Pop music and hard rock may seem like mortal enemies, but from the opening guitar thunder and soaring melodic chorus of Black Vultures it’s clear that the Grammy-winning Pennsylvanian four-piece Halestorm can bring them together.
The band exist happily in this middle ground, in fact, merging the clatter and smack of heavy riffs with sugary choruses, all helped along by Lzzy Hale’s seemingly endless vocal range. Tracks such as I Am the Fire and Vicious perfectly exemplify this fusion – the latter opening with a crunchy industrially charged thump reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails before bursting into a singalong chorus.
There are moments of showmanship via an elongated drum solo from brother Arejay Hale, and Lzzy Hale sometimes sings a cappella, allowing her voice to detonate as she shifts from almost Motown-esque melodic grace to gutsy, growling screams. During these moments it becomes clear how much the band is in service to her, moving around her dynamic presence as she spits out her potent vocal and guitar lines.
On the closing and fiery Killing Ourselves to Live, a solo-loaded eruption of guitars, pummelling drums and lung-collapsing vocals collide, although the returning encore of love song The Silence, which she performs acoustically while perched at the end of the stage, is a little soppy.
Towards the end of 90 minutes, the template begins to feel a little repetitive, but just as it does, Lzzy Hale once again unleashes a room-shaking screech during the intro to I Miss the Misery that powerfully reaffirms the fact that you can be a pop star and a metalhead.
• At O2 Apollo, Manchester, 26 September. Then touring until 29 September.
