Three former AMON AMARTH members have joined forces in a new band called FIMBUL WINTER. The project consists of original AMON AMARTH members Niko Kaukinen on drums and Anders Biazzi (formerly Anders Hansson) on guitar, and former AMON AMARTH drummer Fredrik Andersson on lead guitar. Completing the lineup are Gustav Myrin on bass and Clint Williams on vocals.
FIMBUL WINTER will make its first official appearance on the Close-Up Båten cruise in September.
Says FIMBUL WINTER: “The focus for now is to play the old demo and classic songs we were all involved with in some way but we already have five original new songs written and demoed, some songs including riffs that were originally written for AMON AMARTH, which will be recorded and released at some point.
“The idea started with Niko wanting to play the demo ‘The Arrival Of The Fimbul Winter’, which he recorded over 30 years ago, at his 50th-birthday party. Fredrik thought it sounded like fun and offered to play the guitar. After that Anders was asked to join in and then with the addition of friends Linus Nirbrant on bass and Clint on vocals, a selected amount of friends got to experience this unique lineup and hear the tracks that once laid the foundation to what was to become. Having so much fun playing together and realizing all three former members had a ton of killer old-school material, the decision to keep on playing and to eventually record new songs was made.”
Andersson was fired from AMON AMARTH in March 2015, just as the band was preparing to enter the studio to begin work on its 2016 album “Jomsviking”. AMON AMARTH opted to enlist a session drummer, Tobias Gustafsson (VOMITORY, CUT UP),during the recording sessions for the disc, but hired Jocke Wallgren to join them on the road. Wallgren was named a permanent member of AMON AMARTH in September 2016.
In a 2016 interview with Brazil’s “Wikimetal” podcast, AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Mikkonen stated about the band’s split with Andersson: “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.”