After the quick rundown on the evening of the first “proper” night of Bloodstock, things derailed in terms of free time (Blame Machine Head’s incredible headline slot) so we’re back to a big proper review! Props to Katie and Sean L, two of our photographers, who have flung some bits and pieces at me about some of the bands they shot for us, which I didn’t get the time to see.
Thursday is a shorter day with a handful of bands opening the festival on the SOPHIE stage in the early evening. This year had one of the more eclectic selections of recent years, and that’s not a complaint.
At ground zero, getting the tent quaking and the audience warmed up for 3 more days of metal, were London deathcore act Dead Flesh. Playing what I believe is their biggest show to date, they handled the set with confidence and had the crowd jumping, headbanging, moshing and surfing. No strangers to Bloodstock, it was still a surprise to see them hop to the SOPHIE stage only a year after they played the New Blood, but on the strength of this performance they truly deserved it.
Their songs mix brutality with technicality, with singer Rich Stevenson engaging well with the audience while (just about) keeping the gushing in check. They kept the masses in front of them suitably engaged as they worked their way through tracks from their debut release Dehumanise.
FourWayKill were up next, having reformed last year after a 17 year hiatus. In that first iteration they actually opened the stage on the first night of the first Bloodstock Open Air in 2005! ‘m not familiar with their material, but their cover of Motörhead’s “Iron Fist” fit perfectly to give you an idea of their sound. Not the first song of the weekend to be dedicated to one / some of our fallen metal brethren either.
The tent was busy for them, but not as packed as it was for Dead Flesh. Or, indeed, garden decor-themed Belgian stoner rock/metal band Gnome who followed. I couldn’t actually squeeze into the tent for them, and this didn’t come as a surprise given the number of people wearing pointy hats I’d seen all day. Gnome are at pains to point out that though the have a novel (arguably silly) hook with the name and appearance, their music is a different matter and they take it seriously. Absolutely no argument from my perspective as they ploughed through a cracking set.
While the audience have gone (in some cases) all out with the gnome theme, the band themselves limit it to the pointy red hats and focus on ramming riffs down everyone’s throats. The music speaks volumes, at volume, and they prove they deserved that midpoint slot on the opening night. While many many have turned up for the novelty, I don’t think anyone left disappointed in the actual performance they witnessed.
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I actually saw All For Metal a couple of weeks ago supporting Unleash The Archers up in Glasgow, and I was sold on them right then. I was more than happy to enjoy them a second time, and their performance was every bit as polished and enjoyable. With some brilliant, catchy, fun metal songs and stage presence in abundance they are a band I can’t recommend highly enough.
While their Bloodstock set wasn’t a huge departure from their Glasgow one, this didn’t disappoint. The banter between the two singers, the incredible talent of the two guitarists (and Pabst’s reserves of energy as she never seemed to stay still), the cracking beats from Jensen, and Florian Toma’s off-kilter bassist alter-ego combine to make for more than your average metal show. It’s cheesy, but it’s delicious cheese and it works so damn well.
We have the usual “split the room in half” trope, but the band don’t care who wins as it’s “all for metal”, and “Legends Never Die”‘s dedication to Ozzy is met with a deserved cheer. Toma squeezes a few bars of “Iron Man” into his bonkers bass solo as a bonus, which got them more plaudits.
Tonight’s headliners were a band I’ve, for want of a better word, avoided in the past purely as the description of their music made them sound like something I wouldn’t like. Well, I was wrong wasn’t I? Me And That Man blew me away from the off with their blues / country / rockabilly sound that is exactly something I do like.
For those who don’t know MaTM is a side project of Behemoth’s Nergal. As with many musicians, much as he’s identified as part of one genre he has other influences that wouldn’t work well within the black metal that he usually plays. So… second band. While Behemoth is something you can get all evil and headbang to, MaTM is something you can jig to. Having said that, the material still feels dark so definitely fits with the Bloodstock theme – though I’m still not 100% sure how to describe or categorise it. Very dark blues? Black blues? Whatever, it worked and it worked well and I’m annoyed that I’ve not paid more attention to them in the past. This will be rectified!
I also caught a bit of Robbed Zombie in the VIP tent. Replete with dancers and a cool skeleton mic stand, they did more than just play covers. They really had their audience involved and you started to see where the extra cash for VIP was going. It’s not just nicer loos and a bigger beer selection, the entertainment is cracking as well.
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Pics by Katie Frost and Sean Larkin
