Trivia fans, Ghosts of Atlantis played their first ever gig here at Bloodstock in 2021. They were promoted from the New Blood stage to Sophie Lancaster stage because of Covid casualties and they won an awful lot of friends with their anthemic Death Metal that is rich in melody and storytelling.
Read MoreThe death of Trevor Stnard was an utter tragedy. He was one of modern metal’s most erudite and colourful frontmen. There was no front or act here, what you got is what you saw, Trevor was a larger than life but also genuinely grounded. He didn’t pretend to be anything else, and he lived to be on stage. This is The Black Dahlia Murder second trip to this country since they returned to the fray with Brian Eschbach on vocals and Ron Knight back in their ranks.
Read MoreBloodstock 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 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 MoreWhilst our contributors have mainstays at Bloodstock for most of its history, ROCKFLESH itself has been a fixture on site since 2019. In that time we have seen a number of our band crushes elevate themselves up the slippery pole that is metal’s hierarchy. The aforementioned Cage Fight and Ghost of Atlantis both becoming a main stage draws as warmed the bowls of our charred black heart. But the promotion we are most excited about is Heriot’s mid berth main stage debut. We love Heriot and will eulogise to anyone that will listen how they are on the verge of something incredibly exciting.
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 MoreEmperor are quite simply The Beatles or Oasis of black metal bands. They are the alpha and the omega. Quite simply, they are the band that other bands are judged upon. Their first two albums, “In the Night Side Eclipse” and “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk” are considered to be the defining points of Nordic black metal. They may well be both celebrating, or about to celebrate, their 30th birthday...
Read MoreIt's raining. Not much rain, but it's still raining. Cauldron kick things off in the Sophie stage. Those who hope the name conjures up sword and sorcery inspired power metal will be bitterly disappointed. This is classic early-era metal core with an emphasis firmly on the core. Hailing from Birmingham they have gone for the nostalgia vote hard.
Read MoreThere is a wonderful sweet spot about the Saturday morning of a festival. You have been there enough time to bed in and become familiar with the surroundings, but it is all yet to become a slog. Also, there is the delicious realization that you still have two days to go. Ambrius have the honour of kicking off proceedings on the Sophie stage and prove to be an interesting and enticing mix of power and progressive metals.
Read More
