By Andrew Bansal
Over the past few years, Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth have taken their North American fan base to a new level with immensely powerful shows of unparalleled quality. Following last year’s Mayhem Festival run and a headline tour of the States earlier this year, they are returning for another North American tour leg, with support acts Sabaton and Skeletonwitch. I spoke to vocalist Johan Hegg yesterday about this tour, the viking ship, stage production, and the prospects of his newfound movie career. Enjoy the conversation below and use the links at the bottom to enter our ticket giveaway/purchase tickets for this coming Thursday’s Riverside show.
Johan, it’s good to have you again on Metal Assault. You’re starting another North American headline tour this week. How are you feeling?
It’s going to be a lot of fun! And finally we get to go to Canada. We’ve really been longing to go there but we just didn’t have the time before. So it’s good to finally do that, and it’s going to be a killer tour, I’m sure!
Over the last few years your fan base here has grown a lot. You’re playing bigger venues, specially in LA. It must be a good feeling to observe that when you look back at this period.
Yeah, we’ve been doing some really good touring in the States in the last couple of years, and specially after last summer’s Mayhem Fest tour we made quite a big leap forward. So it’s been going well for us.
You mentioned Mayhem Fest, which is a more mainstream kind of festival as compared to the kind of music you play, but would you say it’s still very important for bands like yours to take that step to reach the next level as you have done?
I think so, and for us it was a big opportunity to show people what we can do on a proper stage and how good of a show we can really put on, even for people that don’t know us. It was a great chance to play for new fans. Yes, it is more mainstream in one sense but it also does have the more harder music as well. It’s a good mix, and I liked being part of it.
One thing that was different about the show you did at Mayhem Fest and also in LA this year was the viking ship, which has added a lot to your live show. How did that come about in the first place?
Well, we’ve had the viking ship in Europe for years, and the idea came about when we got the opportunity to play the main stage at Mayhem Fest. We were obviously still the opening band on the main stage but we still played a big stage every night, and we decided to bring it with us.
Do you think this viking ship will continue to be a part of your shows or is it only for the time being?
It’s hard to bring it on tour unless we play really big venues like the Wiltern in LA, and obviously we can’t play that big of a venue everywhere in the States. We have to choose only certain venues to bring it to, and that way we also make special shows out of it. But I think when it comes to the viking ship, we’re going to use it many more times for sure, but we also always try to find new ways to improve our stage show, may be make it different. When we play live, we want to entertain people and make it an experience for them to come to the show, and we try to do that as much as possible. It’s more difficult in the States than in Europe for us, even though we’re playing to almost the same amount of people in both parts of the world.
So, will you be adding more visual aspects to the show aside from the ship in the future?
Yeah, that’s kind of what we hope to be able to do more, specially in the States. It’s definitely something we’re working on and really trying to make it happen. I hope that for the next album we’ll be able to bring an even bigger production on the road.
When you’re touring anywhere in the world, I’ve observed that you guys take the time to indulge in some fun activities along the way whenever there’s a day off or something like that. That must be important as a band, to keep your sanity and not just be going from venue to venue all the time.
We do have days off where we don’t have to do a show. When you’re on the road and headlining and playing 90-plus minute shows every night, that’s straining on everyone, really. So, you definitely need to have a few days off here and there. The drawback about that is obviously you still have to handle all the costs (laughs).
The other thing I wanted to ask you about is the movie ‘Northmen – A Viking Saga’ that you’re in that’s coming out in October. Was that just a one-off thing or are you considering a parallel career as well?
(Laughs) In a way it was a one-off thing. I was asked to do this part, and I was willing to try it out. I feel that I did really well actually if you ask me (laughs) but I’m not sure what everybody else is going to say. I’m really happy with how my part turned out and I would love to do it again but it’s nothing that I’m really thinking about. Music will always come first.
Even the newest Amon Amarth music videos are almost like movies in themselves. That’s also an aspect the band has changed a lot on.
Absolutely, and it’s something that we’ve always looked for, to make our videos more epic as that really fits with the music.
And finally, what are the band’s plans after this tour? Is this touring cycle going to continue for another year or so?
Right now, we have plans for another tour at the beginning of next year. I can’t say what that will be, but it’s not going to be North America. We’ve crammed a lot of touring for this album in a short span of time. We’ve covered the entire world in more or less 18 months! So we’ll see, but I think after the tour early next year we’re pretty much done with touring for this cycle.
Amon Amarth links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
Enter our ticket giveaway for the 9/25 Riverside show here, and visit this location to purchase tickets
Tour Dates:
09/25 Riverside, CA Riverside Municipal Auditorium
09/26 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
09/27 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades
09/29 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
09/30 Seattle, WA El Corazon
10/01 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
10/03 Edmonton, AB Union Hall
10/04 Calgary, AB Flames Central
10/05 Saskatoon, SK Louis’ Pub
10/06 Winnipeg, MB The Garrick
10/07 Thunder Bay, ON Crocks
10/10 Toronto, ON The Sound Academy
10/11 Montreal, QC Metropolis
10/12 Quebec City, QC Imperial
10/14 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
10/15 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre
10/17 Albany, NY Upstate Concert Hall
10/18 New York, NY Best Buy Theatre *no Skeletonwitch, Vallenfyre opens instead
10/19 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
10/21 Chattanooga, TN Track 29
10/22 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theater
10/24 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore
10/25 Jacksonville, FL Freebird
10/26 Birmingham, AL Iron City
10/27 New Orleans, LA The Civic
10/29 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
10/30 Joliet, IL Mojoes
10/31 Detroit, MI Royal Oak
11/01 Milwaukee, WI The Rave
11/02 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s
11/04 Lincoln, NE Bourbon Street
11/05 Oklahoma City, OK Diamond Ballroom
11/07 Austin, TX Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/08 El Paso, TX Tricky Falls
11/09 Tucson, AZ Club XS