Live Review: Imperial Age Festival 2024 at The Dome, London (05/10/2024)

The 5th of October 2024 marked the inaugural Imperial Age Festival – a brand new festival, celebrating power metal and more at The Dome in Tufnell Park, London.

Six bands showcasing some of the best up and coming stars in power and symphonic metal over a single day, headlined by the creators of the festival, the returning Imperial Age. As the band/festival themselves state:

What if musicians and fans made a Metal festival in London together?

This is exactly what happened with IMPERIAL AGE FESTIVAL – bringing you a great selection of amazing European and British metal bands under one roof. With so many gigs happening in London, we believe this one is special.

I imagine no show or festival comes without challenges and when you are trying to get a new one off the ground, those challenges can probably sometimes seem insurmountable at times. Imperial Age Festival 2024 certainly had its share of issues in the run up to the event. The two biggest known ones being the loss of headliner Orden Ogan a week before the show was due to take place. A big name and ticket seller, lost without enough time to be replaced with a band of equal might. Then a downgrade in venue which only ever happens due to ticket sales not hitting levels that were expected.

Coupled with complaints from social media on each post the festival put out around people wanting refunds due to Orden Ogan not playing and I must admit to turning up to this new event concerned that I may be one of very few people here. That would have really disappointed me as while I do think the gig calendar is saturated, London does not have a power metal festival like this so I really wanted it to be a success so we get a 2025, 2026 on onwards edition of Imperial Age Festival.

I don’t know if it was a commercial success, but, what I do know as a fan is that it felt like a success. A really strong turnout of fans, some truly top bands, a great energy and vibe to the place – it was everything you hope a one day festival could be, though of course there are lessons to be learned.

Lets start with the most important bit though. The music:

Crusade of Bards

The Spanish folk/power metal band played their first ever show in the UK here at Imperial Age Festival and it was really good. The big stage was full to the brim due to their being seven band members and it was also really nice to see that they had a good turnout right from the start. The music had some heaviness to it, especially through the punchy rumbling of the bass and drums. Vocals, having both male and female lead vocalists, were really strong in harmonies and there were some meatier moments too. Aside from a speaker or amp that occasionally seemed to be making a popping noise, they sounded great and their talks to the crowd between songs poured out gratitude and sounded insanely endearing.

I was impressed and will be following these guys much more closely now. Also note that Crusade of Bards were the first of the keytar bands of the day.

Pythia

London based Pythia certainly had a sizeable set of fans with them and we watched on really enjoying what they delivered. They might want to consider cutting that intro track down a bit – it felt like they were standing with their backs to us waiting for it to kick in for around 60 seconds, though I had a few beers in me by now so might be misremembering. Their dark fantasy styled symphonic music certainly had some meat to it and they levelled up with the second keytar of the day that was noticeably bigger than Crusade of Bards version. But, for me Pythia were a mixed bag. Musically strong, with some real heaviness, I felt they lacked confidence at first and occasionally sounded like a collection of talented people that weren’t exactly joined up.

I did think they grew into the set though and enjoyed it more by the second half than I did in the first half though I was with people who thought they were one of the best bands of the day so it might just not have clicked with me immediately where it certainly seemed to for many others.

Battle Born

Now this is how you do it! Battle Born were everything you could hope for at a festival like this, and more. Bringing an insane amount of energy to the stage, the music rocked and the singer seemed to not stop moving as the bouncy and catchy, and certainly cheesy songs rattled off. They got the crowd engaged quick and in my vicinity alone there were people dancing, headbanging, smiling and throwing horns in the air throughout the whole of their set. The crowd packed in for them too, so it seemed a lot of people knew what to expect. It was just positive, energetic and engaging fun throughout the whole of their set.

They are a band I will definitely be aiming to catch live again as soon as I can. I plan to fully join them on their crusade to “bring the metal back”. If you didn’t know Battle Born beforehand, there is no way you left this set being anything other than a huge fan from now on. Battle Born also kicked the keytar game to the touch by having a full size keyboard played by the lead guitarist. Yep, he played keys with the guitar strapped around his neck, then jumped to guitar, then back to keys and so on. He wins.

Ghosts of Atlantis

I was really happy to see Ghosts of Atlantis on the bill here because, as you all know, I think these guys are phenomenal but, I must admit to being a little concerned because while Ghosts have a strong symphonic edge to them, they are significantly heavier than any other band playing here today. That’s on record and, I can promise you that they are even heavier live than on record. Having watched and been involved in what has so far been a very clean, smiley and bouncy show, I kept thinking to myself, man, these guys are about to get shook up once Ghosts of Atlantis kick in. Ghosts came out and absolutely killed it sounding crunchy and intense thanks to Phil Primmer’s impressive growls and roars.

The crowd didn’t mind the heaviness though. One person beside me commented on how intense it was by simply stating “holy shit” which made me smile. Overall though, the crowd stayed and watched and we had plenty of banging heads and interest because they just sound so together as a band with Phil and Colins vocals contrasting perfectly and a collection of well written and expertly played songs. It was a real treat to hear Behind the Wall for the first time live too. So once again, I leave even more impressed by this band as I was going in.

Alterium

Due to a desperate need for food, we had to miss the first part of Alterium’s set but hurried back to catch the second half of the Italian symphonic/power metal band’s first ever show in the UK. Considering they only formed in 2022, to be so near the top of the bill might have you wondering but you quickly see why because they sound really professional. The vocals are amazing, with huge symphonic backing and catchy melodies and hooks. They also sound a lot heavier live than on record, mainly thanks to the pounding drums that have the whole floor shaking. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see the whole set because I really enjoyed the part I did see and I was thrilled when they ended with Of War And Flames which is the song I know most of theirs from their debut EP of the same name.

Imperial Age

So to Imperial Age, the now headliner and creators of this festival. Something I am grateful for because I have had a blast but until this festival, I would not have put myself down as someone too in the know with Imperial Age. I learned a bit about them here. A band that has changed a lot in the last few years moving from Russia to Turkey and now to London and starting again with new band members. The lead vocalists Alexander “Aor” Osipov and Jane Odintsova are settled now and have found a new drive and motivation to get the band moving again, starting here at Imperial Age Festival. A story that deserves more words than this simple review will offer so my perspective on them musically is that they were very good, very professional and very clean.

If this was their first show as a new unit, it didn’t really show. They brought catchy songs that were sung wonderfully by two talented vocalists. They had a big following of excited fans here to see their relaunch and I’m sure the future is looking very bright for this next chapter of Imperial Age. I enjoyed what I heard and saw but knowing so little about the band, I didn’t find the same level of excitement as I did for some of the others playing. I’ll be keeping an eye on them. I do really like the new song, Gnosis, so things are looking promising from my perspective.

So overall, Imperial Age Festival was a success but like I said earlier, these things are rarely without issue and there are lessons to be learned. It cannot be Imperial Age’s fault that Orden Ogan pulled out at the last minute. In fact I was okay with that despite being an Orden Ogan fan. I much prefer going to small festivals to check out the bands I don’t know, over ones I have seen before. There are just a few small things that could have made things easier.

Being indoors at The Dome meant that there was obviously no food options available in venue but we are in London so there is no shortage outside, especially if you like pizza as one of the best pizza places in town operate out of Aces and Eights literally across the road form the venue but it would have been nice to have a gap where you could go and eat and not have to miss a band or half a band. Maybe a slightly extended changeover at a point in the day to allow people to leave the venue, get food and get back. That would surely be better for the bands too so they don’t lose part of the crowd to food.

The merch area was underwhelming at best. A couple tables, sparse merch with just a few bits hanging on hangers sold by people who weren’t in the bands and just sat their on their phones paying no attention to us trying to get their attention. Finally, get a wristband. Wristbands make festivals seem like festivals. We got a tramp stamp which washed off the minute you sweated a little and had to keep going to get it restamped. Finally we had one overly intense security guard at the door who for some reason started telling me and others that if we go outside of the venue anymore, we can’t come back in. That doesn’t work if we have to leave for food but also didn’t help if you left the venue and your stamp had mostly disappeared by the time you got back.

Minor complaints and simple lessons that can easily be improved on. Time to eat, spruce up the merch area a bit and give us a cheap and tacky wristband over a stamp any day.

But I wont leave this review on a negative as Imperial Age Festival doesn’t deserve that. I had an absolute blast overall with a great collection of bands in a good venue with really good sound. What I enjoyed the most though was the general vibe in the place where a collection of like minded music fans got together and listened to uplifting, and occasionally heavy (Ghosts of Atlantis), metal with smiles on their face and positivity in the air. Well done, Imperial Age! That’s the first one down and I can’t wait to see what you give us for Imperial Age Festival 2025.

Follow the bands at these links:

Imperial Age – Alterium – Ghosts of Atlantis – Battle Born – Pythia – Crusade of Bards