[Harry]: 14th of February... A day that most of us, I hope, hate. If you took a walk everywhere in the world, you could see heart-shaped balloons, unfortunately not with the real shape of a heart, heart shaped chocolates and victims of the media and our consuming society, buying presents, cards, chocolates for their beloved, since it's Valentine's day (I'm going to puke). But fortunately, me, my good friend and fellow Templar Yiannis D. and Evgenia had better plans. AMON AMARTH were playing in Athens and we could not miss it.

The doors opened on time and at about 21:00 HEATHENDOM came on stage. This was the first time I saw the band performing live. For those that don't know the sound of the band, let me say that they sound like a mixture of CANDLEMASS / MEMENTO MORI, SOLITUDE AETURNUS and a touch of KING DIAMOND, as well spotted by Gregory in his last live report for our E-zine. The band seemed that they are trying to work at a professional way, but that night they didn't convinced me. Ok the bad sound helped for that, but there were also a quite big number of mistakes from the band itself. As for the appearance onstage, well, it wasn't something special, and the one that tried to show some movement, was the lead singer of the band. As a conclusion HEATHENDOM was nothing special, and, to tell you the truth, I believe that their sound don't match with the one the headliners have. Only 10-20 people seemed to liked their set and the majority of the crowd, from what I've heard from the people around me, were asking each other when they are going to leave the stage.

But here let me mention something. It's obvious that there are some bands that we like, some that we don't. That doesn't mean that, because you don't like the support band, you have to start yelling to the headliners name. It's better to go and drink a beer or two, or hit on the girl standing next to you, rather than doing this.

Anyway, HEATHENDOM left the stage, the usual, and annoying, sound check was over, the lights went down and it was about time for the Vikings to come!

[Yiannis D.]: The true Viking Metal warriors AMON AMARTH hit the stage to guide a crowd that was already on fire! After a short intro, the five Vikings hit us with the Twilight Of The Thunder God and pure Metal energy started floating around the venue. One of the best live acts out there, a headbanging orchestra as a friend called them, tried to lead the approximately 800 people in the club to Valhalla. The titan also known as Johan Hegg was amazing and a way better frontman than I imagined him to be. With his crushing performance and his constant chat with the audience, I am damn sure he earned the respect of every single metalhead in there. Just think about an incredible quote he said during Pursuit Of The Vikings. While challenging the crowd to sing after him he said: You can sing even if you don't know the lyrics. It's fucking Death Metal! No one will notice!. What a fucking cool guy!

Everything was magical that night except for a couple of things that could have made that show even better. The first is the classic problem in the Greek live reality, the sound. The guitars were kind of buried, and there were times you couldn't hear the riffs or the melodic leads in the background. Someone that is not really familiar with AMON AMARTH's music would surely have a problem. The second thing is the setlist. Although it had many classic songs that drove the fans crazy, it didn't have songs from the first album, as well as hymns like Without Fear, The Fall Through Ginunngagap or For The Stabwounds In Our Backs. But I guess we can't have it all, can we?

The show is over and it is time for - one more - beer. We left the venue satisfied and full of Metal experiences. Thank you AMON AMARTH for that beautiful night! We hope to see you again really soon...

Setlist:
01. Intro
02. Twilight Of The Thunder God
03. Free Will Sacrifice
04. Asator
05. Varyags Of Miklagaard
06. Fate Of Norns
07. Thousand Years Of Oppression
08. Guardians Of Asgaard
09. Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags
10. North Sea Storm
11. Runes To My Memory
12. Death In Fire
13. Valhall Awaits Me
14. Victorious March
Encore
15. Cry Of The Black Birds
16. Pursuit Of Vikings

(photos by Harry)

HEATHENDOM

AMON AMARTH