The Twilight of the Thunder God Tour II featuring Amon Amarth, Eluveitie, and Holy Grail, stopped at the Showbox in Seattle last night. All three of your NCS Co-Authors were there, despite the fact that two of us were still a bit bleary-eyed from attending the Dillinger Escape Plan show the night before at El Corazon (you can see our write-up on that show and photos here). On the other hand, it would have taken major bodily injury to keep us away from a chance to see Amon Amarth in person.

We took so many photos of this show that we’re going to split this post into two parts (plus it was another late night and we have day jobs that require our fucking attention very shortly). Today, we’ll say a few words about Holy Grail and Eluveitie, with photos from their sets at the end of the write-up, and then tomorrow — tomorrow will be all about the awesomeness that is Amon Amarth in concert. Don’t miss that!

(continue on after the jump . . .)

We had to look deeply into our official extreme music blog Thesaurus to find the right words for our reaction to the report we just saw about a new tour. “Awesome” was just too trite. “Stupifying” was too understated. And then there were those two words that just perfectly captured our feelings. Yep — HOLY SHIT!

Get your battle axes and fur pelts out of storage, strap on your drinking horns, and send the women, children, and livestock into the hills.  The Norsemen are coming!

The bands: AMON AMARTH, ELUVEITIE, HOLY GRAIL.

The tour dates and places?  See below. But what really counts is they’re stopping in Seattle! (in addition to some other perfectly decent cities)

4/8 Los Angeles, CA @ House Of Blues
4/9 San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom w/ Fear Factory
4/10 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
4/11 Seattle, WA @ Showbox
4/12 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw
4/14 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
4/15 Edmonton, AB @ EEC
4/16 Saskatoon, SK @ The Odeon
4/17 Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick
4/18 Minneapolis, MD @ Station 4
4/19 Chicago, IL @ Logan Square
4/21 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
4/22 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
4/23 Quebec City, QC @ Imperial Theatre
4/24 Worcester, MA @ Palladium (New England Metal and Hardcore Festival)
4/25 New York, NY @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza