Amon Amarth Coming To Conquer Canada

11/29/07 5:30pm

by Pete Richards (CHARTattack)

Swedish Viking metallers Amon Amarth will start plundering Canada next week on a headlining North American tour that stops in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

This gives Canadian fans the chance to see Amon Amarth take the stage for a full 90 minutes. The last time the death metal band came to Canada was earlier this summer as part of the extreme metal festival, Sounds Of The Underground, which alienated some diehard fans.

"Sounds Of The Underground was a perfect way for us to get our band name out there to promote this upcoming, newest tour," vocalist Johan Hegg says on the phone from Sweden. "If our fans want to see us, we need to get a bigger fan base to be able to come tour ourselves, otherwise it won't be possible. When we tour for our fans, we want to do a full-blown set."

Touring with SOG gave Amon Amarth the opportunity to play throughout midwestern Canada in cities they don't often reach. Hegg would love to do a more extensive Canadian tour in the future because of the rabid fans he encountered country-wide.

"We went to Winnipeg, we went to Regina, we went to Edmonton and Calgary, and we've never been there before. It was a perfect opportunity for us to go there and play and those shows, especially the ones in Edmonton and Calgary, which were probably the best ones on the tour. We need to do tours like Sounds Of The Underground to get promoters in those areas to notice us. That's also the problem sometimes. The fans might want to see you, but the promoters don't know who we are."

After doing the promotional thing with Sounds Of The Underground, Hegg says it's extremely important for Amon Amarth to return with a more extensive tour because it gives longtime fans the ability to see them play for more than 20 minutes without forking over a hefty ticket price.

"We know we have a lot of fans in North America, especially in Canada, and it's important that we can come over there and do a full set for them so they can see us. Not just see us as an opener, but also as a headlining act. I think that's really important for us to do that."

You can see Amon Amarth with openers Himsa and Sonic Syndicate here:

Dec. 5 Montreal, QC @ The Medley
Dec. 6 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
Dec. 14 Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Centre