Amaranthe’s Elize Ryd and Olof Mörck can clearly remember the night they met. It was 2005 during an evening at Gothenburg’s now-defunct Diamond Dogs rock bar. At the time, Elize was an aspiring singer who had sung on a track by local band Falconer, catching the attention of Olof, who was making a name for himself as the guitarist in power metal band Dragonland. That night, they talked about the bands they loved for hours, discussed the universe and watched the stars. By the end of the night, they’d struck up what Elize describes today as a “spiritual” connection.
“We just knew, if we stuck together, we would create great things.” That’s exactly what they did. Since releasing their self-titled debut in 2011, Amaranthe have become one of the hardest-working bands in metal, releasing six albums and touring incessantly. And in that time, they’ve established themselves as one of power metal’s most OTT operators, with three bombastic vocalists backed by an undeniably divisive blend of death metal, power metal, pop and electronica, resembling ABBA on a bloodthirsty rampage.
