Bloodstock promotes from within. It looks after its own, and it believes that it has a central role to play in invigorating the scene that it relies upon. Famyne are band that has grown with Bloodstock. They appeared in the new Blood stage in 2016 as winners of the legendary Metal to Masses competition. They returned on the Sophie Lancaster in 2021 as part of the elongated post-covid offer and now they have made it onto the main stage.
Read MoreDo you want to know the true reason as to why the tickets for this year's Bloodstock have flown out like hot cakes laced with LSD? Most will reason it is the unholy trinity of Trivium, Machine Head, and Gojira, but here at ROCKFLESH Towers we have another theory. You see we think it is the undercard that has caught the public’s imagination and most importantly the inclusion of Paleface Swiss and Kublai Khan. Metal is changing, contorting and evolving. These are its new champions.
Read MoreDeath Metal is going through rather a purple patch, or forgive the pun, an evocative re-birth. Its reanimation (I’m on a roll now) is being led by youngsters whose parents probably weren’t even about when pissed off teenagers from Florida decided that thrash wasn’t going far enough and they wanted a noise of their own that was even nastier….. Death Metal has had so many iterations and derivatives, that for many of us felt it was becoming in danger of losing its core essence.
Read MoreEveryone loves Obituary. They are the unifier of the tribes when it comes to metal. You can be a devotee to the alters of Death, Black, Trad, core or even Power, and you will have a soft spot for these Floridian veterans. They have been producing simple but putrefying powerful metal since the mid-eighties.
Read MoreTen years after their last Bloodstock headline excursion, Matt Heafy and his boys are back. It has been a bumpy ascension but there is nobody who would deny that Trivium now dine at metal’s top table. Their “The Poisoned Ascendancy” tour with Bullet for My Valentine earlier on in the year was a massive success and saw them graduate to finally being an arena band.
Read MoreWe have written about these cheshire lads quite a lot over the last eight years, mostly when they were still going by the extend This Is Turin. Well they have dropped the superfluous extra words and honed their sound so it is darker and more insular and claustrophic. They have also managed to release a rather spiffing second long player “The Unforgiving Reality in Nothing” which saw them play with multiple genres including black, death and various flavours of core.
Read MoreSunday dawns bright and sunny which means Asomvel kick off proceedings with beaming smiles beneath their Lemmy-like beards. In fact everything about them is Lemmy-like. If ever there was a tribute band who aren’t actually a tribute band then that band is Asomvel and the band they are emulating is of course Motörhead.
Read MoreHave you ever looked at something, a gig, a festival, and thought “that looks good, but maybe it’s a bit out of reach?” Time To Rock Festival was formed by a couple of the ex-directors of Sweden Rock some 19 years ago. They felt, even back then, that Sweden Rock was just too damn big so they formed their own, smaller, more intimate affair. Known as Helge A Festival for 15 years (named for the river that runs along the boundary of the site) they became Time To Rock in 2022 and set about bringing some pretty decent names in music to this small corner of southern Sweden. They bill themselves as “Sweden’s cosiest festival” and having been there now I understand why.
Read MoreIt is really interesting to observe how tastes change. Fear Factory have already done “Demanufacture” in full at Bloodstock back in 2016 and the reaction was a best lukewarm. There was a gathering of over excited fanboys and girls gathered up front screaming out every lyric (including your esteemed correspondent).
Read MorePutting Nailbomb in the tented venue seems to be a concerted effort to see how many people you can get in the venue before it bursts its seams. Nailbomb will bring all the boys to the yard for two reasons. One its Max Cavalera and we all love Max. He is Metal’s affable slightly eccentric great-uncle that no one has a bad word about. But secondly its Nail – frickin – bomb.
Read MoreCage Fight are a particular fav at ROCKFLESH towers. They play it hard and they play it heavy. This is prickly, corrosive modern metal. It brims with agitated energy and is angry as hell. The riffs are angular and dripping with attitude. Leading their hyperactive dispatches on the ills of the world is Rachel Aspe. A Duracell bunny on speed with venomous growls. This is social commentary for ...
Read MoreCreeper are storytellers and world builders. They have taken the vision of Jim Steinman and transferred it an alternative modern world where vampire ride motorbikes and creatures of the night rule the land. This is teenage angst with bold choruses and technicolour back stories. They inhabit a world with no musical boundaries. It is free for all of emo, soft rock, goth and rock-a-billy...
Read MoreMetal is ludicrous. It is over the top and it is lacking any sense of irony. If we wanted reality we would go listen to dour folk or urban grime. We crave escapism, an audio distraction from all the woes and wearies of modern life. Metal provides that portal into a reality where we are united and not divided. It is a genre that lets you be what you want to be as opposed to who you are...
Read MoreMy favourite first date conversation is what is the greatest thrash act outside of the big four (you can tell I am a bit a catch). During appetisers the conversation usually darts around Testament, Exodus, Nuclear Assault and Sacred Reich. During the mains there is always a debate about Death or Dark Angel and as desert is served I make a leftfield pitch for the British contingent of Onslaught ...
Read MoreThe thing about goth in the eighties is that it embraced pop. The Cure, The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy all made cracking pop songs that, were (whisper it) joyous and fun. When doom merged with pop to begot Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and a hundred copycats it forgot that need for unreserved joyfulness. This is a direct reaction to all that dour melancholy. This happy euphoric goth fronted …
Read MoreFor all those who proclaim that death metal all sounds the same, I give you Rivers of Nihil, the progressive avant-garde death metal outfit bringing something different to the genre. And that something different is sax. Forget all your presumptions and perceptions, the saxophone is indeed a metal instrument and gives Rivers of Nihil an astonishing extra dimension of texture and cohesion. It sounds wrong buy believe us it feels so right.
Read MoreThe final day of RADAR Festival 2025 kicks off with serious momentum as Waterlines launch into their set with enough energy to shake off any lingering festival fatigue. From the first note, they’re firing on all cylinders - tight, explosive, and clearly here to make a statement. Frontman Benji Mars is magnetic, effortlessly switching between razor-sharp cleans and thunderous gutturals, all ...
Read MoreSaturday morning of RADAR Festival 2025 begins with a surprise opener in the form of Break Fifty, who launch into their set like they’ve been fixtures on the bill all along. There’s a gritty, raw energy to them - very much a DIY take on Graphic Nature, with that Pitchshifter, industrial-sounding drumming and vocals reminiscent of Feed The Rhino’s more feral moments. Slamming breakdowns and sudden tempo dives give it a Knocked Loose punch, and there’s more than a nod to Heart of a Coward’s dense metallic sheen. Just a standard four-piece, no gimmicks and it absolutely works.
Read MoreFriday at RADAR Festival 2025 begins in suitably unhinged fashion with openers on the second SNEAK stage Mother Vulture. Their chaotic, hair-whipping, guitar-slinging madness sets the bar absurdly high right out the gate. Their vocalist hits some glass-shattering banshee-like highs, but there’s gravely harshness too - scraping and snarling in all the right ways. It’s like The Fall of Troy jamming with Counting Crows during a Royal Blood soundcheck, and somehow it all just works. Wild, theatrical, and very, very fun.
Read MoreSunday is an early start too, but the weather is not on our side today. The sunshine is gone, the clouds are lowering and it’s not only windy but bloody cold to boot! Oh well, hoody and a woolly hat it is to see the day started by Spyder Byte.
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