Metal Queen Marta Gabriel made Tokyo go wild
Crystal Viper’s Marta Gabriel proved that she is a world-class performer with her solo shows in Japan.
Marta Gabriel at Holiday, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan on 17th May 2025
When heavy metal band Crystal Viper from Poland had to cancel the band’s planned Japan shows due to a member’s unfortunate injury, someone came up with the idea that the band’s lead singer Marta Gabriel should do the Tokyo shows as a solo artist.
Marta usually combines singing with playing guitar or bass. But for these special Japan gigs, Marta focused on singing lead vocals. Backed up by locally-based musicians, including Japanese guitar wizard Jien Takahashi, Marta performed a high-energy heavy metal show.
to the audience’s delight, she started the show with four terrific Crystal Viper songs – “Still Alive”, “Bright Lights”, “When the Sun Goes Down” and “The Silver Key”. Marta not only has a powerful metal voice, but she also knows how to entertain and engage an audience. It was pure bliss watching her perform. She is indeed a metal queen.
The bulk of the setlist this evening was made up of songs from “Metal Queens”, Marta’s album of covers from 2021, which consisted of 1980s heavy metal songs by acts such as Rock Goddess, Warlock, Wendy O. Williams and Lee Aaron. Standout tracks from this section of the show were “Max Overload”, “Rebel Ladies”, “My Angel”, “Mr Gold” and “Goin’ Wild” as well as a splendid version of Lee Aaron’s “Metal Queen”.
The final stretch of the show was pure gold. A cover of Scorpions’ “Sails of Charon” was followed by “Infinite Visions”, a song by Jien Takahashi’s band Majustice. The show closed with “Warriors Ride on the Chariots”, originally by Japanese band Metalucifer with Ginoir (Metalucifer, Sabbat) guesting on guitar. This was a nice tip of the hat to Marta being a live member of Metalucifer (filling in as bassist) during the band’s European tour in May and June.
