DIMMU BORGIR & AMON AMARTH
Looking at the colossal queue that had already formed by the time I arrived at the venue, tonight’s gig had attracted a large volume of metalheads, with the audience ranging from the loyal long-time followers of Dimmu Borgir, whose faded “For All Tid” t-shirts were just about managing to hold it together, to floppy fringed 12 year olds sporting Cradle Of Filth t-shirts and no doubt Amon Amarth managed to entice a fair few fans along on their own merit too. You only needed to glance at the “sold out” sign that was already plastered on the glass upon arrival, and you can see that Dimmu Borgir have become pretty big in recent years.
Only when I was collecting my passes from the box office did I discover that the advertised openers Hatesphere had been dropped from the bill and were being replaced with Engel. Having missed the openers, I strolled on over to the bar to purchase my first drink of the evening, before checking out what the merch stall had to offer.
A pint later I headed into the main venue and managed to find a decent spot for Amon Amarth. Having already seen this band twice prior to tonight, this would be the first occasion where said band wouldn’t be headlining. Stomping straight into latest album opener “Vallhall Awaits Me”, and following that with “Runes To My Memory”, it began to look as though they would be concentrating on their latest opus; With Odin On Our Side. As Johan drinks from his horn during “Death In Fire” wearing an almost satirical expression, I get the feeling that by watching from afar I had missed out on some of the subtleties that made Amon Amarth stand out tonight. As he bellows the words “Good Eeeeevning Manchesterrrrr” the rotund frontman must surely feel, after three visits in the space of a year, that he is greeting some old pals. As Olavi and Johan (Soderberg) exchange pounding riffs and scything solos during songs such as Asator, it would have been hard to guess that the bassist with them tonight wasn’t a permanent member of the band. The stand in bassist looked to be completely in his element, fitting in with the rest of the band and demonstrating top notch musical ability. As at previous Amon Amarth gigs, these guys were well rehearsed and mechanical in delivery. However, tonight they appeared to have some of the imperfections and rawness that makes a band exciting to watch.
The highlight of their set was “The Victorious March”, which began with the crowd clapping along in unison. Amusingly, two guys in front of me were sporting Viking hats and plastic axes and managed to catch the attention of Johan Hegg, who shot them an acknowledging glance as though from one Viking warrior to another. This is a cavorting stomp along charged with exuberant energy from the Viking horde. The set finishes with the galloping “Persuit Of Vikings”.
Amon Amarth did a great job of getting the crowd fired up and ready for headliners Dimmu Borgir, and by the time they hit the stage the room had filled up to the brink of capacity. This is the bands first UK tour in over three years since they toured in promotion of their stunning Death Cult Armageddon album, and I must confess that this is my first time seeing them. It seemed strange to me that they were playing in the Academy 2, considering they could probably fill the main Academy venue quite well. However, when a band the size of Dimmu Borgir play in such a small venue to a full house there is a great feeling of intimacy and the cramped stage, complete with lit fires and a pentagram to the rear of the stage gave a Satanic ritual-esque aura to the performance. Once a gloomy group of Satanic monks meandered onto the stage, the band took their places as they stormed into the anthemic “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse”, with the enrapturing cacophonous yelling of Shagrath and scattering of clean vocals released from Vortex.
Filling in for the injured Hellhammer, was Tony Laureano (Belphegor), who also played for Dimmu Borgir in 2004 at Ozzfest. He let out an onslaught of blastbeats, creating a relentless stormblast of sound, while guitarists Silenoz and Galder appeared to be enjoying themselves way too much for a black metal band. They bludgeoned through what was a satisfying setlist for most of the crowd, hammering out such classics as “A Succubus In Rapture” (which was dedicated to the many ladies in the crowd), the haunting “Sorgens Kammer” with it's mystical keyboard flourishes, and the majestically divine “Puritania”.
Surprisingly, only three songs were played from their stunning conceptual opus from earlier this year; “The Serpentine Offering”, “A Sinister Awakening” and for the encore, “The Sacrilegious Scorn”, which is interweaved with an industrialized rhythm. This was accompanied by the recently recorded promo video on the background display.
Even more surprisingly to me, there is a shortage of corpsepaint to be seen on the stage, in fact, there appeared to be more painted faces in the crowd, whom Shagrath managed to get chanting along displaying the utmost poise, and while at times came across as rigid and staged, had a rather alluring presence. Dimmu Borgir poured 10 times more melody and 10 times more ferocity into their live performance, putting on an energised display and playing every note with crystal precision and tightness. As they play their final encore of “Mourning Palace” and “The Fallen Arises”, I make my way to the rear of the venue before the mad rush as several hundred people push their way to the exit.
Luci Herbert
MANCHESTER ACADEMY II, 30/09/07