Continuing our run of letting you know a little more about as many of the bands on at Bloodstock 2025 as we possibly can before you get a chance to see them, we have Ba’al. This bunch play on the Sophie Stage on the Saturday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Nick (guitar): The band is from Sheffield, England though only myself and Joe (vocals) are actually from here. Richard and Luke are converts from the south. Sheffield has a reputation for attracting students from all over who subsequently never leave. It’s certainly a place that provokes inspiration, tons of history, a national park on the doorstop and a “world’s biggest village” atmosphere where everyone knows everyone. I’ve never been compelled to leave.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Richard (bass): It’s been 9 years now, which is pretty wild! We started in 2016, though we had quite a different lineup and sound then, with only Nick and I still around from that period.
N: I was just 19 when it all began and I think I did a decent job of pretending to know what I was doing. I’m now approaching 30 and still pretending to know what I’m doing but with more confidence.
Where does the name of the band come from?
N: It’s an anagram of Alba, as in Jessica Alba, we’re all huge Fantastic Four (2005) fans so this was a no brainer…. No, for real I can’t actually remember why we chose it. The word ‘Ba’al’ refers to many different entities and ideas from various points in history, from ancient demons to video game characters and fictional realms. It’s a bit vague which I do quite like actually. People often ask what it means and I struggle to answer definitively, which is echoed in the way I struggle to describe what we sound like. Equally it’s just an interesting word with an unusual spelling – it stands out a bit. It poses questions but offers no answers. I think with some band names you know exactly what they’ll sound like just from hearing the name but I don’t think that’s the case with Ba’al.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
R: I tend to describe us as blackened post-metal, which I realise is quite pretentious, but I think if you just say post-black metal people tend to assume we sound like Alcest… Which we certainly do at times! But alongside black metal/post metal/shoegaze sounds, we also have a fair bit of sludge, metalcore, prog and doom. On our new album we’ve also pushed the boat out with classical instrumentation, plus some synths and electronica, to flesh out the melodrama somewhat.
N: I usually just say post-metal which, I think, by definition refers to music that uses established elements of metal but in an unconventional way which is, or at least should be, pretty vague. But equally Post-metal does also now refer to a fairly defined sound as established by bands like Isis, Cult of Luna, Amenra etc which we do take influence from but I wouldn’t say we are all that similar to. We have a large pool of influences to pull from, and we’ve never been a band to reject an idea because “it’s too X” or “it’s not Y enough”. I think we’re just an amalgamation of lots of things we all like.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
N; Well you’ll have to come and see us won’t you! We’ve recently been doing a lot of updating to the technical aspects of our live show (lights, backing tracks etc) which really bring our more recent output to life in ways that weren’t possible before. But crucially with someone like Joe on vocals, who wears his heart on his sleeve and fully envelopes himself in the stories and emotions he writes about, there’s a real emotional focal point to our performances.
R: Broadly speaking I think we try to make it visceral, intense and emotional, but in a way that is hopefully cathartic more than anything else.
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Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
R: Yes, we played the New Blood stage in 2017, after winning Sheffield’s edition of the Metal 2 the Masses competition! As I mentioned above, we were somewhat of a different band at that point – though you can still trace our shared influences and general touchstones from then to now. It was a pretty mad experience, as we had only been gigging for about a year, and we didn’t even have a record out, but we had a great time and people seemed to enjoy it!
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
N: It was several months ago. It was actually a fairly straightforward process of us sending our press pack to BOA and asking to be considered for the lineup, and we got an email back a few days later saying yes. It was obviously a bit more detailed than that but that’s the basic premise.
R: Well, an important extra step in that process was that Simon Hall from Bloodstock happened to see us play live in Sheffield, having not done so since around the first time we played the festival. He was very nice about our set, so I think that ‘sealed the deal’ as it were.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
R: Our perennial issue is that our songs are almost all between 8 and 13 minutes long, so fitting what we want to play into a 30 minute set is always a challenge. It’ll be three songs, the majority of which will be from the new album, but we’ll throw in an oldie too.
N: Typically our average song length is about 10 minutes so we tend to view a 30 minute set as 3 songs, a 40 minute set as 4 songs etc. The tracks we’ve chosen are definitely more appropriate for a festival setting than other tracks we could’ve played though.
Stage times haven’t been announced yet, so which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
N: Well since we’re on the bill we do know when we’re playing and it’s fairly easy to estimate who we’ll clash with based on the lineup placement, but disregarding that for a moment – I think Kublai Khan TX for me. Filthy breakdowns are always welcome. I must say that Sunday holds the greatest attraction for me though; I don’t get out to many gigs, especially big ones and the opportunity to see Gojira, Mastodon and Rivers of Nihil all for the first time on the same day is one I won’t be passing up.
R: The big (mostly nostalgic) draws for me on the day we play are Static-X, Fear Factory and Machine Head, so there was never any chance of us clashing with them. However I am concerned about getting finished and packed up in time to see Heriot! As Nick says, though, the real big hitters for our general taste are on the Sunday, when we can hopefully chill out a bit more!
What are you working on at the moment?
R: To be honest, this year so far it’s all been a mix of a) getting ready for Bloodstock and our other upcoming shows and b) the mad rush of final album release admin, so… that! We’re hoping that once the album is out and the first few gigs after that are under our belts, we can finally get back to working on some of the riff ideas we’ve had floating about for ages.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
N: I once saw a man in the middle of the crowd at a Weezer gig down his pint then fill the empty cup with his own piss and then just pour it all out on the floor. I appreciate if he didn’t want to just openly piss on the floor, but also he basically did that anyway just with an extra step. Maybe he intended to carry it to the toilet later and pour it down the drain then? But why not just do that in the first place? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. There was a big empty circle right in the middle of the crowd for the whole gig so it was pretty obvious what had happened. Why at a Weezer gig of all places too?
R: I’m going to slightly stretch the ‘live show’ element here, but… Last year at ArcTanGent festival, during the silent disco DJ sets one night, my friend got hit in the head with what seemed to be a small piece of egg. We looked round and there was a group of guys taking turns spinning a bag around their heads, which seemed to have a whole egg in it, which was gradually disintegrating. My friend was, understandably, a bit miffed and confronted them, and they were very apologetic that some had hit her, but they said “it’s just a tradition we have every year”.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
R: As a band we’re an odd mix, because some of us don’t drink alcohol at all, others rarely, and I’m probably the biggest drinker but I’m also one of the main drivers – so usually not much! At a gig I’ll have a cheeky pint, nothing wild, and plenty of water. Maybe a coke to keep the energy up if I’m feeling wild. Unless I’m not driving… But even then, more beers are for after the set, not before.
N: In the past I’ve gone for a whiskey/rum and cola, to settle the brain and the stomach respectively. Now I’m mostly just on the water, dehydration is no joke.
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