Bloodstock Open Air Reveals Entertainment and Fancy Dress Themes


Bloodstock, the UK’s biggest independent metal festival, is all set to take place at Catton Park, Derbyshire on 7th-10th August 2025. With headliners, Gojira, Trivium, and Machine Head, joined by the likes of Mastodon, Nailbomb, Ministry, Emperor, Fear Factory, and others, there are still more to be announced. The fest has now unveiled its plans for fancy dress themes, on site entertainment, including medieval combat tournaments. Keep reading below for more details.
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Frayle and The Red Mountain Booked for Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest


Tennessee Metal Devastation Music Fest have announced the addition of Frayle and The Red Mountain to their 2025 lineup. The event is set to take place on Saturday, October 11th, 2025, at The AMP in Jackson, TN. Keep reading below for more information.
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New Wave Of Metal Takes Over Bloodstock’s Emp Stage This August


 

Bloodstock is thrilled to be partnering with premier alternative lifestyle and merchandise brand EMP to unveil the next wave of rising metal talent set to storm the EMP Stage this August. 
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ALBUM REVIEW: Mountain Caller – Chronicle II: Hypergenesis


Mountain Caller’s latest release, Chronicle II: Hypergenesis (Church Road Records), is the much-anticipated follow-up LP to 2020’s Chronicle I: The Truthseeker. The London-based three-piece (Claire Simson on guitar, El Reeve on bass, and Max Maxwell on drums) perform mostly instrumental music that (so it is said) “[transcends] language and [communicates] through the universal language of sound”.

And, true to the words of the press hype in question, Hypergenesis does indeed cross musical boundaries in a way that, whilst not entirely new, feels burstingly fresh and urgent.Continue reading


Ghost Cult’s Albums of the Year 2022 Part 3 (20 – 1)


Press on, intrepid reader, to find out our top albums of 2022, as voted for by the cast, crew and hangers-on of the good ship Ghost Cult. Over 275 albums were nominated (including one stray and errant vote for Stryper… we’ve had words), some people lauded albums as the greatest of all time that no one else noticed, other albums picked up a steady stream of votes across the board without tickling the top of anyone’s charts, but through it all, we’ve been able to compile our team list of the best 75 albums of the year. And there are some absolute corkers, here. 75 of them, to be exact…

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Ghost Cult’s Album of the Year 2022 Part 2 (40-21)


As we move into the meaty part of the Ghost Cult albums of the year for 2022 (as chosen solely by the team that dedicate their time to promote, analyse and share the love for the great alternative music that we exist to talk about), we find a mix of old favourites and a sprinkling of new rising and shining stars…Continue reading


Ghost Cult’s Albums of the Year 2022: Part 1 (75 – 41)


 

After a false start, someone (naming no names) got rather over-excited about a new Power Metal band that promptly disappeared out of the collective consciousness, it wasn’t until mid-January, and a new 40 Watt Sun album, that alternative, rock and metal really got out of the starting blocks for 2022.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Frayle – Skin and Sorrow


 

Skin & Sorrow (Aqualamb) is the second full-length release from Cleveland, Ohio’s “heavy, low and witchy” duo Frayle. The band consists of multi-instrumentalist Sean Bilovecky and singer Gwyn Strang, who between them cite the influence both doom metal (Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Sleep) and avant-garde pop (Björk, Portishead). Frayle’s stated aim is to create “music for the night sky”.

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