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 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.
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 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.
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