Slayer’s Farewell Tour Hits BB&T Pavilion Part I: Amon Amarth!! – Camden, NJ 5/24/19

Memorial Day weekend is always a thing of beauty, isn’t it? As we honor our fallen military members there are barbecues, ball games, beer, and all the food you can stuff your face with over a three-day weekend. Ahhhh, what could be more American, right? I’ll tell you what. Having SLAYER’S final tour come to BB&T Pavilion on that Friday to kick off said weekend on the next-to-last night of the U.S. run. Oh, and they also brought CANNIBAL CORPSE, AMON AMARTH, and LAMB OF GOD along for the ride. Make no mistake, if you don’t think this is a bill fit for a fucking king, then you got another thing comin’!!



What made this day even more special is that my dear friend and A&GS team member Uriel (you know him as THE ALCALDE) flew up from Dallas to catch this show with me. We’ve been trying for almost four years to get him up here to hang, and the stars aligned and made it happen. Delayed flights and some hairy traffic caused us to unfortunately miss CANNIBAL’S set, but hey that’s life. After some venue pizza which was beyond tasty, we made our way to the lawn so we could catch AMON AMARTH. Both of us love this band so much and we couldn’t wait! So here’s Part I of us rocking out to each band, with Part II coming tomorrow!!



As soon as their intro music came on people started going fucking nuts, and when the band launched into “The Pursuit of Vikings” man, that intensity just ratcheted up. “Deceiver of the Gods” was next which took the energy up a hundred fold! “As Loke Falls” from the same album kept things running hot and you could see that the band was on a fucking mission on this night. And that mission was to crack open as many heads as possible during their ten-song set! “Crack the Sky” from new album Berserker did exactly what it was supposed to: galvanize the crowd into a damn frenzy. At least that’s what I saw in my area.



Switching things up in their setlist the boys hit us with “The Way of Vikings”, one of THE best songs from 2016’s Jomsviking album. Uriel couldn’t contain himself, it’s his favorite song on the disc! And while they were at it they threw in “First Kill” from the same record. Mini-Amps loves this one, as does his Daddy, and live it was fucking awesome! But ohhhhhh baby, my favorite was to come in “Twilight of the Thunder God.” This song is a headbanging, neck-wrecking special, and is easily in my Top 3 from them all-time. Live it simply destroys, and the one dude next to me was screaming almost as loud as I was!



From Jomsviking we got drinking anthem “Raise Your Horns” before my favorite of the new songs came a-calling with “Shield Wall.” This goddamn chorus makes me want to run through a brick wall it gets me so amped up! The last song was “Guardians of Asgaard” from Twilight of the Thunder God, and then…well then it was over. Even though we got ten awesome tracks of Viking Death Metal, I wanted more. I ALWAYS want more. Thank the Gods I get to see them again in October, this time headlining. AMON AMARTH always brings the fucking thunder live, and this night was no exception. And we still had LAMB OF GOD coming up…stay tuned!!



LIVE IMAGES: ROCKVIEW LIVE

LIVE WORDS: THE MAESTRO