Live review: Imminence, London Roundhouse

“How the fuck are we feeling tonight, London?” Eddie Berg asks, though it’s largely rhetorical. By the time Imminence step onto the Roundhouse stage, for their final – and sold-out – show of 2025, 3,000 people already feel like they're holding their breath. When the Swedish metallers start, it's like Santa arriving four days early.

The scene is set before a note is played. A hooded figure weaves slowly through the crowd, carrying a glowing Victorian lamp, before ascending the stage like a ghost from another century. When Eddie finally appears, cloaked as well, flanked by a string quartet, the Roundhouse is transformed. With arches and shadowy lighting, the setup feels less like a gig and more like a cathedral built for controlled emotional collapse.

Before Imminence fully claim the night, Ne Obliviscaris remind everyone that this is not a gentle warm-up. The Australian prog-metal outfit deliver sprawling, virtuosic compositions that feel almost defiantly cerebral for a crowd primed for release. Tim Charles’ clean vocals and violin slice through the room, while James Dorton’s harsh delivery drags everything into darker, more punishing territory. It’s demanding and occasionally overwhelming, but entirely captivating. By the time they leave the stage, the Roundhouse has been properly stretched, mentally and musically.

Imminence don’t so much escalate as consume the whole place. Come Hell or High Water detonates into life, CO2 cannons firing as cinematic atmosphere collides with crushing weight. The balance between metalcore aggression and widescreen melodrama has always been their strength, and tonight they lean into it fully. Desolation and Heaven Shall Burn land like twin gut punches, while Beyond the Pale proves just how masterful they are at letting beauty and brutality coexist.

A huge part of that impact comes from Berg’s ever-present violin, tonight thickened out by the extra players. On Death by a Thousand Cuts and Death Shall Have No Dominion, it doesn’t simply embellish the songs - it defines them, threading sorrow and menace through every breakdown. When Tim Charles and his own fiddle join them for Come What May, the collaboration elevates the moment into something almost operatic, strings and shared vocals blurring the lines between bands.

Midway through, the heaviness is quelled, and the stage shifts quickly for a more stripped back segment of the evening. “You alright if we play a couple of acoustic songs?” Eddie asks, as Saturated Soul and Alleviate strip everything back to raw nerves.

The emotional weight only deepens when he reflects on the band’s journey. “We can’t tell you how incredible tonight is… we started our journey here in Camden about eight years ago at the Black Heart, and now we are at a full Roundhouse. To be able to finish the chapter here is amazing, so thank you.” It’s a moment of genuine gratitude that lands hard.

As Love & Grace ends the acoustic section with more emotionally charged prose, the crowd is quickly whipped back up, with a barrage of Heaven in Hiding and Infectious. Temptation follows, featuring a crowd-surfer riding atop another like a human surfboard. By the time ending duo of The Black and Le Noir hit, it’s clear as day that Imminence have well and truly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

This is heavy music unafraid of beauty or sincerity, and London leaves bruised, uplifted, but very much in love with the spectacle that has just unfolded in front of their eyes. Something even bigger is surely imminent in 2026.