Amon Amarth and Machine Head – The Vikings and Lionhearts tour, OVO Wembley Arena
The crowd ascended upon Wembley arena on Saturday evening to embark upon their journey with Amon Amarth and Machine Head for The Vikings and Lionhearts tour supported by Swedish melodic death metal maestro’s The Halo Effect.
The arena floor filled with a fairly enthusiastic crowd for The Halo Effect, a band made up of former In Flames and current Dark Tranquillity vocalist, Mikael Stanne, who released their debut album “Days of the Lost” just last month. With a set time long enough to charm our ears with seven songs of the nine from the album, there were plenty of heads banging. They suitably fired up the fans ready for what was to come.
Swedish titans Amon Amarth brought a heavy dose of pyro, boasting an interchangeable Viking-themed set, including towering Viking statues, Viking longboats, and giant sea creatures. Roaring onto the stage, opening with “Guardians of Asgard” Johan, with commanding vocals you would expect from a man of obvious confidence and his fellow band mates immediately caught the fans’ attention. Throughout the course of their set energies were kept high and at one point had a vast majority of the fans rowing on the floor from the barrier almost as far as the sound desk to “Put Your Back Into The Oar.” The Amazing show certainly kept the viewer drawn in with re-enactment battles, not that it was needed. The sound was great, the show was great, and it looked like everyone else agreed. Having never seen them before and only having two of their songs on my playlist I can’t say I’ve heard much of them but they’re now certainly a band I would happily see live any day of the week. A great stage set, a great pick of songs, and all round a great show from them!
Machine Head followed with a fantastic set as frontman Robb Flynn arrived on stage full of energetic vibes and as always, fired up and ready to have a good time with the Headcases. Starting with “Become The Firestorm” from their newest album “Of Kingdom And Crown” Robb had the circle pits going at his earliest opportunity and refused to let them die down through the whole set. They gave a good mix of old and more recent songs spreading evenly through the years of their many albums. With such a big discography they do an excellent job of making sure there is a sprinkling of old and new, which must be a mammoth task. Having been a little sneaky trying to find out what their set list for Saturday might offer I noticed they seemed to have the brilliant idea of changing the set list up some nights. I have seen them countless times and would happily see them every night of a tour with a repeated set list but to change it up here and there I think is an amazing idea. 80 minutes isn’t much time to cram in so many of their classics but unsurprisingly they managed to create an exceptional set. The Wembley set list also included Imperium, Ten Ton Hammer, I am Hell, and Aesthetics of Hate – which was dedicated evermore to the late Dimebag Darrell, as a condemnation of William Grims’ hateful article written after his tragic death back in December 2004, Darkness Within, at which point Flynn kindly mentioned the recent death of our Queen saying some heartfelt words about her. Locust, From This Day, which had the majority of the crowd jumping along, Davidian, a classic staple that usually is never missed off a set list of theirs and ended with a joint effort of Halo with the crowd singing their hearts out.
As quick as a flash, Machine Head draw their set in, an apparent 80 minutes set scheduled flashes by in the blink of an eye and the night draws to a close. The masses depart the arena and descend upon Wembley tube station in their droves from a near-perfect evening, it feels like this night has been a long time coming, but from those around on the long journey home, they’d go through it a wait as long again for a night like this.