My 2014 concert-attending got off to a furious start with Swedish viking death metal thunder gods Amon Amarth at the House of Blues in Boston last night.
Skeletonwitch opened up the festivities bright and early at 6:00. This marked my seventh time seeing them and once again, they destroyed. I've said before it and I'll say again: the consistency of Skeletonwitch's live performances is something to be marveled. It doesn't matter if they are the first opener playing to a scare crowd who doesn't know them or they are headlining to a room full of diehard fans, they absolutely bring it every time they take the stage. This set was cool because they played a ton of stuff off their latest record, Serpents Unleashed, which I absolutely love. They played nothing but the absolute best material from that record ("From A Cloudless Sky", "Beneath Dead Leaves", "I Am of Death (Hell Has Arrived") and the fact that they swapped out "Serpents Unleashed" for "Burned from Bone" for this show was awesome. All of the material from Serpents Unleashed sounds spectacular live and will hopefully become fixtures in the set for years to come. Of course, it wouldn't be a Skeletonwitch show without their signature closing track "Within My Blood", which still makes me giddy with excitement after all these times seeing them. Skeletonwitch are the epitome of road warriors and they are without question one of the best live acts in all of metal.
Norwegian black/progressive metal act Enslaved took the stage next. Enslaved has been around forever and on paper, I should love this band, they just have never really clicked with me. Their live performance was certainly solid, but didn't really do much to sway my overall opinion of them. The vocal mix was kind of off and what I did hear of the screaming vocals didn't really impress me too much. The use of clean vocals did give them a nice touch for a band that is so heavily rooted in black metal and there were some riffs on "RITTIR" and "Allafor Ooin" that were absolutely killer. Honestly the best part of their set to me was watching the kid next to me lose his shit for the entire set. He had this one move that looked like a cross between a mime roping someone in and Lil B's cooking dance and it was just hilarious to watch. Enslaved has a good stage presence and the two of sides their music mix together very well, but ultimately they didn't impress me that much.
After a decently long wait, Amon Amarth closed out the evening with a bang. While I saw them last summer on a huge stage at Mayhem Fest, I had been waiting see to them in a club since the first time I saw them back in 2010 and they did not disappoint in the slightest. Their over 90-minute set was perfect for the club setting with just the right amount of elaborate backgrounds and lights to match their Norse mythology epics. With this being their first headlining tour since their newest record, Deceiver of the Gods, was released, the set was focused on that material. Save for the "Warriors of the North" which is just too long and dull for me to enjoy, the new stuff sounded better live than on disc. "Shape Shifter" and "Deceiver of the Gods" are fast and appropriately headbang worthy while "As Loke Falls" and "Father of the Wolf" make for typical grand-scale Amon Amarth tracks with beautiful melodies to balance out the intensity of Johan Hegg's vocals. With such a long set time, they had plenty of time to breakout their old live staples on top of the new stuff. "Cry of the Black Birds" made me feel like I was in the middle of a viking battle with the most intense pits of the entire show and "Guardians of Asgard" had an almost party-esque vibe with people jumping around and chanting for the entirety of the song. The encore of "Twilight of the Thunder God" and "The Pursuit of Vikings" was one of the most fun encores I've ever seen as Hegg got the crowd to do a sing-a-long to the finale of "The Pursuit of Vikings". "It's death metal, no one will know if you're getting the words wrong" Hegg said. Amon Amarth quite simply thrives in a club setting and is easily one of the most pure fun live metal acts I've had the pleasure of seeing.
Scores:
Skeletonwitch 9.5/10
Ensalved 7/10
Amon Amarth 9/10
Setlists:
Skeletonwitch:
This Horrifying Force (The Desire to Kill)
I Am of Death (Hell Has Arrived)
Burned from Bone
Sacrifice for the Slaughtergod
From A Cloudless Sky
Beyond the Permafrost
Crushed Beyond Dust
Beneath Dead Leaves
Within My Blood
Enslaved:
Death in the Eyes of Dawn
Ruun
Ethica Ordini
RIITIIR
Alafor Odinn
Isa
Amon Amarth:
Father of the Wolf
Deceiver of the Gods
Death in Fire
Free Will Sacrifice
As Loke Falls
We Shall Destroy
Runes to My Memory
Varyags of Mikalagaard
The Last Stand of Frej
Guardians of Asgaard
Shape Shifter
Warriors of the North
Destroyer of the Universe
Cry of the Black Birds
War of the Gods
Encore:
Twlight of the Thunder God
The Pursuit of Vikings
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