The introductory single “Get In the Ring” serves as the new entrance track for professional wrestler and music video co-star Erick Redbeard of AEW.
Following a succession of social media hints fueling speculation, metal’s undisputed legends of Viking lore in Amon Amarth have confirmed their landmark 12th full length campaign with the announcement of The Great Heathen Army.
Confirming an August 5th arrival date via heavy culture champions Metal Blade Records, the album delivers a colossal 9-track offensive that showcases Amon Amarth’s more sinister musical sensibilities.
Vocalist Johann Hegg explains the creative direction of the band’s most recent offering. “Overall ‘The Great Heathen Army’ is one of the heavier albums we’ve made. There are some dark and heavy songs that are really powerful and in-your-face, but we obviously have some trademark melodic Amon Amarth songs on there as well, and a few surprises too. It’s a really well-balanced album.”
The band’s guitarist Olavi Mikkonen, reiterated how The Great Heathen Army is a bit of a return to form for the Swedish metal horde. “We’ve been away making new music and we’re back with new darker, more death-metal sounding album. If Berserker was our heavy metal album, then The Great Heathen Army is our death metal album.But with that said, it’s still very much contemporary Amon Amarth, but perhaps style-wise we have gone back to our roots a little bit.”
To officially usher in the next era of Amon Amarth, the band is introducing The Great Heathen Army with some cinematic spectacle, enlisting AEW superstar Erick Redbeard as the pugilist/protagonist of the first visual for “Get In the Ring”. Bridging the worlds of Viking culture and wrestling showmanship, the track now serves as the ring walk song for Redbeard – primed to ignite arenas with it’s heavy-handed audio aggression.
Mikkonen further discussed the how the track set the bar for the launch of the band’s next campaign. “I really like “Get In The Ring” which was written for our friend Erick Redbeard the pro-wrestler as an entrance song for him. The lyrics are obviously written to fit both Viking and wrestling themes, and you can also see Erick as the lead character in the new video for the song. We shot the video in Wroclaw, Poland with our friends Grupa13 and they helped us create this dark and epic Mad Max meets Viking underground super brutal fight club for the video clip.”
The August 5th unveiling of The Great Heathen Army commences the band’s 2022 global charge – kicking off with epic co-headlining run of Europe and the UK alongside genre stalwarts Machine Head for the Vikings and Lionhearts tour. The sprawling 31-date stretch of arena shows begins September 8th and runs through October 22nd where the trek hosts its finale in Stuttgart, Germany. A full list of dates can be found below.
Pre-orders for The Great Heathen Army are available now – HERE. In addition to stash of exclusive vinyl variants, the band has also released a fresh crop of album themed merch and a variety of bundles as well as a limited edition box set (only 5000 made) that features the album, a 1000 piece puzzle, an album patch, poster, a bottle topper and a set of Amon Amarth trading cards – ideal for the collector.
Stream the Grupa13 helmed visual for “Get In the Ring” featuring Erick Redbeard of AEW below.
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