Following the release of her latest record “The World Is Dying” last year, British progressive metal musician Grace Hayhurst has announced her debut headline show. Grace is set to hit the stage on March 26th at London’s Black Heart with Spanish progressive metallers Dea Velata and British symphonic metallers Tales Of Perdition as support. Buy tickets here.
Speaking about the upcoming show, Grace has said “I'm very excited to showcase the songs from my debut record 'The World is Dying' that released in Summer last year. After playing gigs in the past with artists such as Kyros, Ihlo, and Fraktions, this is going to be my first ever headline show which is always a bit of a risk for a new and niche artist. But if you don't try, then you'll never know...
We've got two other fantastic bands on the lineup - Dea Velata and Tales of Perdition - as the whole evening has been specially curated to be one of ear perkers. It'll certainly be an evening to remember, and I hope to see as many people there supporting the next wave of prog metal music artists as possible!”
Grace’s latest record, “The World Is Dying”, released on June 27th, 2025, to unanimous praise from the prog community. The follow up to her debut EP, “Existence Is Temporary”, she proudly composed and recorded the bulk of the instruments, with other notable featured musician Robin Johnson of Kyros fame composing and playing the drum parts with drum recordings produced by Shelby Logan Warne ahead of the duo taking over Sensible Music Studios in London. Welcoming the like of The Plot in You, Tim Bowness, and Fontaines D.C through their doors.
Hayhurst described “The World is Dying” as “science fiction turned horrid reality. The pushback of the disparity of economic capital on planet earth. Watching idiotic figures like ‘Elon Musk’ waste our planet’s resources to jet off to Mars for his own personal masturbatory pleasure, leaving the rest of us all behind to fend for ourselves, instead of trying to sort out the problems we have on earth first to enable us all to lead better lives.”
Watch the video for Grace’s single, ‘The World Is Dying’, here:
Grace Hayhurst told us...
Congrats on The World Is Dying! How has the response been? The response has been great! It’s been really cool seeing a full studio album of mine out in the world, having discussions with fans about which track is the ‘best’, and just hearing stories of how much people have been enjoying it! It’s really quite wholesome, despite the bleak lyrical subject matter.
You're performing at The Black Heart next week. What can fans expect? Well, I’ve pulled out as many stops as I can! Special musical guests, elaborate fx, as well as just generally packing as much into the arrangements as possible from the studio record to bring it to stage. Some of the songs are quite dense! So it’ll be interesting to see how they play out live.
This is your headline debut. How does that feel? I can’t really believe it to be honest! This show happened by accident off a chance convention with the wonderful people in Dea Velata who are the main support. And whilst I’ve gigged a lot in previous years with other bands, this is the first time I’ll be leading an audience of people that have come along to see me. Our time on this earth is so limited and precious, and I’m very thankful to anyone that chooses to share some of that time with me.
What can you tell us about your two stunning support acts? Both support acts are similar in density and ambition! Dea Velata are packed full of heavy guitars, but also taking inspiration from greek mythology, and flamenco! It keeps me on my toes. Tales of Perdition were recommended to me by a good friend recently, and I fell in love with their latest single “Hold down the hunter”. I’ve always been a big power and symphonic metal fan, and these guys really scratch that itch!
You co-run a studio, has that had an impact on your as an artist? Ironically, I spend less time in the studio than ever working on my own material because of how busy I now am. However, Sensible Music Studios has such a wonderful community and it’s been great learning from everyone that passes through its doors and applying that to my own artistry where I can! Particularly so with new material for the future…
What's next for you? Well, keeping going. I’m playing two festivals later in the year, and after this show is out the way I’m packing on bulldozing my way back into writing attempting to complete at least the skeleton of a follow up record by the end of the year. Onwards and upwards!
