AMON AMARTH Guitarist On Split With Drummer FREDRIK ANDERSSON: 'It's Like A Marriage That Doesn't Work'

March 10, 2016

Brazil's Wikimetal podcast recently conducted an interview with guitarist Olavi Mikkonen of Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Speaking about the March 2015 departure of drummer Fredrik Andersson and AMON AMARTH's decision to enlist a session drummer, Tobias Gustafsson (VOMITORY, CUT UP),during the recording sessions for the band's new album, "Jomsviking", Olavi said: "I don't really wanna go into details regarding Fredrik, but, basically, we just separated. It's kind of like a marriage that doesn't work, and you get divorced. And that's kind of what happened to our band. Right after that, we started to work [on] the new album, and we didn't wanna work with anybody we did not know, so that's why we took in Tobias. And Tobias is an old friend to the band; we've known him for many, many years. He was with us through the whole working process towards when the recording was finished. And, obviously, he cannot do the upcoming dates, so we have another guy that we are preparing for the upcoming touring. But, you know, it's so in early stages that I don't wanna say who he is at this point. But, you know, we're gonna take it quite easy. I mean, we've been together for so many years, and it's really difficult to find this new guy to come in and [be part of the band]. But, you know, whoever it's gonna be, it's gonna be good. So I have no worries."

"Jomsviking" will be released on March 25 via Metal Blade in North America and Sony Music internationally. The first concept record in AMON AMARTH's storied career tells a tragic tale of love and revenge, backed by the Swedes' trademark melodic, anthemic metal, which was produced and mixed once again by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT). The epic original story is set in the world of the Jomsvikings, the legendary order of mercenary Vikings.

Following "Jomsviking"'s release, AMON AMARTH will tour North America with fellow Swedes ENTOMBED A.D. and young USA metal upstarts EXMORTUS.

Interview (audio):

amonamarthjomsvikingcdonly

amonamarthjomsvikingcd

Find more on Amon amarth
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).