May 6th 2017 Richmond, Virginia, The National hosted Amon Amarth and Goatwhore in a sold out show. What I found unusual is only two bands on the tour and a complete lack of local support, despite the area having a number of excellent bands who would have complemented both bands well.
Goatwhore, the New Orleans based blackened death/thrash metal veterans started the evening off at 8 p.m. with a set of songs from their most recent releases including “Constricting Rage of the Merciless”, “Carving out the Eyes of God”, “Blood for the Master” and playing the title track of their seventh album “Vengeful Ascension” which will be released on June 23rd. Sammy Duet challenged the crowd to mosh saying that Richmond is the home of Municipal Waste and that they get the crowd to do insane things, so they expect similar behavior. The audience did not disappoint as the circle pit started in earnest as the band played the last songs of their set including “Apocalyptic Havoc”.
For Amon Amarth, it was their first appearance at a Richmond venue and they were extremely well received by the crowd who moshed and crowd surfed to the band as they played a 90 minute set of mostly newer material including four songs from their tenth album “Jomsviking”, released on March 25, 2016. Several audience members were dressed as Vikings, adding to the flair of the evening. The band ended their set with “Twilight of the Thunder God”.
For those who attended it was an incredible evening of metal by two veteran bands who know what the crowd wants and delivers.
