Walking up to the venue, it was easy to know who had tickets for the Friday night Swedish death metal show at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle and who was attending the rap concert on the other side of the giant building at Porsche Arena. This stark contrast of fans is common at these two venues, and happened again when Korn and Architects performed on one side, while a comedy and live podcast took place on the other.
Dim lights and a smoky, foggy atmosphere are the expected concert cues that a death metal show is about to start. The audience was not disappointed when Soilwork came out as soon as the stage lights went out. To start the evening off on the right path, they opened the night with “The Nurturing Glance.” The crowd was already packed in and getting warmed up by the time they started playing “Figure Number Five.” Just before the fourth song, “Distortion Sleep,” singer Björn “Speed” Strid announced, “This one is for the ladies.”
Just before the seventh song of the set, “Stålfågel,” Björn mentioned how cool it was to have an all-Swedish death metal tour. He then announced there was time for one last song, and they performed “Stabbing the Drama” to a very enthusiastic crowd who, by this point, were fully warmed up for the evening.
When they paused for a moment to let themselves and the crowd take a quick breath, singer Niklas Karlsson mentioned how much they all like the city and that it had been over a year since they were last in Stuttgart with Bullet for My Valentine. Just before starting “While We Serve,” he mentioned he wanted to “see some bodies in the air.” After the guitar solo, for part two of the long song, they told the audience, “You know what to do,” encouraging the mosh pit to get “larger” and “larger.” During the last song, “Vultures of North,” there was a short pause for the band to have the audience split into two before telling them to form a wall of death and, “When I say ‘go,’ you go!”
The set was opened with “Gjallarhorn” from their new album, The Allfather Awakens, which was just released on October 2. Only 14 days after the release, the crowd was already able to sing along with them. Starting as early as the third song, “Death in Fire,” there were frequent large towers of flames shooting up from all over the front of the stage. The frequent flame towers added extra emphasis to the blend of aggression and melody.
They are well known for having their pit section row. Just before they played “Put Your Back Into the Oar,” the video changed to a visual of rough seas during a storm. Once it started, it was finally time for the crowd in the pit to get down on the ground and row. Even the people in the seats joined in with the rowing. This is now a tradition and staple of an Amon Amarth show.
Singer Johan Hegg often refers to the crowd as Vikings, and at one point said, “It doesn’t matter where you are from, Viking is a state of mind.” He went on to mention that it was a special day because it was rhythm guitarist Johan Söderberg’s birthday. “In honor of him and in honor of you, we would like to raise your horns.” All of the band members then raised their drinking horns filled with beer, and proudly gave the crowd a “Skål” (Swedish for cheers), and drank together with most of the crowd. After finishing the horns, they told the audience, “If you know the words, then sing along, and if you don’t, sing along anyway.” The LED screen played a video with the lyrics displayed for anyone who did not know the words.
After the main set was finished, it was time for the encore. For the second song of the encore, “Saxons and Vikings,” there was a video of Saxon’s Biff Byford singing his parts of the song alongside Johan singing his part. To end the set, they finished with “Twilight of the Thunder God,” with flames shooting up and Johan wielding a large Norse hammer. After three Swedish bands, plenty of fog, fire, and mosh pits, the night of death metal in Stuttgart came to an end.
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