Amon Amarth Brings Their Metal Crushes All Tour to The Toyota Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, Connecticut on May 10, 2024

May 14, 2024
International Concert Reviews, International Galleries
by Jody Wilk Photographer/Writer

Amon Amarth rolled into Wallingford Connecticut’s beautiful Toyota Oakdale Theater with their Metal Crushes All tour for a thunderous night of death metal. They brought metal icons Cannibal Corpse and Obituary along for the ride as well as Frozen Soul. As I entered the venue it was clear that Amon Amarth had a big following, as I saw many fans already sporting their shirts. Fans congregated in the dome area of the venue socializing and grabbing a bite to eat before heading into the theater area where the concert took place. As is common with heavier bands, they had a general admission pit area up front as the fans like to get a pit going. The first band to take the stage was Frozen Soul.

Frozen Soul is an American Death Metal band from Texas. They are a newer band in the scheme of things that was formed in 2018 and released their four-song demo in early 2019. With a dimly backlit stage mostly in blue, which helped give this already dark band an even more sinister feel. They started the set with “Encased in Ice” off of their demo release. Almost immediately when they came on stage the singer, Chad Green, was yelling to the fans to get a circle pit going and they most certainly obliged. This was going to be one of those shows where I would have to keep an eye over my shoulder for crowd surfers making their way into the pit.

Frozen Soul is:

Chad Green – Vocals

Matt Dennard – Drums

Michael Munday – Guitar

Chris Bonnar – Guitar

Samantha Mobley – Bass

Setlist:

1. Encased in Ice

2. Death and Glory

3. Morbid Effigy

4. Glacial Domination

5. Arsenal of War

6. Crypt of Ice

Standing in the photo pit waiting for Obituary to take the stage, I noticed several fans looking up. Well, monkey see monkey do, so I took a look up and noticed that they had the Obituary logo projected on the ceiling. With three original members and 11 albums under their belt since 1988, these guys certainly proved themselves on stage. They define “still kicking ass”! They played a seven-song set including five songs off their most recent release entitled Dying of Everything. The only other songs they played were “Redneck Stomp” and “Slow Death”. With quite often saturated red and green lighting they frequently fired off the smoke cannons it made for some cool photos.

Obituary is:

John Tardy – Vocals

Donald Tardy – Drums

Trever Perez – Rhythm guitar

Terry Butler – Bass

Kenny Andrews – Lead guitar

Setlist:

1. Redneck Stomp

2. Barely Alive

3. The Wrong time

4. My Will to Live

5. Slow Death

6. War

7. Dying of Everything

Cannibal Corpse is an American Death Metal band from Buffalo, New York that has been around for 36 years and has 15 albums out with the most recent being the 2023 release entitled Chaos Horrific. The venue was packed, and the stage was set in an ominous dark red lighting when these metal monsters took the stage. I think the mosh pit started at the first strum of the guitar. They played a set of songs spanning seven of their fifteen albums with two songs off of the most recent album. Their lyrics are dark, deep, and twisted as can be expected from any death metal band. With the singer’s nickname being “Corpsegrinder” you wouldn’t expect any less.

Cannibal Corpse is:

Alex Webster – Bass

Paul Mazurkiewicz – Drums

Rob Barrett – Rhythm guitar

George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher – Vocals

Erik Rutan – Lead guitar

Setlist:

1. Scourge

2. Blood Blind

3. Inhumane

4. Evisceration

5. Death Walking

6. I Cum Blood

7. Summoned

8. Stripped

9. Hammer

Amon Amarth is a melodic death metal band from Sweden whose lyrics deal mostly with Viking history and mythology. The last time I saw them perform was when they opened for Ghost last August. It was great to see them get to play a full headline set consisting of 15 songs. I like these guys a little better than most of the death metal bands that I have seen because, even with their growling vocals, I could understand a lot of what they are singing about. The stage set is awesome. The sides are flanked with huge blow-up Viking statues with the drum riser in the center with a Viking helmet in front of it. The backdrop has an army of Viking warriors on it. The singer, Johan Hegg hits the stage wearing all black and has leather bracers on and a drinking horn at his side raising his arms up to get the crowd to do the same. These guys have a discography of 12 albums and have a huge following of rabid fans. I really enjoyed watching Johan Hegg command the fans to sit on the floor and row like Vikings during the song “Put Your Back into the Oar”. “Guardians of Asgaard”, “Deceiver of the Gods”, “Heidrun”, and “Raise Your Horns” were probably my favorite songs of the set. During “Raise Your Horns”, Johan Hegg raises his drinking horn and toasts the crowd. These guys put on a great performance including Vikings on stage waving flags and mock sword fights. After the statues deflate, giant sea serpent heads inflate, and the entire center of the stage looks like a Viking ship. For the encore, the stage went dark and the lights flashed to look like a lightning storm. Smoke billowed up from the stage as they performed “Twilight of the Thunder God” off of 2008’s album of the same name.

If you are a death metal fan and love to mosh and bang your head, The Metal Crushes All Tour headlined by Amon Amarth, and featuring the iconic Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, and Frozen Soul is one not to be missed. You can catch them on tour together through May 25 in California. After which Amon Amarth returns overseas.

Amon Amarth is:

Olavi Mikkonen – Lead guitar

Johan Hegg – Vocals

Ted Lundstrom – Bass

Johan Soderberg – Rhythm guitar

Jocke Wallgren – Drums