Amaranthe has been in my bucket list of bands to watch live for a while now, and given this is the first ever tour the Swedes do in Australia, it was natural to try and check them out. If you have never heard of Amaranthe before, they basically play what could be best described as Pop Metal. Mixing a variety of subgenres like Metalcore, Power Metal and Melodic Death with a very evident big dose of Pop Music, and with the peculiarity that the band uses 3 lead singers (female clean, male clean and guttural) Amaranthe has carved its niche in the books of Metal as one of the biggest names in their very particular subgenre. Back in 2011 when their first album dropped, the world of Metal was taken a bit by surprise, as it was not very common at all to hear such a blatant and ballsy attempt at producing what was basically Pop Music with Metal guitars and double kicks. Some Heavy Metal purists still can’t stand them, but me personally, besides being a sworn Metalhead, I like and listen to Pop Music a lot, especially Synthpop, HI-NRG and 80s Pop, and there is plenty of that in Amaranthe’s music, so I was naturally excited about tonight.
I entered the Metro on this unusually warm August evening right as the doors opened, grabbed a beer and placed my feet on the front and centre to wait for opening band Aurateque to hit the stage. I have never seen Aurateque live before, but I’ve seen their name pop up here and there in local gigs for the last couple of years, so I was curious about them. At exactly 8.30 pm, some backing tunes started blasting from the speakers and the Sydney band entered the stage with big smiles and big energy. Led by the infectiously lively vocalist Lauren Coleman, Aurateque warmed up the audience with 30 minutes of their own brand of Alternative Metal meets Djent meets Metalcore. Now, I must admit that the sound throughout the night was not the best I’ve heard in this venue, and unfortunately it showed quite a bit since the first band. This was also exacerbated by the fact that Aurateque did not have a live bass player. Sometimes those warm and thundering percussive notes are needed, especially in a band that is very rhythm-based and that delivers some great breakdowns as they do. As I mentioned, singer Lauren really stole the show here. She has great stage presence and an impressive vocal range. She never stops moving and jumping around the stage, and every vocal line she delivers is accompanied by some sort of gesture, which makes her performance extremely engaging. Aurateque’s setlist was quite varied, and well received by the audience from what I could tell, with some songs heavier than others (she can also deliver some mean gutturals by the way), and some more on the Alternative Rock side. Personally I enjoyed the set, they reminded me a bit of bands like Guano Apes or In This Moment during their first couple of albums, in terms of energy and overall mood, but I definitely think they could benefit from a live bass sound to make their sound even chunkier. A pleasant surprise from this young local band.
After a beer break and a surprisingly quick changeover, at exactly 9.25 the lights started to dim and some backing music started playing, effectively telling us that Amaranthe could go onstage at any moment now. And indeed, after a couple minutes the lights went out and we were treated to a very ominous intro track that seemed to be themed after their most recent album ‘The Catalyst’, and soon after, all the members of the band made their way onstage and the first notes of ‘Fearless’ started blasting. This one is a great opener I must say, with its driving riff and fast pace. This song really set the standard of what was to come as most of Amaranthe’s songs fall under the same umbrella: 3 to 4 minutes long, precise riffing and drumming, synth backing tracks and some of the most earwormy chorus melodies you will ever listen to. After the very energetic first song, two of my favourite tracks from the band were played. ‘Viral’ and ‘Digital World’ were an absolute delight to witness live (that breakdown in ‘Digital World’ sounds absolutely antastic live). After 3 songs I could tell that the band were in good form, all 3 vocalists are extremely talented and charismatic. Elise Ryd is a charmer and owns the crowd since the moment she sets foot on the stage, Nils Molin constantly engages the crowd and entices them to participate, and Samy Elbanna (originally from Lost Society) did a fantastic job filling in for regular guttural vocalist Mikael Sehlin. Naturally, the spotlight usually falls to the 3 singers (particularly Elise), but drummer Morten Sorensen, and string masters Olof Morck and Johan Andreassen did a fantastic job, both musically and with their own stage presence.
After a great start to the show, the band kept pumping hit after hit from their 12+ year old career. ‘Damnation Flame’ was very energetic and the uber-cheesy ‘Boomerang’ was extremely fun to listen to in a live setting. For some reason this song reminds me heaps of 80s Europop hit ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead or Alive. Now, I know that a band that uses Synthpop as a regular base to their songs is bound to rely on backing tracks whether we like it or not, but I was a little bit disappointed that some of the backing tracks extended to the vocals as well (particularly in the choruses). I mean, in a band with 3 lead singers, using backing vocal tracks as extensively as Amaranthe did, does feel a little bit too much sometimes, and one would expect more of that awesome harmonizing that we all know Elise and Nils are capable of (because they actually do it sometimes during the show) to nail those multilayered choruses of theirs. In more recent years I have lost track of most of Amaranthe’s releases, so quite a few of the songs in the setlist were totally new to me. Songs like ‘PvP’ really stood out to me, and that one in particular is a great example of really how Pop Amaranthe is willing to go. I mean, it is a fun and chunky song with ultra catchy melodies, but some of the guttural parts are basically rap with a growly voice. Another song that I thoroughly enjoyed was ‘Crystalline’, a mellow little ballad that is delivered in a very Disney-esque fashion by Elise. For some reason this song reminds me of the music from ‘The Beauty and the Beast’, and it was absolutely fantastic. ‘Re-Vision’ was another hit for me, with its 90s Synthpop-inspired sounds and earwormy melodies. I seriously think this song has become one of my absolute favourites from them after tonight.
Amaranthe play a very solid set of around 1 hour and 15 minutes, and because most of their songs rarely pass the 3 min 30 sec mark it goes by in a whim. The good thing is that they manage to include some 20 songs so there is a bit of everything for everyone. Towards the last sections of their set they went old-school and played some of the songs from their first 2 albums that made them so popular more than 10 years ago. ‘Amaranthine’ was a total crowd pleaser and ‘The Nexus’ with its brutal riffing was an absolute delight. After a very brief (almost unnecessary) encore, Amaranthe came back onstage to play the Rammstein-like ‘Archangel’, which has one of the most unique chorus structures of their whole catalogue, and then proceed to close the night with absolute fan-favourite ‘Drop-Dead Cynical’.
With a band like Amaranthe, the dilemma of Synthetic vs Organic comes to light whether we want it or not. It is true that due to the nature of their music the band relies heavily on backing tracks, but they actually do a great job at keeping the rest of the music as organic and alive as possible. I personally think that having a live keyboard player would be an excellent addition to their already great show, especially for some sections of their songs that could sound absolutely epic and majestic with some live keys, or for some of the synth leads that sometimes sound a bit buried in the mix of the backing track. Nevertheless, Amaranthe put on a very fun and engaging show and it is no secret that this particular Pop Metal sound that they coined since their first album has been copied by several bands in the last 10 years, becoming almost a new subgenre of its own and of their own creation. Personally, I had a blast singing to their songs and jumping to their riffs, and wouldn’t hesitate to watch them again.
Review by Roman Ibarra
