Friday night in Cardiff and the Motorpoint Arena is packed to the rafters for the highly anticipated Vikings And Lionhearts tour: a co-headline package of Swedish Viking metal stars Amon Amarth and the Bay Area’s finest metal exponents since Metallica, Machine Head. The Swedish connection is boosted via openers The Halo Effect, for whom a decent amount of people, clearly in the know, have congregated. Featuring ex-members of In Flames, they’ve not strayed far from that path, so if you appreciated that band then pick up debut Halo Effect album Days Of The Lost.

One of the most impressive stage sets I’ve seen in a long time is unveiled for Amon Amarth: Jocke Walgren’s drumkit sits atop a horned Viking helmet, whilst a huge, animated dragon flanks stage right. This is 80s arena metal taken to its next logical step, and a more than willing crowd chant back every chorus as it’s barked at them – with special attention given to favourites such as The Pursuit Of Vikings, Raise Your Horns and Twilight Of The Thunder Gods. We even get a full-on Viking battle on stage, plus a shed load of pyro. Quality musicianship, quality theatre – thank Thor for Amon Amarth.

Machine Head are a much-changed outfit from when they last visited the UK, but ever-present frontman Robb Flynn still manages to whip the crowd into a frenzy as the curtain drops and they blast into Become The Firestorm, possibly their highest-tempo song to date. The dual headline set-up of the tour only allows for sets of an hour or so, and with 30 years of material to choose from Machine Head offer a well-rounded setlist: Imperium and Ten Ton Hammer are up next, yet some of their longer tracks are still given stage time, I Am Hell (Sonata in C#) for example.

With Amon Amarth providing the theatre, Machine Head are able to bring the party – and for all their pyro and effects, the focus is on crowd interaction, Flynn taking every opportunity he can to engage the audience. The ever talked about From This Day – was it nu-metal or not? – is rolled out to a huge reception, but it’s early classic Davidian that gets an arena sized pit breaking out.

They finish with nine-minute epic Halo, after which a burst of ticker tape heralds the end of another successful Welsh Machine Head show. As much as co-headline tours are cost-effective and ensure each band can play larger venues, it’s at the cost of a decent sized set; still, tonight at least, each band made the most of their allotted time.

Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Fri 9 Sept

words CHRIS ANDREWS photos HUGH RUSSELL