Amon Amarth/ Himsa / Sonic Syndicate
December 2, 2007
Trocadero Theatre
Philadelphia, PA
BY: Steve Trager
As we know it so far, the genre of Metal remains one of the most profound types of music that has never undergone any drastic change within it’s boundaries to which it still satisfies fans time and time again.
It is quite hard to keep up with emerging bands from Sweden soil these days and earlier this month I had the opportunity to catch Amon Amarth along with Seattle’s Himsa and the newest talent from Sweden Sonic Syndicate who has never been to the US until now. Even without Poland’s Decapitated on the bill, it still was one tremendous mosh pit during each set. I like the ideal of getting the opportunity of discovering new bands through shows. I hadn’t known much about Sonic Syndicate other then they are a six piece outfit with great melodies and superior guitar work. I enjoyed their short set composed of songs from their recently released CD entitled “Only In Human”.
Next up we had Seattle’s own Himsa, man how harder can this band drive on stage? Opening their set with thrash like madness, Himsa defends the words “brutality”. I wasn’t familiar with any of their stuff other then seeing them way back in 2005 with a few other bands. Sometimes you see one band you see several thousands over a period of time and you mind gets lost in a split moment while your at a concert. As the mosh pit seemingly grew more intense I watched the front man of Himsa jump into the crowd, you want to talk about fan to band participation, that leaves it to a while new direction while a show is at it’s peak performance.
Finally, the band everyone piled into the Trocadero in the first place to watch perform, Amon Amarth, who hold their own signature sound with a spectrum of insight through their timeless music. It seemed to be like Dejavu’ for these guys who performed along with Children of Bodom.
Looking around the trocadero, I couldn’t help not noticing countless fans in Amon Amarth gear head to toe, raising their fits in the air rampantly chanting lyrics to every song on the set list of the entire evening. I enjoyed watching what I call synchronized headbanging, three guys keeping in tune musically and the front man lashing it out in between the lyrics.
The Entire Set List of Amon Amarth:
Valhall Awaits Me
With Oden On Our Side
Death In Fire
Versus The World
Asator
Sound Of Eight Hooves
Hermods Ride To Hell
Cry Of The Black Birds
Fate Of Norns
1000 Years Of Oppression
Down The Slopes Of Death
Bleed For Ancient Gods
Runes To My Memory
Encore:
Victorious March
Last With Pagan Blood
Pursuit Of Vikings
The one thing I always liked about being at the Trocadero is that the set changes are quick and usually everything runs very smoothly. I have to say one thing about Amon Amarth is that their recent performance in Philadelphia in 2007 went off without any problems. Each and every band on the bill sounded great including the local band who was added since Poland’s decapitated suffered a major loss while on tour in Moscow.
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