Cannibal Corpse has gore-soaked perversion and grotesque stories of the macabre. Alestorm and Swashbuckle have tales of the high seas, rum, the lash, and the pirate code. Tankard has beer, and lots of it. Gorgoroth, lineup changes notwithstanding, has the market cornered on all things satanic. In other words, the list of bands that have worked themselves into a productive, career-spanning niche goes on for miles. And near the top of that list, both alphabetically and in terms of modern-day success, would be Viking metal band Amon Amarth. Far from being limited by their chosen vehicle of expression, that obviously being Viking history and Norse mythology, imposing, perpetually long-bearded, and utterly affable front man Johan Hegg and his horde of pillaging comrades have carved out a career that is only now reaching the heights that they always thought they should be reaching.

With their latest album, Twilight of the Thunder God, a masterful work of melodic death metal, once again seeing Amon Amarth take a step in the right direction creatively and musically, there seems to be no stopping this tight-knit band of Viking warriors who, alarmingly, almost laid down their swords, shields, and horns of mead in 2002 following the release of Versus the World, the band’s fourth album for long-time label Metal Blade. But since those dark times Oden has smiled on the synchronized headbanging Swedes, and he and the rest of the Norse gods now seem to be firmly on their side. Hegg shared his thoughts on Amon Amarth’s journey thus far with Fight magazine before the mighty Norsemen played in Taipei in early December.

F: On Twilight of the Thunder God you had a number of guest appearances from L.G. Petrov from Entombed, Roope from Children of Bodom, Apocalyptica; why did you decide to have so many guest appearances on this album?

JH: Because we had the ideas. Some of the stuff we wanted to do for a long time, like the cello parts, but either we didn’t have the budget or we lacked the good ideas to use it. Now we had both. We had some cool ideas we wanted to try out and it worked fine.

F: When you were coming up with the ideas did you have the people who ended up doing the guest appearances in mind?

JH: The Petrov thing was actually, we met L.G. at the pub in Stockholm and asked him if he wanted to do a song with us, and that’s when we started writing that song. The cello part, we had an idea of using cellos and we decided to ask Apocalyptica if they were willing to contribute. Sort of the same with Roope; we had an idea of the type of solo we wanted and he’s a great guitar player and a great guy.

F: How would you compare Twilight of the Thunder God to your back catalogue of albums?

JH: I think all of our albums have been a steady progress and I think this is the best we’ve done in my opinion. It’s an evolution. On the evolution scale you see the monkey walking, we’re still on the monkey level. We’re getting to the humanoid part.

F: In a previous interview you mentioned that you took longer to record your vocals on this album than on any other. What led to this?

JH: We had a slave driver in the studio. Jens put a lot of focus on the vocals, phrasing and sound and everything, so that took a pretty long time to get everything down. I think it was great. It was really cool.

F: Seven albums into your career, where are you guys getting your inspiration for writing these days?

JH: Beer and whiskey. Lyric wise, it can come from anything. It can be a movie you watch, or something that happens in the world, or a book you read. You can take inspiration from almost anywhere. We use the Viking theme, and sometimes I use it as a metaphor for other stuff. It’s the way I’ve worked with lyrics for a long time.

F: The whole Versus the World album was about you guys having a tough time and thinking about ending the band. How close did you actually come to calling it quits?

JH: It’s hard to say but I think we were talking about it for a very long time. When we were writing that album we had the working name The End. It was going to be the last album. Things took a different turn for us.

F: What drove you to that point where you thought it was time to stop?

JH: I think we felt that we weren’t really getting anywhere; treading water, that our career isn’t taking off the way we hoped and expected it to do. But there was a lot of other things as well. We all had day jobs; combine that with touring and everything and it was tricky.

F: How do you feel about constantly being categorized as a Viking metal band?

JH: I guess it’s right. For me Viking metal has always been bands like Enslaved or Einherjer that play more black metal oriented music. The first time I heard the term was in association with those bands. There’s always going to be labels to music and I personally think that the Viking theme is just one part of this band.

F: What are the other parts from your point of view?

JH: I think the music is the most important part, actually. Musically we’re really heavy, heavy metal with clear death metal roots and melodies. That’s the most important thing. The lyrics may deal about Vikings but that’s kind of secondary. It does give us a certain image, of course, but to me the music comes first.

F: Do you ever feel limited by the whole Viking image?

JH: I don’t really feel limited about it. We’re probably as limited by that as Cannibal Corpse are by writing stuff about blood and guts, or any satanic band writing songs about the devil. You can always try new angles and find new inspiration. There’s so much stuff about the Viking history and mythology we haven’t even touched yet, so I don’t think there’s any limit to how far we can take this.

F: Now that you’ve been able to quit your day jobs and do Amon Amarth full time, how has that affected the band and the music?

JH: One thing that definitely is easier now is the relationships back home. Instead of going home and going straight to work you do have time to socialize with your family, which could be tricky before. On the other hand, we’re away a lot more now. It’s kind of a balancing act. The music thing, we can focus a lot more when we’re writing stuff and recording. Before, we had day jobs. We’d go to the rehearsal place in the evenings and try to put stuff together and you’re tired and you work all day. So of course it’s easier to focus on the task at hand when you can come to the rehearsal place every day with a fresh mind.

F: In the past you’ve talked about certain drinks, like a little bit of whiskey or tea, or foods, such as potato chips, that you use to keep your voice healthy. Do you have a particular eating or drinking regimen that you follow before shows or recording sessions?

JH: I try not to drink alcohol before the show, actually. But I do like a drink of ginger and lemon, which is pretty good for the vocals. A bit of whiskey can actually help because alcohol kind of relaxes you a little bit. But if you overdo it, that’s the tricky part. Then you get drunk and you strain yourself just because you’re drunk.

F: Amon Amarth has been described as a democratic band, is that a fair assessment?

JH: Yeah we have votes about almost everything.

F: How do you handle disagreements in the writing process?

JH: We’re a pretty tight-knit group and we’ve been together for a long time. We’ve had the same lineup since 1998. So this is more or less a family, and like any family we of course have our disagreements. We always manage to sort it out and at the end we can always talk about stuff. Of course we’re going to disagree every once in a while. If we didn’t that would be kind of weird I think.

F: You guys will hit India for the first time on this tour, as well as it being your first time in Taipei. How do you feel when going to new places where metal is newer than it is in Europe or North America?

JH: I think it’s really cool to be able to play for new fans. As much as we love playing in Europe or in the U.S. or Canada, it’s always great to meet new fans we’ve never played for before. It’s a special feeling, definitely. It’s always a lot of fun.

F: What are your goals for the future of the band?

JH: To go to new places to play for more people and hopefully we can write another great album. That’s the first priority, to make sure that the next album is another great album. The goal for this band I think has always been to tour a lot and that’s what we want to continue to do.

By Joe Henley