God, us metalheads can be a conservative with a small c lot. "Oh that's not Metal, they have short hair and I don't like them and how dare Bloodstock book someone different". Yes, the outcry that meet Parkway Drive's addition as Saturday headliner was deafening and also quite perplexing. They are heavy as fuck; they create catchy, crunching tracks you can tall along with and they have fire.
Read MoreA world wide mega hit can be as much a curse as it is a blessing (just ask Europe). This is especially so when it occurs twenty five years into a rich and diverse carrier. ‘Winds of Change’ may have made a household name out of Scorpions, but it unfairly casts a looming shadow over fifty five years of tireless rocking. It's also (Winds of Change) dull and, to be brutally honest, a bit shit.
Read MoreSabaton are probably the most deserving headliner Bloodstock have ever had. They have earned their spot by hard work alone, as over a decade they have slowly but surely made their way up the bill. Ten years ago, in 2009, they were second band on, in 2013 they were a highly entertaining third from top and in 2015 as special guests they literally blew headliner Trivium away. I say literally as they brought a ruddy tank with them.
Read MoreVery few artists have managed to go from young buck to elder statesmen with the good grace, good humour and integrity that Dee snider. Like a true renaissance man he has tried his hand at everything. Broadway, check! Christmas album, check! Reality TV, check! And now full throat Heavy Metal. You see, the late lamented Twisted Sister were never Metal.
Read MoreThe truth of the matter is that Alexi Lahio is a genius that simply doesn’t get the plaudits he deserves and, along with the awesome talents of fellow band members Daniel, Janne, Jaska and Henkka, extreme melodic death metallers, Children of Bodom are clearly one of my must see bands of this year’s Bloodstock. They deliver a precise, engaging and entertaining Metal show that feels as much like a party as a gig. Now, that’s the sort of endorsement that you’d normally see aligned to a pop-punk or party-metal band not a melodic Death Metal band, but that’s what makes Children of Bodom so unique and must-see.
Read MoreSoilwork have been plying their trade since 1996, and much of what we see in modern bands can be attributed to these Swedish metallers. They themselves deliver almost perfect melodic death metal; originally utilising clean vocals and piano parts at a time when it wasn’t commonplace within the genre.
Read MoreBloodstock used to be a bit of a cult concern. Its niche was European Metal bands that never usually never came to the UK. However around seven pm on August 10th 2012 that all changed and Bloodstock announced itself as a mainstream event. This was the moment that they announced Anthrax as a special guest for the next year’s festival. Not headliner, but special guest.
Read MoreEver since they dropped initial singles ‘Thumper’ and ‘The Gush’ in the early noughties, I’ve been a massive Raging Speedhorn fan. On record they pound and drive their way through riff-laden groove metal like a juggernaut.
Read MoreThis year’s “When a Shadow Is Forced into the Light” is an astonishingly raw and personnel record. It deals directly with lost and heartbreak and describes in intricate detail the different emotions that guitarist Juha Raivio's went through on losing his partner, the singer Aleah Stanbridge, to cancer.
Read MoreTrue Norwegian Black Metal does not get more theatrical and symphonic than Shagrath and his compatriots. This is big, bold and just so over the top. They have breathed life, vim, vigour and high camp into a musical form that used to be dense and insular. There is nothing tight nor claustrophobic here. Every is larger than life and filled with sweeping orchestration.
Read MoreYou never forget your first love. In the spring of 1988 I got my first Saturday job and suddenly I had something new and exciting in my life. Disposable income. Each Wednesday, I could carefully scan the review pages of Kerrang! and decide what piece of vinyl I would spend my £5.99. If it got 5K’s I would go and buy it after school the following Monday (the day albums should come out, none of this Friday bollocks). I bought some good (Voivoid, Faith No More and King's X all spring to mind) and I bought some utter drivel (Judas Priest’s “Ram it Down” (which is singularly the worst album they have made) and Frehley’s Comet’s Second Coming both get the award for being utter pieces of drivel).
Read MoreSo, I’ll come clean now and admit that I’ve never seen Evil Scarecrow live, but with that in mind I’m definitely going to watch them at Bloodstock. Why is that, I hear you ask? Well, they seem to be very much a marmite band and I truly believe that with these kinds of things you should take the bold step and try the experience for yourself before making a judgement.
Read MoreOne of the first bands on the Sophie Lancaster stage for Sunday are Londoners Harbinger. If you like your Metal heavy (and I mean HEAVY), fast and technical then this band are for you. They’ve toured with some of my favourite UK tech-metal bands including Heart of a Coward, Ingested, Loathe and Monuments, and have secured themselves as Tech-Fest favourites.
Read MoreDeath Metal is a bit like whiskey. Yes it's interesting if you mix it with other things but it's at its best neat, unfiltered and unrefined. Thy Art is Murder are as brutal as you are going to get without resorting to hitting yourself over the head with a sledgehammer. Their take on Death Metal is all about speed, power and vulgarity.
Read MorePicture the scene!
Tolmin, Slovenia. Metaldays. 2018.
Its been 28/29 degrees Celsius allllllll day.
I'm a bit fat and I'm dying in the heat. I've also been on my own with my 9 year old daughter, who has lost interest in the Metal festival because her favourite band played on the first day (the kids top picks are Alestorm, Ghost and Rammstein).
We're waiting for Soulfly when the child starts dry wretching.
Read MoreAlmost 12 years ago, I first saw Cancer Bats start their journey when I was doing gig reviews in Leeds. I remember the fresh-faced lads striding onto stage and bludgeoning my ears with what I then described ‘the future of punk metal’. Fast forward to now and they’ve carved a very successful career and fanatically loyal fanbase.
Read MoreThe palmarés for Def Con One is an impressive one with Download, Hammerfest, HRH Metal, Beermageddon and previous Bloodstock performances under their belt – and that’s not even the full list! You wouldn’t expect anything less from a band formed back in 1997 by former Venom drummer Antton Lant.
The Thursday night headliner used to be some tin pot no name act that the organisers paid in beer. However, over the last few years, they have become more ambitious and the Thursday line up has become an integral part of the whole weekend. This year, they have surpassed themselves with Greek Black Metal overlords Rotting Christ. This is no filler outfit designed to keep us busy while they hide the campsite bins, Rotting Christ are bona fide legends who would easily score a high placed main stage slot.
Read MoreFifteen years together as a band might drive some mad, but what it’s instead done for Incite is ensure that their relevance has transcended sub-genres, fads and time-dependent appeal. They’ve somehow remained as close to the term ‘Modern Metal’ as most get, and continue to delight both new and old metallers alike, irrelevant of what line-up they find themselves on.
Read MoreThey are techy. They are proggy. They are djenty. And they are on the main stage!!! The UK’s very own TesseracT are getting ready to storm Bloodstock on the Friday!!!
One of my festival top picks goes to this band simply because they are amazing at what they do.
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