so this is my wacken post. at least kind of. i didn't buy any vinyl at this years festival because there wasn't any interesting stuff. but i saw amon amarth and as their stage show and the whole gig were nothing short of amazing, i thought it might be apt to write about my recent purchase in combination with the biggest metal festival in europe. again it was raining the week before the festival started and left sodden ground. a heavy shower on thursday and the ground was soaking wet. again rain boots were my best friends.
next to great shows by nile and the dillinger escape plan, i was eagerly awaiting the performance of amon amarth. i saw them once at elbriot fest 2015 and they were a blast. this time on an even bigger stage, promised a great show. the stage show looked real sharp with the drum kit set on an over dimensional viking helmet. during the set two viking performers fought a duel on stage, the vocalist johan hegg lit fireworks with the hit of thor's hammer and a huge midgard snake crawled on stage at the end of the show.
amon amarth absolutely killed it and the guys had one of the best performances of the whole festival. good for me that metal blade re-releases the whole amon back catalogue on some fancy vinyl options. i missed out on the first four records but "fate of norns" and "with oden on our side" caught my interest. metal blade releases two albums at a time and so i pre-ordered both records at emp mailorder. for "fate of norns" i chose the limited european colour-way on grey marble vinyl.
of course everybody knows "the pursuit of vikings", which was the opening track of their wacken set by the way, but the rest of the album is at least equally as good. a great melodic death metal album through and through. the recording process was pretty stressful for the band because amon amarth was still no full-time job at the time and the guys could only work on the record after their day jobs. the stress isn't noticeable on all accounts. "fate of norns" was the first to even enter the german album charts. great edition with additional poster and insert in a slip sleeve. #109/300. metal blade. 2004/2017.
