With that is Sunday, the weekend has flown past and we are in the final furlong. But what fantastic final furlong it is. Apathy UK are anything but apathetic. They are incredibly young, vigilantly angry and astonishingly well versed in their instruments. They boil with righteous indignity, and they prove to be highly competent in screaming at the injustices of this world.
Read MoreThis weekend is blessed by the Norse gods of weather and crowd size. Because of the sold-out nature of the event, no bands play to poor attendance. Ofnus kick off in the Sophie Lancaster at the very un-rock and roll time of 10.30 and attract an impressively vocal bunch of inquisitive souls. They trade in atmospheric black metal, and there it is all very cinematic and anthemic.
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 just like that it is Sunday and the big yellow ball of heat in the sky is doing its best job to burn us all to buggery. It's 2022 all over again, including those joyful yelps from the crowd when any cloud cover is forthcoming. Needless to say everything is all a little more laid back today as a collective lethargy emerges from the heat.
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 MoreIn years to come, 2024 will be known as the year Bloodstock came of age. It's previously spacious set up for the first time ever feels consistently busy. The step up to a stable and constant 20,000 capacity feels very obvious in the sheer amount of people around the place at any given point, but it is still dealt with with Bloodstock’s usual level of finesse and honesty. This was the year that Bloodstock no longer felt like a small concern.
Read MoreAnd just like that it’s Sunday and that great stretch of metal that was laid out before us, has now just shrunk to a single day. But what a single day and how many blooming people have turned up to join us! From the get-go, the place is heaving and it feels very obvious that the site has reached its 25,000 cap.
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 MoreAnd before we know it, we are straight into the first full day of festivities. The sun is up and blazing away though the plentiful cloud cover, this means it never becomes as inhospitable as last year. Bloodstock has always been about early starts and Lancastrian death metallers’ Bloodyard have pulled the short straw and are first out of the traps at the ungodly hour of 10:30 am.
Read MoreBy Mjolnir the mighty hammer of Thor I am out of my depth here! Due to other commitments I am only able to do the one day at Hard Rock Hell’s annual beard and helmet fest, and I have no idea what to expect. I mean it’s (supposed to be) Scandi-rock Jim, but not as I know it…… only of course it’s not. This is a rollover from 2020 and due to the dreaded ‘rona the line-up looks very different from the one originally booked. It’s all UK bands and I have no idea if they fit with the Viking theme as I’m a fish out of water here – I only know two of the bands playing. So let’s just play it by ear and see what happens right?
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