THE NIGHT ETERNAL
O2 FORUM, LONDON
German heroes bring two hours of power to the capital
‘ABSENCE MAKES THE heart grow fonder’ may be a cliché, but… turns out it’s true. Despite it being eight years since London last hosted a show by Blind Guardian, the capital’s love for the conquering power metal champions clearly hasn’t waned a bit. Tonight’s auditorium is completely sold out and, when they arrive, the headliners will be greeted like hometown heroes – 340 miles away from their actual hometown.
THE NIGHT ETERNAL commence proceedings not with the sword, sorcery and falsetto you’d expect from a night like this, but rather a goth-pop metal march. Standouts such as In Tartarus and Prince Of Darkness flaunt the Germans’ melancholic and melodic guitar leads, yet it’s vocalist Ricardo Baum who steals the show. When his voice isn’t rising from Jaz Coleman-like howls to croons as capable as Tobias Forge’s, he’s a hair-whipping showman. That vigour swiftly gets Kentish Town engaged with these up-and-comers, clapping and headbanging throughout the set.
The adulation pales in comparison to the heroes’ welcome that BLIND GUARDIAN beget. Opener Imaginations From The Other Side instantly declares how they earned such passion. Though this six-piece set the blueprint for the power metal genre with their mythical themes and Hansi Kürsch’s flighty vocals, their thunderous speed metal riffs and pinch harmonics offset all that splendour with genuine oomph.
Blood Of The Elves, from 2022’s uber-heavy The God Machine, keeps that energy alive, after which it becomes clear the band are enjoying themselves just as much as their followers. Hansi takes to the mic between every single song to revel in the adulation and thank a capacity crowd that can’t stop chanting “Guard-i-an! Guard-i-an!” Later, the audience sing The Bard’s Song – In The Forest in its entirety with minimal help from the performers proper, and, after the ending of Valhalla, they keep shouting the track’s hook for minutes on end.
Such a special turnout is complemented by a special setlist. Banish From Sanctuary appears for only the third time this year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Follow The Blind album, before London’s treated to a legitimately impromptu second encore. As Blind Guardian blaze through Majesty – another coalition of speed and power metal, endowed with one hell of a refrain – it reaffirms how much they deserve their venerated status. You could count on one hand the number of bands that tried to sound like this one and ended up feeling even half as special.
INGESTED FALLUJAH
The Underworld is already heaving by the time FALLUJAH take the stage. Despite their role as a support band, the US tech-death collective boast a following comparable to tonight’s
