Yep we are not going away till we have drunk all your beer and unapologetically overhyped the bands we are really excited about at this years Bloodstock Festival.
Four stages of the best metal on the planet, what isn’t there to get unhealthily excited about? And here we go with another recommendation – No 15 incoming….
Read MoreAnother rotation of the sun and another entry into are indomitable run down of the bands that you need to leave the Lemmy bar for. These are the ones you need to set an alarm on your smart watch for, these are the ones you will feel pretty stupid if you find yourself missing. And of course look out for your ROCKFLESH boys as well. Our Stewart on the access platform beating his stick like Yoda ...
Read MoreAh there you are. What took you? We have another entry in our astonishingly diverse list of the bands you need to be boring your campsite mates about as you struggle to put up your tent. This time around we've got you a Doozer. A UK debut by a legendary act. By unpopular demand Vicki has finally managed to get this bunch of German retrobates over the border into our lives. So we give you.
Read MoreAnother day and another entry into our countdown of the bands that those of you lucky enough to be a Bloodstock need to see. As I'm sure you're all aware we, here at ROCKFLESH Towers are as much fans as we are media (un) professionals. So this list isn't some PR approved love in, its genuinely the bands we are really excited about seeing. Let’s have another one.
Read MoreOk ok, let’s have another piece of metallic goodness as we here at ROCKFLESH Towers hype you up in advance of the 25th edition of Bloodstock. Rockflesh.com will be there all weekend reviewing every band on the Ronnie James Dio and Sophie stages and interviewing number of your and our heroes. A good proportion of our team will also be in fancy dress and more about that later in another edition ...
Read MoreIt's now so near that you can smell it. After this weekend you have only two more to get through before it is our beloved Bloodstock. So our unconventional conventionalists, it is time to regale you with another of ROCKFLESH’s bands you need to see. If anyone now deserves the slot at this year's festival it is this lot.
Read MoreThe days are creeping nearer to the big B, O and A. So let's give you another one of the ROCKFLESH crew’s ones to watch. Today it's all about the might, majesty and magic of old school death metal.
Read MoreHere we go. Our third bloodstock one to watch. This one continues Bloodstock’s heartfelt tradition of presenting us with bands we never thought we would ever see live again.
Read MoreSo lets have our second entry in the bands our team at ROCKFLESH think you should see and lets give you the first of your FOUR main stage headliners (four count them daddy-o)
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreAnd 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.
Read MoreNo 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.
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreBloodstock 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.
Read MoreFrayle 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.
Read MoreKataklysm 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreSo “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.
Read MoreWhilst 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.
Read MoreBloodstock 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.
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