they then signed with metal blade records and released their first album, "once sent from the golden hall". the album made amon amarth famous internationally. in june of 1998, amon amarth was about to go on tour with deicide, six feet under, brutal truth when guitarist anders hansson left and was replaced by johan soderberg. after the tour martin lopez quit to join opeth and fredrik andersson (ex-a canorous quintet) came in. with him in spring 1999 the band recorded and released its second full-length, "the avenger".