Musical Style and Lyrical Themes
The band bases most of their songs on Norse mythology, the Viking Age, and the pre-Christian world. This mythology is an element that originally emerged as an ideological off-shoot of black metal in a genre known as Viking metal in the early 1990s, made popular by such bands as Bathory and Enslaved. The band, however, does not classify itself as a Viking metal band.
When asked to comment on the band's genre, vocalist Johan Hegg remarked:
| “ | We play death metal. We write about vikings so, therefore, some refer us to viking metal, but I have no idea what that is. I can't imagine the Vikings were into metal at all except on the swords and stuff. And musically, I guess they only played these strange lip instruments and some bongos or whatever. | ” |
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—The Metal Web's interview with Johan Hegg |
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Hegg spoke of the band's unwillingness to be labeled and insisted that they've never called themselves Viking metal. "In our mind very much associated with bands that come out of Norway who are playing a very black metal oriented music and that’s not what we play. Sure, we have the same inspirations when it comes to the lyrical themes but musically we’re a completely different kind of metal so it’s tricky", Hegg added.
Hegg has also addressed the band's relationship to the pagan metal phenomenon and their choice of subject matter:
| “ | We don’t really see ourselves as one of those bands doing pagan folklore music. The reason we took the Viking theme and mythology theme as a lyrical theme for the band was, perhaps, more accidental from the start. When we wrote the first song with Viking lyrics, we felt it was a topic that suited the music that we wanted to write really well...It was something different, as well, from a lot of other bands. In Sweden, I think only Bathory and Unleashed had done anything like it. For us, it was to do something different, to stand out a little bit, to use those lyrics. | ” |
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—The Norse Mythology Blog's interview with Johan Hegg |
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Read more about this topic: Amon Amarth
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