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Johan Hegg
Johan Soderberg
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SIDING WITH
ODIN
Sweden's Viking Metal warriors
Amon Amarth have steadily conquered more and more American fans
with each show since their fierce debut at Milwaukee Metalfest
in 2001. Guitarist Olavi Mikkonen is escaping the July heat on
the band's tour bus, awaiting the band's brief slot on the Sounds
of the Underground tour. "We've never done an American summer
tour, especially never on a festival tour, so we looked forward
to it, it's a new experience for us." Also new is being
on a bill dominated by bands that would not be on the typical
Amon fan's must see list. "Hopefully they will realize what
metal is all about," Olavi laughs. "I think that's
one of the main reasons we chose to be on this bill. We knew
we were going to be unique. We're the only European band and
we're here to collect more fans." Usually, the band would
be busy doing their rounds of the European summer festivals.
"We knew about this tour a year ahead so we didn't book
anything," says Olavi, "If we had stayed in Europe
we probably would have done festivals every weekend."
The band has been trying different
things elsewhere, Olavi says of the videos the band has done
in support of "Odin", "I think we managed to do
something different from what other bands have in their videos.
One of the videos was recorded when it was like -20 degrees,
and it was cold!" The frigid beauty of Sweden is also reflected
in the new album, with its uncharacteristically tranquil ballad
"Under The Northern Star", "For us, it's nice
to have an album where all the songs don't sound the same. It's
cool to have a slow song like that." For now, however, Olavi
says the band is not working on any new material, "We're
going to start writing next year, so we're all gathering ideas.
We'll wait until we enter our studio to start rehearsing, and
see what we come up with."
To conclude our conversation,
Olavi extends a special invitation to Amon Amarth's loyal fans,
"Come check us out when we come back for our headlining
tour here to end up the year." After first appearing in
the States over six years ago, the band is prepared for their
final conquest, "It's about time! We have our own production,
and we're going to do it our way. It's going to be a kick ass
tour!"
-- Ruin
http://www.amonamarth.com
http://www.myspace.com/amonamarth
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Olavi Mikkonen
Fredrik Andersson
Ted Lundstrom
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