Amon Amarth, 01.07.2023, Arenele Romane

How I missed going to a show like this! You know, the one where you have the time of your life and then regret nothing afterwards, despite feeling like being run over by a train. Or boat, in this case. Amon Amarth at Arenele Romane was that kind of concert.

But first, a few words about the opening band, Bleed from Within. Cool guys, very friendly. People were a bit mellow from the intense heat and a large chunk of the audience was still queueing for drinks (myeah, not the best oiled machine there), but they did such a good job of animating the crowd that they even got a circle pit going after a few tracks. By the time they left, everyone was cheering them and generally enjoying themselves.

And now back to Amon Amarth‘s performance: epic as fuck, intense in every single way and just incredibly fun. Sure, Vikings and melodic death metal are all aggressive and somber, but Amon Amarth and their fans don’t take themselves seriously at all. And that’s a huge part of the charm. As my husband put it, the mightier and scarier the lead singer looks, the goofier and more joyful they are. And none fits the description better than Johan, practicing his Romanian, teasing us, chugging down drinks from his horn to the sound of our cheers and having a huge smile and childlike excitement on his face whenever he was not “in character”.

And the fans… oh the fans. Also big and intimidating at the first glance, but equally fun-loving at the second. It does take a special degree of not giving a fuck to go into a giant circle pit and wall of death and then just sit down and start rowing with dozens of strangers. Yes, we rowed. Half of the venue did, it was a quite respectable boat and I would’ve been extremely disappointed if I went to an Amon Amarth concert without rowing (I even got my own dose of water from somewhere in the pit. Or at least I like to think it was water). We doused in each other’s sweat, Johan called us crazy, my abs were killing me, it was awesome!!

I love it when a band puts effort and creativity into their identity and their stage performances are more than just singing in a t-shirt (not that there’s anything wrong with that either, some of the best concerts I went to were just some guys giving their best into the microphones). But Amon Amarth definitely have their own unmistakable print. Taken from Norse imagery, with horned helmets, drinking horns, statues of Vikings and the serpent, men clad in armors sword-fighting on stage and of course, the boats. It was an elaborate show, complementing the sheer energy coming from the band members and their music. Again, fucking epic.

Luckily for me, I was actually able to see most of it thanks to the circle pit formed right besides us. I love circle pits. Everyone makes room for them and if you stand right on the edge, you get air to breathe and a good angle to see even if you’re 1.6m and well below most of the crowd. It was quite funny that there was another chick of the same height right next to us and the two of us were just following the pit (who often broke and reformed, changing location a bit in the process) just to be able to see, while our tall partners were indulging us and following suit with a slightly amused look on their faces.

It was something to enjoy even if you don’t really care for the band and genre, but only love elaborate performances with a huge outpour of energy from the audience. So… right up my alley. It was such an incredibly entertaining night, the band was great and the atmosphere in the venue matched their vitality and excitement. Just to paint a picture, I reached my 10 000 steps goal just by dancing around at the show, I didn’t even know they recorded those! I’m so excited to have been there and just be able to let go of everything while jumping, headbanging, throwing fists in the air and rowing. Yeah, the rowing was my favourite part.