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amorphis by munichvampire P2920375Zenith, Munich, Germany
9th November 2022
Amorphis & Eluveitie - “Co-Headliner Tour” 2022 - Support: Nailed To Obscurity, Dark Tranquillity

Last Friday marked the first day with snow in Munich and thus traffic slowed down, leading to the fact that there was no chance to make it to Zenith in the north of Munich in time for NAILED TO OBSCURITY. When I arrived at the venue, the place was pretty full and DARK TRANQUILITY rocked out with the audience.


Dark Tranquillity

DARK TRANQUILITY is a Melodic Death Metal band from Sweden that started its career in the early 1990s. The band’s line-up changed a lot over the years but DARK TRANQUILLITY steadily released new material and are touring frequently. https://www.darktranquillity.com

Music & Performance
When I first read about the upcoming tour, I wondered that DARK TRANQILLITY were announced as a support band. I had seen the band headlining in spring and thus wondered, why they had accepted the support position. When I arrived the band already had warmed up the crowd and played quite along setlist for a headliner and this was obviously appreciated by the fans that gathered in front of the stage.

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Setlist
01. Identical to None
02. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
03. What Only You Know
04. Atoma
05. Nothing to No One
06. Cathode Ray Sunshine
07. Hours Passed in Exile
08. Phantom Days
09. Misery’s Crown

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Light: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 8.8 / 10

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Amorphis

Finnish band AMORPHIS was founded by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari and Esa Holopainen as a Death Metal band in 1990. Over the years, the band formed their own style by merging other Metal genres including Progressive Metal and Folk Metal. The band released their highly acclaimed album ‘Halo’ earlier this year and embarked on a long US-tour afterwards. This summer the band played several festival gigs in Finland and Europe and now it was about time to meet their fans all over Europe again. I must admit that I attended the band’s gig in Turku this summer and that I was more than looking forward to seeing them live on stage in my hometown. A few days before the show I checked reviews of the bands shows and found out that the ELUVEITIE and AMORPHIS seemed to throw the dice, figuring out who would headline first tonight. I was glad that friends kept me posted about their experiences and that Global Concerts published the running order for Munich. https://amorphis.net/

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Music & Performance
After DARK TRANQUILLITY had cleared the stage and the headliners’ crew had set up the lights and instruments, AMORPHIS hit the stage. Unfortunately, they only had brough the regular backdrop and not the screen they used for the show in Turku, screening video snippets and other graphic elements for every song. The new intro is ‘Northwards’ from their latest album ‘Halo’ and when the band members came on stage one by one, they obviously loved the sight of a pretty packed venue. Tomi Joutsen proved that he really refined his voice during the last years and he delivered amazing vocals for the first two songs. ‘Death of a King’ is a song that is almost a must on every AMORPHIS setlist and the fans’ reaction to the sound’s announcement was loud cheering and of course people were ready to interact with the band.

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My favourite song made it No. 4 tonight, we are talking ‘Silver Bride’ and I had to rush from the media pit to catch the song in full length. Once more I have to say that I’m really glad that Olli-Pekka Laine re-joined AMORPHIS a few years ago. His really cool bass-player attitude and his killer backing vocals make ‘Sliver Bride’ one of the highlights of every AMORPHIS set and the band’s performance was rewarded with very loud cheering and applause. In Munich there seem to be many fans of ‘Wrong Direction’, for as soon as the first tunes became audible you heard many exclaim “Yeah!”. The song is a wonderful piece with mainly clear vocals and a very catchy chorus, the bridge part saw the fists in the air and people singing along. The band’s first single from their current album followed suit and I was surprised that the Munich crowd knew the lyrics of ‘The Moon’ by heart.

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AMORPHIS can never leave out songs released on ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ and tonight ‘Into Hiding’ was on the setlist and the heavy riffing combined with the dark and growled vocals definitely appealed to those on the heavier side. As soon as Santeri gave Munich the first tunes of ‘Seven Roads Come Together’ the crowd got really moving. You saw headbanging and raised hands, when Tomi Joutsen delivered the first lines in an amazing dark growl and I’m still amazed by how effortless he can switch between clear voice for the chorus and growls for the leading vocals. This song builds up an enormous tension tune by tune and AMORPHIS kept pushing the crowd tonight by giving Munich a ‘Black Winter Day’ that will stay on people’s minds for a while and it was fantastic to see and hear Tomi Koivusaari delivering the growls like in the old days. ‘My Kantele’ from the band’s release ‘Elegy’ gave you a few minutes to breathe and to be honest I never get tired of the bands 90s soundscape and I’m glad that it’s back on the setlist after a few years break but to be honest, I missed ‘Sampo’ a bit, but you can’t have it all.

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Esa Holopainen delivered a killer solo and Santeri Kallio obviously driving the keys to the max. Over the years I got used to ‘The Bee’ as intro song so much, that I was confused for a moment, when it was played near the end of the show. The opulent track absolutely deserves an eternal spot on the setlist. It’s kind of a tradition that AMORPHIS close the set with ‘House of Sleep’ and while I love this track a lot, I also hate it a bit, because it means that the show comes to an end now. One more time Munich rocked along with AMORPHIS who really gave everything to make this a show to remember. Frequent interaction with the audience, a flawless performance, instruments that were perfectly in tune and created an enormous soundscape and a lightshow that perfectly illuminated the songs mood. AMORPHIS usually have very long songs, so a setlist of twelve songs can be regarded as a full set but I hope for the German fans, that the band comes back next year as a single headliner with even more space for more songs and maybe one or two surprises from their enormous back catalogue.

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Setlist
01. Northwards
02. On the Dark Waters
03. Death of a King
04. Silver Bride
05. Wrong Direction
06. The Moon
07. Into Hiding
08. Seven Roads Come Together
09. Black Winter Day
10. My Kantele
11. The Bee
12. House of Sleep

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 8
Sound: 10
Total: 9.5 / 10

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Eluveitie

ELUVEITIE were founded back in 2002 following the vision of combining Metal with Celtic elements. Over the years the band saw several changes in the line-up, the band steadily released albums that where highly acclaimed by the Folk Metal scene and the band won over more and more fans. https://eluveitie.ch

Music & Performance
When ELUVEITIE hit the stage, the audience welcomed them with frantic cheering and applause. From the media pit I spotted some tea cups and I was a bit worried, if some of the members had caught a cold and that this might have an impact on the band’s performance. You might think that there would be chaos if a band with nine members perform live on stage, but ELUVEITIE made use of the risers and platforms AMORPHIS had brought and never stood in each other’s way.

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The set started with ‘Exile of the Gods’ and it didn’t take much time until the band got a grip on the audience. Frontman Chrigel Glanzmann addressed the audience frequently, telling them that the band was really happy to be back on tour and to play in Munich tonight. After ‘Deathwalker’ our photo-time was over and I made my way through the audience towards the left side of the venue to have a better sight. Fabienne Erni then stood in the spotlight delivering amazing lead vocals for ‘ANU’. With so many musicians on stage, everybody who is into Folk Metal found their favourite instrument or tune. I’m not a big fan of the FOL / Celtic genre, but Chrigel’s dark and edgier vocals made the instrumentation up to me. Unfortunately, the parking deck near the venue closes at 23:00 and so I had to leave after ‘A Rose for Epona’, but I’m sure the band rocked the venue until the last tune faded.

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Setlist
01. Exile of the Gods
02. Nil
03. Deathwalker
04. Epona
05. Anu
06. A Rose for Epona
07. Thousandfold
08. Ambiramus
09. King
10. Breathe
11. De Ruef vo de Bärge
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12. Aidus
13. Ategnatos
14. Inis Mona

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Light: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10

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All Pictures by Munich Vampire

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