Viking metal band Amon Amarth have announced their first full-length album in three years. The nine-song set, titled The Great Heathen Army, will mark the veteran Swedish act’s 12th studio LP and arrive on August 5th via Metal Blade Records.
The album’s announcement comes accompanied with a new Amon Amarth single and music video for “Get in the Ring.” The song was written for AEW pro-wrestler Erick Redbeard, who also stars in the music video.
Amon Amarth vocalist Johan Hegg stated, “Overall, The Great Heathen Army is one of the heavier albums we’ve made. There are some dark and heavy songs that are really powerful and in-your-face, but we obviously have some trademark melodic Amon Amarth songs on there as well, and a few surprises too. It’s a really well-balanced album. It sounds great. [Producer] Andy Sneap is awesome. It was great to be able to work with him again.”
Guitarist Olavi Mikkonen added, “We’ve been away making new music and we’re back with new darker, more death-metal sounding album. If [2019’s] Berserker was our ‘heavy metal’ album, then The Great Heathen Army is our ‘death metal’ album. But with that said, it’s still very much contemporary Amon Amarth, but perhaps style-wise we have gone back to our roots a little bit.”
As for the story behind new single “Get In The Ring,” Mikkonen explains, “I really like ‘Get In The Ring,’ which was written for our friend Erick Redbeard the pro wrestler as an ‘entrance’ song for him. The lyrics are obviously written to fit both Viking and wrestling themes, and you can also see Erick as the lead character in the new video for the song. We shot the video in Wroclaw, Poland with our friends Grupa 13 and they helped us create this dark and epic Mad Max meets Viking underground super brutal fight club for the video clip.”
Earlier this year, Amon Amarth released the stand-alone single “Put Your Back Into the Oar,” which does not appear on the upcoming album. The band will embark on a European tour with Machine Head in the Fall, with tickets available via Ticketmaster.
Watch the video for “Get in the Ring” and check out the artwork and tracklist for Amon Amarth’s The Great Heathen Army album below. Pre-order the album here.
The Great Heathen Army Artwork:
The Great Heathen Army Tracklist:
01. Get In the Ring
02. The Great Heathen Army
03. Heidrun
04. Oden Owns You All
05. Find a Way or Make One
06. Dawn of Norsemen
07. Saxons and Vikings
08. Skagul Rides With Me
09. The Serpent’s Trail