SATURDAY:

After I visit the bust of Lemmy in the RAM Gallery, Brazilian death metallers Crypta are in full flow on the main stage, tearing through the likes of “Lift the Blindfold” and “From the Ashes”, casually stripping away any vestiges of third-day fatigue. And if that wasn’t the perfect wake-up call, then there”s always Bay Area thrashers Forbidden who blast through the likes of “Forbidden Evil,” “Twisted Into Form,” and “Step By Step” aided by summer recruit Dan “Chewy” Mongrain of Voivod. A great show, although a time overrun means we are deprived of the classic “Chalice of Blood.”

 

 

Ludovico Technique hit the Sophie stage with their best goth Marilyn Manson impression but all eyes soon turn to the main stage for Canadian power metallers Unleash the Archers. The anticipation is almost palpable and the band respond perfectly with the likes of “Ghosts In The Mist,” “The Matriarch,” and pulse-pounding closer “Tonight We Ride”. Guitarist Andrew Saunders’ flowing ginger hair is as striking as the riffs but, as ever, it’s singer Brittney Slayes who draws the most attention. Dressed entirely in black and commanding the audience with ease, her vocal performance is damn near flawless and one of the undisputed highlights of the weekend. 

After a couple of previous cancellations, Floridian death metal legends Deicide blast through a collection of songs unlikely to appear on Songs of Praise any time soon. Playing Satanic death metal in the bright Derbyshire sunshine means frontman Glen Benton has to work extra hard to keep the atmosphere suitably evil, and he does, tearing off heads with the likes of “Carnage in the Temple of the Damned”, “Dead By Dawn,” “Sacrificial Suicide”, “Once Upon the Cross”, and a particularly brutal “Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon.” Another contender for set of the weekend.

 

After checking out the impressive Asomvel, I wander over to the more intimate EMP tent. Flamebearer are on as I arrive, having a fantastic time but butchering the absolute fuck out of “Wild Child” by W.A.S.P. Not that anyone remotely cares about such details judging by the raucous singing and huge grins. Bradford grime punk trio Rupcha Farms are up next and the tent swiftly descends into total chaos. Wearing an Egyptian neck collar, frontman Tyler sets the world to rights with politically motivated street poetry, rapping, and singing, winning over many more people than he probably expected. A bigger stage awaits next time.

Deathcore act Whitechapel do what deathcore acts do and everyone looks suitably broken afterwards while over on New Blood, Lost to Light and Black Hole Divers go down well with respectably sized crowds. Combichrist play to a rammed Sophie tent, many unable to get inside, but still having a great time around the edges. Fast-rising UK metalcore crew Malevolence cause a couple of the weekend’s biggest talking points. Not only raising the bar when it comes to crowd surfing, the band seeing over nine hundred people and a wheelie bin pass over a sea of fans but also sparked safety concerns when their circle pit becomes so big it surrounds the sound stage.

Headline act Architects bring the pyrotechnics to a crowd whose overall average age drops significantly. In what is unlikely to be their only headline appearance, the band’s noticeably younger audience are treated to songs like “Seeing Red”, “Giving Blood,” “Nihilist,” and “Animals” plus an unscheduled guest appearance from a toy goose called Gregory. Afterwards, Finnish drunkards Korpiklaani close out the Sophie Stage, the crowd still in great voice for songs like “Happy Little Boozer,” “Journey Man,” “Beer, Beer,” and of course, “Vodka.” As party bands go, Korpiklaani are simply one of the best.

SUNDAY

My legs are aching, my neck is hurting, my voice is going, and Raised By Owls are on at 10:45am. So, armed with a small pharmacy of painkillers, off I go to listen to songs like “Comedy Metal Is a Fucking Embarrassment,” “I”m Sorry I Wore a Dying Fetus T-Shirt to Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party,” “Ross Kemp on Gang Bangs,” “Dance Like Barney Greenway,” and of course, “Ainsley Harriott Advises You to Give Your Meat a Good Ol’ Rub”. There”s a guy dressed up as Glenn Danzig (for “Strictly Come Danzig,” obviously), Mr. Blobby walks on stage with two excessively long double-ended dildos, dog collared singer Sam Strachan splits the crowd down the middle over the pronunciation of “scones”, his mum is dressed as a nun, and now she’s swinging the dildos. The music videos and the laughing never stops, the band are fantastic, and somewhere in the signing tent, Sam’s mum has threatened to get her tits out. Welcome to Sunday.

Given the unenviable task of following Nuns N” Dildos, Venezuelan act Cultura Tres do an admirable job with their Sepultura-esque sound and a certain Mr. David Ellefson (ex-Megadeth, Kings of Thrash, Dieth) on bass. After catching the end of impressive blackened doom act Moon Reaper, it’s time to check out Soen. Elegant and surgically precise, the Swedish act doesn’t require circle pits or crowd surfing to exert their authority, just cut after cut of quality progressive metal.

 

Finnish power metallers Beast in Black make an instant impact, not only with songs like “Hardcore,” “Sweet True Lies,” “Blind and Frozen,” and “One Night in Tokyo,” but with a display of crowd surfing usually reserved for heavier acts. And while it”s obvious the band are using backing tracks, literally nobody cares when the performance is as enthusiastic as this. Just like Deicide yesterday, SepticFlesh have to perform some of the weekend’s darkest metal in bright and happy sunshine but pull it off magnificently with songs like “The Vampire of Nazareth,” “Communion,” and “Anubis,”

If you’re new to Kensei then frontman David Woodhouse’s, “how we doin”, babs?” introduction might just offer a clue to their place of origin. Yes, winners of the Birmingham Metal 2 the Masses competition, the five-piece metalcore/groove metal act fill the New Blood tent with one of the biggest crowds and one of the widest circle pits of the weekend. Songs like opener “No Remorse,” “End of Days,” and “With Death I Walk,” kick the audience into submission as guitarist Ian Hiseman throws himself around the stage like a man possessed. If you felt the energy levels dropping before, then they were certainly back after this.

Back on the main stage, The Night Flight Orchestra deliver an addictive blend of hooks and melodies, their 80s style a far cry from singer Björn Strid’s other band, Soilwork. With the crowd already singing at the top of their voices, the band takes things up a notch or ten with “Divinyls,” “Gemini,” “Satellite,” and “White Jeans,” before getting a group of lucky people dressed as airline pilots onto the stage and conducting an epic conga line for closer “West Ruth Avenue.”

Veteran thrashers Sadus offer a very different experience, the four-piece launching into a vicious speed metal attack and not coming up for the air until the end. Another change of pace follows on the main stage when Irish/American Folk Punk legends Flogging Molly get the crowd jigging to the likes of “Tobacco Island,” “A Song of Liberty,” “Devil,s Dance Floor,” and even the slower “If I Ever Leave This World Alive.”

Carcass bring the old school death metal and grindcore while vocalist/Bassist Jeff Walker throws much-needed bottles of water into the crowd, saying little between songs but his dry comments always resulting in laughter. Every era apart from Surgical Steel is covered, from “Genital Grinder,” “Reek of Putrefaction,” “Exhume to Consume,” “Corporal Jigsore Quandary,” and “Incarnated Solvent Abuse,” to “Buried Dreams,” “Carnal Forge,” “Tools of the Trade,” “Keep on Rotting in the Free World,” and “Under the Scalpel Blade.” 

 

Vikings, beer, Norse mythology, swords, shields, and beer. That”s Amon Amarth and if you don’t like it you can fuck off. 

*Spoiler Alert* Nobody fucks off. 

With the bulk of the set lifted from more recent albums, The Pursuit of Vikings from 2004 is the oldest cut to feature while “Heidrun,” stands as the sole choice from latest record The Great Heathen Army. Otherwise, the show relies on guaranteed crowd-pleasers like “Deceiver of the Gods,” “Guardians of Asgaard,” “Raise your Horns,” and “Twilight of the Thunder God,” while frontman Johan Hegg drinks from a horn, smashes things with hammers and kicks the god Loki across the stage. An eyebrow-singeing amount of pyrotechnics ensures the main stage festivities end on a high before the crowd moves off to see Norwegian black metal legends Satyricon close the Sophie stage. Playing “Forhekset” and “Filthgrinder” as I stop by one final time, the crowd outside the tent is so huge you can barely see anything but they still sound sensational though, obviously.

And so ends another year of metal debauchery. The quality and variety of bands remain consistently high, and the entertainment away from the stages is always worth checking out. The Rockfit metal aerobics arena looks fun (at least from a distance and with unhealthy food dripping through greasy fingers) as do the Viking battle re-enactments. The bars and food stalls (including Tik-Tok famous Spudman) all enjoy a typically roaring trade but as usual, it”s the fans – many in Beetlejuice, dinosaur, or superhero costumes – who make the event. Although special praise must be handed out to the overworked security staff in front of the pit, handling a metric fuck-ton of crowd surfers as well as handing out water and even spraying people to cool down. 

That’s not to say a couple of issues don’t raise their heads. The addition of a camera jib looks great for the big screens but the reality for much of the audience is that their view is now being restricted from another direction. Also, the sheer number of camping chairs in the arena still causes problems for many, this time with the added peril of circle pits encroaching into their area. 

Transforming Bin Jousting into a legitimate sport with added safety precautions might not have gone down well with some of the old-guard but Bloodstock know exactly what they’re doing and the annual security headaches disappear just like that. Even late-night camp invasions are barely a thing this year, although the 2 am chorus of “All hail the Hypnotoad!” is still reassuringly evident. 

So, same again next year?

It would be rude not to, really

 

Read part 1 here:

FESTIVAL REVIEW: Bloodstock Open Air Part 1 – Live at Catton Hall

 

Tickets to BOA 2025 can be found here:

https://www.bloodstock.uk.com/

WORDS BY GARY ALCOCK
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PHOTOS BY WILLIAM MAWDSLEY 
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