Female empowerment took over London’s famous Alexandra Palace as two of metal’s greatest female fronted bands, IN THIS MOMENT and HALESTORM, took to the stage and gave guys & girls alike one hell of a show.
IN THIS MOMENT are a powerhouse, combining heavy music with a stunning visual performance, it was impossible to not be entertained throughout. A lot of effort is clearly put into the visual aspect of IN THIS MOMENT‘s stage show, from the headpieces (courtesy of the very talented Hysteria Machine) to the dancers behind frontwoman Maria Brinks, although she completely stole the show with her charismatic, demanding presence. The set as a whole is an aesthetic masterpiece, which could almost be mistaken for an art installation rather than a concert, especially during the closing song of the set ‘Whore’, a powerful song with stunning aesthetics to match, with Brinks standing upon a podium with WHORE etched into it in deep red, with a white cone of shame upon her head with WHORE too written in red on it. It’s a powerful performance that no doubt stuck with anyone watching.
HALESTORM were the main act of the night, and frontwoman Lzzy Hale wasted no time in thanking the audience for making their headline set possible, extremely humbled to be playing London’s Alexandra Palace, proving their place in the rock scene as they threw themselves into their first song, ‘Do Not Disturb‘. Lzzy Hale oozes charisma throughout, although a lot of the set is spent at the mic stand, Hale still manages to interact with the crowd with inspiring words between songs – “Ladies I want you to wear whatever the fuck you want and I want you to kiss whoever the fuck you want to kiss”, if having an all female fronted line up wasn’t inspiring enough, this moment had the whole room roaring in approval.
HALESTORM ended the night on an epic note with their encore. Taking a place at a piano with a single spotlight illuminating her, the crowd was treated to a mash up of ‘White Dress’, ‘Rock Show’ & ‘Dear Daughter’ before merging into a cover of ‘I Will Always Love You’, a shocking twist but executed immaculately. The song of the night though was ‘Here’s To Us’, arguably their greatest performance of the night, it’s a song with a lot of heart and Lzzy Hale puts all her emotion into it before rounding off the night with their most famous hit, ‘I Miss The Misery’. It’s an empowering night for everyone within Alexandra Palace, regardless of gender, everyone on the stage that night put on an empowering performance that will stick with the audience for a long time.
9/10
