Once more, given the number of bands I didn’t see at Bloodstock I’m going to waffle on a bit about the handful I did catch, commiserate about the ones I didn’t, and spend more time telling you how great everything else was about Bloodstock and therefore why you should book your ticket for next year. Assuming you haven’t already, given the brilliant bands that have already been announced. Disclosure: as well as expecting / hoping we have our press allotment next year, we’ve already purchased an Early Bird ticket so that we can have someone 100% dedicated to watching the bands in 2025!
The weather continued to improve, and you can see our roving reporter Sean get gradually redder as each day goes on in his video interviews. Over the years at Bloodstock we’ve had excessive heat (who here also survived 2022?), thunderstorms, battering winds… but on the whole the weather treats Bloodstock well. After a bit of a shower on Friday the wain stayed away and Saturday and Sunday were glorious. Of course, bands like Deicide really belong in the darkness, but who’s really complaining when you’ve got a legend of Satanic metal belting out tunes at you regardless of the weather? I’ve been trying to see them since the 90s when I had a ticket for a Nottingham show that got cancelled. Finally… and worth the wait!
Malevolence deserve a special mention. The Sheffield nutters, I gather, flew all the way in from the US for this one show and decided they were going to make it worth it. They broke the Bloodstock record for crowdsurfers during a set with, I believe, 901. I think I helped about half of them up and over, though huge credit needs to be given to the amazing security staff who dealt with the flood tirelessly and with incredible good humour. The band did fail to get a circle pit running around the sound desk, but they probably hadn’t taken the deep rows of seated metal fans into account, which likely got in the way. A good attempt otherwise and still the biggest pit I’ve ever seen at Bloodstock.
The only Sophie band I caught on Saturday were Sylosis who were, as ever, superb. This despite being down to one guitar for a fair part of the set due to some technical issue or other. Like any group of professionals they played through with nary a complaint, and good humour.
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Between Saturday and Sunday I did manage to see a few bands on the New Blood, and some belters on the EMP stage. In terms of quality, I honestly think that this year has been the strongest in terms of quality on these two stages. While there are always some good acts, and some great ones, there’s always a bit of “filler” (at least in my opinion). Never anyone bad, just not quite up there. However, every band I saw this year was playing to a rammed tent and deservedly so. Running With Knives, Convey, Slaughterhead, Black Hole Divers, Straight For The Sun, Root Zero, Kensei and Crowgod all straddled multiple genres and all played an absolute belter. The New Blood talent this year was definitely at an all time high, and I’m really peeved that I didn’t have the chance to see more of the bands we’d talked to in the runup to this year’s event.
And then there’s the EMP stage. This is a little gem, and frequently plays host to some very pleasant surprises. Last year we had Waterlines pushing for “band of the festival” with their slot, and the year before the biggest audience I’ve ever seen at the then-Jager stage belly-laughed their way through a set by Kunt and the Gang. This year – more ooft than ever before. Public Execution, Flamebearer, Warpstormer, Loyds Trip… all superb. To pick out two sets in particular, though, The Gallowgate Murders and Rupcha Farms both went above and beyond, and are very much in my “must see again” list.
I took some time to wander around the rest of the festival, something I’ve not really done in the past. The computer games hall was being fairly well used and the darkness was a nice escape from the heat of Sunday afternoon. The axe throwing was interesting, especially the stocks as an optional punishment for the losers! We had the Viking warriors back, knocking bells out of each other – thankfully within a fenced off area and not in the pit for Amon Amarth. The nice folk in the tattoo tent let me take a few pictures as well, and they’ll pop up in my upcoming photo dump.
To rattle off a bit more about the main stage, though, Architects were amazing. A band I was (and still am) pretty much unfamiliar with, I wish I could have stayed for their whole set. Due to travel and other issues, I’d agreed to “three songs and then head home”, but three songs in and I was wrapped up with the whole atmosphere. I was right in the middle of the crowd, and being amongst people who were having such a great time was infectious. So no lengthy headliner review, but the assuredness that I’ll be very interested in seeing them again.
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Bloodstock seems to be in the habit of inviting an “oddball” band each year now and shoving them on the main stage, one that’s “not metal” but nobody cares because they’re great fun. Mr Big, Royal Republic and others have had the crowd absolutely bouncing. This year they seemed to decide that Sunday was Party Day, kicking things off with Raised By Owls‘ biggest show to date. Featuring silly songs, a crowdsurfing Mr Blobby and the star of Bloodstock 2025 – Sam’s Mum.
Beast in Black are metal, but fun metal, and are a band who actually work well in the sunshine. However the back-to-back pairing of Night Flight Orchestra and Flogging Molly had the audience dancing, kicking, conga-ing, jigging and whatever the hell else they felt like doing while having the best fun of the weekend.
Carcass reminded us that we were at a metal festival, before headliners Amon Amarth returned to the RJD stage for the first time since 2017. We all know the Viking routine by now, including the massive “sit down and row”, but the highlight for our crew was our Photo Editor Katie taking her first ever crowdsurf. She’s a huge fan of Amon Amarth and had decided in the runup that this would be it. A box would be ticked. Nerves be damned, myself and Sean got her into the middle of the crowd and the able volunteers within hoisted her up and over for her first jaunt.
Helped safely to the ground, she was buzzing like a little kid who’d found the secret Red Bull stash. So much so that she wanted to do it again, only this time with video evidence. Our thanks to Nora, one of lovely crew from Overdrive, who used the magic of gaffer tape to turn Katie’s hand into a selfie stick! Souvenir obtained.
Rounding off 2024 with such a great memory makes it one of the best Bloodstocks to date. As I said right at the start of part one, this year wasn’t going to be about the music in terms of the list of bands being immediately appealing. It was always going to be about the event… and Bloodstock once again didn’t fail me.
See you all in a big field in 2025?
Photos by Katie Frost and Sean Larkin