The Devil Wears Prada at o2 Academy Islington, London 2025

The Devil Wears Prada

Four bands on a Thursday night? A complete sell out? You just know the energy in the room tonight is going to be sky high. As I arrive at the venue there?s already a queue around the block ? it?s an early start for Senna and the room is filling up fast as they take to the stage. You couldn?t hope for a better opening band really, Senna, hailing from Germany, just ramp the energy up in the room from the get go. There?s some incredible vocals, not only from the frontman but some luscious clean vocals from the bass player during the third track. The guitar playing is technical and interesting, there?s the occasional bass drop and there?s a huge circle pit going only 40 minutes after doors opened. Definitely a band to keep an eye on, they were a lot of fun.

Ocean Grove have, as they point out, ditched the beautiful summer weather of their home country Australia and headed over to a more gloomy Europe to be here. They?re an interesting addition to this bill, more of a nu-metal sound than the other bands but man are they good at it! Big riffs, rhythmic vocals, all while looking like they?re enjoying every second of it ? they?re a new band to me but after half an hour I?m sold! On a side note if their vocalist ever needs a change of career he could surely become an elite high jumper based on tonight?s leaps on stage.

Kingdom of Giants are clearly familiar to the crowd tonight, based on the singing along and the wall of crowd surfers towards the end of the set that most headline bands would be happy with. I quite like their balance of heavy music, screamed verses and epic sounding clean vocals during some choruses. Their performance is tight, the audience seem to be loving every moment of it.

Choosing to keep the energy up between bands in a slightly usual way for a metalcore show, there?s a playlist of pop bangers during the changeover, which seems to go down well. The reaction to The Devil Wears Prada taking to the stage is incredible however, an intro track playing as they walk onto the stage and just start ramping it up. Somehow this is my first time seeing the band, despite them being a band on heavy rotation in my teenage years and, despite this being their 20th year as band, they absolutely still bring the energy to their performance. The two guitarists and vocalist are running back and forth along the stage constantly, Mike Hranica stopping occasionally to crouch down and scream his lungs out. There?s a constant stream of crowd surfers from the get go, a crowd throwing their energy back. They sound incredible, for a band with six members, occasionally with three guitars on stage, everything is tight and polished. We?ve been treated to an incredible bill of live music, a strong mix of bands, but this set is really the cherry on the cake ? incredible stuff.