Amon Amarth worked on “The Allfather Awakens” in a way they had never done before: the album was written on the move, out on tour, and recorded one whole song at a time instead of the classic model of “all the drums first, then the guitars, then the vocals”. Their thirteenth record comes out on 2 October 2026 via Metal Blade Records.
The recording took place in two sessions months apart, at the studio of Jacob Hansen in Ribe, Denmark — the first time the band worked with him. Bassist Ted Lundström explained on “TalkShopLive” that the idea was theirs: “we had five or six songs each time, so we could focus 100% on each one. If you record ten songs in a row, you have so many riffs in your head that the quality gets lost somewhere”. So each song was completed — drums, bass, guitars, vocals — before the next one opened, which also gave Johan Hegg time to rest his voice.
Hegg pointed to a second benefit of the method: at the end of each session they could listen back to the songs and change things, something impossible before, when the drums had already been “closed” for all the songs. “It was a very relaxed way to work,” he added.
The writing started earlier than usual, because the tour dragged on longer than they expected. The two guitarists, Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, worked on riffs gradually on the road, and the band had a warm-up room available with electronic drums and small amps to try out ideas. Hegg recalled that the band has not had a proper rehearsal space for more than a decade — this solution covered the gap somewhat.
The record is not a concept album. It is different stories around conflict, sacrifice and the pursuit of knowledge, tied to the god Odin, with some historical motifs from the Vikings’ relationship with him as well. Recording ran from spring 2025 to March 2026, with the band leaving behind the 5150 amps and going back to Marshall for a more “old” sound. “Upphaf” is the first acoustic song they have ever recorded, in the middle of the album, and the title track “The Allfather Awakes” was written last. The cover is a portrait of Odin by Tom Thiel — his seventh work for the band.
The songs
The songs on “The Allfather Awakens”:
- Gjallarhorn
- Eight Legs Of Thunder
- Kvasir’s Blood
- We Rule The Waves
- Upphaf
- Die With A War Cry
- Raven God
- The Allfather Awakes
- Oden’s Hunt
- Ascending Like An Eagle
In the autumn Amon Amarth head out to North America with Dethklok and Castle Rat, with a new stage production built around Odin’s “golden hall”. The lineup remains the familiar one: Johan Hegg on vocals, Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg on guitars, Ted Lundström on bass and Jocke Wallgren on drums.
See also: Amon Amarth – They announce the new album “The Allfather Awakens” | Amon Amarth: New single “Eight Legs Of Thunder”
