Deceiver of the Gods

The Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth's ninth studio album, Deceiver Of The Gods, is another collection of tales of Norse crusades and treachery. The title track introduces the Viking god Loki, who serves as the protagonist for the set. Loki was the god of strife and the spirit of evil in Norse mythology. Singer Johan Hegg explained to Lords Of Metal why they made him central character. "We agreed this before I started writing lyrics," he said. "I slowly grew into the matter. Loki appeared to be an interesting character, a trivial one, because sometimes he supports the gods, but other times he misleads them. That is one of the reasons we have chosen him." "He has talents to help the gods," Hegg continued, "but most of the time he is also the one who brings them in trouble. He is very sly. He's got powers within his reach to achieve a lot of things, but he can do terrible things with those powers as well, as a bad, selfish man. Actually he is the god with the most human characteristics."

Speaking on Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, Hegg said that he didn't need to get into the right frame of mind to write about Norse mythology for Deceiver of the Gods as he lives it all the time. "It's something that's always — since I was very young — been a part of my life," said the vocalist. "Almost a way of thinking for me nowadays. It's not like I step in and out of it; I live it 24/7, in a way." "For this album, I kind of actually took the easy way out and tried not to go too deep with double meanings," added Hogg. "Like metaphors and stuff. I tried to think very cinematically. Like, if this was a song for a movie, what would that movie be about? Who would be the characters? What would happen to them? That was kind of, to make the song, the music go, or the lyrics go with the music in a better way. So, from that perspective, it was kind of easy to write the lyrics. Obviously, you have to have the right ideas. It came fairly easy on this one."

The song's music video includes clips from the movie Northmen - A Viking Saga, which features Johan Hegg as Vall.