Amon Amarth - The Pursuit of Vikings - Live at Summer Breeze

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Viking metal pioneers AMON AMARTH is a band that really needs no introduction. Their live recording at Summer Breeze is a combined celebration of their twenty-fifth year in the industry and celebration of live music. The live recording has two sides, the first one was taken and recorded at Summer Breeze’s T-Stage while the other one was taken and recorded at Summer Breeze’s Main Stage. They played fourteen songs at the T-Stage, starting the action with the fan favorite “Twilight of the Thunder God”. You can feel the excitement and energy of the crowd right from the beginning. This ambiance, however is not that emphasized as the recording focused more on the stage performance.

The recording is nearly flawless – everything is in perfect balance as though it was recorded in a studio with multiple takes. The only downside is that the recording focused mainly on the band, that sometimes the crowd can be barely heard especially when they are the ones singing the choruses. Performance-wise, AMON AMARTH did an outstanding job on that. The energy they gave never went down right from the beginning till the closing notes. They also make the banter very minimal, with the performance doing all the talking. The T-Stage performance is like a warm up before they take on the main stage and majority of the songs played are classics and old favorites like “The Last With Pagan Blood” and the closing song “Victorious March”.

Meanwhile, their performance on the main stage is of a completely different level. There, they played sixteen blockbuster songs. Blockbuster in a way that it is very difficult if not impossible to pinpoint which song was the highlight of the performance. To be precise, the set includes all-time favorites such as “The Pursuit of Vikings”, “Deceiver of the Gods”, “Destroyer of the Universe”, “Guardians of Asgaard” and their latest hits “The Way of Vikings” and “Raise Your Horns”. They also had a surprise addition in the Main Stage performance when they called Doro Pesch to the stage to lay down their collaborated song called “A Dream That Cannot Be”. The performance is so epic and you can say that the crowd approved it by the way they reacted.

The overall performance of AMON AMARTH on both stages is simply epic. The energy they possess from the opening beats until the dying notes of the sets never faded. In fact, you won’t even imagine that this was already their twenty-fifth year doing this stuff basing on the explosiveness of their performances. It really seems like they never aged. It’s a great treat not only to the fans who have been following them since their first steps but also to those who just discovered them along the way. Plus, the CD artwork is so badass and makes a cool tattoo!

Songwriting: 9
Originality: 9
Memorability: 9
Production: 9