Amon Amarth
Scandinavian Congress Center, Aarhus - 2019
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Swedish vikings invade Denmark! Run for the hills, hide all your furniture under the couch, release the hounds, …
I forget where I’m going with this, but the point is, it was time for Amon Amarth, headliner of the evening, to take the stage. Lights down, curtain up, cue the intro…
“God aften Aarhus! God aften Danmark! Hvor er det godt at se jer. Har I det godt? I aften skal vi have en fed vikingefest, ikke?!”
- Johan Hegg (vocals)
Johan Hegg explained that his Danish wasn’t very good, but he used it anyway, which was very popular with the natives. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
As mentioned with the other bands playing this show, there was a world of difference in seeing them here in Denmark, compared to seeing them in Sweden the day before. Now, you might be fooled to think that the Swedish audience had been better, given the fact that we had three Swedish bands on our hands, but nothing could be further from the truth. The difference could be felt even before the band walked on - while the curtain still hung in place, and before even the lights had gone down, people were happily and loudly singing along to Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills, which once again played as an intro. Alright, we’re well off from the start.
Things didn’t exactly quiet down with the band dropping the curtain in front of the stage, and beginning the show in flames and thunderous music. The Danes showed their power with their own singing, and by the time we reached Death In Fire, the party was peaking with headbanging, moshing, and crowdsurfing. I say peaking, but that peak continued through the rest of the night, so we’re talking about a very long, flat peak here.
When Loke came on in person, he was greeted with equally enthusiastic cheers as the band members had been earlier, and shortly, the cheers were back to singing - Hegg didn’t really need to do much hard work, but the smile on his face told us he loved what he saw.
Predictions Of Warfare saw the crowd rowing, and not just a handful of people either, but rather close to half the people who had shown up did it - damn impressive!
Most impressive was the courage of the crowd surfers however, who willingly let their bodies be carried straight towards the flaming waves that billowed from the stage every so often. Well, those, and then the absolutely mental fucker that chose to stagedive from the security fence during Guardians Of Asgaard.
Oddly enough, taken the superb response the band was receiving in consideration, Hegg didn’t ask for a sing-along session in that song.
Still, with everything else the band dished up with, that was only a small part to miss out on. Amon Amarth has, as noted many times before, become quite the circus show - and I mean this in the best possible way. I love all their gimmicks and theatrics. One that was new for this tour, and I failed to mention it in the Malmö review, as there was so much crap going on, was the “stone” pillars that were erected for Guardians of Asgaard. They were in fact balloon figures, but the paint job looked very realistic, and the fact that they were inflated in darkness, with the sound of scraping stone coming through the speakers, added to the realism of it all - I absolutely loved it!
The sparklers raining down from the ceiling during the acoustic intro for Fafner’s Gold was another memorable event. If nothing else, Amon Amarth truly has their performance delivery down, that’s for sure!
There is more to Amon Amarth than the delivery of their performance however, and tonight we got a good taste of what that was. Every man was doing his job, the songs thundered out, and the vikings conquered new land. This was everything the show last night in Sweden wasn’t, because of the working relationship between band and crowd - everyone fed off each other, and there was such an amount of energy to take from. We loved it.
Setlist:
Run To The Hills (Iron Maiden song)
Intro
Raven’s Flight
Runes To My Memory
Death In Fire
Deceiver Of The Gods
First Kill
Fafner’s Gold
Crack The Sky
The Way Of Vikings
Prediction Of Warfare
Shield Wall
Guardians Of Asgaard
Raise Your Horns
The Pursuit Of Vikings
Twilight Of The Thunder God
I forget where I’m going with this, but the point is, it was time for Amon Amarth, headliner of the evening, to take the stage. Lights down, curtain up, cue the intro…
“God aften Aarhus! God aften Danmark! Hvor er det godt at se jer. Har I det godt? I aften skal vi have en fed vikingefest, ikke?!”
- Johan Hegg (vocals)
Johan Hegg explained that his Danish wasn’t very good, but he used it anyway, which was very popular with the natives. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
As mentioned with the other bands playing this show, there was a world of difference in seeing them here in Denmark, compared to seeing them in Sweden the day before. Now, you might be fooled to think that the Swedish audience had been better, given the fact that we had three Swedish bands on our hands, but nothing could be further from the truth. The difference could be felt even before the band walked on - while the curtain still hung in place, and before even the lights had gone down, people were happily and loudly singing along to Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills, which once again played as an intro. Alright, we’re well off from the start.
Things didn’t exactly quiet down with the band dropping the curtain in front of the stage, and beginning the show in flames and thunderous music. The Danes showed their power with their own singing, and by the time we reached Death In Fire, the party was peaking with headbanging, moshing, and crowdsurfing. I say peaking, but that peak continued through the rest of the night, so we’re talking about a very long, flat peak here.
When Loke came on in person, he was greeted with equally enthusiastic cheers as the band members had been earlier, and shortly, the cheers were back to singing - Hegg didn’t really need to do much hard work, but the smile on his face told us he loved what he saw.
Predictions Of Warfare saw the crowd rowing, and not just a handful of people either, but rather close to half the people who had shown up did it - damn impressive!
Most impressive was the courage of the crowd surfers however, who willingly let their bodies be carried straight towards the flaming waves that billowed from the stage every so often. Well, those, and then the absolutely mental fucker that chose to stagedive from the security fence during Guardians Of Asgaard.
Oddly enough, taken the superb response the band was receiving in consideration, Hegg didn’t ask for a sing-along session in that song.
Still, with everything else the band dished up with, that was only a small part to miss out on. Amon Amarth has, as noted many times before, become quite the circus show - and I mean this in the best possible way. I love all their gimmicks and theatrics. One that was new for this tour, and I failed to mention it in the Malmö review, as there was so much crap going on, was the “stone” pillars that were erected for Guardians of Asgaard. They were in fact balloon figures, but the paint job looked very realistic, and the fact that they were inflated in darkness, with the sound of scraping stone coming through the speakers, added to the realism of it all - I absolutely loved it!
The sparklers raining down from the ceiling during the acoustic intro for Fafner’s Gold was another memorable event. If nothing else, Amon Amarth truly has their performance delivery down, that’s for sure!
There is more to Amon Amarth than the delivery of their performance however, and tonight we got a good taste of what that was. Every man was doing his job, the songs thundered out, and the vikings conquered new land. This was everything the show last night in Sweden wasn’t, because of the working relationship between band and crowd - everyone fed off each other, and there was such an amount of energy to take from. We loved it.
Setlist:
Run To The Hills (Iron Maiden song)
Intro
Raven’s Flight
Runes To My Memory
Death In Fire
Deceiver Of The Gods
First Kill
Fafner’s Gold
Crack The Sky
The Way Of Vikings
Prediction Of Warfare
Shield Wall
Guardians Of Asgaard
Raise Your Horns
The Pursuit Of Vikings
Twilight Of The Thunder God
Amon Amarth
