Amon Amarth Re-Invent the Reissue and Swing the Battle Axe

Attention, Viking Metal Horde. Cease the pillaging. Put down the battle axe. Rejoice over the fact that Amon Amarth's hard-to-find, early releases have been reissued, with a twist.

"Our record sales have nearly doubled over the last three releases, and the old releases are hard to find, so we decided to re-releases the first four Metal Blade albums and to do some remastering," Amon Amarth drummer Fredrik Andersson told Noisecreep. "To make it special, we recorded all four albums live. So they're double albums with a studio recreation and a live rendition."

The band performed each album of the reissue series–'Once Sent from the Golden Hall,' 'The Avenger,' 'The Crusher' and 'Versus the World' -- over the course of a four shows in Germany; the played one record per night as part of this ambitious undertaking. "We had to re-learn the old songs we haven't played in forever," the skinsman said. "We practiced for a month to do those shows."

Andersson's favorite part of the process? Going back in time. "Since it's been a while, it was fun to play the songs again. 'Once Sent from the Golden Hall' is probably my favorite, since I didn't play drums on the original recording, so it was fun to put my interpretation on. I can listen to it with my own take on it. Old school fans may want it to be exact but I took what I felt was necessary to put my touch on it."

And about that whole Viking metal tag? Amon Amarth don't think much of it. "The term came later, after we had been playing for many years. We played melodic death metal and kept on doing that. Our lyrics are about Vikings, but we don't feel connected to the term, since 'Viking' bands are more folk oriented and use things like harmonicas." We'll just deem Amon Amarth semi-Vikings and they still slay.