Doghouse Gallows and Amon Amarth at De Melkweg, Amsterdam
A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, "From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord."
It is Thursday, the day of the Viking god Thor and Amon Amarth will do a gig today at De Melkweg in Amsterdam.
De Melkweg building started as a sugar factory somewhere at the end of the nineteenth century, but there is absolutely nothing sweet about today’s line up. We all know Amon Amarth, the death metal Vikings from Sweden. Doghouse Gallows is another story. This is a local band born out of the ashes of Kutschurft (schurft is scabies and a kut is a certain hole women have between the legs) and Pleurisy. Drummer George Oosthoek used to be the grunt singer of Gothic / Doom band Orphanage and he was always available when a gothic band needed a grunt or two. George replaced After Forever grunter Sander Gommans during his burn out and he was the standard special guest during Delain and Within Temptation gigs. In Doghouse Gallows he is the drummer of all things.
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The Melkweg and the Paradiso are two sides of the same coin. Both designed by the same architect, virtually neighbours on the old city walls of Amsterdam, both squatted by hippies during the late sixties and aiming at the same music genres, but while the Paradiso has still a ‘church’ feeling, the Melkweg is a music factory - a good factory.
We were supposed to see Evile as opener; however, this statement says enough:
Evile Statement - Mike Alexander Sadly, just a few days into their European tour with Amon Amarth, Evile's Mike Alexander was suddenly taken ill and rushed to hospital, but tragically passed away in Lulea, Sweden.
Evile members Matt Drake, Ol Drake and Ben Carter have released the following statement: "This is so hard to find the words to express fully how we feel. We can't believe or accept what's happened. One minute we're talking to our buddy, Mike, the next minute we can never speak to him again. There's so many things rushing through our heads that we want to say, do and feel. We half expect him to come round the corner and call us dickheads. We can't get our heads around it. It upsets us so much that he was away from his family when this happened, although knowing Mike, we're at least glad he was on tour doing what he loves. We're lost for words. We all miss him so much already. He was such a headstrong, genuinely nice guy who loved music and his family. We've got so many brilliant memories with him. Our hearts go out to his daughter, family and friends at this tragic, difficult time. Mike is much loved and is sorely missed. Rest in peace, brother."
Michael Alexander - 22.06.77 - 05.10.09
This is the second Amon Amarth gig at De Melweg within two years. In 2007 they were the opener for Dimmu Borgir.
Amon Amarth is not the most original name because many bands are inspired by the work of JRR Tolkien. Think of Annatar, Dagor Dagorlad, Carach Angren and Gorgoroth (funny, but there is still no black metal band called Frodo!) while Battlelore has based almost all their lyrics on the work of Tolkien.
Music wise Amon Amarth is family of the death metal genre. Despite the fact that they do sing about Vikings, the band does not use any medieval instruments or have any folk influences. You will never see them at Pagan Fests, although they would fit in perfectly.
It was also a bit laughable to see all those plastic helmets and swords. I never felt the urge to bring my battle axe to an Amon Amarth gig. Besides, I think most so called Vikings here would not know what to do during a raid. Kill the women, rape the sheep and steal the men perhaps? Anyway, Amsterdam was never visited by Vikings during their summer holidays in the good old medieval times (Amsterdam did not exist in those days), but those suckers did burn my home town during the ninth century. Bastards!
The gig itself:
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Doghouse Gallows did a good job despite being completely out of place here. I guess absolutely nobody was here for this band so you start with a severe hindrance as band. The sound and light crew did not help the band much either with horrible, bad sound and light, but as I discovered later it could be worse...
It is never easy to replace a band that has been forced out of a tour due to very tragic circumstances but Doghouse Gallows did their best.
Amon Amarth was bad, just plain bad. The boys from Sweden gave us nothing new and virtually the same as the Melkweg gig from 2007. What made it bad? 1) Horrible, bad sound: very loud, distorted and it was almost impossible to hear the singer above all the noise and 2) Bad light: dark and only aimed towards the audience. And I did not like some people from the audience, an assorted collection of Rednecks, Nazi sympathizers and other human beings you do not really want to associated with.
It was clear to me that it was the presence of Dimmu Borgir and their professional attitude that made the Amon Amarth gig from 2007 a good one. Amon Amarth makes some kind of melodic death metal and that genre does not exactly invite for a cool stage show, but at least you can try.
Cameras were prohibited tonight. One might think this is because Johan’s (the Amon Amarth singer) beer belly has expanded to the size of a frost giant, but he looked actually healthier than two years ago. Usually artists do not like cameras because they will look sweaty and dirty on stage, but I do not understand why death metal artists would be worried about their image. Amon Amarth photos are worthless anyway. You won’t get a dime for them on Ebay.
In this age of shrinking record sales and too expensive tickets I expect more from a headliner than something like Amon Amarth did. Even five years ago this gig would be average compared how this band used to be on stage. And for what matters, the band has recycled their unique sound a few times too much on their latest records to my taste.
A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, or, in this case "From the crap of Amon Amarth deliver us, O Lord."
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