A damp but warm Sunday evening saw me heading to London to shoot a band I’ve never shot before at a venue I’d never shot at. The band was Babymetal and the venue was the awesome 5000 capacity Eventim Apollo. I’d been here before as a punter, but never to shoot until tonight.

As I walked towards the venue I could see a large snaking line of people all queuing for what was a SOLD OUT show as it was advertised alongside the band name on the top of the entrance of the venue. Doors opened at 7 pm and by the time the support act took to the stage at 8 pm, it was pretty much full. The band was another unknown for me, Creeper, They filled the stage with 6 band members all dressed in White except Will Gould the lead singer who was all in Black and struck a stark contrast against the rest of the band.They were full of energy with plenty of jumping and crowd interaction. There were quite a few of the audience that were there early who knew this band and were singing loudly and crowd surfing and generally just having a great time.The band announced that they have a new album due for release in May called ‘Sex, Death & the Infinite Void’, and I’m sure judging by tonight’s performance that this will be a great success. A 35-minute set certainly did their reputation no harm.

9 pm saw the lights dim and a visual avalanche of images set to a backdrop of music appear on the large screens at the back of the stage creating a visually spectacular opening as the band took their places before the three girls took to the stage. The stage was in darkness with the strobe now highlighting the girls before the lights came up and they were greeted with a wave of cheering and screaming as the majority of the crowd get their first glimpse of the band. They start off with crowd favorite ‘Da Da Dance’ before more hits like ‘Gimme Chocolate’ and ‘Shanti Shanti Shanti’ have the whole place rocking.

The hits continue as the sold-out crowd are treated to a light show with flames throughout that was just a wonderful sight. Now either you love BABYMETAL’s music or not, one thing you just can’t deny is that they know how to put on one hell of a show, and I for one am glad to have been there to witness it. The band are now off to Europe continuing their tour, but they are definitely a band you want to see live at least once in your lives. As a complete spectacle and experience alone this has to be a 5-star performance.

Having dropped their third full-length album Metal Galaxy late last year three and a half years after the release of their previous album Metal Resistance BABYMETAL is going from strength to strength, the ever-increasing popularity of Asian music, Rock and Metal especially and with the likes of The Hu and Alien Weaponry releasing albums in their native tongue with resounding success there will certainly be no letup what so ever. Rightly so, with monstrous riffs and highly addictive hooks who would doubt them to continue on their continuation to world domination!

Review & Photography // Will Carter

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