By Andrew Bansal
[Photos by Brad Worsham]
February 15th 2014, The Wiltern, Los Angeles CA: After pillaging North America for the past four weeks, the ‘Deceiver Of The Gods’ North American tour featuring Swedish viking heroes Amon Amarth, Norwegian progressive extreme metal masters Enslaved and Ohio blackened thrashers Skeletonwitch made its way to Southern California and set foot in downtown Los Angeles to play at the magnificent Wiltern Theatre. This was a highly anticipated event for LA’s extreme metal faithful, as was evident from the long line of people wrapping around the block waiting to enter the venue. Metal Assault was in attendance for the first show of this tour in Las Vegas, but this particular show in LA was different in quite a few aspects and hence warrants its own separate review, and here it is, along with some epic live photos.
The pre-show atmosphere was fantastic, with a majority of the attendees turning up early in order to get the best possible vantage point to see the show from, as floor ticket holders would get wristbands for entry into the pit on a first come first serve basis. The Viking Truck, a food truck most appropriate for this occasion, did a lap around the venue and was greeted with loud cheers. Doors opened at 6:45 and within a short space of time, all was in readiness for an epic metal evening. To get things going, Amon Amarth’s new music video/mini-movie for ‘Father Of The Wolf’ was played on the projection screen.
In the past, Skeletonwitch have owned every stage they’ve taken in Los Angeles with their crushing performances. Last night was perhaps the biggest stage they’ve played on in this city, but they handled it to perfection and gave a good account of themselves to this already packed venue, presenting material from all of their albums, the ‘Beyond The Permafrost’ material drawing the best response from their fans in the crowd. The four songs off of the latest album ‘Serpents Unleashed’ made their impact as well, specially ‘I Am Of Death’ and ‘Burned From Bone’. There still are six songs on that album yet to be played live, out of which ‘Unending Ever Living’, ‘Unwept’ and ‘Born Of The Light’ would undoubtedly be great additions to the set list on the next tour. But the big surprise came mid-way into this set when the members of Enslaved pulled a prank by making a brief appearance in colorful wigs and fake bellies. Aside from this humorous moment, this 30-minute set garnered plenty of mosh pits and the odd crowd-surfer or two. Skeletonwitch can do no wrong at this point in their career, and this performance was a mere vindication of that. With the wise parting words, “Eat Some Fucking Pussy!”, frontman Chance Garnette and his band mates bid goodbye to the Wiltern.
Visit Skeletonwitch on the web:
Skeletonwitch.com
facebook.com/Skeletonwitch
twitter.com/Skeletonwitch
instagram.com/Skeletonwitch
Set List:
01. This Horrifying Force (The Desire To Kill)
02. I Am Of Death (Hell Has Arrived)
03. Burned From Bone
04. Sacrifice For The Slaughtergod
05. Beyond The Permafrost
06. From A Cloudless Sky
07. Crushed Beyond Dust
08. Beneath Dead Leaves
09. Within My Blood
Check out more Skeletonwitch photos below (View them here if you’re on a non-Flash device):
The merchandise lines were long, the beers were flowing, and a delightfully healthy dosage of Iron Maiden tunes was being injected into the venue through the PA during the breaks to keep the metal in the atmosphere to its maximum. After a very short wait period, Enslaved took the stage and provided a complete change in pace from Skeletonwitch’s all-out onslaught, starting off with the dynamically ethereal ‘Death In The Eyes Of Dawn’ from the latest album ‘Riitiir’. Just as they were done playing ‘Ethica Odini’, Amon Amarth frontman Johan Hegg came out on stage wearing a bullet belt wherein bullets were shots of alcohol. He handed a bullet to each member of Enslaved and swiftly departed the stage, giving this crowd yet another fun little moment.
Even with a mere six-song, 45-minute set, Enslaved have been successfully able to represent their two-decade long catalog on this tour, going as far back as ‘Allfaðr Oðinn’, song released in ’92. Such is the brilliance in the manner in which Enslaved have successfully encompassed a wide variety of musical elements in their tunes over the years, pushing the boundaries while still staying within the progressive extreme metal realm, it’s sometimes astounding to imagine what must be going through the minds of guitarist/principal songwriter Ivar Bjørnson and his band mates when they sit down to create this music. With every album, they keep delivering music of such high calibre that they’ve clearly surpassed and dwarfed the efforts of several fellow prog bands, including some who’ve been around for longer than Enslaved. The dynamic, eclectic quality of Enslaved’s music comes through to an even greater extent in their live performances, as it certainly did last night. They left the stage with a promise to return with a longer set next time.
Visit Enslaved on the web:
Enslaved.no
facebook.com/Enslaved
twitter.com/EnslavedBand
Set List:
01. Death In The Eyes Of Dawn
02. Ruun
03. Ethica Odini
04. Riitiir
05. Allfaðr Oðinn
06. Isa
Check out more Enslaved photos below (View them here if you’re on a non-Flash device):
With five minutes to go ’til 9:30, Judas Priest’s ‘All Guns Blazing’ was played on the PA, aptly serving as the lead-up to Amon Amarth‘s arrival. The curtains were drawn apart and the one thing only Los Angeles got to witness on this tour was unveiled, the viking ship. Cellphones and cameras were immediately out as everyone in the audience gasped at the sight of the giant beauty. The band members appeared one by one. The set began with ‘Father Of The Wolf’, and for this crowd, it was ‘all systems go’. Fists were pumping and hair-laden windmills were kicked into motion. The viking invasion had begun.
The set delved into material almost exclusively from the last four studio albums, with the exception of ‘Death In Fire’ and ‘The Pursuit Of Vikings’. Comparing the material from the two latest albums Deceiver Of The Gods and Surtur Rising, songs off of the latter sounded better in the live setting at the Las Vegas show and the same can be said about last night’s set as well, to the extent that the song ‘Last Stand Of Frej’ was arguably one of the highlights of the evening. But the set list didn’t seem to matter too much to the easily excitable Amon Amarth fans in this audience, and the addition of the viking ship gave the show the visual aspect that made it truly special. Besides, there were other stage props employed, such as Johan Hegg’s hammer during ‘Twilight Of The Thunder God’, and of course, the famous drinking horn. Amon Amarth left no stone unturned in giving the Los Angeles audience a complete live experience, and even though they’ve played longer ‘evening with’ shows here in the recent past, this was undoubtedly the best show they’ve ever done in the LA area.
The response from the crowd was absolutely incredible, and at times the scenes inside the Wiltern looked like straight out of a movie like 300. Every time Johan Hegg interacted with the fans, the collective roars were deafening. Los Angeles crowds are notorious for being unresponsive and hard to impress, as has been observed and mentioned on this site itself plenty of times, but that notion was firmly put to rest by this set of fans at the Wiltern last night.
Overall, a highly enjoyable show for one and all in attendance from start to finish, and completely worth its $40 price tag. Amon Amarth are undeniably great as a live band, and with this performance they proved it better than ever before.
Visit Amon Amarth on the web:
AmonAmarth.com
facebook.com/OfficialAmonAmarth
twitter.com/AmonAmarthBand
Set List:
01. Father Of The Wolf
02. Deceiver Of The Gods
03. Death In Fire
04. Free Will Sacrifice
05. As Loke Falls
06. We Shall Destroy
07. Runes To My Memory
08. Varyags Of Miklagaard
09. Last Stand Of Frej
10. Guardians Of Asgaard
11. Blood Eagle
12. Warriors Of The North
13. Destroyer Of The Universe
14. Cry Of The Black Birds
15. War Of The Gods
Encore:
16. Twilight Of The Thunder God
17. The Pursuit Of Vikings
Check out a full gallery of 26 Amon Amarth photos below (View them here if you’re on a non-Flash device):