3 can't miss metal tours you need to catch this summer

Can't-miss tour No. 3: Ghost and Amon Amarth

Ghost has been on a really long tour already. I saw them in early 2022 in Cincinnati and this is basically the same tour. They’ve had a new album, Impera, come out while on the road and the setlist has reflected the newer tunes. If you have never seen Ghost live, you are in for a treat.

Frontman Tobias Forge engages perfectly with the crowd and knows how to involve fans. The nameless ghouls that make up the band are excellent musicians and the sound is crisp and clean. There is enough of the new stuff and the older material that fans of the band will be happy throughout as well.

Amon Amarth is heavier than Ghost, so it makes for a great difference. Still the band has been around for 30 years and has a ton of material to draw from, and most of it is really good. Like most Scandinavian bands (including fellow Swedes Ghost), Amon Amarth will play different styles of metal from death metal to folk metal.

But let’s be real. You are going to go to this show to watch the lead band. Forge and friends make excellent albums, but the albums are very technical. Live the band plays with the sound a bit and Forge is the ever-present leader. Heck, even if you don’t like Ghost (and I am not sure why you don’t, honestly), just go to be entertained.