Last night, Houston has been blessed with loads and loads of awesome shows. I would have to say it’s been a pretty wicked kick-off to the year of 2024 in that aspect. As we are officially into summertime, it’s becoming more and more smoldering hot outside, so these outside shows we all know and love are definitely at the bottom of our list of preferences as far as concert locations go. Thankfully, H-town has its fair share of nice and ventilated venues for artists of all sizes to be able to choose from, Bayou Music Center being one of them. When I first heard Amon Amarth was coming to Houston I thought to myself, “Damn, that’s probably going to be an outside sweatpit”, knowing these dudes love to bring heavy fog, raging fire, and everything in between… but nope! Bayou Music Center was on the bill for this highly anticipated show to take place, which definitely gave me a huge sigh of relief knowing my princessy-self would be in AC.. but In all reality, I knew I was signing myself up for probably the best death metal show of the year, so I knew sweat was stored for the night.
Joining Amon Amarth on their ‘Metal Crushes All Tour’ was Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, and Frozen Soul. Unfortunately i was a bit late so i wasn’t able to catch the first set from Frozen Soul, but was told by many good friends also attending, that they had a “kick-ass” performance and definitely expressed how dumb i was for being late and missing it. Obituary was coming onstage almost right as I was coming into the venue, so I quickly got to the front to capture it all. Obituary is an OG Death Metal band from Tampa, Florida and they are known for their growling vocals, heavily distorted guitars, and intense drumming. They are also considered “Pioneers” in the Death Metal genre, as they were formed in the late 80’s. They played a quick seven song set, including songs “The Wrong Time”, “My Will To Live”, “War” and more then closing out with “Dying Of Everything”.
Next we had a band that I was also particularly excited to see for the first time, NY formed Metal gurus Cannibal Corpse. I would think everyone in the world knows of these dudes, with their very gruesome sounds and lyrical aspects and obviously the Lead Vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, who towers the center stage and windmills the entire show of every single performance. I always thought that was just a dramatic expression, but it’s legit.. He literally does not stop headbanging and windmilling. It was almost giving me a headache just watching it. How in the world does he not have raging migraines? Is this why he has such a huge neck and wears a shirt almost every show specifically saying “Respect The Neck”? I need these answers! But anyways, man oh man, they are crazy good live. The energy was wild, I’ve never seen so many mosh pits and crowd surfers… no wonder they brought out 2x the extra security that night… It was truly a blast. Cannibal Corpse played a good range of their discography with songs including “Blood Blind”, “I Cum Blood”, “Summoned For Sacrifice” and more before ending their set with everyone’s favorite “Hammer Smashed Face”. These dudes are brutal but so talented, leaving you literally breathless from moshing or headbanging. I will admit I am pretty sad I didn’t purchase a Cannibal Corpse shirt. Hopefully next time!
After trying to cool down and failing miserably, my sweaty self hung out by the side stage waiting for the Amon Amarth stage curtain to drop so the real madness could begin. I turned around and studied the crowd dressed in kilts, viking attire, with long beards, piercings, and even man-buns. Every single human in that venue was sweating but stoked for what most was here and ready to see. As that curtain fell, I’ve never witnessed so much chaos within a crowd, it was now time to really rock out to some google ol’ swedish death metal. The whole rest of that set was honestly a blur, i feel like it went by so fast it’s hard to even put into words how fantastic it was. There were more mosh pits than I could even count, crowd surfers after crowd surfers, and of course the iconic circle of rowing pits. Where do I even begin with the stage and lighting visuals? We had thirty-foot viking statues, sea serpents, ships, horns, sword wielding warriors, and layers on top of layers of fog with an extraordinary light show to top all of that off. It was insane and brilliantly crafted art, in my opinion. I’ve always known Amon Amarth puts every single ounce of detail into their stage presence but I wasn’t expecting this level of badassery. They played a fifteen song set including “Ravens Flight”, “As Loke Falls”, “The Way Of Vikings”, and much more ranging from 7 different albums. Amon Amarth is known for their obvious viking themed lyrics as they draw inspiration from that historical mythology culture. Their sound is dark and intense with a little blend of melodic elements with a splash of aggression that creates this almost movie-like soundtrack feel to it. Each band member had a huge role to play with creating the sound they gave the audience that night, every musician on that stage was on point with their instruments and radiated the venue with powerful layers of sound. The crowd’s energy was feeding into the bands energy which was then feeding right back into the crowds. It was truly one of the best performances i’ve ever seen, and although i was glad in the beginning that this show was indoors, not being able to have the full on Amon Amarth well known fire show was kind of a bummer. I wish they would have had it at another venue that allowed pyro or I would have settled for an outside show. Other than that, I’m super thankful I was able to catch them here in Houston.
Amon Amarth
Cannibal Corpse
Obituary
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