Swedish viking death metal giants Amon Amarth stormed into Chicago to a packed crowd at The Riviera Theater Monday evening to kick start peoples week with a good dosage of extreme metal. Featuring 4 bands of legendary stature Chicago was given a night to remember and made sure to give all the energy back to the bands they could.
Opening the nights events were Sweden’s Grand Magus. With influences such as Sabbath and Priest the band crosses their influence over between genres with ease. With their short set they got the crowd prepped for what was next.
At The Gates, one of the pioneers of Swedish death metal came up next and from the second they started turned the crowd into a nonstop fury of madness. Tomas Lindberg is able to go around and command the stage and crowd with ease while delivering pulverizing vocals.
Continuing the mayhem, melodic death metalers Arch Enemy came up next with front woman Alissa White-Gluz being a beacon of nonstop energy for the crowd to absorb. Between nailing her vocals constantly and nonstop movement of some form the band was at their peak performance level. Anytime you get to see Jeff Loomis and Michael Amott shread with ease off of each other is a sight to see either. Still riding off 2017’s smash hit “Will To Power” the band showed no sign of slowing and gave the crowd excitement for whatever would come next.
With a curtain raised and the music set the crowd knew what was coming next, it was time to get their viking on. Sporting a giant stage set that included a full on Viking helmet Amon Amarth made sure to bring a giant sized stage show where ever they go.
Hot off their latest release “Berserker” the crowd was treated to songs from that album as well as their entire catalog. Vocalist Johan Hegg had the crowd wrapped around his finger with his flawless vocals and stage presence. With smiles and grins ear to ear the band was clearly having just as much fun as the crowd was.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Alex Valentovich: Apocalyptic Demise Photography
Amon Amarth
Arch Enemy
At The Gates, Grand Magus
