Buried away at the foot of Friday’s schedule is one of the finest purveyors of classic rock that you will come across. Haxan are another trio that proves that a threesome is always more fun.
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A modern criticism of Bloodstock is where is the power metal? Well in the shape of Unleash the Archers and Beast in Black it is well and truly in the house. Choruses you could house the royal airforce on? Check. Keyboard flourishes that would make Liberarchie question the level of decadence? Check. Obsessions with fantasy and a tendency to hit the dressing up box hard? Check.
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So what is progressive power metal? It is when you dial down the emotion and dial up the emotion. Evergrey are kings of this particular sub-genre and have carved a long and illustrious career creating complex melodic music that simultaneously manages to be accessible and structurally challenging.
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What better way to end the weekend than with authentic Nordic death metal royalty. Formed in 1991 by mainstay duo Satyr and Frost, they have managed to avoid the controversy that has dogged their peers. They have achieved this by concentrating on the music instead of the gimmicks surrounding it.
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In the mind’s eye, a one-man band is Bert from Mary Poppins with a Bass Drum on his back and two cymbals tied to his thighs. However Hellripper are a one man band and that man is Aberdeen wonderkid James McBain. Last year’s “Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags” was an extraordinary record.
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RADAR Festival 2024 at the O2 Victoria Warehouse is a vibrant and diverse showcase of progressive and alternative metal/rock acts, featuring both established names and rising stars in the genre. The festival not only covers progressive/technical metal and rock though, it also pushes those boundaries and often breaks them with genre-spanning and unexpected acts that positively challenge the way we look at music and performance.
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If you played every record ever made simultaneously, it still wouldn’t light a candle to the eclectic bonkerness that is French innovator Gautier Serre. Igorrr circumnavigates every genre that you think of, but resolutely fit in none.
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RADAR Festival 2024 at the O2 Victoria Warehouse is a vibrant and diverse showcase of progressive and alternative metal/rock acts, featuring both established names and rising stars in the genre. The festival not only covers progressive/technical metal and rock though, it also pushes those boundaries and often breaks them with genre-spanning and unexpected acts that positively challenge the way we look at music and performance. Much like we saw with Tech-Fest UK, at the heart of RADAR is that sense of building a genuine community.
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When I first started attending Bloodstock Open Air in the late noughties, its USP re headliners was to give us continental big hitters that, in any other circumstance would not command a large stage in this cottage. So we had Children of Bodom, Immortal, Behemoth (who were still a relatively small concern in those days) and Emperor bewitch us with headliner extravagances when their pulling power on raiiny Tuesday in Stoke was no more than 500 people.
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The normal trajectory for a folk metal band is to start with metal and then drift towards folk. Korpiklanni turned that on its head. In the late 90s, they were a Sami folk music collective playing the guttural sounds of the indigenous Finnish people.
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Comedy metal has become a complex and multi-versed beast. There is the Python-esque absurdity of Evil Scarecrow, There is the Benny Hill revivalist movement that is Steel Panther (“look tits he he he he) and there is the children's birthday party in hell vibe of Party Cannon. Raised by owls are not taking the piss, they are far more astute than that.
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Now Celtic punk mainstays, Flogging Molly may well seem a little bit of a left of centre choice. But that's before you realise that lead vocalist and founder Dave King used to ply his trade in Fastway, what Fast Eddie did next after Lemmy kicked him out of Motorhead.
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There are those who say the number 13 is unlucky, well it ain't here as it's giving you the eventual appearance of the much touted Clutch. They have sat at the top of the Bloodstock wish list for over a decade. It might have taken a while to get them onto the site but believe me it will be worth it.
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There is death metal, there is technical ornate death metal and then there is Septicflesh. I talk a lot about stripped-down minimalistic death metal and the joy that is hurtling noise with all the trappings removed. Well Septicflesh are the complete opposite of that.
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When their special guest slot was announced at last year's festival, having Malevolence in such a prestigious position felt like an enormous gamble. 12 months on, it makes complete sense. There is so much traction about them at the present moment, that it now feels inevitable that they will be the first extreme metal band to break out of the underground and into arenas since Slipknot.
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I love Wolf because they are European metal incarnate. They have been doing this for coming up to 30 years and they have never compromised and never changed. Fads have come and fads have gone but Wolf’s commitment to pure heavy metal has never changed.
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Soen make beautiful music. They have moved far beyond their position as a super group and have carved themselves a place as sumptuous purveyors of intricate and heart-wrenching progressive metal. They make music that talks to the soul. It is full of pathos and wrought emotions.
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The evolution and ascension of Whitechapel has been simply astonishing. 2016’s “Mark of the Blade” gave us an inclining that there was more to them then just guttural unrefined deathcore, but it was 2019’s deeply personal “The Valley” that saw them really transcend.
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Let’s kick out one of the big guns to keep you all interested. Amon Amarth have assumed Iron Maiden’s mantle of predictability entertaining. On the Sunday night we know what we will be getting. There will be fire, there will props, there will be an elaborate stage set and there will be more whoo-hoos than you can shake a stick at.
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There is something quintessentially classy about a three-piece. Everything is stripped back. There is no room for excess, instead you get pure unadulterated and unrefined beauty. There is no room to hide so what happens is that musical brilliance is able to rise to the top.
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