Amaranthe
11/5/2015
The Palace Theater – Stafford Springs, CT
As a fan of heavy music, I always look for unique and creative bands that separate themselves from the masses. I’m always looking for that band that stretches my understanding of music and genres and makes me think. Enter Amaranthe: a Swedish metal band that blends power metal, death metal, electronica, and pop-style vocals to create sound that makes you want to mosh and sing at the same time. They have great musicians, and feature three vocalists, using male/female co-lead singers to pair with a third vocalist who focuses only on screams. As I started digging into this band, I found myself becoming a really big fan. For the past several years, I’ve been trying to catch an Amaranthe show, and they just hadn’t played a show in the Midwest that worked with my schedule. However, I would finally get my chance to the see the mighty Amaranthe when their tour schedule and a work trip of mine crossed paths in a small town in Connecticut.
I have to start by giving a shout out to the venue this show was held in. The Palace Theater in Stafford Springs, CT is really worth checking out. Just a quick drive Northeast of Hartford, this theater was built in the early 1900’s and is extremely well done. It’s an incredibly intimate place, holding just over 400 people, and it makes you feel like you’re almost listening to a show in someone’s living room. In addition, the acoustics were incredible, and the sound system was really great. If you get the chance, definitely check out a show there. On this particular warm November night, The Palace Theater was home to Lullwater, Butcher Babies, and Amaranthe. What a night of music I was in store for.
Openers
Lullwater opened up the night for us (we walked in just as a local opener was finishing), and they had a great sound. I wasn’t familiar with the group, but really enjoyed their take on hard rock. For an intro of your own, check out the song Oddline, off of their self-titled album. I’ll definitely be looking at them a bit more in the near future! After Lullwater, Butcher Babies took the stage. Since their conception, Butcher Babies has been anchored on solid music paired with their ability to create a tremendous amount of crowd energy. This show is by far the best I’ve ever heard them sound. The musicianship that they displayed showed clear evolution from a couple years ago, really across the board. Impressive drumming by Chris Warner held the rhythm section down, and most impressively, the two vocalists showed a much-improved ability to blend when they needed to blend, and clash in all the right places. I REALLY enjoyed this Butcher Babies set, and I didn’t expect to. Kudos to the band for converting me!
Headliner
After Butcher Babies set was over, I was hit with that overwhelming anticipation that comes from waiting for years to see a band live, and then finally being at the venue, waiting for them to walk out on stage. As I shook with anticipation, doubts crept in. Amaranthe plays incredibly challenging music – would it all come together live? Can their music really have as much energy as the albums portray? Could the guitarist really rip like the album makes it sound like he could? Possibly most of all, could a metal band really have three people solely focused on vocals and not have them step all over each other live? I’d soon realize that these doubts were borderline silly.
From the very first beat, Amaranthe blew my expectations out of the water. The song Digital World brought them out of the gate, and it was before the chorus that I was convinced that they were every bit as legit as I’d hoped. Female clean vocalist Elize Ryd is the real deal – her powerful voice and ethereal stage presence absolutely dominated the show. The growls from unclean vocalist Henrik Englund were also fantastic, and at times literally shook the room. Guitarist Olof Mörck was spectacular, and had really technically difficult solos that came frequently but felt totally organic. Halfway through Digital World, the breakdown hit (START A REVOLUTION NOW!!!) and I knew this show was going to be one to remember. At the end of that first song, my response was an audible “Woah….”
After coming down from the initial high, I did notice that the clean male vocalist was different – it was not Jake Lundburg. Later they mentioned on stage that Jake had some family issues back in Sweden, and filling in for him was a guy named Chris Sörbye. Disappointment set in for a millisecond, but was quickly squelched by the fact that this Chris dude was FANTASTIC – he had absolutely no problem keeping up with Elize. I still can’t believe that Amaranthe’s backup singer was this good. He had slightly less power than Jake, but had incredible tonality and sounded great, even in some of the really tough spots on vocally challenging songs. If I had to pick the single most impressive element of the Amaranthe, it was that the vocal mix was so well done. As the dichotomy of Elize and Chris’s cleans battled Henrik’s death growls, the resulting sound was just spectacular. Three different people, focusing on three elements of vocals, and it just blended perfectly (even with a backup singer!) I can’t remember another band that I’ve seen that had this much depth and power in their vocals. Their song-writing is so great vocally, and the execution was really second to none.
The show featured all of Amaranthe’s great songs – Mechanical Illusion and Massive Addictive anchored the middle of the set, and both stick out as really stellar moments that kept the small but passionate audience off their feet. Another highlight from the middle of the show was when they slowed it down and played Amaranthine, which was a surprise to us. That song had special meaning to the couple that I was with – it was the song for their first dance at their wedding, so that was a fun personal moment for them. The song True was also spectacular, and featured Chris as the only vocalist on stage for a big portion of the song. Let me reiterate – man can that dude sing. I also absolutely loved Invincible, and the intro guitar part was the point at the show where I realized that Olof could really shred.
The one thing that really struck me as surprising about this band was that they were just having so much fun on stage. Keep in mind that this band is HUGE in Europe, and they were playing to a room of less than 200, and they were still having an absolute blast. Smiling throughout the show, hugging and high fiving, laughing when things didn’t go perfect, playing off of each other’s mistakes, and just making it evident that they don’t take themselves too seriously, and they flat out love their jobs. It was a really refreshing sight – metal bands often tend to feel that they have to be intense and hard and act insane to be “metal”, and Amaranthe’s vibe couldn’t have been further from that. Their vibe was “lets drink a beer and have the night of our lives.” This was possibly most evident when bassist Johan Andreassen came out during the Encore break, and spent 5 minutes telling jokes, blaming Lullwater for his hangover, and telling a particular guy in the front row that he was an idiot. The way they approached the show made impossible to not have a blast.
After they came back from the encore, Elize (in a new, shiny white outfit) led us through four more songs. I’m not sure you can find a stronger encore set than The Nexus|Razorblade|Dynamite|Drop Dead Cynical back to back. I’m telling you, this show goes down as one of the best I’ve seen. Amaranthe was the model of professionalism, performance, musical ability, songwriting – they had it all, and I loved every minute of it.
As if the show wasn’t enough, after the set, the band and the venue were gracious enough to let the three of us hang around and say hi to the band. I was blown away by how nice the band members were. I was really just hoping for a handshake, but Elize, Chris, and Olof stood for 15-20 minutes talking to us about all kinds of topics. We talked about them working hard to build their audience in America, and the cultural differences from Sweden, where this music is very very popular, to the US, where it’s more niche. I asked if the lack of following in the US is frustrating, and Elize’s response was that they’d rather play to a small contingent of passionate fans than a huge room of people who are indifferent. She said that ALL The US fans they meet are passionate. Being the Rock on the Range junkie that I am, I also asked about the possibility of playing US festivals next summer. They laughed at that question, saying that they had been trying to get that worked out for a couple years now, but it’s difficult because of the cost that they incur to fly here just to play one show. However, I was thrilled to hear Elize specifically mention ROTR as the festival they tried to get worked out for last year, but couldn’t make it work with their already-established touring schedule. That gives great hope that we may see Amaranthe at Mapfre stadium soon!
When they found out how far we’d traveled, they thanked us tremendously, and even insisted on hugging us to thank us for their support. They were especially touched when they found out that my friends danced to Amaranthine at their wedding. Olof particularly was impacted, saying that it’s so powerful to hear that their music impacts people all the way across the world. Very cool to get to spend some time with the band, and not something that I’ll forget.
I want to send out a special thank you to the members of the band for taking the time out to spend a few minutes talking to us. I also want to thank Dave and the rest of the staff at The Palace Theater for letting this brief meet and greet happen. Definitely a night to remember.
One final comment – the stand-in Singer, Chris Sörbye, has a band in Sweden called Smash Into Pieces. It’s worth checking out!
Until next time!!