Amaranthe


Amaranthe is a Swedish heavy metal band, originally known as Avalanche. The band is notable for having three lead vocalists: Elize Ryd, Henrik Englund Wilhelmsson, and Nils Molin, each presenting a different vocal style.

History

Formed by Olof Mörck and Joacim "Jake E" Lundberg in 2008, the project began taking shape when singers Elize Ryd and Andreas Solveström signed on, as did drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen. Bassist Johan Andreassen joined after the photoshoot for the Leave Everything Behind demo but before the recording of the first album Amaranthe. The band was originally called Avalanche until May 2009, when they were forced to change their name due to legal issues. The members chose to rename the band Amaranthe. They later released their first demo, Leave Everything Behind.
The band's debut album, Amaranthe, was released in April 2011 and reached a peak position of 35th on Swedish charts and 16th on Finnish Charts. Their second album, The Nexus, was released in March 2013. Guitarist Olof Mörck described the album as having greater contrasts, a more controversial mix of genres, and featuring more creative freedoms than Amaranthe. According to Olof, the band "took everything to eleven" in the new album. The album reached 6th on Swedish charts, 4th on Finnish charts, and reached a peak of 12th on the US Heatseekers charts.
In October 2013, harsh vocalist Solveström left the band and was replaced by Henrik Englund Wilhelmsson. Their third album, Massive Addictive, was released on 21 October 2014. A special compilation Breaking Point - B-sides 2011-2015 was released on 30 October 2015. It consists b-sides and bonus tracks from Amaranthe's career. Their fourth album, Maximalism, was released on 21 October 2016.
In November 2016, male clean vocalist Jake E announced that he would take a break from the band. In February 2017, the band confirmed that he was permanently leaving. In March 2017, he joined CyHra. In July 2017, Amaranthe stated on their Facebook page that Nils Molin of Dynazty would join the band as their permanent vocalist, after filling in for Jake E on tour dates.
On 10 August 2018, they released their new single, "365", from their new album Helix, which itself was released on 19 October. At that time, they wrote and performed the credits theme song to the 12 oz. Mouse special "INVICTUS".
On 16 October 2019, they announced that they had signed with Nuclear Blast Records.
On 3 January 2020, the band released their rendition of Sabaton's "82nd All the Way", originally taken from Sabaton's 2019 studio album The Great War.
On 13 February 2020, the band released the single "Do or Die", which features former Arch Enemy-vocalist Angela Gossow on growling vocals and Arch Enemy-guitarist Jeff Loomis on the guitar solo. The official music video, which was filmed in Spain, was released the next day. In the music video's description, the band's label Nuclear Blast announced that their sixth studio album would be released in September 2020.
On 5 March 2020, the band released the music video for "Endlessly", originally from the album Maximalism. The video was directed, filmed and edited by and is actually the documentation of the Transylvanian wedding between guitarist Olof Mörck and his wife Catalina Popa, which took place on 19 July 2019 at Sungarden, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Amaranthe had announced on June 26, 2020, that their sixth studio album titled Manifest will be released on October 2, 2020. The first single 'Viral' was released on June 26, 2020.

Musical style

Reviews of Amaranthe's style are varied, though they all acknowledge that they are mainly a subgenre of heavy metal. According to AllMusic, Amaranthe's musical style mixes death metal with melodic pop music, giving for a feel of metalcore overall. Lead singer Elize Ryd acknowledges the difficulties in trying to ascribe their music to one specific genre and describes Amaranthe's sound as "dance-rock with a taste of death and modern/melodic metal," though she admits that, unlike death metal, their focus is on "positive energy" and "open up minds give passion, strength and love". MusicMight classifies the band as melodic death metal and power metal. Sputnikmusic's overview of the band refers to them as an outfit that is a hybrid of metalcore and power metal, more specifically, combining heavy riffs and breakdowns with Ryd's "soaring vocals."

Band members

Current members
Former members
Former touring members

Discography