AMON AMARTH : METAL CRUSHES ALL TOUR 2024 with CANNIBAL CORPSE / OBITUARY / FROZEN SOUL

The Metal Crushes All Tour 2024 brought a stacked lineup into a standing room only Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas! The Pearl has been crushing it lately with metal shows, and this one truly lived up to all the hype! The tour was winding down with only one show left after this Vegas date, and bands were on fire as this two month run was coming to an end.

The crowd there early were treated to a killer set by the band FROZEN SOUL, a death metal band who hail from Fort Worth TX. Their sound is slow grinding riffs and lyrics that deal with a tough life and depression, and lead singer Chad Green is a mountain of a man and an imposing figure onstage. The band started their set with the 2021 song “Encased In Ice”, that starts slow and grinds its way to a pounding beat, and followed that up with 2023’s “Death and Glory”, as headbanging and pits were already forming, a great bang to start of the night. As an opener, the band's set was short, but Frozen Soul definitely won won new fans and made an impression as they closed out their set with their best known song “Crypt of Ice" - you can check out the video and more on Frozen Soul HERE.

OBITUARY was next on the list, an American death metal band from Tampa, who started their set with the all too familiar “Redneck Stomp" - a killer guitar instrumental that had the crowd on their feet. With the entrance of singer John Tandy, who took center stage, slightly bent over, long hair covering his face, Obituary ripped into 2023’s “Barely Alive”, a very high energy song that had John telling the crowd to open up the pit. The band played two more songs off the 2023 album Dying of Everything, keeping the torrid pace with “The Wrong Time”, and “My Will To Live”. The majority of the bands set came off the Dying of Everything , and the band closed their short set with the title song. With Obituary you know what to expect - straightforward hard rocking death metal. The band is legendary in the death metal scene, after 40 years still cutting new music and touring solid as ever.

CANNIBAL CORPSE's brutal death metal hit the stage next, as vocalaist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher came out wearing a t- shirt with his own image on it, that said 'Respect the Neck'. Headbangers know, lol. Blazing hard with "Scourge of Iron", and "Blood Blind" off last year's much anticipated Chaos Horrific, the band's song titles and lyrics are extremely violent, with "Evisceration Plague”, “I Cum Blood”, and “Stripped, Raped & Strangled” on the set, showing you what they are made of. The stage was a blur of hair flying and headbanging, with Fisher challenging the crowd to a head banging contest, saying they "would lose every time". "Are you having a good time? I am going to ruin it", screamed Fisher, as Corpse closed out their brutal set with "Hammer Smashed Face". Brutal, unapologetic, Cannibal Corpse.

AMON AMARTH has one of if not the best touring stage set up on the road today, with massive 30 foot viking statues on each side of the stage, towering over a viking helmet with a drum kit on top, and stairs leading up to a backdrop that featured viking warriors and viking ships - Amon Amarth is both musically and visually a tremendous production.

Not musically as heavy as the three opening bands, their style is more melodic death metal, and a viking metal band through and through. Lead singer Johan Hegg screams Viking,as he led AA in their classic “In Pursuit of Vikings” to start their set, and stayed old school as they followed with "Guardians of Asgaard", and the 2013 classic "Deceiver of the Gods". On "As Loke Falls" a character emerged onstage wearing a skeleton faced helmet,

with horns and a sword, only to be taken down by different band members as he tried to attack them during the song. A concert and a stage production, Amon Amarth is like nothing else. One of the coolest moments in the show, as the band finished "Find a Way or Make One", the crowd immediately opened a wide section of the floor in front of the stage and formed rows, and started rowing, before Johan could even say anything.

That brought a huge smile and "Put Your Back into the Oar" roared as the rowing became more frenzied. "The Way of the Vikings" and "War of the Gods" kept up the performance, and two 'warriors' appeared onstage and had a sword fight as the band played around them. Amon closed with an encore that featured the classic “Twilight of the Thunder God” to a roaring ovation from the nearly sold out venue, and closed with "Shield Wall" and "Raise Your Horns" to hundreds of horns in the air. .

From their song lyrics, huge production and staging, viking sword battles onstage and incredible showmanship, Amon Amarth IMO is one of the best touring death metal bands today. Check out 2022's The Great Heathen Army, and more on the band HERE.