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Super Mega Big Review : Bloodstock Festival on August 7th 2025

Super Mega Big Review : Bloodstock Festival on August 7th 2025

The unprecedented and extraordinary early sell-out left Bloodstock 2025 with a rather interesting quandary. How does it accommodate thousands of new punters whilst simultaneously preserving the unique communal feel that has been its backbone for the last two decades? In the main the festival manages to pull it off. There are some hiccups: chairgate rumbles on and queuing to get in and out of the arena seemed habitual, but despite all that Bloodstock ’25 remains quintessentially the Bloodstock we know and love. Just with a lot more people.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas12 August 2025Bloodstock Open AirBloodstock, 2025, Bloodstock 2025, Me And That Man, All For Metal, Gnome, FourWayKill, Dead Flesh, Stewart Lucas, Ryan Hickson, Johann WierzbickiComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

And we reach numero uno. Our final must-watch. This one is special. This one is different. This one is personal. For the first time ever we have got real skin in the game. Yes, we have had bands that ROCKFLESH have championed play Bloodstock before, but this is the first time we have had a band we are intrinsically connected with play the festival and we cannot contain our excitement.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas6 August 2025Ogun, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

No matter what else it clashes with, you have to be in the main field for Orange Goblin. Not because they are a mainstay of British metal, not because they remain one of the finest and most authentic live acts out there and not because they are genuinely nice people. You need to be here because this is it.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas5 August 2025Orange Goblin, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

I am going to get personal here. It was on these very fields of Bloodstock that I first discovered and heard Gojira. It was back in 2010 and my second visit to Catton Hall. Sunday was awash with riches, including the gruesome delights of GWAR and the death metal supergroup that is Bloodbath. I was devouring it all and becoming one with the metal.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas4 August 2025Gojira, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock have rather pulled off a coup by crowning their majestic 2025 line-up with arguably the two most interesting bands in modern metal. We will pontificate about Gojira in due course, but for now let us lyrically gesticulate on the wonder that is Mastodon.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas3 August 2025Mastodon, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Frayle are low-key and haunting. They produce metal that is doused with fragile vulnerability and ethereal refrains. They prove that you don’t need to be heavy to have weight and mass. There is a minimal maudlin nature to their sound.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas2 August 2025Frayle, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Kataklysm are death metal’s forgotten pioneers. Whilst they are not spoken about the same level of awe as death metal's founding fathers, there are still an incredibly influential outfit. They have been doing what they do since 1991 and any band that gets technical and intricate with death metal owes them a debt of gratitude.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas1 August 2025Kataklysm, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

The only disappointment about this year’s Bloodstock offering in a veritable sea of goodness, is the lack of any real discernible power metal. All for Metal aside, the trad trappings of these long-standing Canadians are as good as we are going to get.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas31 July 20253 Inches Of Blood, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

So “that man” is none other than Behemoth’s enigmatic leader Nergal. This is his Nick Cave obsessed side project that keeps him busy when he is not singing odes to old nick and annoying the hell out of the Polish state church. This is country and blues via the fevered imagination of a metal icon.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas30 July 2025Me And That Man, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Whilst it may seem to many that Kublai Khan TX have appeared from nowhere, their overnight success story has actually been rather a slow burner. Last year's breakthrough record “Exhibition of Prowess” is album number five in their discography, and they have spent 16 years diligently learning their craft and painstakingly crawling up bills.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas28 July 2025Kublai Khan TX, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock have been exceedingly good at reading the room and discerning who the in-names are when it comes to metal. Warbringer have been steadily building a rather impressive following over the last few years and it feels inevitable that they would finally end up at the hallowed ground of Catton Hall.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas27 July 2025Warbringer, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Machine “fuckin” head. The real frikin deal. A reliable constant that reminds us the metal is a rallying cry for the indisposed and unfranchised. Machine Head are the people’s champion. They are so entwined with modern metal that you can align the genre’s development over the last three decades with the evolution of Robb Flynn’s crew.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas26 July 2025Machine Head, Bloodstock, 2025, FestivalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas25 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirGhost Of Atlantis, Bloodstock, Festival, 2025, Symphonic Death MetalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

The 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas24 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirThe Black Dahlia Murder, Bloodstock, 2025, Festiv, Death MetalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas23 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirFamyne, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, Doom MetalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Do 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas22 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirPaleface Swiss, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, DeathcoreComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Death 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas21 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirUndeath, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, Death MetalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Everyone 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas20 July 2025Bloodstock Open AirObituary, Bloodstock, 2025, Festival, Death MetalComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Ten 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas19 July 2025Trivium, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

We 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.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas18 July 2025Turin, Bloodstock, 2025, Stewart LucasComment