Live Review: SikTh w/Ted Maul and Heriot at The O2 Forum in Kentish Town!

Tonight may only be a ninth show in six years from Watford Technical Progressive Metal act SikTh but with the original line up set to take stage for the second of two shows, one in Manchester and one in London, in celebration of twenty years of their seminal album “Death Of A Dead Day” it qualifies as both a long awaited and highly anticipated occasion. Add to that rumours being rife of a new album in the works and the O2 Forum in Kentish Town London being so close to being sold out it’s painful and tonight very much feels like the awakening of a bear after a long hibernation…

Reading like a script of a low budget straight to streaming platforms movie in which SikTh frontman Mikee Goodman enters a crypt and resurrects a corpse with the combination of occult ritual and adrenaline injection, after twenty years London Death Metal act Ted Maul [8/10] are on stage at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town. In 2026 the band are a five piece who include original members in guitarist Luca Grandi, formerly of Dripback and vocalist Jeremy Gomez of Red Method. They look like a crossover Thrash crew who are itching to bust out some classic Hardcore cuts but instead burn the fuse of a fistful of dynamite from their one and only album “White Label“. As musicians they’re of course all seasoned veterans with many bands under their collective bullet belts and put on a show of livewire energy and old school riffs, Grandi looking like he’s stepped out of Cro-Mags or Suicidal Tendencies with his axe wielding stage antics. They’re playing to a filling venue and a crowd who don’t necessarily know who they are but by the end they’ve won everyone over with Gomez brutal roars and James Perry’s unstoppable rhythmic battery.

The ascendancy of Heriot [9/10] is insane given how brutally heavy the band are and tonight genuinely feels like they’ve interrupted their World tour to do a favour for a friend. Each song could register as seizmic activity, the rumbling bass, powerhouse percussion and chugging riffs that play on silence creating a dark and brooding atmosphere as vocalist and guitarist Debbie Gough roars like a demon. The crushing weight of cuts like “Siege Lord” is just part of what makes the band a force of nature and new song “Master Of Deceipt” proves there is plenty more where that came from. During their set the band form a line across the front of the stage, drummer Julian Gage regularly standing between the songs and raising his sticks in the air to encourage the rowdy pit before they take the bubbling atmosphere down a notch for the achingly clean sung parts of “Opaline“. That sees not only horns up but cigarette lighters and phone torches waving without command, sending a shiver down the spine with the spontaneous nature of the response during such an intense moment. All of that of course means that brutal grand finale “At the Fortress Gate” goes off like a popping Champagne cork, a huge circle pit forming like a twister in tornado alley.

By the time SikTh [10/10] take to the stage the atmosphere in the O2 Forum has reached fever pitch with four panels lightening up to give the band a visual accompaniment. As the strobe lights flash and the five piece race into “Bland Street Bloom” to a heroes welcome, it becomes apparent that they’re not all here. For whatever reason bassist James Leach is absent, his place filled by Adam “Nolly” Getgood of Periphery fame. Later we find out that it’s simply a camero from a friend who could learn the setlist in a very short space of time, something which if anything actually makes the occasion even more special. As a five piece the band play the album in full and in order with half of it not having been played live since 2018 and at least three songs having not been performed with original co-vocalist Justin Hill. “Flogging the Horses” is a masterclass, “In This Light” sublime and “Part of the Friction” as crazy as ever. What’s amazing is that the album sounds as fresh today as it did twenty years ago, guitarists Dan Weller and Graham “Pin” Pinney swapping guitars with the techs rather than tuning up between each song to keep the atmosphere electric. Every song is a scream-a-long, circle pits and crowd surfers alternating as the Mikee Goodman and Justin Hill jump around like a pair of wild animals. They’ve lost none of their charm or energy and if anything have become older, wiser and more aggressive. As a band they’re truly grateful to be here, seemingly humbled by the size of the crowd before they give us an encore of “Pussyfoot” and “Skies Of Millennium Night” that raises the roof. The boys are back in town!