Live Reviews

Lights, lasers, fire, fireworks, three Japanese women, and headbanging heavy metal…it must be none other than BABYMETAL! Launching the release of the band’s brand new album, Metal Galaxy, on October 11 with a sold out arena show at The Forum in the heart of Los Angeles, BABYMETAL put on an amazing and larger than life performance that had the crowd pumped up from beginning to end.

Halloween weekend is always enjoyable, and it regularly has some extra sugar and spice to make it pure perfection in LA and other big cities. Saturday was the night before Halloween, and this evening’s event was the Coming to America tour with All Hail the Yeti, Suicide Silence, and Jinjer at The Belasco.

There was no preparing for the pure chaos that occurred on Sunday at The Palladium Upstairs. This heavy metal lineup of Undeath, Frozen Soul, Bodysnatcher, Chelsea Grin, and headliner Dying Fetus sold out, as fans packed the venue to its brim.

Since tours, festivals, and concerts have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus, Lamb of God decided to do the next best thing by hosting an exclusive global streaming headline performance broadcasted from a studio in Richmond, Virginia on Friday, September 18.

On December 15th, Sacramento’s Holy Diver had a great show with Craig Owens and two Sacramento local bands, Aquageist and Saint Juniper. His set was a great mix of songs from all of his projects, like D.R.U.G.S, Cinematic Sunrise, Chiodos, BadXChannels, and Isles & Glaciers.

The Palladium in Worcester MA, a notorious venue for fans of heavy music, hosted the tour of the summer, featuring dual headliners The Ghost Inside and Underoath. They hit the road with a stacked lineup, featuring openers We Came as Romans and Better Lovers. 

Focusing on the band’s earlier albums with tracks off Thoughts of No Tomorrow, Schlacht, and playing the self-titled Avatar in its entirety, it was a wild but most excellent ride.

Apocalyptica and Lacuna Coil performed live on Easter Sunday in San Francisco, and it was a sight to see and hear at the Regency Ballroom. The crowd was full of diehard fans of both bands, and the enthusiasm in the room was electric.

Legendary black metal icon Abbath brought his eponymously named band Abbath to the smallest state in the United States, and the show was anything but little. Well known for his tenure as the frontman of Immortal, when Abbath broke off to form his own band, the question on the minds of Immortal and Abbath fans alike was, “How will Abbath do on his own, and how will Immortal do with out Abbath?”

The line wrapped down the block, and some patrons were in costume and makeup, others just in regular street clothes. As we entered the venue to the sold out show, it quickly became apparent how crowded this show would be.