AMON AMARTH / MACHINE HEAD at Sentrum Scene (Oslo, Norway)
Special guests: THE HALO EFFECT
September 23, 2022
by Jorge Patacas
The viking-themed melodic death metal band Amon Amarth joined forces with the americans Machine Head for a two-month European tour as co-headliners having also The Halo Effect as special guests. Initially the event in Norway was going to take place at Oslo Spektrum which has a capacity of 9700 people, but due to ticket sales, it had to be moved to Sentrum Scene which is a venue for around 1750 people. Therefore, the concert went sold out very fast.
The Swedish combo The Halo Effect was formed in 2019 and were the ones kicking off the evening. It was their first show ever in Norway as a band, but not as individuals, since all members were part of In Flames in different periods of their career and visited the country before. Of course the vocalist Mikael Stanne has also played many times as frontman of Dark Tranquillity. Unfortunately, the guitar player Jesper Strömblad could not perform this time, so he was replaced by Patrik Jensen (The Haunted). The band had even made a statement on their social media sites about Strömblad’s well-known health issues justifying his absence on some of the live shows. Jensen did his part and the band gave a lesson on how to play melodic death metal the Gothenburg way. Stanne’s outstanding vocals, the great melodies by Jensen and Niclas Engelin and the rhythm section by Peter Iwers on bass and Daniel Svensson on drums in addition to the sound and the green lights were the keys for a great show. Their performance consisted of songs from their debut album “Days of the Lost” (2022) including the singles “Shadowminds”, “Days of the Lost”, “Feel What I Believe” and “The Needless End”. A short set that served as introduction to the band. Hopefully we’ll get to see them again as headliners in the future!
Machine Head led by vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn were next. The band opened with the single “Become the Firestorm” to promote their new album “Of Kingdom and Crown” (2022) followed by two absolute classics, “Imperium” and “Ten Ton Hammer”, where the frontman called for circle pits getting the audience on the palm of his hands. He knows exactly how to interact with the crowd and make them feel part of the show. The party continued with “I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)”, the song that opens the “Unto the Locust” album from 2011, and “Aesthetics of Hate” from the acclaimed “The Blackening” (2007). A few years back, it was hard to imagine that Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka from Decapitated would end up playing in Machine Head as well, but he has been the guitar player for three years now and he definitely fits in the band.
At some point, Flynn noticed there was a 65 year old lady in the front row and had the entire venue chanting her name, not only once, but twice. She will never forget that night for sure. “Now We Die” was followed by “From This Day” from their nu metal era album “The Burning Red” (1999) and then one of the best moments of the evening happened when the guitarist/vocalist screamed “Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast!”. That meant only one thing, they were going to play their anthem “Davidian” and the crowd responded as expected. To close the evening, they chose another single from “The Blackening” album, “Halo”. Overall, an amazing performance by Machine Head that left the crowd excited and hungry for more.
The Swedish five-piece Amon Amarth had now the responsibility to feed the fans with more metal and a show according to the expectations. They just released their new album “The Great Heathen Army” via Metal Blade Records and were touring in support of the same. This is a band that became bigger and bigger throughout the years, also in terms of stage production. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to have pyro at this venue, but they managed to have a giant viking helmet where the drum kit was lying on. Contrary to what could have been predicted, they didn’t open with a song from their new album, but went for a sing-along classic like “Guardians of Asgaard” instead, which in the studio version had the late LG Petrov (Entombed) as guest vocalist. Immediately they continued with “Raven’s Flight” and another fan-favorite “Deceiver of the Gods” which included their own version of Iron Maiden’s Eddie in the form of Loki coming out on stage.
The crowd was engaged from the start, so we can conclude the selection of the songs was very effective. “The Great Heathen Army” and “Heidrun” were the ones the Swedish outfit picked to promote their latest album while the rest of the setlist was pure classics where “Cry of the Blackbirds” and “The Pursuit of Vikings” were highlights.
A huge sea serpent moving its head appeared on stage for the last song “Twilight of the Thundergod” and the vocalist Johan Hegg grabbed the Thor’s hammer and began fighting with it. Can’t get more viking than that. A perfect way to put an end to the evening!
