On the Nordic Tour 2026, Amaranthe bring their trademark blend of melodic metal, pop hooks and electronic gloss to Gothenburg Film Studios (Filmstudion, Göteborg) on 17 October, with Self Deception and ANKOR in support.
An evening of relentless energy and vocal theatrics delivers plenty for devoted fans, but occasionally struggles to leave room for the songs themselves.
Amaranthe live review: three vocalists, one guitarist and a Danish banana
Formed in Gothenburg in 2008 under the name Avalanche, Amaranthe have spent the best part of two decades building a sound that sits somewhere between melodic metal, pop metal, metalcore and power metal, with touches of melodic death metal and dance-pop. The calling card is the line-up: Elize Ryd on clean female vocals, Nils Molin (also of Dynazty) on clean male vocals and Mikael Sehlin on harsh vocals, backed by guitarist and keyboardist Olof Mörck, bassist Johan Andreassen and drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen.
That vocal-first identity extends to the band’s guest list. Former Arch Enemy vocalist Angela Gossow growls on “Do or Die”, former Battle Beast singer Noora Louhimo features on “Strong”, and Beyond the Black’s Jennifer Haben appears on a 2022 version of “Make It Better”.
This year Amaranthe mark 15 years since their self-titled debut album. The latest full-length, The Catalyst (2024), provides the template for the entire stage set on this tour, with the décor built around its cover art. Ironically, the songs at Filmstudion in Gothenburg come mostly from the album before it, Manifest.
Three voices, one guitar
Amaranthe’s line-up is unconventional on paper: three singers, but only one guitarist. The vocal palette is wide, with clean female and male singing plus harsh vocals. The contrast between melody and aggression is something many bands achieve with one singer, though. Support act ANKOR is a good example, with vocalist Jessie Williams switching between clean singing and aggressive growls within the same song.
In Amaranthe, the singers are specialists, each with a defined job. That makes it possible to layer the voices on top of each other, but it also means the songs often turn chaotic. At their most hectic, they sound like a three-way conversation in which everyone is equally passionate and nobody yields the floor. The stage show follows suit, with theatrical fists in the air in the classic heavy and power metal tradition. Whenever the vocals pause, the three line up side by side and swing their hair in unison, Ryd’s ponytail included. Anyone applying for a singing job in this band would be well advised to bring a solid head of hair.
With so many vocal guests on the band’s resume, Amaranthe sometimes feel as much like a vocal group as a metal band.
The one-guitarist set-up has consequences too. Mörck, whose surname echoes the Swedish word for “dark” and who has ironically been peroxide blond throughout his time in the band, mostly delivers straightforward palm-muted chugging while the singers take the lead. He fires off the occasional solo, but on the records he also adds keyboards for extra melodic sweetness. Live, he cannot play both at once, so the synth parts come from backing tracks.
Full throttle from the start
Just before the show, a member of the security staff in front of the barrier tells me that tonight is going to be wild, and that she uses the band’s music for her workouts. Judging by the pace, those must be some demanding sessions. Amaranthe open on top gear with “Chaos Theory”, the new single released in February, and the song is a fair indication of what the evening holds.
Amaranthe may be a millennial band, but the music and the videos feel made for an overstimulated TikTok generation: fast, colourful and afraid of leaving a single second unoccupied. “Archangel” is another half-hysterical entry in that tradition. On “Boom!1”, the band edges towards the rap metal of the early 2000s, and the title alone brings Saliva’s “Click Click Boom” to mind, only more aggressive and cranked up several notches. Sehlin growl-raps at a speed rarely heard from a metal singer.
In the cloakroom queue afterwards, the speakers play DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames”, which feels fitting. Amaranthe’s breakneck speed suggests a few cues taken from the British power metallers. Both bands keep a foot in power metal, and with former Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz on board, DragonForce now add growls to their clean vocals, much like Amaranthe. Mutual inspiration or a wider shift in the genre? Hard to say.
Missing guests and shuffled roles
The guest parts are where the live show gets interesting. On “Strong”, Ryd sings alone with Noora “Motherbeast” Louhimo in the studio version, without the male singers. Louhimo is not on stage in Gothenburg, so Molin steps in to cover her parts. It works reasonably well, and it brings a welcome break from Sehlin’s guttural growling, even if the original pairing is missed. It is also one of the stronger songs of the night, no pun intended.
On “Do or Die”, Sehlin naturally takes Gossow’s harsh vocals, and ironically screams in a higher register than her guttural original. More surprising is that Molin takes the lead on the clean sections that Ryd handles alone on the record, while she mainly fills in on the choruses.
Best when the tempo drops
The songs work best when Amaranthe ease off the frantic, over-the-top pace. “Digital World” is a chewing-gum-sticky metal-pop number, and the power ballad “Crystalline” offers a calmer break after all the hysteria. Then comes “Amaranthine” from the 2011 debut, which feels almost like the band’s own theme tune by now. Mörck begins alone on piano and keyboards, Ryd joins him, and the rest of the band gradually builds up behind them.
Unfortunately, Sehlin’s growls also appear towards the end, and they sound as shoehorned in as the first time I heard the song. It is an otherwise atmospheric and beautiful track, and the growls give the impression that the three singers are competing for the spotlight and need to be seen and heard at all times.
A banana and a big finish
“The Nexus” from the second album closes the main set, and the band return for no fewer than four encores. The first two come from Manifest, followed by a long stretch of stage banter about birthdays in the band and the well-worn shouting contest, in which the crowd must prove it can make more noise than the part of the country the band played last. Sørensen acts as judge and delivers his verdict by holding up a banana. It is easily the most unpredictable moment of the evening.
The odd “We Will Rock You” pastiche “That Song” follows, before the band wrap up with what is probably their biggest hit, “Drop Dead Cynical”.
The verdict: a familiar formula for a loyal crowd
For anyone familiar with Amaranthe or similar bands, the evening offers few surprises beyond a Danish banana.
The familiar ingredients are all there: swinging hair, raised fists, falsetto and growls. The formula leaves little room for variation, with harsh vocals appearing in song after song, whether the material really calls for them or not. This is the inherent drawback of having three vocalists in fixed roles: each needs to be heard, even when a song might benefit from a more restrained approach. A single versatile vocalist could arguably adapt more naturally to the needs of each song.
For dedicated fans, however, Amaranthe deliver exactly what they came for, and the Gothenburg crowd seems more than happy with the result.
Setlist
- Chaos Theory
- Leave Everything Behind
- Digital World
- Damnation Flame
- Strong
- Do or Die
- Archangel
- Insatiable
- The Catalyst
- Boom!1
- Crystalline
- Helix
- Maximize
- Amaranthine
- The Nexus
Encore:
- Fearless
- Viral
- That Song (With snippets of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”)
- Drop Dead Cynical
This show was shot with
Camera bodies
- Sony a7 IIIClose-ups, long-range shots
- Sony a7R IIWide-angle shots
Camera lenses
- Samyang 35-150mm f2–2.8Close-ups, long-range shots
- Tamron 16-30mm f2.8Wide-angle shots
Concert photo gallery
