to talk to many of them. We will be continuing the meet and greets for the rest of the tour, with the exception of the dates where we have in-store signings. Just a reminder, meet and greets will happen for 30 minutes after doors open. So get there early!
At the present moment, there are 2 scheduled in-store signing sessions. Any more in-store signing sessions will be announced as soon as we get the information.
12/02 @ Relapse Records, Philadelphia, PA 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Relapse Records 608 South 4th Street (at the corner of South Street) Philadelphia, PA 19147 (215) 629-1090 www.relapseretail.com
12/14 @ Scrape Records, Vancouver, BC 5pm - 6pm
17 West Broadway Vancouver, BC V5Y 1P1 Canada (604) 877-1676 (800) 540-2157 www.scraperecords.com
There will be a series of meet and greets on our North American tour. The meet and greet will be half an hour long beginning from when doors open. We are looking forward to meeting our fans in person and we'll try to make them happen at every show. Unfortunately due to time restraints, we will be unable to have a meet and greet on the dates where there will be in store signing sessions.
Because of the recent tragic events, Decapitated will not be able to be part of the North American tour. We are deeply sadden by the events and are disappointed that our metal brethren will not be able to share the stage with us.
We've tried to find a replacement for Decapitated but it has been impossible. We've deicided to play a longer set and throw in some songs that we either never played live before or haven't played live in a very long time. And we think we have a set list that will please both old and new fans!
We are really looking forward to hitting the roads in North America and finally do a full 90 min set. We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to catch the show!
Scheduled in-store signing so far: 12/14 @ Scrape Records, Vancouver, BC 5 PM to 6 PM
11/19 SAN DIEGO, CA - House of Blues 11/20 PHOENIX, AZ - Clubhouse Music Venue 11/21 ALBUQUERQUE, NM - Sunshine Theatre 11/23 SAN ANTONIO, TX – White Rabbit 11/24 DALLAS, TX - House of Blues 11/25 HOUSTON, TX - Meridian 11/26 NEW ORLEANS, LA - House of Blues 11/27 ORLANDO, FL - Firestone 11/28 ATLANTA, GA - Masquerade 11/29 CHARLOTTE, NC - Tremont Music Hall 11/30 WEST SPRINGFIELD, VA - Jaxx 12/01 WORCESTER, MA - Palladium 12/02 PHILADELPHIA, PA - Trocadero 12/03 NEW YORK, NY - Irving Plaza 12/04 POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – The Chance 12/05 MONTREAL, QC -Medley 12/06 TORONTO, ON - Opera House 12/07 CLEVELAND, OH - Peabody's Down Under 12/08 CHICAGO, IL - House of Blues 12/09 ST. PAUL, MN - Station 4 12/11 DENVER, CO - Gothic Theatre 12/12 SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Avalon 12/14 VANCOUVER, BC - Croatian Culture Centre 12/15 SEATTLE, WA - El Corazon 12/16 PORTLAND, OR - Hawthorne Theatre 12/17 ORANGEVALE, CA – The Boardwalk 12/18 SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Slim's 12/19 LOS ANGELES, CA - Avalon
2007-10-19 Check Republic, Prague, Retro A long drive on small bumpy roads and an endless search for the venue in Prague lead to us being late, very late. We finally got to the venue at 4pm. Still in time for the show though and for that we're thankful. We've never played actually in Prague before and it was a lot nicer than the usual Black Pez which is a dump. Excellent crowd, excellent food and of course STAROPRAMEN, what more can you ask for?
2007-10-20 Poland, Warsaw, Progresja An even longer drive and though we thought it to be impossible, even bumpier roads! Not much sleep tonight... On top of that we couldn't find the venue. The bus has a GPS system but it doesn't work in the eastern parts of Europe, way to go Alfredo! After getting lost a couple of times and guided by some locals... to some sort of Polish local neighbourhood (!) a police car stopped some other car in front of us so we simply asked them for the way. And not only did they explain it, but they escorted us with the blue lights on! Turned out to be about 2 minutes from where we were by the way... We had put bets on what time we'd be parked at the venue and Olavi beat DIMMU's soundguy with one minute when we got there 4.44 pm in the afternoon, winning the 40 euros in the pot. Thanks to the crappy roads some of our gear was not working properly and we had some major technical problems during the show. However, the Polish metal heads didn't seem to care too much and we did our best to please a crowd that are spoiled with shows from death metal monsters Behemoth, Vader and Decapitated etc. And they seemed to still enjoy our show!
2007-10-21 Germany, Berlin, Columbiahalle We've sold out the smaller Columbia club twice the last couple of years when we made our own tour and now we get to play the bigger venue. It doesn't have the same intimate feeling and playing on a Sunday can be a bit quieter than it would on a Friday or Saturday. Still an awesome response and crowd and we had a great time on stage! The catering situation at the Columiba venues is world class! Absolutely the best in Europe as we get spoiled with all different kinds of meat, fish, veggies and an extraordinary desert. Not a long drive to tomorrow's show so bus call wasn't until 9 am. Lots of time to party in Berlin and get some well needed sleep without feeling like you're just about to get thrown out from your bunk as the bus goes off road.
Gift from Berlin fan
2007-10-22 Germany, Hamburg, Docks We've only played the Markthalle before so we were not familiar with this venue. Docks is situated right on Reeperbahn, which we are familiar with. A nice venue, not as cramped and sauna-like as Markthalle usually gets even if it still did get very hot on stage. The Hamburg fans has to be one of the best in Germany though, maybe cause they're close to Wacken/Mecka. With 1600 people raising their hands in the air and it felt like everyone was singing along to our songs we had one of our best shows on this tour so far!
2007-10-23 Germany, Wiesbaden, Schlachthof Wiesbaden is a nice little town, some of us went to the nearby Saturn and mall during the day. The rest of us fought over the limited amount of bandwidth internet at the venue. Winner of the day to the internet: Johan H. as no one else managed to get online. Pretty nice venue and stage, and the crowd seemed to enjoy our show very much. We certainly enjoyed playing!
2007-10-23 Day off, still in Wiesbaden Spent the day going bowling and had dinner at a Greek restaurant. Ted won the bowling with 144 points average out of three games.
Amon Amarth Crew bowling team
2007-10-24 Germany, Munich, Georg-Elser-Halle Djurgården's football team lost the Swedish champion ship tournament today so Johan H and Ted were grieving a bit. Never played this venue before, but it was very nice. And as always the Munich crowd was welcoming us and giving us a great reception, we had an awesome time on stage!
2007-10-25 Germany, Leipzig, Werk A nice venue and excellent catering greeted us in the morning (read 1-2pm). We've always had a warm reception from the fans here since early years when we did lots of small club shows in this parts of Germany. We'll never forget stoye halle for example! Tonight was the biggest show out of the German ones, and definitely the loudest! Since's DIMMU is playing the nuclear blast festival tomorrow and we can't play on off days we have two days of no show in a row. Some of us took the opportunity to fly home from Leipzig, spending two nights off the bus. The rest of the party went to Hamburg to hang out with Gamma Ray in their rehearsal studio and later on going to the Iced Earth show at Markthalle.
2007-10-28 Denmark, Copenhagen, Store Vega It's been 7 years since we played Denmark and that's way too long. Strange how it seems to be harder to play in neighbouring countries than on the other side of the world. The Danish vikings were loud and obnoxious and definitely didn't care about it being a Sunday, just as we had hoped. Now just let's hope it wont take another 7 years...
2007-10-29 SWEDEN, Lund, Mejeriet Ahh... Swedish soil. Feels like coming home, even if they speak funny here, they're still countrymen :-) First time for us in Lund and it seemed like a nice town. A cool venue, but a bit small stage so we were a bit cramped up during the show. Mondays are always harder to get the crowd going crazy, and especially with such a young crowd as tonight, but after some persuasion they got the viking blood pumping!
2007-10-30 Travel day Got to Stockholm early in the morning and we had time to go home for a couple of hours before taking the ferry at 5 pm. The ferries between Sweden and Finland are giant floating entertainment facilities with SPA's, pools, saunas, restaurants, bars, shopping, casino etc. So after some relaxing sauna and massage, followed by a fine dinner, it was time to party... hard. And some of us were more drunk than others when we had to get off the boat at 10 in the morning Finnish time...
Michael & Mojjo getting on the ferry...
2007-11-01 Finland, Helsinki, House of culture A little bit strange venue, sorta like an indoor amphitheatre. Except nothing is centered, not even the sound desk. We had lots of time during the afternoon which we spent sobering up and sightseeing. We haven't played much in Finland at all and don't really know what to expect. We do know however that they're a silent people until they've gotten alcohol, and it seemed not enough alcohol had gone down by the time we played. It could also be that the stage was so very wide and strange. Our energy might not have been on top either so it suited us fine with a slower show than usual.
2007-11-02 Finland, Oulu, Teatria Shows here usually start pretty late, but not ours so all people have probably not showed up yet by the time we hit stage. None the less we had an awesome show and a great response. We figured it was because it's Friday and the Finns had time to warm-up drink at home before the show.
2007-11-03 Travel day Again on the ferry, but this time on the Viking Line. Not as classy as Silja Line which we had to Finland, but still lots of fun. Some sauna and a big smorgasbord with free drinks. Olavi showed, as usual, that he's lucky when he hit jack pot on the slot machine after two pulls.
2007-11-04 SWEDEN, Stockholm, Arenan Home ground. We all went home for some hours, except for Johan H who had to do a radio interview. Always special to play in your home town and nice to see friends and family. Unfortunately The Arena in Stockholm, as the only venue in Europe, charges 30% + tax on merchandise. This is absolutely absurd, and the only way for the bands to not actually lose money on selling the merch is to raise the price... After show we all went home again as we decided to get off the bus and take the train down to tomorrow's show in Gothenburg.
Fredrik was on fire that day...
2007-11-05 SWEDEN, Gothenburg, Trädgårn Always nice to wake up at home, in your own bed... After a 3 hour train ride we showed up in Gothenburg around 5pm, just in time for... well, dinner. The show, even if smaller than last night's, was loud and lots of fun. The Goths seemed in the right mood for some partying tonight.
2007-11-06 Norway, Oslo, Sentrum scene Last show! Normally there would be loads of pranks and fun stuff going on but since DIMMU are filming the show nothing like that is allowed... However, it luckily didn't stop the ENGEL guys from getting on stage during our set! It was... well you just have to see for yourself...
After that awesome show it was time for the last party for this tour.
Thanks again to all our fans coming out to support us, our fantastic road crew and ENGEL for the wholesome fun on the bus! We also want to thank DIMMU BORGIR and their crew for the great tour.
Last but not least, some memorable advices: -Chicken that fell on the carpet... Is still edible. -The best form of disinfectant is whiskey. -When on road trip in eastern Europe, use GPS. -Avoid bus companies named after a pasta sauce.
ENGEL
Engel and Amon Amarth
Fredrik & Steve...
Short after this pic was taken... that bottle was empty
2007-10-06, Marseille, France, Le Moulin First time in Marseille for us and after some sightseeing during the day we found out it's a very nice city. The fans here seemed hungry for shows, we assume not too many shows pass by here and the atmosphere before the show was on top. Definitely one of the warmest shows we ever played and the craziest crowd so far on this tour! We were almost worried people would pass out or get hurt but luckily no serious injuries. After the show we were taken to a hotel to get showers and it seemed the promoter were a bit tight with the expenses as he had booked a 1 star hotel. The rooms were under all critique with water leaks, dirt and not even dry, clean towels for us. And since the taxi taking us back to the venue and our bus didn't show we had to ask some fans for directions in our bestest French and take an evening walk. Got back to the venue just in time for bus call. An interesting day.
Hotel room
Toilet & Shower
2007-10-07, Barcelona, Spain, Razzmatazz Welcome back Ted! After congratulating him to a healthy son it was back to normal with some sightseeing and a couple of drinks. A great thanks to Steve for helping us out till now! Only seconds into the first song we could tell we were playing for a Spanish crowd, they were singing so loud our sound guy had a hard time hearing us from the PA! It felt great having Ted back on stage and with the warm reception the show was one that will be well remembered. After the show we got a visit from our friend Sabina Classen from HOLY MOSES, who always seem to be where we are for some strange reason... Afterparty at the local bar with free drinks made us wish we could stay longer than till 2am, but we had a long drive ahead.
2007-10-08, Travel day Parked at a car camping outside Madrid. Some guys took the subway into central Madrid, others hung out at the local bar.
2007-10-09, Lisbon, Portugal, Coliseum First time not only in Lisbon, but also in Portugal for AMON AMARTH. The venue was an absolutely fantastic 2500 capacity old style theatre with balconies and all. We had time to do some sightseeing before sound check and learnt that Lisbon as a town was just as nice as the venue. Unfortunately everything wasn't as nice. The promoter did not provide much to drink or eat but that was not our biggest concern. They also wanted 20% commission on our t-shirt sales. On top of that they also wanted us to pay another 21% tax – without giving us a receipt! Obviously we refused, and so did DIMMU BORGIR, so we came to an agreement and were able to sell some merch to the fans. Commission has become one of the biggest enemies of the music business since downloading. More and more venues wants a cut of the only income most bands has. It leads to the bands raising the prices and of course the fans are the losers. The whole idea is completely absurd as us bands don't exactly claim commission on the beer the venue sell at the bar during the shows. Nevertheless, once the show was on we were in for a treat. The crowd went absolutely crazy as they were singing along, headbanging, fists in the air and crowd surfing. Obrigado Lisbon, Portugal! After the show we hung out at the Hard Rock café until closing time before leaving. We spent ca 15 min until we stopped at a gas station and noticed the trailer was broken. We could not keep on driving. We tried everything and our last hope was for the DIMMU BORGIR truck to turn around and come pick up our gear so we could continue to the next show in Madrid. However, they couldn't risk the truck not getting to Madrid on time leaving us being stuck at the side of the road for the night.
Nice looking venue
2007-10-10. Still in Lisbon... When we woke up we were still in Lisbon, but luckily we had found a garage that was able to fix our trailer so we could eventually get going. A long drive up to Bergara so we spent all day driving.
2007-10-11, Bergara, Spain (Basque), Sala jam We were greeted outside the venue by some waiting basque vikings who gave us a very nice blowing horn, thank you! The show was another one of those extremely warm ones, not as hot as Marseille though. It was also a great crowd and they seemed to enjoy our set very much. After the show it was time to dig into the hospitality rider as usual; 1 vodka, 1 whiskey, 1 jägermeister 4 bottles of red wine and some cases of beer. On top of that we also got two additional bottles of scotch and another bottle of vodka from DIMMU BORGIR so we had some work to do.
2007-10-12 Yet another travel day... Long drive to Pratteln, Switzerland, luckily we didn't finish off all the booze from last night so we had something to do also today.
2007-10-13 Switzerland, Pratteln, Z7 Waking up to more bad news today... The driver is going home and leaving us and the bus since he haven't gotten paid by the bus company. (Note to all bands: Never use a bus company named ALFREDO!) It seemed for a long while like we would be really fucked, but shortly before the show we were told a new driver were coming to take over. We've really have had enough of shit like this in the past, when similar things almost led to us giving up the band so we were really relieved we could keep on the tour as it would've been a financial disaster for us to cancel. We had a signing session at Media Markt in the afternoon where we met and talked to some fans. Gave us also a chance to check out some new cd's and dvd's. Last time we played here it was nearly sold out, but today it was completely packed to the limit! The Swiss crowd have always been very nice and it was no difference today, we had a blast on stage. And for a short while we forgot about the problems off stage, thank you for giving us a great time!
2007-10-14 Italy, Milano, Alcatraz As usual, we were greeted by the bootleggers outside the venue in the morning. And again a venue that takes a ridiculous large commission fee + tax on the merchandise – without giving a receipt, but this is Italy and you don't really argue... The show was amazing, the Italian fans are loud and crazy! We never had a better reception than this here in Milan and the show felt way too short...
2007-10-15 Slovenia, Ljubliana, VPK Some of us spent the afternoon at the mall nearby and did some go-cart racing, good times. The venue might not be the best one in Europe, but if there's a will there's a way. And there is a will! Since the last couple of years when we've had the opportunity to play this area we've always felt very welcome. Apart for some technical problems, like a broken snare, the show was very much fun. Extra thanks to Gregory for the wine!
Olavi & Johan during the grand prix gocarting
2007-10-16 Austria, Wien, Planet Music A small venue for this show. It was supposed to be at the "new" Planet Music but for some reason that wasn't possible so now the show has been sold out since long and we guess a lot of fans didn't manage to get a hold of tickets... The atmosphere at Planet music is always nice though, hot, sweaty and gemütlich!
2007-10-17 Hungary, Budapest, Petofi Csarnok Woke up to find out we actually played here years ago, but outdoors at the festival with Amorphis and Pain of Salvation amongst others which raised some fun memories. One of the best hospitality so far on this tour and some awesome goulash for dinner. A great response from the Hungarian fans made the day complete!
2007-10-18 Day off, Still in Hungary We stayed over night at the venue and there was some serious partying the night before. The venue is situated near the famous Szecény SPA so when people eventually woke up we went there for a relaxing afternoon with different pools, saunas and relaxing massage. We knew about this restaurant we found when we were here years ago called Sir Lancelot so we went there with some guys from DIMMU and ENGEL. Sir Lancelot is a medieval restaurant where the food is served on giant plates by busty women. It is the closest you can come to a Viking feast as far as we know and we got our fix of assorted meats and delicious stuff accompanied with beer from a . Definitely one of the highlights of this tour and an awesome way to spend a day off!
