This time last year, While She Sleeps hit their apex. Playing their biggest-ever headline show in London’s 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace, the Sheffield mavericks proclaimed their ascension – and they used 90 minutes of cinematic visuals, multi-storied stage props and incredible songs to do it.
One year on, the environs are smaller but the scene is no less triumphant. Sixth album Self Hell came out in spring, turning up the juice on Sleeps’ electro-metalcore edge, and got followed by a summer stealing the show at multiple festivals. Their return to London has “victory lap” written all over it: even if the grandeur of Ally Pally’s been swapped for the pokier O2 Forum Kentish Town, they’re selling this place out two nights on the trot and bringing production worthy of somewhere 10 times the size.
