During an interview with Loud TV, AMON AMARTH bassist Ted Lundström was asked if he thinks his band could become “the new IRON MAIDEN.”
He replied:
“It’s going to be hard to beat Iron Maiden. That’s my favorite band of all time. There will be all these old bands – they’re starting to quit. They got too old to play or they don’t want to play anymore.
“There will be spots that need to be filled with new bands. Of course, we’re going to do everything we can to take a spot like that. These are bands we look up to, Iron Maiden, for example.
“Their stage production, their live shows, it’s something that inspires us a lot, so, of course, we’re going to try our best to become an arena band, or do arena shows at least, in smaller venues.
“There are so many bands who want to be the best or the biggest or the coolest. You can never relax. You have to focus even more because since more and more bands do bigger shows, people expect more from a show.
“Not only listen to music because you can do that on a CD, but you want to have the rest. You want to have the show, the atmosphere, everything. You have to give the audience what they like. Otherwise, other bands will come to take your spot.”
Lundström also talked about the concept behind band’s upcoming album
Berserker, out on May 3rd, 2019 via Metal Blade Records.
“The idea came from the story. It’s one of the last battles between the Vikings and the Englishmen in England, the Stamford Bridge. The berserker is the most badass warrior you can think of.
“He fears nothing; he doesn’t feel pain and he’s wild. He’s like on drugs, almost. Everybody fears the berserker.
“At this point, the Viking army was fighting the Englishmen, but the Englishmen were quite a few more than the Vikings, but since they were on the bridge and he was holding the bridge all by himself against hundreds of Englishmen, just because of his aggression and his lack of fear – they were trying to take over the bridge, but he would stop them.
“In the end, they had to go into the river with long spears and stab him from underneath. That was the only way to kill him. They tried everything else. A story like that deserves a song and an album title. It’s powerful.
“We’re all interested in this thing, but Johan [Hegg] is the guy, our singer, he’s the one who reads all these stories. He really likes that. That’s why he writes all the lyrics because he knows all the stories and all the history. But we keep up with all this stuff, too.
“You have to if you’re in a band like this. People are going to ask you all the time about different mythology and every time you meet fans or do interviews, they will have a question, so you have to be educated in this field, otherwise, you’re going to be there standing like a fool.
“All these stories are great stories. You can read them to kids. But they’re also interesting for adults. It’s such a great treasure of cool myths and stories. It’s been like this for all the times – all ages, people have been telling stories and myths and all that.
“It’s been interesting for people forever. It’s going to be the same in the future. We’re just trying to spread our history to the rest of the world.”
