Live Review: Sylosis, Heaven Shall Burn, The Black Dahlia Murder, Revocation, Frozen Soul, Distant and Life Cycles | 02 Kentish Town Forum, London | 20/02/2026 | O2 Forum, Kentish Town | 20/02/2026

Sylosis headline a mammoth bill on the day their new album, The New Flesh, is released. With doors opening at 4pm and seven bands stacked across the evening, punters were left stuffing meal deals into their mouths outside the venue, making do in the absence of anything resembling a formal dinner hour.
Life Cycles

First on at those unforgiving early doors, Life Cycles emerge without fanfare, greeted by warm, if workday weary, applause from those organised (or fortunate) enough to clock off early. There’s something admirable about a band willing to let the music do the summoning, no intro tape, no bluster, just a sudden plunge into seismic bass drops, serrated pinch harmonics and the kind of rolling, double kick drumming that rearranges your ribcage.

Positioned at the heavier, hardcore-leaning end of an otherwise stylistically sprawling bill, their inclusion undoubtedly serving as a muscular warm-up for the evening’s moshers, it also shows that hardcore’s current cultural heft deserves more than late afternoon real estate. Still, Life Cycles treat the slot not as a compromise but as a proving ground. As bodies continue to trickle through the doors, the band keep the energy at a 10. Frontman Jeremy Cuevas maintains eye contact with the front row while pacing the stage. His energy is magnetic and by the midpoint of the set, even the initially static observers are nodding in time. Between tracks, Cuevas salutes the fellow bands on the line-up, a mark of a group secure enough in their own identity to lift others up.

Life Cycles are hardly newcomers, and it shows. The set is lean but assured, the transitions tight, the breakdowns landing with the confidence of a band who understand precisely how long to let tension simmer before the drop. A great set to warm up to.

Distant

With seven bands crammed onto the bill and changeovers reduced to tens of minutes, concessions have clearly been made. The stage is ridiculously cramped, with multiple drum kits lingering in the shadows throughout each set, the clear result of merging two shows together. Ever the seasoned pros, deathcore outfit Distant occupy the constricted platform with the assurance of a band long accustomed to live chaos. As the venue steadily fills, their particularly punishing strain of deathcore, dense, downtuned and unrelenting, echoes against the walls.

This is not music designed for passive observation and after some cajoling the crowd edges forward. Moshpits break out early and barely a audience member is stood still. Even the security, stationed with professional detachment, are caught nodding along, the rhythm is that infectious. Breakdown follows breakdown, with the cumulative result being a wall of sound both suffocating and exhilarating. Live, Distant are less a band than an experience, and for lovers of deathcore, essential viewing.

Frontman Alan Grnja keeps the thread of audience engagement firmly in hand, screaming “Who’s ready to see Sylosis?”. The first response, deemed insufficient, earns a theatrical frown and a second attempt, this time rewarded with a roar. It’s one of live music’s oldest tricks, and it works. Between songs, atmospheric interludes hum through the PA, a subtle but effective tactic that banishes dead air and sustains momentum. There is no room here for awkward silence; the set moves as one continuous exhale of distortion and anticipation.

For the closing track, Grnja instructs the crowd to crouch low, and to jump up at the drop. Again, familiar stagecraft, but undeniably effective. Deathcore may not be to every taste, but Distant’s command of the room, and their palpable personality onstage they could soften even the sternest sceptic. By the end, it feels less like a support slot and more like a structural stress test, the walls of this historic venue have rarely rattled so convincingly.

Frozen Soul

Synchronised headbanging is elite, let’s be honest, and being backlit somehow makes it look even cooler. That’s exactly what Frozen Soul bring, undeniable coolness. As they bang their heads in perfect time, the crowd mirrors them, swinging long hair in unison and locking into the band’s rhythm. Lead singer Chad Green’s studded wristbands glint under the lights, adding to the intimidating, no-nonsense presence.

The energy escalates quickly. What starts as synchronised movement soon whips into full blown circle pits, an impressive feat for a crowd at 6:30pm who have already seen two bands. Even those unfamiliar with every track find themselves pulled in and song by song, the band steadily wins over the room. The drum tone marks a noticeable shift, a spongey, thudding punch that cuts through the venue. It battles against atmospheric, echo drenched vocals that loom over the crowd, creating a dense and crushing wall of sound true to death metal’s core.

Coming from Texas, a state often politically divided, the band doesn’t shy away from making their stance clear. Vocalist Green growls “Fuck ICE” before new protest song ‘Absolute Zero’, a declaration met with raucous applause. An ocean may separate the US and the United Kingdom, but the political undercurrents in alternative music scenes remain strikingly aligned.

Cool as ice and hard as steel, Frozen Soul deliver a tight, aggressive set that turns casual listeners into committed devotees. They definitely finish their set with a few extra fans.

Revocation

Finally making use of the drum kit previously abandoned stage left, Revocation are performing at a jaunty angle, reconfiguring the usual geometry of a metal show. With the drums set to the side rather than directly behind, the focus shifts refreshingly toward an often unseen member of the band. It works brilliantly as the rhythmic backbone is granted equal visual prominence, and the performance feels evenly weighted on stage. The venue, now respectably full, hums with anticipation as the band tear efficiently through their setlist. Vocals sit slightly lower in the mix than earlier acts, a less domineering and more textural addition, more like an extra instrument than a front line.

Midway through, the bands pivots, bringing a slower, more contemplative passage that settles over the crowd. Proving that metal is not merely an exercise in velocity and abrasion. Of course, they are equally capable of delivering breakneck riffs and serrated growls, but there is wit too, flashes of mischief between the pummelling, an understanding that extremity and enjoyment are not mutually exclusive. Revocation have the easy confidence of a band fully aware of their command. They beckon the audience into participation, cheers, claps, shouted refrains, until the boundary between stage and floor feels porous. By the closing stretch, they summon a wall of death that detonates into successive mosh pits, liberating even the more reserved onlookers from self conscious stillness. They may look disarmingly genial, grinning through the heaviest passages, but the sound is ferocious. Sharing smiles between meaty, precision tooled riffs, this four piece dismantle the room, but it’s not done with a straight face.

The Black Dahlia Murder

For many metalheads, The Black Dahlia Murder are a rite of passage. With new vocalist in the shape of long time guitarist and co-founder Brian Eschbach ushering in a fresh chapter, this is best understood not as replacement but as continuance with the band carrying the torch after a great tragedy. The sonic blueprint remains intact with blistering riffs and pummelling rhythms underly almost spoken vocals that descend upon old and new fans alike.

Eschbach proves a commanding focal point. Rarely still, he slices the air with his arms like a conductor summoning crescendos at The Proms, radiating a confidence that steadies the room. The band play with the intensity and gravitas that have long defined them, while the pit below churns with gleeful violence. The crowd, primed and ravenous, offer an energy most acts would envy.

The band play with the intensity and gravitas they’ve always been known for while the crowd tear each other apart in the pit.  A crowd that were beyond ready for them to make the stage. The Black Dahlia Murder certainly make an impact live, some of that is experience, some of it is purely legacy.

Heaven Shall Burn

The audience are completely drenched in light as this German melodic death metal band take the stage. They play on a positively roomy stage, with just the headliner’s drum kit covered in black material looming behind them. They make the most of the space as vocalist Marcus Bischoff  paces the stage and stretches his arms out towards the crowd.

This peformance puts the fans first, playing old and new (although mostly more recent) cuts throughout and encouraging passive on lookers to get involved. Circle pits spread across the lower front level in the venue, emphasising the powerful performance taking place on stage.

Anthemic and well rounded, Heaven Shall Burn are far from sounding like they are entering their golden years, but are definitely in a fresh era, distant from their 90s sound. That’s not to say they can’t please the original fans and still play their original hits with the same energy as a new band, just now it’s just a little more polished and on more expensive guitars.

Sylosis

Survivor‘s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ plays as Sylosis take the stage, just hours after they dropped their latest offering The New Flesh. Although usually when a band tours after an album release, they base the set list around the new material, but due to the stacked lineup, Sylosis are limited to just an hour and so the band opt instead for a ruthless sprint through their catalogue. They still favour playing songs from 2023 album A Sign Of Things To Come, and the crowd are seemingly appreciative of this.

As soon as they kick off the set, the audience erupts and violence breaks out in the moshpit. Circle pits organically manifest and then spread into fervent push pits, in beat with the thrash-tinged metal playing onstage. The incredibly experienced band maintain the energy, not allowing a single second for contemplation or rest. In turn, the crowd become sweat drenched from dancing and break the venue rules by crowd surfing constantly. Pure anarchy.

Guitarist Conor Marshall windmills his hair consistently through the set at the faster moments, a part of the performance that has become a staple during their live sets, as vocalist and guitarist Josh Middleton perfectly executes his blend of growls and clean vocals. Sylosis have been one of the best bands to experience live due to their intensity, presence and weighty sound for almost twenty years and they are still getting better, somehow.

 

  • # Distant, Frozen Soul, Heaven Shall Burn, Life Cycles, Live Review, O2 Forum Kentish Town, Revocation, Sylosis, The Black Dahlia Murder