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.

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.

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.

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.

On Friday, October 23, Sevendust presented Live In Your Living Room streaming event, hosted by NoCap Live, LLC., to celebrate the release of its 13th full-length album, Blood & Stone. The alt-metal/hard rock quintet hit the stage in an Orlando, Florida facility and proceeded to kick ass with passion and emotion for an hour long set.

Cleveland industrial/alt-metal octet, Mushroomhead, unleashed a free YouTube streaming event on Valentine’s Day to premiere a double feature of cinematic videos of previous tracks “Carry On” and ”Madness Within.”

Love them or hate them, there’s no question Ghost has quickly become a massive force to be reckoned with. The question, however, on both sides of the Ghost fence is, “Are they big enough and ready for arenas?” Last year Ghost tested the waters, jumping up from a theater show to an arena show for three dates of their tour at Barclays Center in New York, The Forum in California, and Place Bell in Montreal. The results were undeniable.

On November 18th, The Umbra Tour hit The Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz, CA. This tour featured Grayscale, Girlfriends, Cemetery Son, and Young Cultures.