Right, this concert was moved a day later, to make sure the band actually arrived timely due to increased times at border check points to the North and as the original venue was already booked for a dead moon concert on the very next day and an exchange of dates wasn’t possible, this was downgraded to the next available venue, the slightly smaller Fuzz Club, which then came pretty close to bursting capacity on the date of the gig.
Cursed be that silly left turn down Peiraios Avenue towards Petralona that made me and a friend waste more than 30 minutes for literally 2 km and we arrived and managed to get in only barely in time to see Grand Magus taking the stage… (hence due to the dense crowd, photos were taken from a distance despite having a photo pass)… at any rate.
The Swedes are riding a bit of a wave with several hit albums on big labels and they seem to be enjoyed by the masses of adoring fans. I cannot help but notice to many similarities to the overall style of Manowar, even the occasional riff copy from Accept or the funny similarity between their solo on “Hammer of the North” solo and Rondo Veneciano… but whatever. I guess they weren’t bad, as JB and his pals run through a few of their hits in the short 45 minutes they had to play. Starting with “I, The Jury” they managed a fairly representative balance, with “Sword of the Ocean”, “Varangian”, “Steel Versus Steel” complete with a small drum solo “Ravens Guide Our Way”, “Kingslayer”, “Iron Will”, “Like the Oar Strikes the Water” and finishing off with the “Hammer of the North” crushing down. Very good overall with their straightforward arrangements coming across just like on the records.
I’ve witnessed Amon Amarth previously very early on and before the whole craze about them had become a thing abroad and I saw them again in Barcelona this past summer with their drakkar and all. Their long career and numerous albums and tours have made them a very tight live band and the overall vibe they have as well as their high energy are commendable. I must say that I do really only like the very early stuff, up to the avenger/crusher and I consider their commercial breakthrough material a bit too watered down for my tastes, but I cannot wrong them in saying that they’ve always kept their quality as well as frequency of releases fairly consistent, despite their commercialization / maturity coming about…
Their new drummer (as they parted ways with FA after last year during the recordings of the new album) was seated in a scull shaped ultra-high drum riser, complete with horns (a non-Viking later day – artist invention) and they even had fighters, as well as a guy pretending to be Loki coming out at certain points ie (during “The Way of the Vikings” etc.)…
With awesome sound, a tad not as loud as I would have anticipated, but still fairly loud and a world class stage production (the skull, different backdrops, the “warriors”) the Norsemen delivered a high energy performance of seventeen tracks in almost one and a half hour, with the sold out crowd really worshiping them and chanting their name and banging nonstop. The band themselves despite being obviously choreographed, do seem to enjoy what they are doing and their larger than life style supports what they’re doing 101%. If I have to find one flaw is that their show is not exactly paced. They’re always at a certain level, with hardly any serious changes in pace, a fact which will either send you to Valhalla or just make you perceive them as impressive albeit a bit monotonous.
“Jomsviking” was pretty well represented with some 5 songs aired from it (no wonder – as it’s their current album), “First Kill”, “The Way of Vikings”, “At Dawn’s First Light”, “One Thousand Burning Arrows” and “Raise Your Horns”, where the band drunk out of their horns which their raised to the crowd… it’s sad that they didn’t play “Vengeance is My Name”, one of the better tunes on it, but so be it. Other than those the band tried to represent their discography as best as they could with some ten albums, but verily covering stuff from the mid-00s onwards with “The Pursuit of Vikings”, “As Loke Falls”, “Cry of the Black Birds”, “Deceiver of the Gods”, “On a Sea of Blood”, “Destroyer of the Universe”, “Death in Fire”, “Father of the Wolf”, “Runes to My Memory”, “War of the Gods”, “Guardians of Asgaard” and finally “Twilight of the Thunder God” being a fairly representative set of songs and not straying from their normal setlist, probably due to the phantasmagorical lights that go with the whole production and would be a bit of nightmare, to coordinate if they did change the songs regularly.
It’s a little sad that Testament were not included, as they are “elsewhere on this tour”, but they were making up for a gig they did postpone a few months ago, due to the terrorist strikes in a Turkish airport making them apprehensive towards having a show there back then at the height of tension, meaning that the Greek shows had to be pulled as well and performing again in a matter of less than a week would have been a little odd. At any rate, most people seemed exhilarated and very happy, so entertainment was provided and that’s what’s most important. Cool may their drakkar bring them to our shores, sooner rather than later then. I raise a horn and all that Viking stereotypes! Hey!!!
The Swedes are riding a bit of a wave with several hit albums on big labels and they seem to be enjoyed by the masses of adoring fans. I cannot help but notice to many similarities to the overall style of Manowar, even the occasional riff copy from Accept or the funny similarity between their solo on “Hammer of the North” solo and Rondo Veneciano… but whatever. I guess they weren’t bad, as JB and his pals run through a few of their hits in the short 45 minutes they had to play. Starting with “I, The Jury” they managed a fairly representative balance, with “Sword of the Ocean”, “Varangian”, “Steel Versus Steel” complete with a small drum solo “Ravens Guide Our Way”, “Kingslayer”, “Iron Will”, “Like the Oar Strikes the Water” and finishing off with the “Hammer of the North” crushing down. Very good overall with their straightforward arrangements coming across just like on the records.
I’ve witnessed Amon Amarth previously very early on and before the whole craze about them had become a thing abroad and I saw them again in Barcelona this past summer with their drakkar and all. Their long career and numerous albums and tours have made them a very tight live band and the overall vibe they have as well as their high energy are commendable. I must say that I do really only like the very early stuff, up to the avenger/crusher and I consider their commercial breakthrough material a bit too watered down for my tastes, but I cannot wrong them in saying that they’ve always kept their quality as well as frequency of releases fairly consistent, despite their commercialization / maturity coming about…
Their new drummer (as they parted ways with FA after last year during the recordings of the new album) was seated in a scull shaped ultra-high drum riser, complete with horns (a non-Viking later day – artist invention) and they even had fighters, as well as a guy pretending to be Loki coming out at certain points ie (during “The Way of the Vikings” etc.)…
With awesome sound, a tad not as loud as I would have anticipated, but still fairly loud and a world class stage production (the skull, different backdrops, the “warriors”) the Norsemen delivered a high energy performance of seventeen tracks in almost one and a half hour, with the sold out crowd really worshiping them and chanting their name and banging nonstop. The band themselves despite being obviously choreographed, do seem to enjoy what they are doing and their larger than life style supports what they’re doing 101%. If I have to find one flaw is that their show is not exactly paced. They’re always at a certain level, with hardly any serious changes in pace, a fact which will either send you to Valhalla or just make you perceive them as impressive albeit a bit monotonous.
“Jomsviking” was pretty well represented with some 5 songs aired from it (no wonder – as it’s their current album), “First Kill”, “The Way of Vikings”, “At Dawn’s First Light”, “One Thousand Burning Arrows” and “Raise Your Horns”, where the band drunk out of their horns which their raised to the crowd… it’s sad that they didn’t play “Vengeance is My Name”, one of the better tunes on it, but so be it. Other than those the band tried to represent their discography as best as they could with some ten albums, but verily covering stuff from the mid-00s onwards with “The Pursuit of Vikings”, “As Loke Falls”, “Cry of the Black Birds”, “Deceiver of the Gods”, “On a Sea of Blood”, “Destroyer of the Universe”, “Death in Fire”, “Father of the Wolf”, “Runes to My Memory”, “War of the Gods”, “Guardians of Asgaard” and finally “Twilight of the Thunder God” being a fairly representative set of songs and not straying from their normal setlist, probably due to the phantasmagorical lights that go with the whole production and would be a bit of nightmare, to coordinate if they did change the songs regularly.
It’s a little sad that Testament were not included, as they are “elsewhere on this tour”, but they were making up for a gig they did postpone a few months ago, due to the terrorist strikes in a Turkish airport making them apprehensive towards having a show there back then at the height of tension, meaning that the Greek shows had to be pulled as well and performing again in a matter of less than a week would have been a little odd. At any rate, most people seemed exhilarated and very happy, so entertainment was provided and that’s what’s most important. Cool may their drakkar bring them to our shores, sooner rather than later then. I raise a horn and all that Viking stereotypes! Hey!!!
