amon_amarth_2012_03

» Amon Amarth 2012 03 03

Reviewed by Tobbe
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Special guest: Profane Omen
City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: Göta Källare
Date: 03 March 2012
Set length: 82 minutes

Amon Amarth

Swedish melodic death metal quintet Amon Amarth are back in their hometown for yet another gig, just ten months past their last one, still promoting their fantastic album, Surtur Rising. This venue has an age limit of eighteen, so the mosh pit was smaller than usual, even though some people were drinking heavy amounts of alcohol before and during the show on this chilly Saturday night. For people not familiar with this band, their lyrics are mainly stories about Norse mythology, vikings or against Christianity.

After a short intro, the band enters the stage and opens this show with the ferocious War Of The Gods from above mentioned album. Even if some chords and the solo aren't played with perfection, the audience is on their feet from the very first seconds and this is in fact a death metal show, so why bother if some tones are missing? The show continues with a pair of catchy songs, Amon Amarth wise, and you could really see the delight in people's movements and headbanging during Runes To My Memory and Destroyer Of The Universe.

The Pursuit Of Vikings is played early in the set and of course this is one of the crowd's favorite songs, so lead singer Johan Hegg had a singalong during the final chorus. He seemed very satisfied with the crowd and was glad to be back home again, before leaving for Gothenburg tomorrow.

A pair of surprises for me were played tonight. First, The Beheading Of A King, which didn't go down that well, because most people in the crowd probably aren't too familiar with that song. Second, Under The Northern Star, which in fact went down great and was a well deserved break after fifty minutes of death metal, as the venue seemed to had lost their air condition system totally.

When looking back at last year's gig, they played seven songs tonight who weren't played then. A good move and without decreasing quality. The first three records were left out tonight and only one song, Death In Fire, was played from the first half of their career, so fans of that era maybe were not so satisfied with the band's choice of setlist.

Twilight Of Thunder God was tonight's highlight with loud singing from the crowd and was also the first encore, followed by Guardians Of Asgaard, which closed the set, even if it's not a worthy closer to an Amon Amarth show and somewhat of an anticlimax. A good song if played anywhere else in the set however.

It was indeed a great show, but the lack of pyros and effects, only 82 minutes of playing time and the poor sound quality during the first songs forces me to step one or two steps down and stay at 7 chalices, even if the actual performance deserved an even better rating.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 6 chalices of 10
Best: Twilight Of The Thunder God
Worst: Where Is Your God?

Setlist:

Intro
War Of The Gods
Runes To My Memory
Destroyer Of The Universe
Live Without Regrets
The Pursuit Of Vikings
For Victory Or Death
The Beheading Of A King
Slaves Of Fear
The Fate Of Norns
Where Is Your God?
Under The Northern Star
Free Will Sacrifice
Cry Of The Black Birds
Death In Fire
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Intro
Twilight Of The Thunder God
Guardians Of Asgaard