AMON AMARTH Prefers Staying Musically Consistent Over Changing Its Sound

LoudTV.net recently conducted an interview with vocalist Johan Hegg and guitarist Johan Söderberg of Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the fact that AMON AMARTH's tenth studio album, "Jomsviking", is being released via Metal Blade in North America and Sony Music internationally:

Hegg: "For this album, Metal Blade made a deal with Sony to work with them here in Europe, for their bigger releases. And I think it's a brilliant move by Metal Blade, and it seems like Sony's really about this as well. Because, I think, for bands… I mean, not to be very presumptious here, but we are one of the biggest bands on Metal Blade, and it's a good way to back the bigger acts on the label, to work closely together with Sony. And so far Sony has done an exceptional job, I think. So we're really happy about that, and we're really happy that Metal Blade wanted to go this way for us. And I think there are more Metal Blade/Sony releases to be in the future. We just happen to be the first ones out."

On the fact that "Jomsviking" sounds a bit different from 2013's "Deceiver Of The Gods" album even though AMON AMARTH once again worked with British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT):

Söderberg: "I think some has to do with the fact that we had a new drummer [Tobias Gustafsson, formerly of VOMITORY, playing on the album]; that, of course, changes the sound quite a bit. Because, I think, Andy has a better knowledge of the band now, so he knows more we're after, what we were after on this album, 'cause this has a more epic story and needs to have a different sound."

Hegg: "I think you're really on to something there also with the new drummer, with Tobias drumming. His style is so different from Fredrik's [Andersson, former AMON AMARTH drummer], and I think it gives the whole production… Somebody said it gives the production more air; like, there's more space for everything to grow in the production with his style of drumming, and I think that's spot-on in a way. So there's so many little details, really, that kind of makes everything sound different, but it's not really such a big difference as you might think."

On AMON AMARTH not changing its sound much from one album to the next:

Hegg: "I mean, certain bands, they like to change around. I think… I mean, IN FLAMES, they change around, sure, but I'm sure that they do it because they believe… I mean, they wouldn't do it if they didn't believe in it, you know. For us, we know what we want, and I think we all are pretty much on the same page musically. So it's easy for us to continue that and try to evolve what we like and what we wanna do, which has always kind of been the same thing. But since we have the passion for the music, it's also important for us to come up with new angles and new twists to the music, so that we can be fresh from album to album as well, but still recognizable. Because when you look at it, the bands that you love the most — the bands you really love the most — are always the bands that never really changed the concept too much, like IRON MAIDEN and AC/DC."

Söderberg: "Exactly. There's two ways about it. Some bands, they change their style to gain success. But for us, it's more like we're gonna stay consistent to gain success."

"Jomsviking" will be released on March 25.