On April 13th, Swedish bashers Amaranthe celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the release of their self-titled debut album. Guitarist Olof Mörck shared a look back on the process of making the record.

Mörck: "Years rack up quickly, and before you know it, they form a decade! Our self-titled debut album was a journey filled with quite a few challenges and question marks, luckily balanced with a hefty amount of youthful self-confidence. Leading up to the album recording there had passed quite a long time of record deal negotiations, and one got very close to be signed, about two years before the actual recordings. We even had the proper amount of songs for an album - although missing quite a few of the songs associated with the debut today; 'Hunger', 'Amaranthine', 'One Million Lightyears', 'Call Out My Name' to mention a few. In hindsight, it was a great thing that we were given some more time to perfect our songwriting formula.

In the Summer of 2010, we finally signed a deal with Finland's Spinefarm Records, and entered Jacob Hansen Studios in October the same year. We had a pretty sizable budget and a recording time of just over two months, though not really a specific workflow set in stone, resulting in a lot of trial and error before things started to take shape. 'Amaranthine' was more of a camp-fire acoustic ballad than the more contemporary treatment it received in the final version, and endless nightly hours were spent trying to set the perfect balance to the backing vocal harmonies. We generally spent a lot of time twisting, turning, and over-analyzing every single detail to the point where we were lagging behind the schedule more than a little. Which meant it was time to introduce everyone's favorite friend: Mr. CRUNCH! 

We recorded vocals until 3 or 4 in the morning while mixing in the morning, but did manage to get some surprisingly good takes out these sessions; for example, Elize's vocals on 'Amaranthine' were recorded at 2 AM, and is actually more or less one single take. In between mixing and vocal recordings, there would be solo tracking, all fueled with unhealthy amounts of Mr Hansen's famous studio coffee. When we started to roll out the first proper mixes ('Lightyears' being the first one done), however, the punch, grit, and general amount of polish very much exceeded our expectations. Beards were grown (and bellies, from unhealthy food), and the dark circles under our eyes spoke a clear story of the hard months of work, but our firstborn was done!

Personally, I think the production and polish hold up perfectly even today. Happy 10 years, Amaranthe!"

Amaranthe's self-titled debut was released on April 13th, 2011. It reached #35 and #16 on the Swedish and Finnish charts respectively. It also topped the Japanese Import charts, beating out Lady Gaga. A deluxe edition was released in October 2011, featuring two bonus tracks and a DVD.

Tracklist:

"Leave Everything Behind"    
"Hunger"    
"1.000.000 Lightyears"    
"Automatic"    
"My Transition"    
"Amaranthine"    
"Rain"    
"Call Out My Name"    
"Enter the Maze"    
"Director's Cut"    
"Act of Desperation"
"Serendipity"