Greeted at the door by two huge men, fully clad in Viking armour, it was clear that the first show of Amon Amarth’s Jomsviking tour was going to be a good one. This was the first show of their 32 date tour to a sold out crowd at the Camden Underworld. The venue was full to the brim of eager fans, drinking horns at the ready for their first listen of the Viking marauders tenth studio album. At half past 8 an intro started and the crowd fell silent. There was no support band this evening, tonight was a 2 hour show dedicated to the Jomsviking’s.
The band opened the set with “The pursuit of Vikings” and “As Loke Falls’. Two older tracks to get the crowd riled up. It worked. Horns overflowing and fists pounding the air, the crowd were up for this show. Johan Hegg then led the band straight into 3 new brutal tracks, “First Kill” , “The Way of Vikings”, and “At Dawns First Light”, the crowd quieter than before whilst taking in the new sounds, the band encouraged “Sing! This is fucking death metal, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the words!” one of my favourite show quotes in a long time, followed by a roar into another savage collection of guitars and double kicks.
Over the 2 hour show the bearded Swede’s played plenty from their 24 year back catalogue, my favourite being the slightly more melodic but by no means soft “Cry of the Black Birds”. As the show drew to a close, the band left their stage, no doubt to refill their drinking horns, before re-emerging for the encore. First up was “Raise Your Horns’ another killer track from the new album. followed by the classic “Guardians of Asgaard”. As if that wasn’t enough to have the crowd screaming for more, the opening riffs of the belter “Twilight of the Thunder God” rang out. The crowd screamed along, devil horns in the air. Without a doubt the ultimate fan favourite to finish the fantastic set.