Dimmu Borgir + Amon Amarth + Engel
- Nottingham Rock City 29th September
Review by Sam and Steve. Photos by SteveThis was the most
anticipated gig of the year for me. Mainly as I was seeing Amon
Amarth again for the third time in the past 12 months. Even though
my day started at 4.30am because of work, tiredness wasn't an option
tonight at a near capacity Rock City.
Having replaced HateSphere at the last minute, and having the
unenviable task of coming on about ten minutes after the doors
opened, Engel had absolutely
nothing to lose. And all credit to them, they came, they rocked,
they conquered, all in the space of about 5 songs. Playing to a
predominantly young audience (present company excepted) they did a
perfect job of warming everyone up for the two main bands. Their
marriage of old and new schools and the fact that they are equally
as melodic as they are hard hitting, went down extremely well and
the warm response they received was greatly deserved. Definitely a
band to keep an eye on and I wish that I'd kept their new cd when it
arrived at L4M HQ. (Steve) |
This is the second time at
Rock City for Amon Amarth. Last
time they sold out the basement, this time they’re upstairs
supporting Dimmu Borgir. Judging by the reception they received,
there were plenty of other people in the audience who remembered
them well. Every time that I see them, I’m reminded that they have a
huge stage presence. Johan Hegg strode out looking like a warlike
Norse giant, although when you meet him in the flesh he doesn’t
strike you as particularly huge. On stage, however, he is a mighty
warrior. And that was how Amon Amarth played this gig: conquering
marauders, here to crush any opposition and to create their own band
of “crazy English Viking” followers. Obviously, they succeeded.
Although they were restricted to a mere six songs, it didn’t matter.
That was more than enough for them to demonstrate their perfect
Viking fighting machine and to beat us into submission with a
powerful sonic offering.
They began with “Valhall Awaits Me”, following with an incredibly
evocative rendition of “Runes To My Memory”. By this time, they
could do no wrong as far as I (and many others) was concerned.
“Runes…” has to be one of the best Amon Amarth tracks ever, and live
it just blows me away. Every time.
“Death in Fire” gave us a good opportunity to show that we knew our
Viking song titles, and was followed swiftly by “Cry Of The Black
Birds”, another harrowing tale of everyday Viking folk. “Asator”
followed, with final track “The Pursuit of Vikings” (of course)
dedicated to Marcus from Engel, who turned 30 today. A |
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| nice touch,
but nothing you wouldn’t expect from the nicest (and hairiest) bunch
of guys on the planet. |
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I was a bit surprised that
when the stage was being set up for Dimmu
Borgir there didn’t seem to be any of the strange things
crawling over the keyboards that there had been on the last occasion
I saw them. But I shouldn’t have worried: the theatrics were still
all there, although in a nicely subdued way that didn’t get in the
way of the music. We had two masked and hooded figures prowling the
stage before the band came on (bet I wasn’t the only person there
expecting one of them to throw off his robes and reveal himself as
Shagrath – wrong again!). Things kicked off with “Progenies of the
Great Apocalypse”, a brilliant opener, and scenes of crusaders on
the screens at the side of the stage. But it wasn’t long before it
became clear that something wasn’t quite right – the band began to
lose focus and gradually stopped playing one by one, until they all
ended up staring accusingly at Mustis, who was still valiantly
trying to play keyboards, way up high at the back of the stage.
After a brief pause, during which a few aspersions were cast at the
sound man, normal service resumed. I have to say, I’ve seen my |
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fair share of
cock-ups at gigs, and generally once things have begun to go wrong,
they just get worse. All praise to Dimmu Borgir, then, for coming
back and carrying on as though nothing had happened. This was a mark
of absolute professionalism – I always knew they were good (and a
good live band as well) but this shows they have progressed to new
heights.
There was a nice sprinkling of older material through the set, which
was very well constructed, although a bit light on Death Cult
Armageddon, perhaps. I have to say that, as they included my two
favourite tracks (a good night for me all round!) with a mesmeric
rendition of “Puritania” (with Shagrath looking particularly evil
and menacing).
The audience were really lapping things up as Shagrath prowled and
growled (disappointingly turning his back on us between the action),
and the other band members displayed a nice collection of studded
footwear, wristbands and even a guitar strap with “Diaboli” formed
out of spikes. After a threesome from “In Sorte Diaboli”, sleazy
Shagrath dedicated “A Succubus in Rapture” to “all the beautiful
girls out there”. Poor lad, he needs to look at the lasses of
Nottingham queuing up outside the nightclubs – that’d change his
opinion!
The main set came to an end with “The Insight and the Catharsis”
performed in a cracking style, and it was obvious that we were going
to scream for an encore. We didn’t have long to wait, and it was
brilliant (possible even the best part of the night). “The
Sacreligious Scorn” was followed by “Grotesquery Concealed” and then
a perfect version of “Mourning Palace” (probably the best Dimmu
Borgir track ever).
This was a great end to a great night, with three great bands. Sad
to say, it was soured somewhat by the aggressive sales pitch of
bootleggers selling shirts outside the venue (they are thieving scum
on a par with benefit cheats, who are basically stealing from the
bands we go to see). Things improved again when we walked round the
corner and bumped into Johan Hegg and congratulated him on a great
performance. All in all, a very good night. (Sam) |
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