Battlesnake – 1865, Southampton
Monday 10th August 2026
We had no idea what was coming. The mighty titans of Australian rock and heavy metal, Battlesnake have quickly ascended from the underground, hypnotising audiences worldwide with their unique and powerful riffs, dynamic songwriting and a madman’s theatrical approach to heavy metal. Channeling the spirits of Ozzy, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath into something very familiar but also entirely their own, they have established themselves as one of the most exciting acts of the touring metal bands.
At The 1865 in Southampton, the Australian metalheads get on the stage in intricate capes and cowls, golden horns, tall flags, baseball caps and all manner of other ceremonial insignia. Everyone in the crowd cal already see that Battlesnake don’t only love metal — they absolutely love being in a metal band.
For 55 photos from this gig use this link
And they mock it relentlessly.
Battlesnake’s humour never feels like it’s coming from people who don’t understand what they’re doing. Quite the opposite. They understand heavy metal so completely that they know precisely what is stupid, what is ridiculous, what is gloriously over-the-top — and exactly how to make all of it work.
And then there is another hero, the flag-bearing keytar player.
No, somehow, it doesn’t look out of place.
If anything, it looks completely right.
The band performance is genuine heavy metal worship and a fan fuelled parody of everything that makes heavy metal ridiculous. The result is an extraordinarily entertaining live show that never loses sight of the fact that, underneath all the costumes and theatrical nonsense, these guys can seriously play.
The performance is tight, powerful and completely committed, with the band throwing themselves into the show with an energy that is impossible to fake. Battlesnake don’t simply perform songs; they turn the entire room into part of the spectacle.
They get into the crowd. They riff from among the audience. They sing from people’s shoulders. At one point, some of them strip down to their pants.
And somehow, even that doesn’t feel weird.
It’s more a case of: yeah, obviously he’s in his pants. Why wouldn’t he be?
That attitude sums up Battlesnake rather perfectly.
Expecting Nothing, Getting Everything
Going into this set knowing absolutely nothing about the band was eye-opening. There was no expectation, no preconceived idea of what Battlesnake would deliver. And then they walked onto the stage and proceeded to deliver pretty much everything.
The set opened with I Killed Satan, immediately establishing the band’s particular brand of ridiculous, riff-heavy theatrical metal. I Am the Vomit and The Battlesnake kept the momentum going before The Key of Solomon and Nightmare King pushed the performance further into full-blown heavy metal spectacle.
The whole thing culminated with an appropriately enormous rendition of AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock, bringing the evening to a suitably thunderous conclusion.
Battlesnake are the real deal.
They have slowly become mainstays of the UK festival scene, and watching them in a relatively intimate room such as the 1865 feels like winning some kind of competition. This is a band whose stage show simply demands bigger spaces, bigger crowds and bigger stages.
There’s no doubt that Battlesnake have the potential to be headlining massive rooms by the time they eventually decide to call it a day.
The funny thing is that the humour makes the whole thing even more convincing. They aren’t laughing at heavy metal. They’re laughing because they love it so much. Every ridiculous costume, every enormous riff, every theatrical gesture and every moment of glorious excess comes from a band that clearly understands exactly why people fall in love with this music in the first place.
So make the most of seeing Battlesnake in a room like the 1865 while you can.
It may not happen much longer.
