Jomsviking

This is the tenth album by the band from Stockholm. Andy Sneap produced and mixed it, and Metal Blade Records released it on 25 March 2016; it was recorded and mixed at Backstage Productions in Derbyshire. It is their first concept album. Johan Hegg has described the story: the world of the Jomsvikings, the mercenary order said to have existed in the tenth and eleventh centuries, is the background for a young man in love with a girl who is married off to someone else. In the confusion he kills a man by accident and has to flee, swearing revenge and swearing to win her back. He cannot let the past go, and it does not end happily. Hegg sings, with Olavi Mikkonen on lead guitar, Johan Soderberg on rhythm guitar, Ted Lundstrom on bass and Tobias Gustafsson playing drums on the session. Doro Pesch sings clean female vocals on "A Dream That Cannot Be". Renee Trotier of Exclaim! wrote that longtime listeners might be thrown by the more melodic, traditional metal elements, but that they suit the narrative and are a natural evolution of the band's style. It was certified gold in Germany.