Valentine’s Day at Alexandra Palace. What better way to spend the most romantic night of the year than in the company of thousands of metal fans, bathed in fire and confetti, screaming along to songs about heartbreak and survival. Motionless In White knew exactly what that meant, and they delivered a night that none of us will forget in a hurry.
The Afraid of the Dark tour arrived in London on 14th February with Make Them Suffer and Dayseeker in support, and what followed was an evening that went from gut-punch heavy to genuinely moving and back again, sometimes within the same song.
Last time we saw Motionless In White in London, at Brixton Academy, they exuded gothic glamour. That hasn’t gone anywhere, but the production has levelled up. Over the years we’ve watched this band build momentum, graduating through venue sizes and growing a fiercely loyal UK fanbase along the way.
Alexandra Palace has a 10,000 capacity, perched on a hill overlooking the city. And the view of London from Ally Pally as the sun set and the city lights spread out below? Not a bad way to start a Valentine’s evening. Before we got inside though, a word on logistics: the queue for the toilets on arrival was absolutely insane. Good luck if you really needed to go. And £70 for a hoodie? In this economy? Perhaps enough fans are willing to pay that it just works, but it does sting.
Perth’s Make Them Suffer opened proceedings, and the Australian metalcore outfit wasted no time. Some thumping beats gave way to blast beats, and vocalist Sean Harmanis was demanding London get on its feet from the off.
Then came the contrast that makes this band special. Alex Reade’s clean vocals entered like a melodic hug, her voice threading through the heaviness with a warmth that hit right in the feels. The interplay between her melodic delivery and Harmanis’s brutal vocals is so good! There’s a moment where she sings with such vulnerability, and then the heavy vocals crash back in around her. It’s a combination that shouldn’t work this well, but absolutely does.
The guitarist’s two-step dance moves and fierce facial expressions while shredding were brilliant, very entertaining to watch. Somewhere in the crowd, fans were holding up an Australian flag, showing love for the band’s roots. Which is nice since they’er performing 10,000 miles from home.
During ‘Privilege’, the call went out: when we jump, you jump. Everyone near the front was going for it. There was a dubstep section, a hefty “blergh” from Harmanis, and the entire crowd repeatedly punching the air in perfect sync. The energy was huge. For the last song of the set, Harmanis demanded crowdsurfers, and they kept on coming.
Things went pitch black for Dayseeker‘s entrance, and the California outfit opened with ‘Pale Moonlight’. Red stage light beamed across the room like a hot sun as vocalist Rory Rodriguez delivered every word with intensity. Rodriguez was wearing sunglasses throughout, which felt very on-brand for the atmospheric emo-rock vibe the band trades in.
The setlist leaned heavily on their 2025 album Creature In The Black Night, and they played a brand new song too. ‘Crawl Back to My Coffin’ landed with real weight, with Rodriguez explaining it was about finding comfort in isolation. The room was full of phone lights swaying on request, synths washing over atmospheric passages. A different energy entirely to the other two bands on the bill. More contemplative. More emotionally exposed.
‘Burial Plot’ saw Rodriguez asking the crowd to sing as loud as they could, and they delivered. When he told us we were the best crowd of the whole tour — well, did he say that in your city too? Perhaps. But in the moment, you believe it.
Rodriguez shared that Dayseeker played in the UK back in 2012 to just two people, and the gratitude for how far they’ve come was palpable. ‘Without Me’ was introduced as the song for anyone who came tonight specifically to sing with Dayseeker. ‘Sleeptalk’ followed, and ‘Neon Grave’ closed out their set.
If there’s an honest critique, it’s one I’d worried about before the show. Listening to Dayseeker on YouTube, there’s a risk of things feeling a bit samey, and that did hold true live to a degree. The opening songs were absolutely epic, but I found myself hoping for more variation as the set progressed. That said, the emotional weight of their performance provided a genuinely effective bridge between Make Them Suffer‘s chaos and what was about to come.
Between sets, the crowd entertained themselves by building cup towers in the distance, cheering and wooing every time they got close to toppling, while Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ played over the PA.
And then came the rave cat. If you know, you know. Motionless In White announced themselves with a giant visual of a cat spinning through the galaxy, a gloriously absurd calling card before the Scranton goth-metallers got down to business. In true MIW fashion, they opened with a “blergh” and launched straight into ‘Meltdown’.
From the first seconds, it was explosive. Fire, headbanging straight off the bat, and The Cherry Bombs joining in, using flamethrower-adjacent machines and angle grinders on their crotches to shower the stage in sparks. Motionless In White understand their stage presence aesthetic, and they delivered it relentlessly.
‘Sign of Life’ had Chris demanding that when he counted to four, the entire floor went up and down, and it did. “Holy shit,” he said, looking out at the crowd. “Light up this crowd, let me see London right now” he said in a really genuie moment, where he looked as if he could not belive his eyes, taking it all in. ‘A-M-E-R-I-C-A’ followed, and Chris was covered in confetti, Marilyn Manson-style vocals weaving through tracks while spiralling visuals played on the screens behind him.
‘Voices’ was enormous, with that spiral visual on screen creating an almost hypnotic atmosphere. Then Chris took a moment to address the crowd before the next song, the new single that gives the tour its name, and a celebration of the band’s journey.
“And now here we are, 2026, headlining fucking Ally Pally”
He spoke about how this UK and European run has produced some of the biggest headline shows of their entire career, with Manchester, Düsseldorf, and others beating out numbers from their last US headliner in 2023. “I cannot describe to you how amazing and how grateful we are for that,” he told us. Then he talked about London specifically, how the band have played London so many times over the years, starting at The Underworld in Camden all the way back in 2011. “And now here we are, 2026, headlining fucking Ally Pally,” he said. “And that is because of every single one of you. Twenty years of insane support.” He asked London to make some noise for themselves, and the place erupted. Then he dedicated the song to the fans, a song about that journey, and launched into ‘Afraid of the Dark’.
And then came ‘Werewolf’! This writer was wearing her custom Werewolf jacket from Saints of the Undead, a replica of the one worn by Chris in the music video, and I found another person in the crowd wearing theirs. Seeing The Cherry Bombs dance to ‘Werewolf’ in the flesh, having watched them in the music video countless times, was very cool! On this tour, The Cherry Bombs had been offering dance classes throughout the run, open to anyone, no experience needed, which is such a brilliant touch for confidence and community. That spirit of inclusivity is part of what makes this whole operation special.
“One mutilation under god”
‘Hollow Points’ required maximum headbanging. ‘Slaughterhouse’ delivered the moment of the night for the heavy hitters. “One mutilation under god” roared out of thousands of throats simultaneously. My god, did we headbang. ‘Rats’ kept the intensity going before ‘Disguise’ had the room clapping in unison. ‘Nothing Ever After’, the ILLENIUM cover, provided a shift in texture, and ‘City Lights’ arrived as a nod to the old school fans (Chris made that clear), a cinematic moment that the Valentine’s Day setting deserved.
‘Scoring the End of the World’ built towards the encore, with Chris encouraging a circle pit before ‘Not My Type: Dead as Fuck 2’ kept the chaos going. ‘Soft’ followed, then ‘Cyberhex’ pulsed with futuristic energy.
Fans dressed as a banana and a pickle, unmistakably Fortnite‘s Peely and Rick the Pickle, had caught Chris’s eye earlier in the night, prompting him to muse about how cool it would be if MIW were known from a Fortnite song. Given that ‘Another Life’ was added to Fortnite‘s Music Pass in late 2025, and the band themselves have joked about wanting Fortnite skins, he might not have to wait long. The closing stretch was where Valentine’s Day truly came into its own. ‘Another Life’ filled the room with phone lights and voices singing along, the glow effect cascading down the screens as thousands of voices echoed the words back. And then, the finale. ‘Eternally Yours’. On Valentine’s Day. Chris told the crowd we got an extra night tonight, wished us all a happy Valentine’s Day, and left us with this: remember this if nothing else, we are eternally yours.
It was the perfect ending to a night that delivered on every level.
What’s Next?
So what’s next for Motionless In White? Higher festival slots feel inevitable. Bigger shows. New music that caters to both the heavy and the heartfelt, anthems we can scream our hearts out to. More gothic glamour. More leading the way. With a US tour alongside Bring Me The Horizon on the horizon, including Madison Square Garden, and festival appearances at Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple, the trajectory only goes in one direction.
If you needed proof they’re ready for it, Valentine’s night at Alexandra Palace was it.
Setlist
‘Meltdown’ / ‘Sign of Life’ / ‘A-M-E-R-I-C-A’ / ‘Thoughts & Prayers’ / ‘Voices’ / ‘Afraid of the Dark’ / ‘Werewolf’ / ‘Hollow Points’ / ‘Necessary Evil’ / ‘Slaughterhouse’ / ‘Rats’ / ‘Disguise’ / ‘Nothing Ever After’ (ILLENIUM cover) / ‘City Lights’ / ‘Scoring the End of the World’ / ‘Not My Type: Dead as Fuck 2’ / ‘Soft’ / ‘Cyberhex’ / ‘Another Life’ / ‘Eternally Yours’
