Every Shirt CXLII: Amon Amarth - Viking Horde LS

shirt: Amon Amarth - Viking Horde
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band

Probably picked up at the Sounds of the Underground date that I didn't see the band on due to getting out of work late, this, like my other longsleeves, has a tendency to not get worn due to said sleeves. It's a little difficult to wear a longsleeve metal shirt underneath a short-sleeved workshirt, so I can't really wear it as an undershirt midweek, leaving two days a week as possibilities. The end of this project means I have to get through them now; thankfully this one is a little larger than the others and doesn't pinch my arms as much. That's the other reason I don't wear longsleeves much: I hate long sleeves and push the sleeves up on these, roll up anything that comes with cuffs. Cool sleeve designs are SOL; my forearms need to breathe.

Every Shirt CXIII: Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns

shirt: Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band

From the last major show I saw in 2006, this shirt was also from the last time, at least that I can recall, that Amon Amarth toured as support rather than being supported by other up-and-coming bands. This is good stuff, even if I've seen Amon Amarth somewhat decidedly infrequently since then; they tour often enough, but on the last go-round I was sick, and decided rather to rest up for Master. That was a correct decision, but I still wish I'd been well enough to see Amon Amarth that week as well.

Every Shirt LXXXIX: Amon Amarth - Wrath of the Norsemen

shirt: Amon Amarth - Wrath of the Norsemen tour
size: XL (US)
vintage: 2007
provenance: band

Acquired on their tour at the end of 2007 with the much-disapprobated Sonic Syndicate, this is a cool shirt, but not quite the most impressive bit of wearable gear that I got at the show. Ok, so it's not actually gear, but more of a gear enhancement; see the lead of the writeup for more information.

I'm not sure how many Amon Amarth shirts this makes so far, or that I have total; there are a lot of them, as you might expect from an awesome band that tours a lot and consistently has good art design. Maybe once this finishes, there'll be room to take stock.

Every Shirt XLV: Amon Amarth

shirt: Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side
size: 2XL (US)
vintage: 2006
provenance: band

This one was picked up at their gig in December '06 supporting Bodom, which was the first time I'd seen them indoors, and the second overall. This was also the last time that they had a supporting slot on a US tour; they've been back twice since headlining, and if things hold true to form, they'll be back again headlining sometime this year. However, it's a cert that I'm going to see them again before the year's out, regardless; outdoors....and with the Jomsvikings.

/gloat;

Soon enough, I'm going to be done moving into my new place and able to mass out my gear for this summer. As with last year, it's highly likely that I'm going to have a significant amount of space in my gear for small merch to promote bands; we'll see how much gets dumped on me between then and the end of July to actually have to transport over.

Amon Amarth with Sonic Syndicate and Thy Will Be Done [Worcester Palladium, 12/1/2007]

This is an ample reward for showing up early (for those who can't tell, the signatures are, counterclockwise from top left, Olavi, Johan (Soderberg), Johan (Hegg), Ted, and Frederik) and enduring the openers, who in total were more than a little uneven. Of course, even if you didn't have a kutte to get signed at this show, you still got a fucking balls-out set from Amon Amarth, and that should be reward enough in itself.

The drive in was pretty easy, being a weekend, and so I got through the line for doors in fairly short order, which was a definite positive with the thermometer in the teens. It wasn't nearly as cold or as far to walk as those black metal shows back in January that set a new benchmark for grimness, but the cold in your lungs heading in definitely set the right atmosphere. Once inside, I was somewhat disheartened by the Kindermenge; it's always good to see younger people into metal, but an inveterate pessimist can't help but conclude that this was a hangover from Bodom's crowd (Amon Amarth played with Bodom here last year), and these kids wouldn't provide the right atmosphere for a proper gig. Fortunately, I was completely wrong about this. One of these days, I'll start not thinking of the worst in people.

So I got a beer, and then stood around for a while, and the show didn't start, so I went and got some merch (Amon Amarth tourshirt, and Thy Will Be Done's CD), and then stood around some more. The show still didn't start, so I joined the line wrapping around the merch pod to get stuff signed. Most people were getting posters or their tickets signed, but I was using my ticket stub for taking notes, and most ways, toting a poster at a show will either tie up your hand for the rest of the night or get reliably destroyed. Also, five guys writing with sharpies will leave most tickets just a mass of black scribbles; I fortunately had a lot of free space around my patch from this band, and if it broke up the monotony of getting writer's cramp for the band, so much the better. There's also the side benefit that my rig is now significantly more awesome than it was before, but that went without saying right as soon as the picture loaded above.

After I got through this, I got back down to my 'usual' off-floor spot in time for the first band, who despite the weird fit, did get things roling properly.

Thy Will Be Done [4.5/7]
Though they come from Rhode Island, this band made a positive impression, at least at the start, by setting up in more of a European metalcore style, sounding like they were trying more to be Heaven Shall Burn than Shadows Fall. The sound decayed more towards straight hardcore as the set went on, like the band's half-life was running down, but they definitely did show some positive chops, at least after the sound board brought the guitars up to a normal level after the first song. Their set was a little short, but it was pretty decent, and people into this style probably enjoyed the hell out of this set.

During the set break, I got another drink, and ran into both Ken (MPD) and some Worcester people that I'd hung around with at shows before, and emphasized caution about Sonic Syndicate, as well as the positive fact that there was only one band more left. Of course, we'd rather have had two, but due to the tragic accident that took Vitek earlier this year, this tour wasn't an option any more for Decapitated.

Sonic Syndicate [3/7]
This was not a good performance from a fundamentally unoriginal and mediocre band. However, it was not the worst set I've ever seen, despite getting the worst crowd reaction that I've ever seen.

To understand why nearly everyone on the floor sat down about halfway through their set, and mostly stayed seated for the rest of the performance, we need to look at their setlist, which was probably more of a contributing factor than the band's Tokio Hotel haircuts.
1. Ordinary Story
2. [some In Flames song I couldn't immediately make]
3. Come Clarity
4. Goliaths Disarm Their Davids
5. Pinball Map
6. Hours Passed In Exile

Of course, they didn't actually play these songs, which might have even helped; what they did was take an obvious, fully-developed riff from the song in question, and then make a subpar "original" song around it, then play it indifferently, with a lot of mic problems and feedback squeals because, as usual, the Palladium soundboard was giving an opener the business. In the end, though, this couldn't disguise or ameliorate the fact that Sonic Syndicate is an In Flames coverband, and not a very good one, and absent Nuclear Blast's marketing push, there is no way they would be even signed and playing internationally, much less opening for Amon Amarth. The crowd recognized this, and acted appropriately.

Is sitting down en masse disrespectful? Yes, it is, but respect is neither universal nor a gift; it must be earned, and to the audience's credit, they did give Sonic Syndicate a fair shake. After three songs, when it was clear that they weren't going to get any better, they lowered the boom. If this is repeated enough, Nuclear Blast may eventually get the message and stop promoting them, at least until they can improve to the point where they don't need a label handing them everything on a plate. I didn't sit down, but I respect the decision of those who did; if Sonic Syndicate wants people not to sit down during their sets, they need to stop sucking or stop playing metal shows.

(Background for those who don't follow the Euro scene so closely: Sonic Syndicate did not come up via the normal route of demos, limited-release albums and EPs on tiny labels, and DIY touring. They won a contest sponsored by Nuclear Blast, for reasons that very few European metalheads have been able to understand, and have been massively promoted and oversold beyond their talent level ever since. They are as close to a 'made' band in the pop sense as exists in metal today.)

So after people stood up, it was fortunately a fairly short wait for Amon Amarth to go on. Though it wasn't quite as packed or as long a wait as Blind Guardian last year (one year to the day), the feel down front was much the same -- and fortunately, the awesomeness to come approached the same level.

Amon Amarth [7/7]
This wasn't quite the best set I've seen from these guys, but it was the best that I've seen indoors. With only two openers, they got a nice long set, and in the course of it played virtually everything you could want from the band (unless, of course, you were looking for Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds material or "Bloodshed") -- and if you missed something and actually feel bummed about it, there's something wrong with you. They dedicated "Fate of Norns" to Vitek, with also the wish that Decapitated will continue, as unlikely as that may be. There was an even mix of new and older stuff, and in their encore, they did "Victorious March", which I'm not sure I'd ever seen live; they didn't do it last time, and it's kind of wicked long to do in a festival slot. The sound was great, though not as good as this venue can do on those rare occasions when the stars align just right, and the overall experience was simply excellent.

Seeing this band really pack this venue nearly all the way up (though they didn't open the balcony) brought me back to the comments from their tourmanager on the Wrath of the Norsemen DVD; "I don't listen to heavy music myself," he said, "but this band could go very far. I don't think they've anywhere reached the peak of their popularity yet." This on a discbox that includes an appearance playing after midnight at Wacken, and it's certainly borne out by the way they've conquered North America to date. This is a death metal band that sings about vikings, and you don't really expect such to draw so strongly with both young and old, core metal fans and more peripheral people, as were in evidence at this gig. For an explanation, you have to look at the music: it's not enormously difficult to listen to, full of melodic hooks, but still powerful and stone-heavy, and it does in a certain way play into the revival of metal in the popular imagination that produces stuf like Dethklok and Brutal Legend. In a millieu where metal's sincerity is fodder for over-the-top irony, Amon Amarth stands straight in and goes merely right to the top; the deathviking thing is a hook for the culturally curious, and then the enduring power keeps people committed once they actually listen to the band.

Unfortunately, there was more than a little far-right feel down front at this one. On the one hand, this is somewhat to be expected given how the right has co-opted Norse heathen ideas and symbology; if rightists are going to listen to non-political death metal, it's probably going to be Amon Amarth. (The debate on whether Malevolent Creation is political in this sense is by no means settled.) On the other hand, this is a metal gig, and metalheads ought to know better. There are problems with our society that aren't being answered by the standing system, but the far right doesn't have the answers either, and they tend to cause a bunch of their own problems as well. If you're going to put your right arm up, put a fist or the horns at the end of it. Don't do the Roman salute: that wasn't cool 80 years ago, and it's not cool now.

The worst part about rightists is that they force digressions like this that take away from the actual events of the show. This was by any measure an awesome gig, and I certainly can't wait to see Amon Amarth again -- though hopefully with a more consistent undercard -- whether in Europe, here, or in a larger venue as they continue to gain support and interest.

Next gig's either tonight with Autumn Above if the weather cooperates, or Lair of the Minotaur headlining Watchmaker's curtain call Tuesday.

Amon Amarth (copypasta)

This was reposted on RTTP recently, but it's a few years old; I think either Keith Bergman wrote it on the original Infernal Combustion (pre-Roadrunner) or it was this other guy whose site I used to follow (can't remember where it was...and he's out of metal now anyways). And despite the title, I promise that it's not going to turn into the Fresh Prince halfway through.

Though....that would be pretty damn funny.



Once, in the land of Zimble-boo,
Where honkweed grew and brimbles flew,
There lived two fans of heavy metal
Who had a great big score to settle.

One, named Nod, was into stuff
That could never be True enough
He always said to his friend Barth,
"I do not like Amon Amarth."

Barth, instead, was just the kind
To try and have an open mind
He worshiped metal in all its forms
And any music outside the norm.

At the Frizz-Frazz Works, all day they worked
And Barth thought Nod a tiresome jerk
For from his truck, he would go get
Graveland, Darkthrone and Negura Bunget.

"I have here bootleg tapes of Mayhem,
I will not hesitate to play them.
They feature both Dead and Euronymous
You don't like these? Ha! You wuss!

Their freezing grimness frightens thee
And flays your soul and sanity.
Thou art untrue, my weak friend Barth.
That's why you like Amon Amarth."

"But Nod," Barth said, his voice a-quiver
"I have catalogs from Spinefarm and Shiver,
Necropolis and House of Kicks
Some bands have learned a few new tricks.

And while it's true these newer bands
Have killed no one by their own hands
There is no law in Zimble-boo
That says all metal must be true."

"Fuck off, you poser!" Nod exclaimed.
"May thy weak ass perish in flames!
The corporate labels are your friends,
To them you look for mindless trends.

"I will not like your Borknagar,
So please don't play it in your car,
I'd sooner hacksaw off my ear
Than listen to Dimmu Borgir

"God Dethroned just makes me laugh
Cradle of Filth incurs my wrath
And most of all, my lame friend Barth,
I do not like Amon Amarth."

"But would you like them, Nod, if soon
They did a record for Full Moon?"
"Not e'en on vinyl, you buffoon;
I would not like them on Full Moon."

"But would you like them, Nod my friend,
If they did a record for The End?"
"Those corporate followers of trend?
Not on your life. I will not bend!"

"Well, how about Necropolis?"
"On them I take a healthy piss!"
"Surely you like Misanthropy."
"You Christian tool, begone from me!

"Please do not mention Hammerheart
Those thieves of diabolic art
Your head is so far up your ass
You might as well say Nuclear Blast

"And mention not Century Media
Or else I will be forced to beat-y ya
Please, Metal Blade? Have you no balls?
Those bastards signed the Goo Goo Dolls!!"

"But Nod," Barth cried, "this band is good
They hate the Lord, just as they should
Their sound is great, which is what you get when
It's engineered by Peter Tagtgren

And though it's all been done before
It kicks much ass, you can be sure
So take it from your old friend Barth,
You'd really like Amon Amarth."

At this, Nod flew into a fit
And tore poor Barth to little bits
He murdered him with Satan's might
Then went to jail without a fight

And there, he only got to hear
What people taped for his imprisoned ear
He could not buy from catalogs
From Breath of Night or from Moonfog

No compact discs could he possess
Only dubbed tapes, to his distress
But then one day, he got a mix
From some homely Goth pen-pal chick

She taped him Emperor and Dawn
Dark Funeral and Apollyon
She even filled all of side two
With bands like Opeth and Lilitu.

And when our Nod was forced to hear
These different bands, his pagan ear
Was startled, and his beady eyes
Did widen in complete surprise

He liked these bands! Yes, quite a bit!
It made old Darkthrone sound like shit!
It wasn't kult, to be quite fair
But, he realized, he didn't care!

And on the end of this cassette
One more surprise waited yet
Amon Amarth, the very band
That made Nod kill his bestest friend

The final song that was in store,
"God, His Son, and the Holy Whore,"
From The Avenger, their new CD,
Came blasting out of Cell Block Three.

Why, Nod was startled and perturbed:
"Where is this place called Gothenburg?
That buzzsaw sound, these catchy songs
I could enjoy this all day long!

"I've seen the error of my ways
But who is this right now that plays?"
He checked the listing on the tape,
Then laughed and said "For goodness sake!

"Barth, had I but listened to thee
You'd be alive, and I'd be free
So hey, I owe ya one, ol Barth
I do so like Amon Amarth!"

Children of Bodom with Amon Amarth, Gojira, and Sanctity [Worcester Palladium, 12/16/2006]

This was probably going to be the last show of the year, no matter how China shook out, and it was definitely noteworthy. I was late driving down because I wasn't able to get the 4:30 train after Chinese class, and thus didn't get going from my apartment until past 6:30. I got in only a matter of minutes before Sanctity got on, though some of this was in finding parking; this show was brim-full up, even to the point where they had to open the balcony, a first for metal shows (that I've gone to, ofcourse) since I've been back full time. So I got my beer and paid out for merch from the undercard -- Bodom was going to be making their full share, and I'm not going to be the one letting Amon Amarth and Gojira go hungry -- and went on down to the last row above the floor; the floor was ofcourse packed, and having seen Amon Amarth from the front rail at Wacken, I didn't need to be hogging someone else's spot who hadn't.

Sanctity [5/7]: These guys had more than their share of problems with the sound, but it got better through the course of their set. Once the "mismixed PA noise" factor was dialed out, they were pretty much NWOSDM with some thrash grooves, which is a different feel for a Georgia band, but still pretty cool. Unfortunately, they didn't do a lot that was real distinctive, and the singer desperately needs to get some real vocal lesons; melodic vocals are fine and dandy, but you have to be able to stay on pitch consistently when you do them. Such was not the case here. They were decent enough, and improvement is definitely possible, but it's going to take a good deal of convincing to make me want to hear these guys again; we have quite a few better thrash and thrash/NWOSDM bands around this state.

Gojira [6/7]: These guys started up brutal, hit hard, and did not disappoint, delivering amply with both complexity and heaviness; a shorthand would probably be about equal parts Morbid Angel and Converge. The problem was that this made them both the most brutal and the most complicated band of the night, and in an auditorium full of people who want to hear Janne Warman play singsongy keyboard melodies, you're going to get a few literal "hate crew" yelling in undeserved abuse. However, most of the audience 'got' this band, and got into them as well, despite some of the oddities in arrangement and composition. They'd probably have done better, reaction-wise, on a more underground bill, or in areas of the country where this package is more underground, but they were still strongly appreciated.

Before Amon Amarth went on, we had a chance to contemplate their guitar sound during their soundcheck. Now, guitar tone, especially for metal bands, is often referred to as 'meaty', but this was something else. Amon Amarth's guitar tone sounds like MEAT itself, barely cooked meat dripping with juices, chopped and brought to the mouth with the same battle knife, and washed down with giant flagons of beer so thick and strong that you almost have to chew it as well. When Amon Amarth's guitar sound leaves the amplifiers, it soars out over the audience, then up into the heavens and across the Rainbow Bridge into Asgard, where it wraps itself around the bones of Thor's slaughtered goats, building the new flesh that is required to return them to life, so that they may be slaughtered anew the next night, to provide the Einherjer with the roasts and steaks for their feasting. That is what Amon Amarth's guitars sound like.

Amon Fucking Amarth [7/7]: I was prepared for a letdown. Of course, this turned out to be in vain, because they executed a thoroughly awesome performance, but since I'd last seen them at the world's biggest and best festival with the Jomsvikings, plus a bunch of selected totally awesome shows on Wrath of the Norsemen, I figured that I was due for an average Amon Amarth gig. Well, if 'average' for Amon Amarth is the same as 'massively awesome' for other bands, then yes, this was an average set. Despite some hardcore problems with Johan's mic crumpling up (understandable, the dude yells fucking hard), the sound was great, and the performance awesome. It weighted heavily towards the newer part of their catalog, and they didn't have enough time to work in "Victorious March", but this was still a high-class performance all the same.

I ran into Kenny from MPD back in the bar after their set and enthused significantly about Amon Amarth, but after I got back from the head, he was nowhere to be found, and so I just hung by the bar to get another beer. While in this spot, some guy in a Burzum longsleeve asked me if I was NS; I said no, and immediately started thinking, as I collared my Sam Adams and set off for the relative front, how he could have come to that conclusion.

The answer is that given certain gear on my jacket, it's quite possible to make the inference that it belongs to a rightist. My left shoulder is probably what he saw first, with the Slayer version of the Reichsadler as the top patch, and then behind that, on the same left side, are my Vinnland flag and an Iron Cross. Also on my back are a German flag and the Dresden city crest, all of which have meaning to people who choose to put political meanings to them. However, none of these means what suspicious people might think they mean.

The Slayer patch is just a Slayer patch, and gets its value not because of what it represents, but because it isn't available in the US. The Vinnland flag expresses, for European travel purposes, my pride in my homeland and my disagreement with many of its government's recent antics....and also highlights the fact that Type O don't have any good patches of their own. The Iron Cross is just there to look cool, like it is whenever Lemmy or bikers use it. I know enough German military history to realize that it's nothing special; by the end of both of their wars of aggression, it was basically only possible to avoid the Iron Cross Second Class by active insubordination or treason. The Dresden crest is to remember Dresden, yes, but the Dresden that I lived in for a year, not the Dresden that got burned down 35 years before I was born. It's a onetime home that I want to go back to, not a war memorial. And the German flag is just that: the flag of the democratic Germany that I like living in, and feel in many ways almost as comfortable in as my nominal homeland. It's a shame that so much German paraphrenalia 'belongs' to the right, but under no circumstances are other people's ideas going to make me cut stuff off my rig that I already feel belongs there.

As for rightists in general, my stance is basically the same as Amon Amarth's (who have had similar confusion in the past): I don't support them, but as long as they aren't stirring shit or starting trouble, they've got the right to their opinion too. At my age, extreme politics cuts into my sleeping time, and that's something to be avoided at all costs.

Ok, back to the show.

Children of Bodom [7/7]: Their performance wasn't quite at the level of Amon Amarth's, but it was very well-executed, the songs sounded great, and the visual presentation was staggering. They only had about half their festival gear for this run of indoor halls in North America, so the trucks and additional lighting trusses stayed home, but they did bring the lasers and the large metal backplates that spelled out the band's initials in mini-spots. They kept the crowd pumping in top form, which is admirable since it seriously seemed that Alexi had to change guitars after every other song. No idea if this was different tunings or the axes just getting driven out of tune, though I'll consider the latter more probable, since he was just pounding around the stage like a madman, throwing the guitar around his neck, crushing bends around, all the stuff that you expect from Alexi Laiho. After some brief and hoarse yelling, they came back out for a perfunctory two-song encore, then did some fan appreciation, and Alexi led the crowd in the chorus of the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right" before spitting beer in the air and heading off for the last time. Good set, good gig, good way to end the year if this is how it goes.


No idea on when or what the next show is gonna be; nothing definite before God Forbid and Goatwhore up in Bedford.