If you’ve been following the rock scene for any length of time, you know that the real gems are often found where the classic spirit meets modern precision. Sweet Crystal is a band that understands this balance perfectly, and their latest offering, “Prisoner, Unbound,” exemplifies how to bridge the gap between retro soul and contemporary […]
Forget a candlelight dinner. Here, at Alexandra Palace, the table is set right at the front row, with flames in the air and guitars screaming, where romance is measured in decibels and sparks. This is how Motionless In White gave meaning to my Valentine’s Day.
Motionless In White – Dayseeker – Make Them Suffer
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Motionless In White
With OIIA OIIA and a spinning cat on the screens, we all went crazy, a kind of pre-workout before Motionless In White came on stage with Meltdown. And once again, from the very first second, we already knew it was going to be an incredible show.
Sign of Life, Thoughts & Prayers and Voices were again in the setlist, always supported by special effects like pyro. It was literally a concert on fire, with the Cherry Bombs back on stage, making everything even more breathtaking.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Afraid Of The Dark, live, was a unique experience. It is a new song, released only on 28 January, and it made everyone in the venue sing at the top of their lungs.
Chris Motionless was shocked to see Alexandra Palace so full, and he made sure to say he did not expect to see all those people on Valentine’s Day. He thanked us for being there and for celebrating that day with Motionless In White.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Still amazed by what he was seeing, Chris pulled out his phone twice to film us while we were singing their songs until we lost our voices, including Hollow Points and Werewolf. It was a fun moment but also sweet, and it really showed how far Motionless In White have come, thinking back to their last time in London at the O2 Academy Brixton.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Motionless In White made us go wild with Slaughterhouse, one of my favourite songs, which, as always, sent the fans into chaos. Then came classics like Rats, Disguise and Nothing Ever After, before taking us back to 2010 with City Lights in a very emotional performance.
The band showed once again how versatile they are, from screaming sharp lyrics that pull out the worst side of you, like in Cyberhex, to songs that almost drain every tear out of you, like Another Life and Eternally Yours, which once again closed a show full of ups and downs and strong emotions.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
For an hour and a half, it really felt like being on a rollercoaster.
Motionless In White showed they can handle such a big venue, filled with Chris’s amazing voice, guitars that worked perfectly together and drums that kept hitting hard, still echoing in the walls even after the show ended.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
This is the kind of band that leaves you going home with a hole inside and their songs still echoing in your head, because once again, Motionless In White left their mark.
Motionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Make Them Suffer
Even if their setlist was really short, Make Them Suffer owned every minute they had on stage. They used that short time to show who they are and leave a strong mark.
Make Them Suffer – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Make Them Suffer opened with Ghost Of Me, and right away the night felt sharp and already high level. Then they moved on with Bones and Mana God, before playing one of my favourites, Epitaph.
Make Them Suffer – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
The band mix deep, violent growls with clean vocals and almost cinematic sounds. The result is very dynamic songs that move fast from heavy parts to more emotional and sad moments.
They closed their set with Doomswitch, proving they can be heavy and intense but still keep strong melodies and atmosphere.
Make Them Suffer – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Dayseeker
There is something about Dayseeker that comes alive on stage in a very raw, almost physical way. The voice of Rory Rodriguez, soft and strong at the same time, carried the whole set. Tonight, they opened with Pale Moonlight, then moved into Shapeshift and Burial Plot.
Dayseeker – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Their stage presence was truly visual, emotional and balanced. Even if they were not the headliner, Dayseeker gave fans half an hour of pure chaos.
Rory only spoke a few times to the crowd. One of those moments came when he had to stop Creature In The Black Night because of a medical emergency. Once he made sure everyone was safe, they started the song again from the beginning, with even more energy.
Dayseeker – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalk
Crawl Back To My Coffin and Crying While You’re Dancing were also highlights of the set, which ended with Neon Grave.
It was an emotional show, full of different melodies mixed with sharp screams. Dayseeker are ready to give everything to make their place in the Metal scene, and so far, they have not disappointed at all.
Dayseeker – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkDayseeker – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkDayseeker – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkMake Them Suffer – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkMake Them Suffer – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkMotionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkMotionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkMotionless In White – Alexandra Palace, London – 14 February 2026. Photo: Antonio Giannattasio/MetalTalkThe post Motionless In White Turn Alexandra Palace Into A Valentine’s Inferno first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
If you’ve been keeping up with my recent posts, you know that Jeff Escude has been on an absolute tear lately, but “Currents” might just be the track that makes him one of the most versatile songwriters in the game right now. While his previous work leaned heavily into the crushing weight of sludge and […]
If you’ve been keeping up with my recent posts, you know that Jeff Escude has been on an absolute tear lately, but “Currents” might just be the track that makes him one of the most versatile songwriters in the game right now. While his previous work leaned heavily into the crushing weight of sludge and […]
Spiritbox have announced some of the biggest ever headline shows in the UK and Europe for later in the year, and are bringing along some special bands, too.
Off the back of the huge success of last year’s ‘Tsunami Sea’, which resulted in a GRAMMY nomination and performance at the ceremony, and following their show at London’s Alexandra Palace just before its release, it’s a run of shows that is incredibly well earned.
And they will joined on this latest victory lap by Jinjer and Dying Wish. A formidable trio.
Here are the dates:
SEPTEMBER
12 – GLASGOW SECC Hall 3 14 – NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena 16 – MANCHESTER Co-Op Live 17 – CARDIFF Utilita Arena 19 – LONDON OVO Arena Wembley 22 -BERLIN UFO im Velodrom 23 – GLIWICE Gliwice Arena 25 – PRAGUE Forum Karlin 26 – VIENNA Gasometer 28 – ZURICH Halle 622 29 – MUNICH Zenith 30 – FRANKFURT Jahrhunderthalle
OCTOBER
02 – HAMBURG Sporthalle 03 – AMSTERDAM Afas Live 04 – DUSEELDORF Mitsubishi Electric Halle 06 – LUXEMBOURG Luxembourg Rockhal 08 – ANTWERP Lotto Arena 09 – PARIS La Seine Musicale
Friend, I wonder if you would agree with me when I say that authenticity in black metal is a dead letter. I don’t mean that black metal is always played inauthentically, but rather that the idea of black metal as a supposedly pure artifact with a thingness apart from whatever things make it is pretty silly. On the one hand, the onanistic obsession with realness or trueness in black metal is entirely hilarious coming from a style of music that sounds, to 99.9% of the population, entirely indistinguishable from a handful of forks tossed into a garbage disposal. On the other hand, to the extent that nascent artistic movements often define themselves more stridently in opposition to what they are not than in illustration of what they are, it’s a familiar story. For me, though, there’s little inherent value in any rigid adherence to genre strictures. Imagine if the “how it started / how it’s going” meme was just… the same picture.
Real talk, though? Hit me with a 10,000x Xeroxed copy of “In the Shadow of the Horns” and I’ll get married and have your babies. The point is, I don’t want it because it’s correct; I want it because it reaches into a primordial crevasse of my brain and obliterates any part that doesn’t pay fealty to wild-eyed lust for fire and destruction. The dismally buried lede in all this, you patient and beautiful souls, is that the debut album from Norway’s Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne! is orthodox in its hunger, omnivorous in its methods, and ferociously satisfying from all angles.
The key mover in Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne! is Tor-Helge Skei aka Cernunnus, who first came to underground black metal acclaim with Manes (they of the bulletproof classic Under Ein Blodraud Maane). Although Manes quickly morphed into eclectic, avant-garde electronic/metal (in the proud tradition of many of their other countrymates in Ulver, Beyond Dawn, The 3rd and the Mortal, and so on), they resurfaced as Manii in the early 2010s, with Skei and original Manes vocalist Sargatanas not only returning to black metal, but doing so with an even deeper devotion to eerie, raw-boned intensity than they had previously shown. In some ways, Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne! feels like an extension (or perhaps elaboration) of Manii, but Skei’s new cast of collaborators – Misotheist’s Brage Kråbøl on drums, Whoredom Rife’s Kjell Rambech on harsh vocals, and Eskil Blix (of Vemod, Mare, Dark Sonority, Djevel, and more) on clean vocals – broadens the scope while deepening the impact.
So! What does the album do? Friend, it does a lot. It carves and hulks with its sharp (but not piercing) high mid-range and occasionally ritualistic drums, but it also pulses and glows with organs and keys and pervertedly angelic choirs. The structure of the album is measured and liturgical, with -ludiums (prae-, inter-, and post-) at every turn and lengthy, Latinate song titles underscoring the lengthy, Latinate rhapsodies contained within. Cernunnus’s riffs tend towards the long, looping, hypnotic variety, but they are goosed and whipped around by thick, sometimes frantic bass and wild intensity from Kråbøl’s drumming. The closest sonic analogue might be Manii’s third full-length (the beautiful, winding descent of Innerst i mørket), but in both Blix’s gorgeous clean vocals and also some of the more forthrightly beautiful guitar leads, there’s a touch of Vemod’s stately elegance. And even though the actual sound isn’t terribly similar, there’s something about the balance of frantic attack and resonant, hovering beauty that reminds me both of Abigor circa Nachthymnen and Blut Aus Nord’s first two albums.
The ten-minute proper opener “Ab illo benedicaris…” sets the tone immediately, with blasting drums, patiently buzzing guitar drone, cathedral-reverb clean vocals, and pipe organ. Rambech’s harsh vocals are impassioned and evocative, spewing all manner of worshipful blasphemies atop Skei’s scything guitar lashes. “Revelabitur gloria domini” features a particularly tasty guitar riff, which is a very rhythmically typical black metal tremolo lead that skitters across some rather unusual intervals. “Gratias agamus domino…” might be the most satisfying piece of the album, though, with its especially fluid transitions between full-on blast, a half-time roll with multitracked choral vocals, and a jaw-droppingly beautiful section that splits the listener’s head fully skyward at the 5:22 mark: truly, it’s just a simple, repetitive guitar lead, but the effect on at least this particular transfixed listener is every bit as powerful as Drudkh in their unconquerable early prime.
Other than the unwieldy band name, there’s honestly very little to find fault with across these fully engrossing 44 minutes which sprawl gleefully across passages of barely-tamed chaos and meditative calm. If you’re familiar with some of the previous work of those involved (particularly Tor-Helge Skei’s), this likely won’t land as a sui generis bolt from the blue, but if you’ve ever counted yourself a fan of black metal – in all its ridiculous excess, accidental perfection, and meticulous beauty – you won’t be disappointed. The only way to be true to the originary spirit of black metal is to spurn and ignore it – that’s the only way to find it again, raw and bristling and new every time.
The sonic architecture of Alice Cooper began in Phoenix, Arizona, where a group of high school cross-country teammates formed a band called The Earwigs in 1964. Led by Vincent Furnier and featuring Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, Bruce Michael, and John Speer, the group evolved through names like The Spiders and Nazz before settling on Alice Cooper in 1968. Legend suggests the name came from a Ouija board session, but the moniker eventually served as a persona that challenged the flower-power idealism of the late sixties with a darker, theatrical grit. Moving to Los Angeles, the band struggled until they were
When you’re digging through the modern heavy underground, you occasionally run into a track that fulfills the entire room with tremendous, powerful sound. Jeff Escude has done exactly that with “The Tempest,” featuring the phenomenal Jordan Perlson. It’s a colossal, tectonic shift of sound that expertly bridges the gap between stoner rock’s fuzz-drenched grooves and […]
When you’re digging through the modern heavy underground, you occasionally run into a track that fulfills the entire room with tremendous, powerful sound. Jeff Escude has done exactly that with “The Tempest,” featuring the phenomenal Jordan Perlson. It’s a colossal, tectonic shift of sound that expertly bridges the gap between stoner rock’s fuzz-drenched grooves and […]
