Words and Pictures: Adrian Hextall / (C) MindHex Media
O2 Arena, London – October 26, 2025
On a Sunday night in London, the O2 Arena played host to a formidable double-header, showcasing two of metal’s most enduring, and distinct, acts. This was a night of two halves: one a blistering, technical farewell from one of the Big-4 thrash pioneers, the other a theatrical, pyro-filled anniversary celebration from a modern metal giant.
Megadeth
First to the stage was Megadeth, a band currently displaying a powerful sense of finality. With their seventeenth and final studio album, the self-titled ‘Megadeth’, announced for a January 2026 release, this tour feels less like a support slot and more like the beginning of a long goodbye. And as befits a farewell, their hour-long set was a relentless ‘best of’ assault, a showcase of the musicianship that defined a genre.
Led by a sharp and focused Dave Mustaine, he may well have been doing this for 40+ years, yet he still commands a crowd and the band with ease. With Mustaine front and centre, the band tore through a catalogue of classics. The intricate riffs of ‘Hangar 18’ and the snarling groove of ‘Sweating Bullets’ sent the floor into a frenzy, with heads a plenty bouncing in unison and, more importantly, a massively diverse and engaged crowd latching onto every moment. ‘Symphony of Destruction’ provided one of the night’s biggest singalongs. The set was a reminder of their sheer consistency, a tightly wound machine of complex guitar work and thundering rhythms, fronted by a man who’s seen it, done it, suffered and come back on multiple occasions and still gives it his all.
They weren’t just trading on nostalgia. The band also performed their new single, ‘Tipping Point,’ a blistering track from the upcoming album that proves their fire hasn’t dimmed. Mascot Vic Rattlehead even made his obligatory appearance during the iconic, driving bassline of ‘Peace Sells’.
The band is also celebrating their legacy in liquid form. The O2 show coincided with the recent UK launch of their new ‘Rattlehead’ beer range, a collaboration with Yorkshire’s Black Sheep Brewery. With both a 4.5% ‘Rattlehead IPA’ and a non-alcoholic ‘IPA ZERO’ on offer, Megadeth provided the perfect soundtrack and refreshment for their own farewell party, closing their set, as they must, with the epic ‘Holy Wars… The Punishment Due’.
If you want to hear more about the beer, check out our article here:
SETLIST
Skin o’ My Teeth
Hangar 18
She-Wolf
Angry Again
Sweating Bullets
Trust
Tipping Point
Tornado of Souls
Mechanix
Peace Sells
Symphony of Destruction
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
Disturbed
After a short changeover, the atmosphere shifted. It’s no secret that Disturbed, and frontman David Draiman, have been at the centre of a significant media storm recently. Following divisive off-stage actions with a marker pen that led to a show cancellation elsewhere in Europe, the ‘noise’ surrounding the band has been loud.
Tonight, however, the focus was squarely on the music and the spectacle. The stage was hidden by a giant curtain, which first played a video montage of the band’s history. As it concluded, silhouettes appeared, the curtain dropped, and the show began with pure theatre. David Draiman was wheeled onto the stage strapped to a vertical stretcher, bound in a straitjacket, mirroring the iconic imagery of their debut. He’d make for an iconic Hannibal Lector if they ever decide to remake ‘Silence of the Lambs’.
This tour celebrates the 25th anniversary of ‘The Sickness’, and the band proceeded to play the seminal album in its entirety, chronologically. From the opening growl of ‘Voices’ to the frantic energy of ‘Stupify’ and the guttural, arena-shaking roar of ‘Down With the Sickness,’ adding of course the vocal “waagghh kaah khah haaah” it was a nostalgic and visceral experience. The stage was an industrial set, drenched in lighting and punctuated by constant bursts of flame that you could feel from the back of the arena.
After the album’s closer, ‘Meaning of Life,’ the band took a 20-minute interlude. This break was essential, not just for the crowd to catch its breath, but for a complete stage transformation.
When they returned, it was for a second, distinct ‘greatest hits’ set. This half of the show demonstrated the band’s evolution, kicking off with powerhouse tracks like ‘Ten Thousand Fists’ and ‘Indestructible’. But the highlights were, fittingly, their masterful covers. Their pounding, anthemic version of Genesis’s ‘Land of Confusion’ turned the O2 into a unified choir.
The show’s emotional and visual peak came with ‘The Sound of Silence’. As Draiman’s powerful vocals filled the arena, a grand piano was brought on stage, which was then dramatically set on fire. The image of the frontman, bathed in the light of the burning instrument, provided a stunning, cinematic moment that encapsulated the drama of the entire performance. Closing with ‘Inside the Fire’, Disturbed proved they are, above all, masters of the grand metal spectacle.
It was a night of contrasts: Megadeth’s raw, technical mastery against Disturbed’s polished, theatrical production. Both bands, in their own way, celebrated their legacy and gave the London crowd a powerful reminder of their place in metal history.
SETLIST:
The Sickness
Voices
The Game
Stupify
Down With the Sickness
Violence Fetish
Fear
Numb
Want
Conflict
Shout (Tears for Fears cover)
Droppin’ Plates
Meaning of Life (With vocal snippet of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train”)
Greatest Hits
I Will Not Break
Ten Thousand Fists
Bad Man
Land of Confusion (Genesis cover)
Indestructible
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
The Light
Inside the Fire
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