Amon Amarth

w/ Eye of the Enemy and Orpheus

Billboard, Melbourne – 27th November 2009

I missed Amon Amarth’s last Aussie tour due to the absolute hellishness of being an underage metal fan in Melbourne. Thankfully, and unexpectedly, those Viking warriors have destroyed our shores once again, and this time I could go.

Despite how much I was enjoying a few ales across the road, I wandered over to the venue in time to grab an awfully sexy tour shirt and catch the opening band, Orpheus. I probably should have stayed across the road. Muddy guitars and overly loud vocals plagued the band’s set, and I didn’t even realise they had a keyboardist until I saw her later in the set, they were completely inaudible. It’s always a shame (but not rare) to see this happen, but it’s even more of a shame when you can just tell that the band seem to have a really solid sound behind the mess of a mix. The solid but fairly uninteresting melodic death metal didn’t get much of a reaction from the crowd either.

Melodic thrashers Eye of the Enemy however had a much stronger crowd response. There were clearly a few fans there, and a few new ones by the end from what I heard. Again, the mix wasn’t that fantastic, with the vocals being a bit low and muddiness still being a problem. And despite the fact that I didn’t find their music overly enthralling either (again, it was solid, with some great guitar parts from Envenomed frontman Mav Stevens, but just didn’t grab my attention as a whole) they did put on a better show. The band were reasonably energetic on stage, and fancier lights are always a bonus. Needless to say, I’m sure those guys were more than happy with the response.

Being so far away from the rest of the world is a bit of a shame in that we miss a lot of more theatrical performances. Thankfully in this case, Amon Amarth make up for it with sheer presence. A monstrous Twilight of the Thunder God backdrop towered over the audience and the band stomped their way across, truly dominating the stage. They were clearly there to promote the new album with it taking up a good chunk of the set, but thankfully it’s a fucking good album. “Free Will Sacrifice” and “Live For The Kill” came across spectacularly live, with equal parts catchiness and brutality. “Guardians of Asgaard” has always sounded like a song that was written for the live stage, and the sing-along galore proved that. A few older tracks were thrown in, much to the crowd’s pleasure, and thankfully little from their average mid-era. A few speeches and dedications between songs, spoken in the expected Viking fashion, gave the many in the pit a nice break, but the music was the focus. Despite the fact that the sound could have been better (various melodic guitar parts seemed to disappear in the mix), it’s hard to fault the band. Their stage presence is huge and could not be more fitting, and they definitely can’t be called sloppy. The gods have truly blessed this band.

More photos can be viewed in this gallery.
Photos by Jess Day.