As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 10th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!
Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Sentience – Hobgoblin New Blood Stage, Sunday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Sentience is based across London and greater London.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Sentience was originally started by Adam in 2010. The band went through various incarnations and sound changes until 2013 when Adam met Ollie while studying at music school in London. In 2015 the band as we know it today was formed through social media and online networking.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Sentience is something that comes up a lot in psychology and sci-fi, both things that happen to of interest to us a great deal. It’s about questioning existence and in turn forming some sort of understanding out of it. It’s a never ending topic and describes exactly what we are trying to achieve with our music, which is what makes it such a great name for a band.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We believe we’d fall under the category of progressive metal. We utilise a lot of odd time signatures and key changes in our music and rarely stick to traditional song structures. Dynamics are a huge part of our sound, we like to bring things down a notch to create a bit of atmosphere but then smash you in the face with brutality right after.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
We are here to destroy The New Blood Stage at Bloodstock. Our live show is extremely intense and high energy throughout. Sentience has a modern, aggressive sound which is precise and cutting. We guarantee we will have every beer drinking head banger in front of the stage going mental by the end of our set.
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
We have never been to Bloodstock before. This should be an interesting experience for all of us!
Did you enter M2TM thinking you could win it? Which region did you win?
We won the London Metal 2 The Masses. Initially we were worried that we might not fit in because we come from a slightly more ‘niche’ scene in the metal world, but the response from everyone involved in Metal 2 The Masses has just been so incredibly positive since we got stuck in so I think we grew more quietly confident as the competition progressed.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We will be performing the entirety of Oleka our most recent album. We always like to spice things up a bit live for the fans that know our songs, just to keep things interesting. They can expect to hear alternate endings to songs and the occasional bit of improvisation.
Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Playing the same time as Megadeth headlining would suck but we are prepared for anything.
What are you working on at the moment?
We’ve got loads of media content which we’ll be slowly releasing over the next couple months along with playing a bunch of shows across the UK until the end of August. In tandem, we are always writing new music and coming up with concepts for the next album.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
At a show with The Colour Line, a bouncer started beating up a guy who was moshing with the band. The show was instantly stopped and the bouncer was thrown out by the other bands and audience members. The show then continued and finally finished with the bouncer coming back in to apologise for ruining the guy’s night. It’s so great to see metal heads get together and stick up for each other.
Jager, Hobgoblin Ale, Kraken, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Kaltenberg Beer
