Live Review: Amaranthe in Perth Australia 2024
Metropolis Fremantle, Perth on the 28th of August 2024
Review by Sheldon Ang
Photography by Sheldon Ang Photography
“I loved, for example, Destiny’s Child when I was a teenager. They were huge here in Sweden, and I love ABBA. They’re the bands I was mostly an expert in. I also grew up listening to metal of course, because my brother had a growl. I think that’s one thing that inspired me to know, to think that it’s possible to bring in a lot of different elements into two metals, because to me, what I’ve heard since growing up, like KISS, for example, is much more poppy than Iron Maiden. And then you hear the Gothenburg sound, and I love that, obviously. And then you hear the doom metal, then it’s like everything is so theatrical, and then you hear Nightwish which has like classical music. So I realized that this is obviously very common in metal, that you blend into other elements, but I only heard a little bit of the pop influence in for example, In Flames and stuff like that, but not so much with a female vocalist. So the main genre of Amaranthe is metal. But then we blend in elements of others. So people have a hard time putting one name on one genre.” – Elize Ryd during an interview with Sheldon Ang Media
Well into their second decade of beautifying the metal landscape through seven studio albums, Amaranthe of Gothenburg Sweden are one of the most palatable sounding metal bands – irrespective of the personal predilections of listeners, thanks to their symphonic sounds entwined with European metal, pop, ballad and EDM influences. Borrowing the words from Floor Jansen of Nightwish during an interview with this writer, they are not about those typical angry men with long hair spitting bullshit. The band is unique through a 3-way vocal assault thanks to one of the world’s best symphonic metal sopranos – Elize Ryd, who’s flanked by two male vocalists, one clean in Nils Molin and one not so clean, usually performed by Mikael Sehlin, although for the Australian/ New Zealand tour Samy Elbanna steps in.
Earlier on, the opening act Silent Knight of Perth continued with their power metal soundscape following their performances in Headbangers Open Air Festival in Germany and Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival 10 Year Anniversary in Perth. Armed with three studio albums and 2 EP’s, the band formed by Stu McGill and Cameron Nichols showed Perth why they’re the kings of Aussie metal with regularly slotting into festivals across the world through their tracks such as Power Metal Supreme, Masterplan and even a NOS version of Europe’s The Final Countdown. The energy was maniacally thunderous, which was reflected by the head bopping and rock god gestures across the floor. They were more than stage warmers, setting Metropolis Fremantle on fire.
At 9:15, Amaranthe stormed into Metropolis Fremantle with Fearless and Viral, both from the 2020 Manifest album. Performing in front of the backdrop of their current album The Catalyst, the sonic charge was considered as a series of assaults, like a wave sweeping across the floor, slapping the faces of fans in a cathartic rhythm, orchestrated by the vocal powerhouse of the three singers propelled by the ferocity of the performance. The movement on stage were like dogs on the back of a ute (an Aussie thing seen in the past) – moving side to side, engaging with fans, occasionally showcasing their hair defying gravity, weaving like a scene of a shampoo ad.
Take Elize Ryd for example, her G note in the crescendo is operatic as if she could pull off the metal rendition of Phantom of the Opera, echoing across the venue and drowning the veracious cheers of the fans. The combined effect of the growl by interim replacement and hyperactive Samy Elbanna was insatiably addictive. Nils Molin the male clean vocalist exude the stage presence of a rockstar as he and Elize frequently synchronised their hair propellor windmill, endorsed by the old school of metal. Combined with the ferocity of the drums by Morten Løwe Sørensen, guitar hooks and grooves by Olof Mörck, and the solid baselines by Johan Andreassen, Amaranthe was compounded into one of the most explosive starts of metal.
While some would have assumed the stage would be dominated by Elize Ryd, it wasn’t the case, as the limelight was shared equally among the vocalists. No individual egos, just collective performance culminating from individual brilliance.
“You can work when you have three colours in the palette instead of one. It gives you much more opportunity to start a song and write lyrics about basically anything. And it can be represented by a voice that’s not, for example, my own voice. Maybe I couldn’t sing like something which I know that the male singers could do like the growls and so on. It’s one of the most fun projects to work on is to write music for Amaranth,” said Elize in the interview with this writer.
And so the marching continued. The deadly combination of the explosive nature that went a million miles an hour was halted by a sentimental gear in Crystalline. To this writer, the moment was a perfect chapter of appreciating the vocals of Elize Ryd without the sonic clutters. She lay on her side in a moment of reflection. The orchestral arrangement was a perfect match with Nils Molin, in a performance that could have easily painted a scene of a Disney musical, only to be ruptured by the thunderous invasion a moment later.
The equanimity continued with Amaranthine – a track ode to the depth of transcendental love. The haunting vocals of Elize Ryd went through a roller coaster of emotions thanks to the undulation of the clean and growling vocals. The duality between the two spectrums of speeds was beautifully balanced between strength and vulnerability. Amaranthine is considered as the crowd’s favourites.
“We used to have lighters, but can we do the 2024 version”
And so the floor was lit with mobile phones, as we were immersed in another moment of reflection. Like a dream, you’re my amaranthine. The lingering words were captivated by the aura exuded from the stage.
Metropolis Fremantle was bombarded by 18 tracks, with the encore finishing with perhaps the most popular songs of the Armaranthe set – Archangel, followed by That Song – which has the drums of Queen’s We Will Rock You. Not that it required further boosting, but the crowd went wild again thanks to the lift me up beats coming from Sorensen, finally ending with Drop Dead Cynical.
It was a night of the greatest hits. The world outside of the metal society need to witness Amaranthe. The melodic force is strong with this one.
Amaranthe are touring across Australia and New Zealand. Tickets are available through Metropolis Touring
Sheldon Ang Media would like to thank The One Man Army, Metropolis Touring, David Roy Williams and Amaranthe for the accreditation.
About the Writer/Photographer: Perth based Sheldon Ang Media (est. May 2022) have been accredited to almost 100 of the hottest acts including Taylor Swift (ERAS Tour in Sydney), KNOTFEST (Melbourne), Coldplay (Perth), RHCP, KISS, P!NK, Robbie Williams and Rod Stewart with reviews shared by the likes of UB40, Delta Goodrem, The Wiggles and Toni Childs on social media. He has interviewed Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, rockers Suzi Quatro, Ace Frehley (KISS), John Steel (The Animals), Frank Ferrer (Guns N Roses), Phil X (Bon Jovi), Andrew Farris (INXS) plus over 45 artists. He’s also contributor on Triple M Albany as a music journalist.
