Written by:	Daru Jericho
Published:	August 18, 2006
Event:	Amon Amarth + Gorerotted (Website)
Location:	Underworld, London, United Kingdom

I arrived outside the Underworld venue approximately 45 minutes early. As a fan of both Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth and English Gorerotted I certainly did not wish to miss a thing. Five or ten miuntes after 7pm the doors opened and I was one of the first to get into the venue. Inside I bought a 12 pound Amon Amarth t-shirt. The Gorerotted tops were hilarious and tempting but I knew it would cost me gig tickets. Anyway, this would not be the last time I would see Gorerotted live.

I had to endure that horrible wait before Gorerotted got on stage. I ended up talking to people to pass the time. Gorerotted appeared on stage finally and opened their set with "Fuck Your Arse With Broken Glass." The performance of the song was accurate and the Gorerotted fans in attendance clearly enjoyed this track. The band followed on with older material when they played "Gagged, Shagged, Bodybagged," one of my favourite songs from this band currently. The song itself pulsated with goregrind energy. This song is best experienced live - the recorded version does not do it justice.

Lead growler Goreskin apologised to the audience for the band playing; only a couple of months before the band had supported US death metallers Obituary and next week they began their UK tour with Cryptopsy, additionally supporting Celtic Frost on the London date. This certainly is a lot of Gorerotted in such a short space of time. However, this was the first time I was witnessing them live and I have been a Gorerotted fan for a while.

They played several songs from their latest album "A New Dawn For The Dead' which is probably my least favourite Gorerotted album, despite the band's conversion to death metal. "Nervous Gibbering Wreck" was one such song from the latest. Quite frankly, although this track was enjoyable it was not as marvellous as hearing some of the grind music live. Goreskin quickly said that this song was about drug addicts and dedicated it to those out there.

Guitarist Robin Pants was not there. He was replaced by someone else. From what I could hear from the substitute he was not too bad but I was infront of guitarist Fluffy Offalstench who did a good job indeed. However, during a couple of songs the guitar he played was being drowned out. Fortunately, he rectified the problem as often as it occurred.

After playing "Pain As A Prelude To Death" satisfactorily, the band started on "Put Your Bits In A Concrete Mix" about some serial killer. Judging by the crowd reaction this was a good choice. The continuation of old grind material continued with another one of my favourites, the self titled of the band's second album: "Only Tools And Corpses." The drum intro from the parodied TV show "Only Fools And Horses" played and the band launched into their extreme usual.

"Cut, Gut, Beaten, Eaten" (Goreskin said that this was the first song the band ever wrote about cannibalism) was proceeded by my favourite on the latest album "Adding Insult To Injury." This track hyped up fans too but not as much as the following track. The next track is probably my all time Gorerotted favourite. It is the first song on the debut album "Mutilated In Minutes": "Hacksore." Strong, aggressive and at times crunchy, this song was great live. Several fans growled out the lyrics including myself. The atmosphere was astounding.

The mosh pits were quite on and off although as for usual they looked very violent and full of thrashing arms and hair. The drums throughout the night were more than acceptable, despite the hole in the front of the bass drum and a cymbal not standing on one of its legs.

The band had to cut "And Everything Went Black" from their set due to lack of time so the set closed with "Zombie Graveyard" once again well performed. What I liked about this band that was different from pretty much any other live band I have seen was that they seemed quite unprofessional on stage. Goreskin would accidentally kick cymbal stands and microphones, talk to other band members through his microphone before realising he was doing it and pulling the microphone away and at one stage he got the microphone wire completely tied around his foot. Still, his vocals were brutal and bass player Phil Wilson's screamed vocals were perfect. Just listening to them wanted to make my throat hurt. However, at one stage the vocalist from Screaming Demon came to do those screams. I think it might have been because his voice needed a rest.

I am so glad I got to witness this band live. The show was good enough and their lack of being so professional made me feel that the band were more down to Earth and were not pretentious in any way. I got to shake hands with Fluffy and asked him to give me drummer Junky Jon's setlist, which he did. Once again, it was a great memorable show.

Setlist: Fuck Your Arse With Broken Glass//Gagged, Shagged, Bodybagged//Stab Me Till I Cum//Nervous Gibbering Wreck//Masticated By The Spasticated//Pain As A Prelude To Death//Put Your Bits In A Concrete Mix//Only Tools And Corpses//Cut Gut Beaten Eaten//Adding Insult To Injury//Hacksore//Zombie Graveyard.

Just before Amon Amarth hit the stage, the audience were treated to a one on one battle of knights (they could have been Vikings actually, historically accurate without the horned helmets). The knits were fully clothed in battle gear, both with a sword and shield. They duelled, one of the warriors completely destroyed the other's shield. Hunks of wood dispersed themselves from it and flew on to the floor resulting in some fans taking them for souvenirs. The fighter with the shield gained the upper hand in the fight but eventually lost it and was beaten by the underdog. After the fight, both left the stage after receiving an applause among the crowd.




Amon Amarth came on stage shortly after and played "The Pursuit Of Vikings" to begin their set. The atmosphere that the red lights produced was a battle-worn one that suited the band very well. The song itself was powerful and fans were singing the Viking inspired Norse lyrics.

The band definitely seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was directly infront of guitarist Johan Soderberg. I was fascinated by vocalist Johan Hegg's bracers and their Norse custom engravings. His voice was powerful and raspy like on the recorded versions of the songs he sang, despite the variations among the albums.

One of the more energetic songs was "For The Stabwounds In Our Backs." It was perfectly racy and all instruments were very distinguishable. This song was proceeded by "An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm" and "The Fate Of The Norns." Once again, both were faultless. The next song was "1000 Years Of Oppression" one of the first Amon Amarth tracks I had heard and a favourite too. There were no flaws in this crowd pleaser either.

Johan Hegg had a drinking horn with him and occasionally drank beer from it. Also, he poured the beer from it on to the audience. It was nice getting cooled down in such a way. The Viking theme was good and the band had only small touches of it in their show, rather than going all out and running the risk of looking tacky and overdone.

"Where Silent Gods Stand Guard" was once again well performed, melodic yet heavy. This was another crowd favourite clearly. For the most part, many of the songs on the band's setlist were ones that you would expect to be on there such as "The Last With Pagan Blood" and "Valhalla Awaits." To juggle things up Hegg announced that they would play a song from their upcoming release With Oden On Our Side. They had already played it at their Wacken performance a few days before. It was entitled "Runes To My Memory." The song was intense and similar to Amon Amarth's earlier works. It received a good reaction from the fans present.

Most of the songs on the setlist were taken from the two albums Versus The World and The Fate Of Norns. "Releasing Surtur's Fire" received a good reaction as did "Victorious March" that followed. Without taking an encore the band closed their set with the popular fan favourite "Death In Fire" another melodic death favourite of mine. All in all a good show was put on.

At the end of the gig Johan Soderberg gave fans infront of him, starting with me, guitar plectrums. It was a pretty holographic one. Also, on the way out I had a quick chat with Gorerotted drummer Jon. A nice lad. All together, the show was pretty good but not the best gig I have been to or anything like that. The band made the show enjoyable with their interaction with the fans and their Viking themes.

Setlist: The Pursuit Of Vikings//ValkyriesRode//For The Stabwounds In Our Backs//An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm//The Fate Of Norns//1000 Years Of Oppression//Bleed for Ancient Gods//The Last With Pagan Blood//Where Silent Gods Stand Guard//Valhalla Awaits//Runes To My Memory//Releasing Surtur's Fire//Victorious March//Death In Fire.