Amon Amarth: Drummer split felt like divorce

Amon Amarth guitarist Olavi Mikkonen says splitting with drummer Fredrik Andersson was like going through a divorce.

The sticksman split with the band after 17 years in March last year for “private reasons.”

Mikkonen tells Wikimetal: “I don’t really want to 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.

“But we’re going to take it quite easy. We’ve been together for so many years, and it’s really difficult to find this new guy to come in and be part of the band. But, whoever it’s going to be, it’s going to be good. So I have no worries.”

Frontman Johan Hegg said earlier this month that the band were still hunting for Andersson’s permanent replacement – despite calling in Vomitory drummer Tobias Gustafsson to record their latest album Jomsviking. It’s out on March 25 and is available to pre-order.

They’ll trial an unnamed drummer on their 2016 tour dates, which includes an appearance at the Download festival on June 12.

Amon Amarth feature in the latest edition of Metal Hammer magazine, out now in print, digital and via TeamRock+.

AMON AMARTH JOMSVIKING TRACKLIST

First Kill
Wanderer
On A Sea Of Blood
One Against All
Raise Your Horns
The Way Of Vikings
At Dawn‘s First Light
One Thousand Burning Arrows
Vengeance Is My Name
A Dream That Cannot Be
Back On Northern Shores

AMON AMARTH 2016 TOUR DATES

Mar 22: London Underworld, UK
Mar 23: Paris Divan Du Monde, France
Mar 24: Tilburg Hall Of Fame, Netherlands
Mar 25: Berlin Postbahnhof, Germany
Apr 07: San Diego House Of Blues, CA
Apr 08: Phoenix The Pressroom, AZ
Apr 09: El Paso Tricky Falls, TX
Apr 10: Albuquerque Sunshine Theater, NM
Apr 12: Dallas House Of Blues, TX
Apr 13: San Antonio The Aztec Theater, TX
Apr 15: Houston House Of Blues, TX
Apr 16: New Orleans House Of Blues
Apr 17: Atlanta Tabernacle, GA
Apr 18: Tampa The Ritz, FL
Apr 20: Charlotte The Fillmore, NC
Apr 21: Silver Spring The Fillmore, MD
Apr 22: New York PlayStation theatre, NY
Apr 23: Boston House Of Blues, MA
Apr 25: Rochester Water Street Music Hall, NY
Apr 26: South Burlington Higher Ground, VT
Apr 28: Quebec Imperial, QC
Apr 29: Montreal Metropolis, QC
Apr 30: Toronto The Danforth, ON
May 01: Cleveland House Of Blues, OH
May 02: Detroit St Andrews, MI
May 04: St louis The Pageant, MO
May 05: Chicago The Riviera Theatre, IL
May 06: Lawrence The Granada Theater, KS
May 07: Denver The Ogden Theater, CO
May 09: Omaha Sokol Auditorium, NE
May 10: Minneapolis Varsity Theater, MN
May 12: Winnipeg The Garrick, MB
May 13: Saskatoon O’Brian’s Event Centre, SK
May 14: Calgary MacEwan Ballroom, AB
May 16: Vancouver The Commodore, BC
May 17: Seattle Showbox Market, WA
May 18: Portland Roseland Theater, OR
May 20: San Francisco The Warfield, CA
May 21: Los Angeles The Wiltern Theater, CA
Jun 03: Nuremberg Rock Im Park, Germany
Jun 05: Nymegen Goffertpark, Netherlands
Jun 09: Nickelsdorf Nova Rock, Austria
Jun 10: Interlaken Greenfield Festival, Switzerland
Jun 11: Paris Download festival, France
Jun 12: Donington Download Festival, UK
Jun 17: Dessel Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium
Jun 18: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 23: Copenhagen Copenhell, Denmark
Jun 25: Halden Tons Of Rock, Norway
Jul 01: Norrkoping Bravalla Festival, Sweden
Jul 02: Leipzig With Full Force, Germany
Jul 15: Pecs Rockmaraton, Hungary

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.