The Viking Machine: The Never-Ending Success of Amon Amarth

Originally written for soundshock.com

Amon Amarth’s star has been rising rapidly, dominating the melodic death metal circuit without arming their music with a metalcore approach as favoured by others, successfully conquering the picky American market and performing in India. With the release of their ninth album ‘Deceiver of the Gods’, it is clear these Swedes are in the pole position, understanding what their fans want and consistently delivering. Bassist Ted Lundström discusses what makes the Amon Amarth machine work after nearly ten albums of melodic death metal victory.

The strength of Amon Amarth lies in their adherence to a formula that works for them: heavy yet atmospheric metal paired with belligerent melodies and vocalist Johan Hegg idiosyncratically growling a colourful Viking narrative. New album ‘Deceiver of the Gods’ is as loyal to the signature as any other release. “It’s basically Amon Amarth; nobody is going to be surprised with the new album. It may be a bit more thrashy since we chose a different studio for this one. It’s just the follow up from the last album.”

Some consider metal most beloved Vikings to be repeating themselves and growing stale with a deficiency in variation and exploration. Striking the balance of retaining a signature sound while keeping the music fresh and interesting enough for the listener is in the consciousness of the band: “Of course you want to do something new; you don’t want to get stuck. At the same time, you want to keep your roots. So far, it’s worked out really well for us. We always manage somehow to create a new piece that we’re all happy with.” And the audience are obviously delighted with too if the large portions of the crowd singing along to the new tracks is anything to go by.

For many, the appeal of Amon Amarth is their fixation on Viking and Norse themes. The Swedes are very aware of this and like their music will cohere to what they know best, the lyrics will follow suit: “It’s a never-ending source of inspiration. I don’t think we’ll run out of ideas for stuff like that. Our fans would not like it if we would [stop singing about that] because we have been doing it for such a long time now so if we change and start to sing about something else, that would be weird. I guess we’ll somehow stay in the Northern mythology.”

‘Deceiver if the Gods’ focuses on Norse trickster god Loki, a compliment to Amon Amarth’s previous albums studying Thor, Odin and Surtur. “We just tried to find a character that is interesting enough to actually do an album about and Loki maybe came natural with the new ‘Thor’ movies and stuff. He’s more famous now because there is not too much about him in the mythology. People know about Odin and Thor of course because they’re famous guys. Now with the movies, he’s more out there so I guess that’s one of the reasons.” Marvel’s ‘Thor’ films may indeed help elevate Amon Amarth to new audiences but the mythology explored in the comics and films are not congruent to the actual source material. Nonetheless, this fails to detract from Lundström’s enjoyment: “Actually, I saw [Thor 2] last night. It was good, it was fun. Actually, I think it was better than the first one. I love the first one too but I guess they don’t need enough time to present the characters now when the first is already out. It goes straight into the story. It was a great movie.”

The ninth studio effort does not entirely ape previous Amon Amarth efforts; this is the first time the melodic death outfit have joined forces with famed English metal producer Andy Sneap. “He’s a good producer. We loved his work with other bands. That was a no brainer for us. We were looking for something new because we already did three albums with our previous producer Jens Bogren. Andy was first on our list of what we would like to work with and we asked him if he was interested. We had a little meeting with him on our previous English tour and we had a good talk. We had the same kind of ideas how to do it so it felt good. You don’t want to work with a producer who’s not interested in it. You want to have someone who says ”This is going to be cool.” It’s important. It makes it much easier. You’re always a bit nervous when you come to new studios. You don’t know what kind of routines Andy has and how the studio is set up but we had a very nice time. From the first day, we go along really well with him.”

Another new feature of the album is the appearance of legendary Candlemass vocalist Messiah Marcolin, providing his doomy vocals on the track ‘Hel’ alongside Hegg’s barks. “We’ve been talking with him a couple of times before saying it would be cool to do something because we’re big fans of the old Candlemass albums. When we did this album, it turned out we had a song that would fit him because he has a special voice. We had the opportunity so we asked him to come over to England. He’s also an old friend of Andy’s. It was a nice couple of days when he came over and recorded. We had good times, it was fun.”

Naturally, touring with this album will be extensive as Amon Amarth seem to be constantly on the road. However, there are further plans for a music video. “We have one that’s hopefully coming out soon. It’s still in progress, ‘Father of the Wolf’. It’s been planned for a long time but a lot of stuff has to come together to make it happen. Our part is already done. They’re just putting everything together. It should be out soon.”

With tour dates frequently listing ticket availability for Amon Amarth shows as ‘sold out’, these Vikings harbour the conquering spirit of their ancestors, cultivating an enviable and loyal fanbase worldwide – particularly impressive concerning the Norse-centric nature of their lyricism. Amon Amarth t-shirts are among the most common at metal festivals worldwide and although their fame truly starting coming over the past five years, they have illustrated that persistence and not compromising is imperative for personal success.

A Glipse Through the Portal: Cynic's Paul Masvidal Offers Insight on Album Number Three

Originally written for Soundshock.com

Florida progressive metallers Cynic have always happily inhabited a position outside the traditional metal box, refusing to remain comfortable occupying an area within the walls of habit or predictability. Next year sees the release of album number three ‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ and given the nature of the opinion-dividing ‘Carbon-Based Anatomy’ EP, no one can say what path Cynic will forge this time. That is, no one except Cynic themselves. Soundshock were fortunate enough to catch up with Cynic frontman Paul Masvidal while he was out trekking on the Death (To All) tour.

“I’d say it’s a true trio record,” Masvidal states on his third full-length observation wearing the Cynic banner. “The previous one had more multi-faceted components with second guitar parts and the whole vocal thing but this feels like it’s drier, it’s more present. A lot of ‘Traced in Air’ for me was built around a lot of two part ideas so there was always this complex motion happening. This record has more of a direct riff; it’s a main idea. It’s propelled very much by the drum and bass. The guitars are playing a different role. The songs feel more realised and more melodic. It’s more of a celebration record to me. It’s a different head.” The aggression factor follows in the vein of ‘Carbon-Based Anatomy’ with no growls and the metal nature of the music notably depleted. “‘Traced in Air’ had them a little bit but it felt like the growls represented a certain kind of aggression whereas with this record, I thought it was represented musically and we didn’t need that through that instrument. It just wasn’t part of a vibe.”

The title ‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ is a variation on a meditation trilogy of books ‘Kindly Bent to Ease Us’ by Buddhist teacher Longchenpa, remaining consistent with Cynic’s preoccupation of spirituality and the mind: “For me, it was just giving it my own twist. ‘Ease’, ‘free’ – they’re the same realm of an idea. It creates a larger scope and it’s a bigger, vaguer idea. It’s referencing the mind. It’s this thing that we can’t trust [laughs] that’s there for our benefit if we can actually get a hold of it. So there’s a little bit of that, actually a lot [laughs], in the record.” Also remaining loyal to Cynic’s themes is the album art, again by American painter Robert Vernosa. Masvidal is a long time fan of his work and something about Vernosa’s psychedelic imagery connects indescribably with the musician. “He’s just brilliant. He had a degree of precision where it looks like a computer generated image but it’s not, which is amazing.”

The new album art appears to be a hybrid between a tree, a brain and a mushroom cloud. “Obviously, he had all these ideas in mind of the brain because if you look at it, it has the pineal gland in the centre. The name of the original piece is ‘Atomic Blossom’. The most painful states of mind, like depression and suffering, are really juicy states. In some ways, they are like mushroom clouds, they’re very explosive. It’s about learning how to utilise them and steer them. Choosing album art is a precarious weird, mysterious process. I don’t know why I gravitate towards various things. A lot of the time, this stuff makes sense later and I get why I made that decision.”

The writing process differed to previous Cynic efforts in that Masvidal’s guitar work took a back seat in order to focus more of the attention on the rhythm section: “A lot of early Cynic stuff was rhythmically driven by the guitars and busy riffs, like 16th note pickings; that’s kind of what we were known for on ‘Focus’ and even ‘Traced in Air’. With this record, my thinking was to reduce that. For me, it’s a bold step to go. It’s stepping into a certain insecurity. Because it’s a real trio record, I thought there are moments where everybody comes up. It has that shape to it where there’s no one’s really featured. There’s just moments where everyone has their voice. It’s a drum and bass-centric record for sure. In some ways, I feel like my rhythm section guys are more prog rock than I am [laughs]. They’re the ones that do every Rush lick and every King Crimson song they’re were dissecting. I was too but I wasn’t perhaps as nerdy as they were about it. It’s a showcase of that kind of component for them. It’s all about trusting your gut and neither of us are really editing each other. I feel like we’re all in service of something and there’s a kind of instinct there that is innate.”

‘Kindly Bent to Free Us’ lyrically is the most personal album that Cynic have worked on. Masvidal elaborates on how this is not a straight-forward process for him: “In some ways for me, lyric writing is always about trying to get to the most naked and honest way possible. It’s really hard to do that. It’s hard to strip all the layers away and really find a way to say it without any embellishments or any pretension. I feel like this record gets closest to that in terms of touching something really honest. There are moments on other records where you get really close but it’s this thing that you’re reaching for. I don’t know if you ever arrive but it’s a process, a journey inward and outward [laughs].”

Not only do the lyrics deal with a personal touch but Masvidal states that each of Cynic’s releases have concentrated in the crushing beauty of death and the finality of life. “I feel like I’m always trying to reference some end of life perspective with everything. I think it’s trying to realise that life ends and that everyone you know will go away, including yourself at some point. There’s a preciousness to that that rips my heart open. It’s a beautiful fear because it’s the tragedy of living and it’s the heart of sadness. If I can remember that, then everything’s on track! Everything else is topical.”

This forthcoming album is undoubtedly one of the most highly-awaited in the metal sphere next year. Like all other Cynic releases, it will be praised as something daring and creative by some yet will probably dislodge some fan’s loyalties to the group. Either way, Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert have always musically challenged what has come before and although the new release is sure to stay true to the Cynic vessel, there will be a plethora of fresh ideas and atmospheres.