“Welcome to our little Viking feast,” says Amon Amarth singer Johan Hegg. There is talk of drinking mead, but what he really means is this: the Vikings are coming. You can either get with them or get out of the way.
A couple of hours before all that, though, the evening has already taken on a distinctly Swedish feel.
“Get your hands in the air and make some noise,” demands Björn “Speed” Strid, welcoming everyone to an all-Swedish evening. Soilwork’s frontman is on a mission, and his band are a really interesting proposition.
Over the course of their opening set, “The Nurturing Glance” offers melody and some glorious guitar work, while “Distance” might thump, but its choruses are properly hooky. There is rather more going on here than sheer force.
“Figure Number Five” gets the first moshpit of the evening going, and “Distortion Sleep” is dedicated to “the ladies”. Whether Strid means the ladies generally or just the three or four who have been screaming for Soilwork since they started is unclear, but either way, it does the job.
“Spirit Of No Return” puts its head down and away it goes. You cannot help thinking of Strid’s other band, The Night Flight Orchestra, at this point. On the face of it, the two might seem worlds apart, but listen to the way these songs are constructed and perhaps they are not as different as they first appear.
“Death Diviner” is arguably their best moment, although the sensational guitar on “Stålfågel” makes a decent case of its own. “Stabbing The Drama” closes things, and it is quite the thing. So, indeed, has their set been.
Orbit Culture are another set of Swedes, and another band who have been causing some real waves recently. They come out with the confidence of a group who reckon they might be headlining places like this in a year or two.
On this evidence, they probably will.
“Redfog” sounds like what might happen if Metallica played death metal. “Alienated” is harder, harsher and tougher, with Christopher Wallerstedt’s drums exemplifying the sheer force of the thing. Then “The Storm” arrives with hurricane strength.
Their production does not quite rival the main band’s, but it is considerably more substantial than you would normally expect from a support act. It adds to the sense that Orbit Culture have come here with something to prove, and intend to prove it loudly.
“The Tales Of War” gets everyone jumping, but there is more to it than that. There is something beneath these songs, something lurking below the riffs and the obvious power. “Strangler” makes its violence clear, and it is superb. By this point, they appear ready to level the Civic.
“While We Serve” has a circle pit and crowd surfing to accompany it, while “Hydra” proves that the slower ones crush just as effectively. “Vultures Of North” brings riffs that flatten everything in their path, then finds another gear altogether.
It is absolutely sensational. The immediate impact is enormous, but that sense of something darker underneath never leaves. Orbit Culture are clearly set for much bigger things.
Then “Run To The Hills” comes over the speakers, and the rest is clear.
Amon Amarth have just released The Allfather Awakens, and “Gjallarhorn” proves immediately that no one does this quite as well. The sound, the chant, the sheer conviction: they play the Civic as though it is an arena, and everything about the performance is scaled accordingly.
“War Of The Gods” sees the riffs slash, Vikings arrive onstage and flames leap upwards. The scope of the thing is extraordinary. “Death In Fire” offers further proof that this is a show like no other, before “Free Will Sacrifice” is heroically heavy.
The slower opening of “Deceiver Of The Gods” gives way to something with more than a hint of Iron Maiden about it. Amon Amarth are hardly hiding that influence, and you suspect both bands would be quite happy heading off on a quest.
Hegg, meanwhile, has a Viking to fight. He wins, presumably through the power of metal.
“The Allfather Awakes”, from the new record, comes with its rejection of gods of ignorance and some stunning animation behind the band. In front of them, thousands of fists respond. This is spectacle, certainly, but the songs are more than capable of carrying it.
“Hermod’s Ride To Hel – Lokes Treachery, Part 1” has men and women surfing through the crowd. Or have they gone overboard? Who knows?
“Put Your Back Into The Oar” turns the place into a giant game of row, row, row your boat, as it usually does. If you have never seen this before, it really is quite something. A room full of metal fans becoming a Viking rowing crew is one of those sights that makes perfect sense here and probably nowhere else.
“We Rule The Waves” is all about the drums. And the drums here? Crikey.
“One Thousand Burning Arrows” has that wonderful guitar at the start, before “Upphaf”, their first acoustic song, turns the Civic into the Viking equivalent of a campfire. It is an interesting adjournment in the middle of the set, a chance for the whole thing to take on a different atmosphere before the next battle begins.
When “Guardians Of Asgaard” arrives, it almost feels like the final act has started, with a tribute to Entombed’s L.G. Petrov appearing on the big screen. “Shield Wall” brings men with shields and swords onto the stage, while “Eight Legs Of Thunder” offers another new one, and everyone seems to enjoy its solo.
“Raise Your Horns” is one long drinking song, with Hegg having a drink himself. It is the great singalong moment of the set, the feast in full swing. “For Victory Or Death” follows as a tremendous thrash metal song, before “The Way Of Vikings” gets the hordes marching again and brings another sword fight.
The encore is expertly done. “Saxons And Vikings” somehow finds even more energy, with Biff Byford on the big screens to deliver his parts from the record. Then they end as you knew they would, with “Twilight Of The Thunder God”.
A giant dragon emerges onto the stage, looming over the boat, and the scale of it all becomes ridiculous in the best possible way.
There are Viking metal bands all over the place. I saw one the other day. But no one does it quite on this scale, with this level of assurance or, if we are honest, this much fun.
Amon Amarth come alive onstage. You cannot fail to enjoy them.
Welcome to the feast.
