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“We fought tooth and nail to get to London!” Bleed From Within vocalist Scott Kennedy ad-libs as the heavy metal brutes tear through I Am Damnation. Indeed they fucking did.

Since bouncing back from an enforced hiatus in 2018, Bleed From Within have been the hardest-working band in British metal. They’ve put out vicious anthems at a mind-boggling rate; toured with such superstars as Slipknot, Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine; and played every major metal festival two or three times over. Tonight, they’re reaping the rewards of all that graft.

The Scotsmen’s headline show at the O2 Forum Kentish Town is the biggest they’ve ever played, and their momentum’s so great that the evening is sold out. The floor is heaving as the five-piece burst into Violent Nature: a knockabout opener that sounds like Slipknot and Lamb Of God brawling in a Glasgow carpark. Zenith, the title track of the band’s mighty new album, then betrays the influence of Swedish melodeath with its slicing guitar leads. The two songs are an apt introduction to Bleed From Within’s M.O.: mixing the most exhilarating bits of every kind of metal, subgenre be damned.

The all-adrenaline approach works wonders. There may barely be enough room to breathe out, but the Forum’s hordes still find a way to open up a whirlwind moshpit and fling crowdsurfers over the barrier. The chorus of Levitate, a 2022 single on its way to ‘modern classic’ status, gets 2,300 voices to scream in unison. Kennedy watches and listens in awe, iterating again and again how hard the band worked to get here and how grateful they are for their fanbase.

From there, the sense of victory just grows and grows. Josh Middleton of fellow UK metal thoroughbreds Sylosis appears to growl the bridge of Hands Of Sin. Vower’s Rabea Massaad nails the climactic solo to Edge Of Infinity, then the communal whoa-oh-oh!’s during The End Of All We Know rattle this 90-year-old building to the rafters. Finally, in a show of national pride that would have been tacky were it not so well-earned, a quartet of bagpipe players and drummers emerge for In Place Of Your Halo’s closing breakdown.

Bleed From Within hit a new apex tonight, and based on the fact this place was full to capacity, there’ll probably be a few more of them in the near future. In the space of just seven years, this lot have gone from unlikely comeback kids to an undeniable force. Give them another seven and at this rate they’ll be one of the biggest things going.

Bleed From Within setlist: O2 Forum Kentish Town, London – October 10, 2025

Violent Nature
Zenith
Sovereign
I Am Damnation
A Hope In Hell
Crown Of Misery
Levitate
Night Crossing
Dying Sun
God Complex
Hands Of Sin (feat. Josh Middleton of Sylosis)
Edge Of Infinity (feat. Rabea Massaad of Vower)
The End Of All We Know
In Place Of Your Halo

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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Metal’s hardest-working band just played the biggest show of their lives – naturally, they pulled out all the stops

Bleed From Within hit a new apex at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum, where they were backed up by special guests, bagpipe players and an uber-passionate audience

Bleed From Within setlist: O2 Forum Kentish Town, London – October 10, 2025