Thursday

So, here we are again. Another year, another Bloodstock Open Air, another pilgrimage to the hallowed turf of Catton Hall. This time, however, things feel a little different. Perhaps it’s because the festival sold out in record time, thus creating a palpable sense of relief among many of the fans. Maybe it’s because people could arrive a day early, or because there have been several changes made within the arena itself. 

The first noticeable positive change is the absence of fairground rides, which means no more audio clashes with the Sophie Lancaster Tent. In fact, the Sophie stage now has two large video screens, one either side of the stage, that ensure everyone gets a good view no matter where you are.

 

Further into the arena, there are now two disabled platforms plus a tiered seating area for about fifty people. A clampdown on camping chairs is another improvement but while there is a notable decrease in number, as the weekend goes on, more make their way slyly into the arena, drawing warnings from the organisers about a total ban.

After a heated argument with my tent and a brief perusal of the arena (as a nice touch, the Ronnie James Dio Stage is blasting Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” with pictures of the great man across its three big screens), it’s time for Dead Flesh to get things rolling, the Hertfordshire Deathcore mob doing a great job in whipping up the crowd before groove metal veterans FourWayKill mop up any survivors with massive riffs and a belting cover of Motörhead classic “Iron Fist.”

For many years, Bloodstock has had daily themes. Pink days, dinosaur days, superhero days etc. Well, today appears to be pointy hats day. Why? That’ll be down to Belgian stoner trio Gnome then. Wearing the aforementioned headgear, the band take the stage to rapturous applause from many like-minded Phrygian-capped individuals, blasting through a set featuring “Old Soul,” “Wenceslas” and fan favourite “Ambrosius.”

After the gnomes have retreated to the safety of their woodland burrows, the Sophie stage is filled with the sound of True Metal and the smell of leather and baby oil. German/Italian act All For Metal worship at the altar of Manowar and don’t care who knows it. Drummer Leif Jensen and guitarist Ursula Zanichelli are the only two members of the band to actually remain on the stage while the rest of the band leap down and run alongside the barrier at every chance. Masked bassist Florian Toma spins around like a dog on speed chasing its tail while vocalists Tim “Tetzel” Schmidt and Antonio Calanna are happy showing off their muscles. Second guitarist Jasmin Pabst is leaving the band straight after the tour concludes, but is clearly making the most of her remaining time, giving songs like “Goddess of War,” “Raise Your Hammer” and “Born in Valhalla” some serious energy and just as many interesting facial expressions.

As far removed from the previous act as you can get, the evening belongs to Country/Folk/Gothic Blues headliners Me and That Man. A combination of Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen with maybe a splash of Iggy Pop, Behemoth frontman Nergal (minus corpse-paint but plus a natty-looking black outfit and matching fedora) gets the audience moving in a very different way. 

Whether it’s the slow and sleazy crawl of “My Church is Black” or “Nightride,” the Nick Cave style “Burning Churches” or the uptempo stomp of “Run With the Devil” and “Love and Death,” Nergal and co. have the audience in the palm of their hand. A tribute to Ozzy in the shape of “Paranoid” sits alongside the Cohen-esque “Under the Spell” and Roky Erickson cover “White Faces” just as much as the sing-along chorus of “Blues and Cocaine.” It might not be what some people expected, but much like Skynd a couple of years ago, this goes down as another unexpected triumph for an opening night at Bloodstock. 

 

Friday

After the cries of “bring out your dead!” subside, the first thing many people notice on Friday morning is the addition of a brand new queue. The food stalls and toilets always attract a long line, but this time there’s something new. A slowly moving procession that stretches back from the arena entrance all the way through the entire length of Midgard to the entrance of Hel. The reason for this is security, basically. Everyone is having their bags checked before entering. A reasonable enough request, but one that unfortunately means many people are left missing bands.

Opposite the RockFit area where early rising masochists are doing metal aerobics, South Wales act Ofnus are doing a damn good job of getting rid of the cobwebs with their brand of atmospheric, melodic black metal. A great performance and an act to watch out for in the future, to be sure.

After the quite brilliant Shrapnel smash it on the main stage, it’s time to visit the merch stand. Thursday had already seen queues a mile long, but this is nothing compared to today. So, after giving up and turning my attention back to the main stage, Canterbury doomsters Famyne bring a Black Sabbath vibe to proceedings, songs like “Tower,” “Solid Earth” and “Dreamweaver” grabbing the imaginations of many while Lock Horns deliver heavy as fuck Irish prog metal to the Sophie tent with brutal precision. The doom continues on the main stage with Danish act Konvent, singer Rikke Emilie List somehow managing to produce huge roars while barely even opening her mouth.

Arizona thrash veterans Flotsam and Jetsam are up next, and despite a few mic issues, it’s clear that singer Eric “A.K.” Knutson still has what it takes. The last time Flotsam played Bloodstock, it was very much a nostalgia trip, but this time it’s different, newer songs like “A New Kind of Hero” and “Brace for Impact” sitting comfortably alongside the likes of “I Live, You Die,” “Hammerhead,” and “Dreams of Death.”

 

Whether you like Deathcore or not, it’s undeniable that Paleface Swiss produce the biggest pit of the day by some distance. Containing more breakdowns than a psychiatrist’s office, the band get a massive circle pit in response, while over on the Sophie stage, Finnish death/black/industrialists Shade Empire are getting the same response, albeit on a smaller scale. 

Fronted by the newly shorn Ben Ward, Londoners Orange Goblin are on the last touring cycle of their career, with Bloodstock their final UK festival before coming back for one last hurrah at the end of the year. Opening with “Solarisphere,” “Scorpionica” and the mighty “Saruman’s Wish,” the crowd completely lose their minds to “The Filthy & the Few,” “Made of Rats” and “(Not) Rocket Science” before the show eventually climaxes with “Red Tide Rising.” Something tells me there aren’t going to be many tickets left in December.

Moving swiftly across the field, melodic Prog act VMBRA play surely one of the best sets of the weekend on the New Blood Stage. Winners of the Manchester Metal 2 The Masses competition, vocals are shared between main singer Ai Sánchez, guitarist Jack, and drummer, Pete, while the enjoyment is shared between literally everyone else in the tent. 

Italian Alt-Goth crew Lacuna Coil avoid playing a nostalgia show by including five songs from their latest album. A nice move although it’s clear that “Heaven’s a Lie” and Depeche Mode cover “Enjoy the Silence” are still their most popular tracks. Dressed entirely in white (and with half his face painted the same) High Parasite frontman Aaron Stainthorpe looks quite a sight. Boasting monster riffs, catchy choruses, and fierce vocals, the new project from the former My Dying Bride frontman impresses everyone in the Sophie tent on songs such as “Parasite,” “Let it Fail,” and “Cold.”

 

It’s no surprise that towards the end of High Parasite, the Sophie tent becomes a little more packed than it was at the start. Half an hour later, and it’s absolutely rammed. Want to swing a cat? Go elsewhere, there’s barely room to swing an ant in here. The reason for this sudden swelling (both inside and out) is a certain Max Cavalera and his short-lived ’90s industrial metal act Nailbomb.

 

With co-founder Alex Newport not a part of the venture, it’s up to Max’s son Igor Cavalera Jr. to replace him, and he does so with adrenaline and aggression. It’s been thirty years since Nailbomb played their only two shows, and so many people (myself included) never got to see them. To say the crowd is excited might just be the understatement of the year. The intro tape from A Clockwork Orange has barely ended before the first crowdsurfers appear. And they do not stop. From “Wasting Away,” “Vai toma no cú,” “Guerrillas” and “24 Hour Bullshit” to “Blind and Lost,” “Sum of Your Achievements,” “Cockroaches”and “World of Shit,” the tent is absolute chaos. Arms, legs, heads, everything everywhere all at once. Adding “Religious Cancer,” “Shit Piñata” and “Sick Life” to covers of Dead Kennedys “Police Truck” and Doom‘s “Exploitation” sends the feral crowd even further over the edge. Absolute and unrelenting pandemonium.

Heading back to the main stage for the evening’s headliners seems a bit anticlimactic after this but Trivium have something special up their sleeves. Surprising much of the audience, the band put together one of the best, most explosive, and fun shows of the weekend. After “Rain” and a monstrous “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr,” the band go for broke with “Like Light to the Flies,” “Catastrophist” and “Until the World Goes Cold.” But from then on, you just don’t know what to expect. You certainly don’t expect Machine Head frontman and walking beard Robb Flynn to join Matt Heafy for a tribute to Ozzy, playing Black Sabbath’s “Symptom of the Universe.”

Sleep Token bassist III plays on ‘Throes of Perdition’ before the band continue with Metallica classic “Master of Puppets.” After “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation” and “Strife,” we get a live debut of “Bury Me With My Screams,” and “Capsizing the Sea” before Emperor frontman Ihsahn joins for “In Waves.” Malevolence guitarist Josh Baines guests on “The Deceived” before the band conclude with “The Heart From Your Hate,” “Down From the Sky” and an almighty “The Sin and the Sentence.” You could argue that for a maximum party atmosphere, “Anthem (We Are The Fire)” could have been included, but that might have just resulted in casualties.

Kataklysm finish off the night in the Sophie tent, vocalist Maurizio Iacono roaring his way through the likes of “Goliath,” “Narcissist,” “As I Slither” and recent single “The Rabbit Hole.” People previously looking exhausted suddenly find energy resources they never knew they had and the pit becomes a seething mass of body parts and crowd surfers one last time. An adrenaline-fuelled end to a hell of a day.

 

Part 2 coming soon: 

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WORDS BY GARY ALCOCK
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PHOTOS BY WILLIAM MAWDSLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
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