Back on UK Shores for the 3rd time this year already, Viking Death Metallers AMON AMARTH have really grown in stature and popularity over the past couple of years, and tonight showed this for a fact. I remember not so long ago, I was watching these guys in similar sized venues that were only half full if that on these shores. Tonight was near enough a sellout, and both the crowd and band were up for this gig tonight.

On the back of a very strong performance at Bloodstock Open Air this year, it was nice to see they reworked the set for this upcoming tour, as so many bands just leave it the same, and even the new album has been out for over a year now, this is the first headline UK tour they have done in promotion of the new album, so it wasn’t a surprise to see the new material get the majority of the set.

Opening up with ‘Twilight of The Thunder God’, followed closely by ‘Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags’, these were two of the tracks on show from the latest album. Other tracks on show from the new album were ‘Varyags of Miklagaard’, ‘Guardians of Asgaard’, and ‘Live For The Kill’ (complete with APOCALYPTICA backing tracks).

There were also a couple of surprise inclusions in the form of ‘Hermod’s Ride To Hel’ and an awesome rendition of ‘Where Silent Gods Stand Guard’, which were both well received by the crowd tonight who were lapping up every second of this rather intimate show, and needed no persuasion from Johan Hegg to mosh and headbang whenever necessary. It would have been nice to hear some more old school material than the few songs we got, but that didn’t detract from what was an thoroughly excellent and energetic performance.

Other crowd favourites made up the set tonight with the likes of ‘Death In Fire’ and ‘Asator’ went down an absolute storm while everybody was singing the chorus to ‘Runes To My Memory’. A special dedication to the untimely passing of Mike Alexander was made for an apt song in the form of ‘Fate of Norns’. With the closing of the main set with the usual ‘Victorious March’, the encore followed with two songs which AMON AMARTH have become known for, ‘Cry of The Blackbirds’, and the usual closing song of ‘Pursuit of Vikings’ with all of the crowd pumping their fists in the air.

This closed another outstanding performance from the Vikings, and everytime I have seen them, they have performed at these extremely high levels, and for the past couple of years, they have been getting the recognition they deserve in the UK as they do in Europe. Lets pray to Odin that it isn’t too long before they are marching back again to our venues taking us to metal heaven in Valhalla.

AMON AMARTH Setlist: Twilight of The Thunder God / Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags / Valkyries Ride / Asator / Varyags of Miklagaard / Hermod’s Ride To Hel (Loke’s Treachary Part 1) / Guardians of Asgaard / Where Silent Gods Stand Guard / Live For The Kill / Fate of Norns / Death in Fire / Runes To My Memory / Victorious March / Cry of The Blackbirds / Pursuit of Vikings

Photography By Alexander Shaw (Photo gallery)