During their ongoing European tour, Amon Amarth had decided to grace their home-country Sweden with two shows (three actually, but one was at a festival, not a regular concert), the first of which was in their own hometown, Stockholm. We here at Metalmoments saw it as our sworn duty and calling to go check these shows out and report back to you who couldn’t be there what they were like...

As I mentioned, the first show was played in Stockholm, at a small place called Göta Källare, a place which have been around for a long time, yet it was still my first visit there. It gave a nice enough impression with an open floor, private booths against the one side and a bar on the other, and a balcony (closed for the show) overhead.
Supporting Amon Amarth for the evening was a Finnish band called Profane Omen, and even though they seemed to do a fine job, various circumstances which we need not delve deeper into prevented us from taking full part in their show.
As Amon Amarth came on however, our full and undivided attention was directed at the stage (well, ok, the Fagerhult Export in my hand got a bit of love as well), and for good reason – we expected greatness and nothing less!

After the usual intro the show kicked into gear with the uncompromising opener off the Surtur Rising album (this was, after all, the Surtur Rising tour...), War Of The Gods, and howls and headbanging in the tightly packed audience followed quickly in its wake. Where all the people came from I cannot say, as during Profane Omen’s show the hall had been nearly empty, and now all of a sudden it was just as nearly impossible to move because of the pressure the crowd was causing.
After the initial onslaught, Amon Amarth made a quick detour to With Oden On Our Side and more precisely the song Runes To My Memory, before returning to the latest album with Destroyer Of The Universe. The song received an equally positive response from the crowd, but more importantly the sound made a distinct turn for the better. To be fair though, in the back the sound had been good all along, but up front, and especially a bit to the side where I was standing, it had surely left something to be desired in the beginning. One of the most important recoveries was that Johan Hegg’s vocals now became audible, something that lifted the mood of the show considerably. If nothing else, at least the loud chanting of "Hey!" would tell you this without fail...

The first three songs were ripped through in quick succession, but after this initial blast things settled a bit. Not during the songs mind you, but between them, where Hegg began uttering some well-chosen words to keep us further entertained. Among other things mentioned, he (and the band) was really pleased to be back playing on their own home-turf, and it goes without saying that this went down well with the mostly Stockholm-resident filled crowd.
There was also the classic emptying of the drinking horn, and the mention of his favourite motto (for the song For Victory Or Death), and by these two remarks maybe you can see a sadly not so uplifting point I’m aiming for – a lot of the show was standard, no more.
I would like to point out that I have never seen Olavi Mikkonen so energetic and active on a stage before and it was a delight to see, but counter-weighing this was Fredrik Andersson who almost looked asleep behind the drums. Don’t get me wrong, his drumming was impeccable as far as I could hear, but it seemed his heart was not in it. Also Hegg and bassist Ted Lundström mostly seemed to be going through the moves, as it were, whereas Johan Söderström certainly had his moments but wasn’t as consistently on as Mikkonen.
Hegg did get a few well-deserved laughs out of his presentation for The Beheading Of A King though, which he introduced by saying it was a song about a great sea battle, and that no, he did not mean a drinking binge (translation note; in Swedish, a slang term for drinking binge is sjöslag, which directly translates to sea battle).

Don’t get me wrong either, the show was highly enjoyable, and it wasn’t that we in the crowd didn’t have any fun. The biggest responses came with The Pursuit Of Vikings which had the audience jumping and loudly singing along, something which the two encore songs Twilight Of The Thunder God and Guardians Of Asgaard also saw a lot of, although I’m pretty sure Twilight... came in a cropped version this evening, reasons unknown.

Yes, even though I would in the end deem this to be a standard show Amon Amarth, I still had a very good time, and for two reasons mainly.
1) It was a long time since I saw the band live last, and
2) Even though it was standard, you must realize that Amon Amarth’s standard is pretty high in comparison to the generic metal show.
Still, it did lack that extra energy which I had expected from them when playing in the very cradle of the band, and frankly, I had hoped for a little more surprises on the setlist side...

Setlist:

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 Blackbirds
Death In Fire
Twilight Of The Thunder God
Guardians Of Asgaard