SWEDEN’S Amon Amarth are – as sensible fans know by now – playing the Spring & Airbrake on 23th October. The Distortion Project have confirmed Swedish death ‘n’ roll veterans Entombed and Brit retro thrashers Evile as support.
And if that isn’t enough for a pre-Hallowe’en knees up we don’t know what is!
Amon Amarth have been a band that displayed the patience of the proverbial saint to rise from relative obscurity and twitterings in specialist mags to the front page of Metal Hamster as acclaimed leaders of the New Wave of Traditional Metal (whatever the hell that is!).
Johan Hegg’s towering presence fronts a band that appears immersed in Nordic paganism, but read deeper and the allegorical nature of the lyrics from the atheist frontman are intriguing.
Having dabbled with the occasional offering from Amon Amarth for some time ‘With Oden on Our Side’ was a revelation. ‘Runes to My Memory’, ‘Cry of the Blackbird’ and ‘Prediction of Warfare’ were among the tracks that showed a clear evolution of their style and songwriting form.
But last year ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’ was unleashed. It was rated on this site as one of the top CDs of 2008, with due cause. The strident title track will, undoubtedly, prove immensely popular, the rest of the platter pounds. ‘Guardians of Asgard’ has a riff to accompany the conquering of nations. ‘The Hero’ has a unique lyrical take on what makes a warrior, while closer ‘Embrace of the Endless Ocean’ has a concept that many a prog act would die for…slave freed from toil at the oars dies happily at sea rowing!
Amon Amarth may not be one of the most important metal bands of the decade, but they are pushing the envelope and will help shape the Swedish ‘death’ scene and beyond for years to come. Respect not only to the band but to the Metal Blade label for keeping the faith and allowing Amon Amarth to grow into potential world conquerors.
Entombed have been knocking about for years (20+!). The Swedish act started off as a straight death metal, but evolved through the course of nine studio albums to their present domination of death ‘n’ roll – which even has its own Wikipedia entry as a genre!
Evile are the snotty nosed bastard son of 80s thrash, with a lot more credibility that some of the US bands knocking about. While many will have stumbled across Evile via sampler CDs from magazines, their Earache release, ‘Enter The Grave’ is worth checking out. While lyrically it can be a wee bit embarrassing at times, and the Slayer references are a little too far forward, Evile can, with a fair wind and plenty of live experience be at the forefront of reinvigorating thrash.
Tickets for this October extravaganza are now available from the usual outlets…neck braces and liver transplants are not covered in the ticket prices and good luck trying to persuade BUPA to cover the costs of excessive metal fun after the 23rd!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I'd kill to go and see this one - Evile are simply amazing and Amon Amarth are meant to be incredible live - but the age limit thing says 18 strictly etc.
I'm 16 but pass for 18 a lot...but since I'd prolly be going alone, the chances of getting ID'd and turned might be too high for a trip to Belfast (hour in the car, and obviously I can't drive)...any ideas, fellow metallers? :|
This is the gig im waiting for ,and I have tickets to Opeth !
the 3 bands will cover a huge scope of metal as already mentioned ,and should be a cracking night
\m/Redskull\m/
Damn right Redskull - this has the makings of an epic evening of metal. Wrathy - I know it seems unfair, but that's just the score. We might all wish it different, but the promoters and venues for gigs have to endure a serious risk to their licence if underage people access events. Of course some do manage it - might have done the same myself many, many moons ago - but the pure business risk of losing alcohol and entertainment licence amounts to a serious amount of money.
If you cannot access the gig suggest that you contact the band(s) via myspace/official sites etc and request a meet, or to see soundcheck. Also, most bands have a lot of time to kill before the gig (usually before or after the soundcheck) and, if the request is made with courtesy, will meet fans. One word of warning (and this applies to anyone meeting bands) almost all hate blaggers! Autographs and pics are fine, but never, ever, ever step over the line and try to blag stuff. Merch etc is what keeps many a bands finances afloat.
Post a Comment