Goats are the most metal animal, and as it turns out, they play a significant part in Viking lore as well. Amon Amarth's song "Heidrun," from the Swedish band's 2022 album, The Great Heathen Army, is dedicated to a mythological goat that supplies warriors with the mead they need to fuel their Viking escapades.
It's a great anthem, and today (August 4th), the band have released a four-track "Heidrun" EP that includes a new remix of the song, two live recordings of it and then a "Goat Remix" that contains actual audio from an actual living goat!
Amon Amarth also dropped a video for "Heidrun," which begins with a tragic newscast stating the band died in an onstage pyro accident, and then shows the whole gang partying merrily in what may or may not be some kind of afterlife. Watch above via YouTube.
"Heidrun is an interesting mythological character," frontman Johan Hegg said in a press release. "It's a goat that stands on the roof of Valhalla eating the leaf of the big tree Lärad. The milk that she gives is the honey/mead that the warriors in Valhalla drink each night.
"The lyrics themselves are both about Vikings traveling the world but also metaphorically what it is to be a touring musician."
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