It seems like "Rise From Sea" lyrically deals with satanism, which is sort of weird thing, since AMON AMARTH is better known as a pagan metal band...

- Yes, but it was one of the first songs AMON AMARTH wrote and it appeared first time on the non-released demo "Thor Arise". It was written in the beginning of AMON AMARTH's existence and before Johan had found out what his lyrics should be about.

But why have you included this track anyway?

- At first it was meant to be a bonus track, but since we all liked it how it turned out and after Lars said he thought it was the best song we decided to keep it as a regular song.

"Rise From Sea" originally appears as a track off the "Thor Arise" demo; will you ever come up with any more tunes off this or "The Arrival Of The Fimbul Winter" demo(s), re-recorded of course?

- Who knows. We hadn't actually even planned to record the demo songs either on "The Avenger" or on "The Crusher" in both cases at least I knew it the first time on our way to abyss studio. The only reason is that Metal Blade has been on us to record also some bonus tracks.

You've also covered POSSESSED's "Eyes Of Horror". Why?

- It was meant to be released on a tribute to POSSESSED by an Italian label, and as far as we know a lot of other bands were also planned to be on that tribute, CANNIBAL CORPSE, amongst others. But since it was never released we decided to put it as an bonus on "The Crusher" and keep "Risen From The Sea" as a regular song.

"The Crusher" doesn't appear as an album based on certain kind of concept, however "Annihilation Of Hammerfest", "The Fall Through Ginnungagap" and "Releasing Sutur's Fire" ARE based on the same theme. Any comments?

- We write all songs with a sense of how the finished product will end. We never write one song at the time, instead we start working on an idea for a new song and work with it paralleled to the other songs which leads to that all songs in some way or another works together. In this case Johan didn't wanna end the story as it ends in "Annihilation Of Hammerfest" so he continued with it and when we decided how to put all the songs on the CD, it just worked out great to put them in order to become a sort of a trilogy.

Personally I consider "A Fury Divine" and "Releasing Sutur's Fire" amongst the most stunning tracks off "The Crusher"; fast-paced, aggressive, featuring plenty of tremendous leads... What's your opinion on the tunes I've mentioned? Which ones would you name as your favorite songs, when it comes to "The Crusher"?

- "A Fury Divine" was one of the first songs we started with for this album, so it is of course one of the songs that we have liked for a long time. My personal favourite is "The Sound Of Eight Hooves" because I think its such a fucking slaughter the whole song and that the lyrics fits so well together with the music, and it's really a good lyric. But I like all songs on "The Crusher", at least there is no one of the songs I don't like. "Releasing Surtur's Fire" was actually the last song we wrote, which we finished only days before the studio, but I'm totally satisfied with how it turned out. I have been telling Olli for a long time that we should do a song in the
same way and structure as we did in the earlier songs and this is what we came up with. It started only with a jam and an idea of how we should build the song and we weren't sure until, as I said, only a couple of days before recording.

"The Crusher" strikes as pretty diversified piece, featuring both fast- and mid-tempo tracks, all in all an excellent mixture of such notions as "melody" and "aggression", even though it seems like you, figuratively speaking, are still true to your roots, speaking plainer - "The Crusher" is made in the same vein as f.ex. "Once Sent From The Golden Hall"...

- AMON AMARTH has always been a band with very big variations on the songs, also on "Once Sent..." you can find everything from aggressive fast tracks as "ride for vengeance" or majestic ones as "amon amarth" but I think most people have started to see AMON AMARTH as only a fast band since we have always played almost exclusively fast songs live. But we will do a more variable live set in the future.

The rumors say that many people consider you a "new UNLEASHED". What about that? What's your opinion on UNLEASHED?

- That should be only because of the interest in viking mythology which we  share with unleashed, but musically I don't think we have so much in  common. I have never been a big fan of UNLEASHED myself but I liked "Where No Life Dwells" when it came out.

If I'm not mistaken, UNLEASHED are going to release a new CD this year...

- Yes, I heard they will do a "reunion".

Once again, "if I'm not mistaken", "As Long As The Raven Flies" is inspired by a certain movie...

- The movie is called "Korpen Flyger" and is a dark movie about vengeance, lifelong hate and a epic story about life thousand years ago. It's cooperation between different Scandinavian film companies but it's done by Rafn Gunnlaugsson.

Continuing with this subject... Which are your absolute faves amongst the great variety of mythological creatures?

- Of course the beautiful Valkyries that will decide if I'm worthy to enter Valhalla when I die on earth!

What about the contemporary state of heathendom in Sweden? Are you guys (i.e. Swedes in the whole) eager to get back in time, when it comes to religious issues?

- It's the sad truth that since the christians "saved" Sweden they have done everything in their power to deny the true heritage of Scandinavian people. The worst example of this is that in school in Sweden, the kids are learning of almost every other religion, folklore and myth EXCEPT the viking mythology! The problem has also grown stronger the last ten years because of groups such as skinheads and racists have abused old viking symbols in their twisted purpose.

As far as I know (and it's utterly ridiculous!), lotsa so-called "pagans" consider dancing around the fire in the woods a very essence of heathendom, you see. However; to me, paganism is A WAY OF LIFE, life in union with our ancestors, life based on natural laws, as well as cultural heritage and national identity...

- Yes, that's true. I think most Scandinavian people can feel their heritage and origin in their blood just as we do, but not so many people think about it.

Don't you think that this "viking-metal" thing became a sort of trend nowadays? All these "valhallas" from Southern Europe, lyrically dealing with no other subjects but Nordic mythology...

- No, I think it's ok. Since at least the famous viking seafaring men were travelling people, they set up camps and started many villages all around the world and many people from their garrisons stayed and started families on different locations. I think there's a lot of people with ancestors from the vikings spread worldwide and I'm sure these people feel it even if they don't know it. Not that it matters, look at a band such as NILE, they are just very interested in the Egyptology and choose to write music about it. Music is free and it's up to everyone what they wanna write their music about!

Scandinavian heritage definitely is the one to be proud of, but aren't all these guys I mentioned above simply limit themselves, since each European country has a rich history to be inspired by...

- All cultures are interesting, not only Scandinavian and European. But it's a shame that so many of them were actually destroyed by christian crusades.

Are you interested in Hellenic civilization and Roman Empire?

- I'm not a historical guy, but sure the Roman Empire draws a lot of
interesting thoughts. I don't know so much about the Hellenics.

Talking about judeochristianity... Christianity is the principal religion in nowadays' Scandinavia "thanx" to christian conversion of Denmark's king Harald, in Norway before Stiklestad battle and Iceland for political reason, in order to prevent war agaisnt christian Norway. Is this correct? Could you please clarify the historical cycle a bit, yourself?

- It was of course a long and terrible procedure. And it's also very
difficult to find truth in how it really happened since the christians actually changed many of the old traditions and historical events as well as heathen writings to hide from the people their origin. The first Swedish king who was baptised was "Olaf Skö¶tkonung" year 1007 and it was an important step for the christians. If I should tell the whole Swedish history from this age you would have to do a whole AMON AMARTH / Sweden-issue and I think that would be boring for all readers ..:-)

Anyway, I guess that judeochristianity never really had an importance in  Scandinavia...

- Well, actually I think it had quite big significance to Scandinavia and Sweden.

Well, that's all. Thanx you very much for your interest and patience for this long interview and my poor English. Good luck with the band!! Heathen regards from Spain!!

- Thanx a lot for the interview! Hope my answers will be satisfying for you all. Don't forget to check out "The Crusher" everyone who hasn't yet! And make sure to come and share some beers with us when we do a show near you, we hope to cover Spain on a tour later this year!

AMON AMARTH website -
http://www.amonamarth.com