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Has there ever been a more important week to celebrate heavy metal? While the genre - and world at large - is still in mourning over the loss of its biggest star in Ozzy Osbourne, it's vital to remember that heavy metal isn't a genre beholden to loss, but instead savouring defiant victories over the odds.
So it's perfect timing for Judas Priest to play their biggest UK headline show ever at London's massive O2 Arena. After all, if Black Sabbath were the architects of heavy metal, then Priest were the original innovators, further shaping the genre and giving it a style and aesthetic that still prevails today.
And they're certainly not alone in this celebration. Alice Cooper is more metal-adjacent, but his distinct brand of glammy shock rock undoubtedly shaped metal's psyche, making it a perfect double-headline in so many ways. And Alice is at his full theatrical best in the O2.
Plague doctors waving bells herald Alice's arrival, giving way to a gigantic banner proclaiming "BANNED IN ENGLAND" as guitarist Nita Strauss strides out and kicks off a storm of wailing guitars for Lock Me Up, before the main main slices through the banner and steps out to screams of delight.
It sets a gloriously OTT precedent, the setlist stacked wall-to-wall with massive sing-alongs with No More Mr. Nice Guy, I'm Eighteen, Hey Stoopid, He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask), Feed My Frankenstein and Poison all flying out in quick succession. Coops himself might sound a little raspier than he did in decades past, but that only accentuates the campy menace that a brilliant Alice Cooper show should entail.
On fine form as a demonic ringmaster, all the theatrical trimmings have been left in: a star-struck fan being executed by Jason Vorhees, a gigantic, Eddie-style ghoulish Alice during Feed My Frankenstein and the iconic guillotine beheading during Killer. But there's big surprises ahead, too. Alice dons an Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt as his band cover Paranoid, even bringing in Johnny Depp as a guest guitarist. The big finish is a rollicking School's Out and Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 mash-up complete with a blizzard machine, giant balloons (which Alice promptly pops) and the addition of more members as the original Alice Cooper band join in, lending the whole thing a hugely celebratory atmosphere, feeling like a definitive greatest hits experience.
Alice Cooper setlist O2 Arena, London July 25 2025
Lock Me Up
Welcome To The Show
No More Mr. Nice Guy
I'm Eighteen
Hey Stoopid
He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)
Feed My Frankenstein
Go To Hell
Poison
Black Widow Jam
Ballad Of Dwight Fry
Killer / I Love The Dead
Paranoid
School's Out / Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2
It's still astounding just how incendiary Judas Priest sound after over half a century. Last year's Invincible Shield showed they still had plenty of fire in the tank, but with choice cuts from that album spliced with the heavier outings from 1990's Painkiller, their set feels utterly thunderous.
The tradition of coming out to War Pigs has added weight given the events of the week, but it seems to fire both band and audience up for an almost thrashed-up doublt-hit of All Guns Blazing and Hell Patrol. There's arena anthemia in You've Got Another Thing Comin' and Breaking The Law, supernatural menace in A Touch Of Evil and a touching tribute to lost icons in Giants In The Sky (now with an added Ozzy Osbourne icon alongside the likes of Lemmy, Janis Joplin and Chris Cornell).
It's all in service of putting on the best possible metal show Priest can, bright lights flashing as the band grandstand in ways befitting their icon status.
"This music brings us love, it brings us peace," Rob Halford announces to introduce Giants In The Sky. "We build up with it, it gets us through things, especially with what we've being going through these past few days. As I said in Scarborough, this is what he'd want us to do. We love you Ozzy."
Going out in old school fashion - Rob rides back on for the encore atop a Harley to signal the start of Hell Bent For Leather, the final notes of the night are pure joyous ecstasy as guitarist Glenn Tipton joins the band onstage for Living After Midnight. It's a celebration, that much is undeniable, but also an affirmation that the heavy metal isn’t about mourning its losses, but in celebrating the dream that has driven countless bands, musicians and fans across the world.
Judas Priest setlist O2 Arena London July 25 2025
All Guns Blazing
Hell Patrol
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Freewheel Burning
Breaking The Law
A Touch Of Evil
Night Crawler
Solar Angels
Gates Of Hell
Between The Hammer And The Anvil
Giants In The Sky
Painkiller
Hell Bent For Leather
Living After Midnight
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