LIVE FROM THE PIT: Visions of Atlantis, Warkings and Induction
- Simon Arinze
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
London’s O2 Academy Islington played host to a night of power and symphony as the “Pirates & Kings” co-headline tour between VISIONS OF ATLANTIS and WARKINGS (also with INDUCTION in tow) stopped by for the second and final night of the tour’s UK leg.
Sadly, a delay to doors opening and bottle-necked nature of the entrance meant that when Italian/German/Finnish Symphonic metal outfit, INDUCTION, took to the stage at their advertised time (just thirty minutes after the doors should have been opened), the room was still quite sparsely populated.
Bringing an ‘old-school’ hair metal twist to the melodic/symphonic metal genre, the band, decked out in a futuristic combination of silver boots and harnesses, took the audience on a fantastical mad-max-esque ride for the thirty or so minutes they had with them. Having only just last week released their latest album Love Kills! to the world, it was understandable that the night’s set list was primarily built from there.
The dueling guitars of Tim Hansen and Justus Salman were both fierce and proficient, with Gabriele Gozzi vocals cutting seamlessly over the top. INDUCTION’s performance was crisp, it was engaging, but above all it was unapologetically fun, which by the end of the set, was exactly what the rapidly swelling crowd needed.
MANOWAR’s Warriors Of The Word played through the venue PA (queue synchronised fist raises from the crowd) as the crew made the final preparations for the next act. The stage, now set with imperial aquila, spartan shields and banners regaling “Senatus Populusque Romanus”, was bathed in fog and red lights awaiting the entrance of some mighty warriors. Initially, the Londimium crowd was greeted by a figure, emerging from the mist bearing a lantern and large warhammer, getting the audience up ready for the arrival of the German/Austrian force that is WARKINGS.
One by one the legendary warriors enter the stage, The Spartan sat high atop his drumkit behind a phalanx of spartan shields, The Crusader with his holy relic guitar kneeled in prayer as The Viking rushed the stage with his bass. Last to emerge was The Tribune, great warrior of Rome, commanding the centre stage. Kicking off with Genghis Khan from the newest album, 2025’s Armageddon, this was going to be a real show, power metal at its theatrical finest.
The set was filled with fast paced bangers that you cannot help but to pump your fists, stomp your feet, clap and chant along to. The four legendary warriors were frequently joined onstage by, permanent member at this point, The Witch Morgana le Fay, adding a level of grit and harshness, elevating each song that she would feature in.
The Tribune was a powerful force, not only did he mountain over the stage, his voice was truly something else, his ability to command the crowd had everyone mesmerized. But the highlight may have been The Crusader on guitar, as he was having the most fun on the stage.
The theatrics continued throughout the entire performance, Morgana le Fay had a number of costume changes; the warhammer wielding chap from the start of the set ended up in the middle of the jam-packed crowd orchestrating an ‘eye of the storm’ circle pit around him; at one point a girl crowd-surfed back to the bar to fetch a beer for The Tribune atop the “largest dragon cock-ring in existence” (an inflatable rubber ring).
Closing out the set, with The Tribune duel wielding a pair of Gladius swords, to the tune of a certain ‘mighty morphin’ show from the nineties, smash hit Gladiator brought the curtain down.
With all remnants of Sparta and Rome stripped away, the stage now resembled a ship's galley, skulls and cannon and tiers of wooden deck in an anticipation of the main event, Austrian pirate themed symphonic power metallers VISIONS OF ATLANTIS.
The vocal performance was split between The Pirate Queen, Clémentine Delauney and Michele Guaitoli who play off of each other wonderfully. When not actively singing, Michele was moving menacingly across the stage, brandishing a cutlass, whereas Clémentine was often swooshing a gorgeous red ‘can-can-esque’ dress. The remainder of “the crew” looked like they would equally not be out of place down in Davy Jones’ locker as they do on stage. Watching all of the interplay between the members of the band on stage, the audience sometimes had to remind themselves that they were watching a show and not a piece of theatre, this is why power metal as a genre is so appealing and so enduring, even if you took the music out of it, it’s still great fun.
Mid-way through the set, the band was rejoined on-stage by The Crusader, The Tribune and Morgana Le Fay for a spin of their recent collaboration single with WARKINGS, and title for the tour, Pirates and Kings.
The night was not only the final night of the UK part of the Pirates and Kings tour, it was also Clémentine’s birthday, straight after Pirates Will Return - which featured a customary row pit from the crowd, to great cheers from the audience, Michele brought on a birthday cake to surprise the Pirate Queen. Then to close out the main part of the set, instead of the audience singing back “Hail Jolly Roger” during Armada, the lyrics were changed to “Happy Birthday Cléme”.
An encore of Master the Hurricane and crowd favourite Melancholy Angel signalled that the set had reached the final destination and it was time to disembark from the good ship that was VISIONS OF ATLANTIS. A night jam-packed - literally, come the end of the evening there was absolutely no space left to move in the venue, with symphonic choruses and power metal revelry.
Words and photos: Simon Arinze
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