Artist: Amon Amarth & Entombed

Venue:  Academy 2, Manchester

Date: 31 October 2009  

Entombed
Following the tragic passing of Evile bassist Mike Alexander and the band’s subsequent cancellation of the rest of the tour, Entombed pay a fitting tribute to such a great guy by rather than calling for a minute’s silence, having a minute’s cheering and loudness instead, which is observed by everyone and is a truly moving sight to see. Mike – RIP good sir, you will be greatly missed.

By the time Entombed take the stage, the room is already pretty full and is getting more and more swelteringly hot by the minute but those of us who don’t go out for a breather and persevere with the heat are treated to 45 minutes of the grooviest death metal you’ll ever hear that gets the guys banging their heads and the girls shaking their assess. Yes, that’s right, death metal that you can shake your ass to. If you’ve never heard or seen Entombed before, imagine what it would be like if At the Gates got drunk and decided to jam to a set of AC/DC covers and you’d have a fairly good idea of what to expect from these guys. 

The band have often been described as ‘Death & Roll’ which is a pretty accurate assessment and in this regard, they can rightly claim to be in a league of their own. They play a tight set and in singer Lars Göran Petrov, they have as warm and affectionate frontman as you could hope for, a man (and band for that matter) who look genuinely pleased to be on stage. There was a good representation of old-school metallers here tonight for Entombed and the younger crowd who may not have known about them yet certainly seemed more than intrigued and a giant moshpit breaks out for set-closer ‘Left Hand Path’ leaving everyone begging for more. Hopefully this tour will help raise the profile of a band that has been underrated in this country for far too long now.

Amon Amarth

Another band who are able to pull off death metal with a strong sense of groove and melody are tonight’s headliners. Amon Amarth have come a long way in the last few years with 2006’s ‘With Oden on Our Side’ and, in particular, last year’s brilliant ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’ albums gaining them further international acclaim. 

It’s great to see them selling out venues this size when only five years ago that thought would’ve seemed so far off and it’s a testament to their hard work and their much-improved songwriting abilities that they are now able to do that. 

When they take to the stage, the crowd go seven shades of mental in their applause and appreciation and from the moment the title track of last year’s ‘Twilight...’ album kicks in, Amon Amarth don’t let up with the Viking metal anthems and everyone’s heads are banging for a solid hour and a half, singer Johan Hegg pausing only to show how genuinely chuffed he is to be here – seriously, the man has an enormous grin on his face throughout the whole show – and this enthusiasm is transferred to the crowd who faithfully bellow every word back at him. This serves to spur the band on even more and when they show off their more melodic side with the excellent ‘Runes to my Memory’ or the fantastically catchy ‘Guardians of Asgaard’ (I defy anyone to witness this song live and not hum it for the next 3 days straight!), the entire place is jumping and when they play set-closer ‘The Pursuit of Vikings’, the place goes absolutely berserk.

While some may not get the whole ‘Viking Metal’ phenomena or fully understand why it’s so popular, one thing’s for sure – it’s here to stay for the time being at least with Amon Amarth currently leading the pack by a long way. 

While some would be forgiven for thinking choruses like “Oden, guide our ships, our axes, spears and swords...” come off as being a little cheesy, they are missing the point – Amon Amarth and their tales of Viking warriors represent not only another culture, but a part of our own culture in the UK that we have sorely forgotten. 

Not only that, it provides escapism from the outside world that many of us definitely need every now and again and it’s the perfect soundtrack for getting drunk and having a good time. The band are incredibly tight tonight and pull the whole thing off like a well-oiled machine (the synchronised head-banging being a particular highlight) and there’s no reason why on the next album tour they won’t be selling out the main academy just a few hundred feet away – they have the look, the professionalism and, most importantly, the songs to take them even further – and judging by the large number of people outside who were unable to get a ticket tonight, that shouldn’t be a problem.  

Those who saw the band at Download last year or Bloodstock this year will know that Amon Amarth seem incapable of playing a sub-standard show and always rise to the occasion and if the fact that this is their biggest headlining UK tour to date was some sort of test, then based on tonight’s performance, Amon Amarth have passed with flying colours.

Setlist: ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’, ‘Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags’, ‘Valkyries Ride’, ‘Asator’, ‘Varyags of Miklagaard’, ‘Hermod’s Ride to Hell’, ‘Guardians of Asgaard’, ‘Where Silent Gods Stand Guard’, ‘Live for the Kill’, ‘Fate of 

Norns’, ‘Death in Fire’, ‘Runes to my Memory’, ‘Victorious March’. Encore: ‘Cry of the Black Birds’, ‘The Pursuit of Vikings’

Review by: Adam G.

 

All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated.