Jenna Williams, better known as The Scream Queen, recently caught up with AMON AMARTH guitarist Olavi Mikkonen to discuss the band's latest album, Surtur Rising. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: How do you feel Amon Amarth have grown as artists throughout the process of creating this album more so than every other album that's been released?

Mikkonen: "We try to work as a unit that everybody's involved, and I think this time around we were even more collaborating with each other. It was like, it didn't matter if I had a few riffs, or Johan (Söderberg/guitarist) had a started out with a few riffs, we just wrote it down, and then like everybody in the band, togheter we built it up. So I would say that's probably something that we -- of course we had done it in the past, but maybe not as much. So I would say, you know, the teamwork."

Q: When I was listening to Surtur Rising there was a lot of movement within the album, because it's so melodic, it just feels like it moves when you listen to it. Why is that such an important element to have within your songs?

Mikkonen: "Why? Because we like it that way (laughs). I don't know; for us, it is very important to have a good balance between brutality, heaviness, and melody. And the melodies are the strength of the band. And since traditional heavy metal, they have a melodic vocalist, we don't do melodic vocals. That's why the guitar melodies are very, very important, and those are the hooks. That's what you're going to remember. So, it's very, very important, and it's always been that. And, already when we started the band, we wanted to have a good mix of you know, the melody from heavy metal and the brutalness from SLAYER or DEATH or you know, BOLT THROWER, and stuff like that."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Surtur Rising was released in North America on March 29th via Metal Blade Records.

Surtur Rising tracklisting is as follows:

'War Of The Gods'

'Töck's Taunt - Loke's Treachery Part II'

'Destroyer Of The Universe'

'Slaves Of Fear'

'Live Without Regrets'

'The Last Stand Of Frej'

'For Victory Or Death'

'Wrath Of The Norsemen'

'A Beast Am I'

'Doom Over Dead Man'

Bonus Tracks:

'War Machine' (KISS cover)

'Balls To The Wall' (ACCEPT cover)

'Aerials' (SYSTEM OF A DOWN cover)