Fear Factory and Amon Amarth Concert Review and Concert Photos

Concert promoters often have strange ideas. Sometimes they lead to innovations like Lollapalooza and other times you have complete disasters like the free Ozzfest. The recent pairing of Fear Factory and Amon Amarth in California might sound strange but largely worked outside of some lackluster openers.

Fear Factory and Amon Amarth are two of metal’s more recognizable names but the similarities end there. Amon Amarth’s core fan base is largely standard metalheads and the kind of hardcore folk metal devotees that grow barbarian-styled beards and sport pagan jewelry. Fear Factory’s fan base is composed of fans who hung on from the mid-1990s and a newer generation raised on computers, social media and digital downloading.

Since both bands were scheduled to be in San Francisco on the same night promoters decided to pair them together for an entertaining if imperfect show at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on April 9. Wannabe-Vikings definitely ruled the roost but a veteran Fear Factory, who recently released Mechanize, was the musical highlight, playing more than 90 minutes of their best material including a large chunk of Demanufacture.

Dirge Within didn’t make the show because of travel problems so folk-metallers Eluveitie opened. I get a little concerned when any band brings a bunch of instruments on stage that look like they were stolen from the National Museum of History. Despite a lot of positive buzz, Eluveitie’s brand of folk metal didn’t do much for me and grew increasingly grating. The band played pipes, fiddles, what appeared to be an organ grinder and threw in guitars for good measure. The whole experience reminded me more of a Hobbit party in Lord of The Rings than a metal show. All of the fluff and the showy instruments didn’t make for a memorable set.

Amon Amarth were up next and showed the crowd how to do Viking metal right. The band opened with “Twilight of the Thunder God,” and the crowd immediately came to life. Johann Hegg might look imposing but he’s got a wicked sense of humor; he asked all the women in the crowd to shout and dedicated the “Valkyries Ride,” to them. He also won over the hometown Northern California crowd by praising San Francisco beer.

By the first encore song “Cry of The Black Birds,” Amon Amarth could have told the crowd to run into the street with shields and broadswords and they would have complied.

Fear Factory offered something much different than the rest of the History Channel-themed evening. The band opened with the first two songs off Obsolete: “Shock” and “Edgecrusher.” Vocalist Burton Bell seems more comfortable and confident playing with his musical soul mate Dino Cazares and his voice soared tonight. It also doesn’t hurt that FF’s new drummer is Gene Hoglan, one of the best percussionists in metal.

New tracks like “Mechanize,” and “Powershift,” sounded strong next to vintage material like “Martyr.” But the real highlight was when Fear Factory returned for their encore and announced they would be playing nothing but Demanufacture material for the rest of the set. They closed with a 20 rousing minutes from their finest album, proving that despite countless band feuds and only two original members they are still a vital force.