Amon Amarth made a stop at the Fillmore Silver Spring Tuesday, a date on their Metal Crushes All tour, the band’s biggest ever North American tour. The venue sold out and it was an absolutely bonkers night of metal.
The insanity got started early, at 6:30PM, when Frozen Soul took the stage. The Dallas, Texas band (Samantha Mobley, Michael Munday, Chad Green, Matt Denard, and Chris Bonner) already had a mostly full house to play to when they laid down their 30-minute set of icy death metal. A still-young band, Frozen Soul’s latest album is Glacial Domination, released in 2023, and praised for its old school death metal sound. Vocalist Green wore a Bolt Thrower shirt, illustrating that the band does wear its death metal influences on its figurative sleeve.
The turnover took mere minutes before Obituary took the baton from Frozen Soul to continue the crowd’s annihilation. Formed in Florida back in 1984, Obituary is one of death metal’s pioneering bands, as well as one of the genre’s most successful. Forty years on, Obituary has eleven studio albums under its belt, the latest being 2023’s Dying of Everything.
Their seven-song set was heavy on new material, but the crowd didn’t seem to mourn the relative lack of older material. It was still fairly early in the night, but the roof was already starting to get ripped off the Fillmore—the venue was almost full by that point. Chanting and crowd surfing got started and never stopped. Not bad for a Tuesday night in the suburbs!
By the time Cannibal Corpse took the stage, the Fillmore was completely full, bursting at the seams with explosive energy from death metal fans ready to lose their minds. Cannibal Corpse (George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, Alex Webster, Paul Mazurkiewicz, Rob Barrett, and Erik Rutab), also from Florida, is another OG death metal band, forming with its original lineup in 1988. Despite having little to no radio or TV exposure, the band developed a cult following starting in the early ’90s of fans drawn to the technical death metal and horror-based lyrics.
The crowd responded to Cannibal’s Corpse’s bludgeoning as if the band were the headliner, chanting, fist pumping and crowd surfing to fan favorites like “Scourge of Iron” and “Evisceration Plague.” Fisher, known for his massive neck, wore a signature “Respect the Neck” shirt and whipped his wet hair as the security staff scrambled below to catch the fans drifting into the pit. It got so intense that I excused myself from the area just short of my three-song allotment.
When it comes to melodic death metal or Viking metal, Sweden’s Amon Amarth is probably the first band that comes to mind for most people. For the uninitiated, Amon Amarth adopted their current name in 1992—having formed from the remnants of a previous band called Scum—and released their first album in 1998, Once Sent from the Golden Hall.
Like many in the metal world, Amon Amarth (currently Olavi Mikkonen, vocalist Johan Hegg, bassist Ted Lundström, rhythm guitarist Johan Söderberg, and drummer Jocke Wallgren) like to nerd out over fantasy; the band’s name is Elvish and taken from Lord of the Rings. Specifically, Mordor’s volcano, Mount Doom. The band’s latest album is The Great Heathen Army, praised by one review as their strongest album in 14 years.
Amon Amarth is known for their lavish stage sets—including giant statues, for example. The Fillmore Silver Spring has limited space for such spectacle; however, the giant horned Viking helmet at the center of the stage is visually impressive. It also serves as a drum riser. Loki and flag wavers appear on stage to enhance the performance and get the crowd even more engaged. Not that they needed any encouragement. It would have been hard to imagine the Fillmore crowd any more stoked to be there—there was horn throwing, chanting, and a steady stream of crowd surfers throughout the set.
For over an hour Amon Amarth hit the Fillmore with its brand of melodic death metal, or Viking metal, as many refer to it, starting with “The Pursuit of Vikings.” The set included selections from across Amon Amarth’s discography, including “Find a Way or Make One” and “Heidrun,” both from The Great Heathen Army. The biggest moments for fans were of course “Put Your Back Into the Oar,” and the drinking anthem “Raise Your Horns.” The show would not have been complete without the closer, “Twilight of the Thunder God,” providing a spectacular light show.
The Metal Crushes All tour wraps up its US leg on May 25 in Anaheim, California. From there it heads to Europe this summer.
CANNIBAL CORPSE
OBITUARY
FROZEN SOUL
AMON AMARTH SETLIST
The Pursuit of Vikings
Tattered Banners and Bloody Fangs
Guardians of Asgaard
Raven’s Flight
Blood Eagle
Deceiver of the Gods
As Loke Falls
Find a Way or Make One
Put Your Back into the Oar
The Way of Vikings
Heidrun
War of the Gods
Shield Wall
Raise Your Horns
Twilight of the Thunder God
