Bloodstock 2016 – Sunday (James’s view)

Unearth (c) Will Tudor Photography
Unearth (c) Will Tudor Photography

James fills in a few gaps with some bands that Ross didn’t catch on the Sunday.

For some reason I can’t remember, I knew Unearth’s (7) name. I’d not listened to their music before, yet I’d heard their name somewhere.  Having some kind of modern death metal/metalcore sound, the band set about bringing their a-game to the folk watching them on the main stage. My only gripe with them was the vocal style. For me, this kind of music needs a lower pitched vocal. A mid/high pitched vocal, in my opinion, doesn’t really fit it very well. Aside from that small thing, I was otherwise rather impressed by them.

The next band that I caught a bit of whilst Ross was off seeing some others, were Norwegian black metallers Satyricon (7). Mainly playing songs from arguably their most famous album Nemesis Divinia, the band delivered a set that was initially plagued by some sound issues, but improved as time passed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get chance to catch too much of them due to shooting other bands, but what I did see I enjoyed.

Symphony X (c) Will Tudor Photography
Symphony X (c) Will Tudor Photography

Now, I can’t say anything negative about Symphony X (8) otherwise Mel will kill me… But I don’t really have anything negative to say about them. I was initially skeptical as to whether they would go down well at BOA, yet they were received surprisingly well. I even found myself nodding along at points, a testament as to how catchy some of their songs were. It’s safe to say that I’ll be checking these guys out in the near future.

Memoriam (6) were a band that I had high hopes for after hearing that the band featured ex-Bolt Thrower members amongst them. They left me feeling a little luke-warm about them sadly.  I was expecting some good ol’ fashioned death metal similar to Immolation and got something that was quite a bit different. That’s not to say that folk in the tent weren’t enjoying them. They just personally weren’t really for me.

Slayer (c) Will Tudor Photography
Slayer (c) Will Tudor Photography

Slayer (9). Do I need to say more? Oh go on then. Whilst their sound was very bass-heavy (Similar to as it was at the Academy last year), the band didn’t let this stop them as they brought out the classics along with some more obscure tracks as well. One bit that was rather funny was that Tom messed up the opening lyrics to “Hell Awaits” and as a result the band played it as an instrumental before meandering off stage for a bit. They came back however with full-force and brought an suitably metal-end to a rather enjoyable day… and festival.

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