FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Bloodstock Festival 2023
Words: Dan Barnes
Bloodstock Open Air reaches its eighteenth iteration in 2023 with a line-up reflecting the festival’s continued coming of age. Largely unrecognisable from the 2005 show, which saw the (only) stage situated somewhere in the vicinity of what is now the S.O.P.H.I.E. tent; when you could park your car next to your tent and there was even a small newsagent’s stall in the arena where you could by essentials such as sweeties, cigarettes and pornography. Word of warning here, Boys and Girls: don’t smoke and avoid too many processed sugars.
It is a case of adapt and survive and the Bloodstock journey has surely not been without its fair share of ups and downs, but here we are, older and wiser, and with stories to tell. Post-pandemic, the 2021 show was nothing short of a triumph on whatever metric you care to measure it, while that pesky sun sapped much of the energy from 2022, we were still treated to a host of fantastic acts that formed some great memories.
So, what can we expect from 2023?
The now traditional Thursday pre-show, hosted in the S.O.P.H.I.E. tent will see headliner Skynd give an early indication as to how far Bloodstock has evolved from the original blueprint. The Industrial duo from Sydney, Australia will be bringing spectacle to Thursday proceedings with their theatrical blend of experimental, industrial, electronic horrorcore. Songs about the darker side of the human condition and true crime have found favour with the collected media and fellow musicians such as Korn’s Jonathan Davis, who can be heard providing backing vocals to Chapter I’s Gary Heidnik. Expect drunken nightmares before the festival has even started.
Visions of Atlantis replace formally announced Warkings on the Sophie stage.
Early evening entertainment will be provided by Texans Frozen Soul, who’ll deliver an unrelenting sermon of icy Death Metal; The Violent Inzident, the world’s first (self-professed) post-Nu-Metal supergroup, will bring their irreverent and comedic show and Brighton’s Tribe of Ghost will get the whole shebang started with their caustic Industrial Post Metal. So, make sure to get the tent up early and not to miss this fine appetizer.
Making their first appearance at Catton Park and taking the top-spot on Friday’s Ronnie James Dio stage is Westfeld, Massachusetts’ Killswitch Engage. The core of the band has been together in one iteration or another since their inception in 1999, with the highest profile shift coming when Jesse Leach absented the vocalist position for the band’s breakthrough album, 2004’s US Gold certified The End of the Heartache, and stayed away for the following couple of albums. The Howard Jones fronted Killswitch shifted serious units of both As Daylight Dies and the second self-titled record before his departure for unknown reasons in 2012, opening the door for Jesse’s return.
Disarm the Descent might not have been as successful as its predecessors but had a faster, heavier sound to signify the new Killswitch beginning. Incarnate from 2016 divided the critics and 2019’s Atonement was suggested in certain quarters to be Killswitch Engage’s best album to date.
Whatever the reason behind their split with Howard Jones there does not seem to be any remaining animosity as, when Mr Jones was appearing at 2018’s Bloodstock Open Air with Jasta, he’d spent the previous night with his former band mates in London, taking a guest spot as they were opening for Iron Maiden. And, a totally random, utterly-useless Bloodstock-adjacent factoid is The End of the Heartache was mixed and mastered in Ripley, just up the A38 from Catton Park.
Final night headliners of the very first, multi-day Bloodstock Open Air, Swedish melodic death metallers In Flames make their long-overdue return to the festival and will be greeted with a very different sight than the last time they were here. Back in 2007 the main stage was elsewhere and it’s fair to say Bloodstock was experiencing a transitional period in its history. Having issued their fourteenth album earlier in the year and with Foregone receiving stellar reviews – including from our very own Gareth P – suggesting it’s the band’s best album for some time, (and with my mate, Matt, raving about how good they’ve been on the last couple of tours) I think we can expect In Flames to be in no mood to cede their headliner-crown to Kilswitch without putting up a serious fight.
Previously known as Before the Fall prior to changing their name to the Marduk-inspired Heaven Shall Burn, the Germans have been steadily going about their business by releasing nine full length records in twenty-years. 2020’s Of Truth and Science album made some serious waves in the European markets, landing high in the charts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Slotted somewhere in the Metalcore meets Melodic Death Metal, Heaven Shall Burn showed the full extent of their influences on the bonus disc of 2016’s Wanderer album, which saw covers from bands as far reaching as Blind Guardian, Therapy?, Killing Joke and Life of Agony.
New Jersey crew Fit For an Autopsy add their name to the short but steadily growing list of Deathcore bands to grace Bloodstock’s main stage. Alongside Thy Art Is Murder, Chelsea Grin and repeat offenders, Whitechapel, Fit For an Autopsy not only show the festival’s evolution but also that bands from other subgenres can come along and play to a receptive crowd.
There’s not a whole lot of subtly about Gatecreeper, if truth be told. But what they bring is a grim and dirty take on the Death Metal model and if 2021’s An Unexpected Reality disc is anything to go by then following them on stage is going to be no easy task.
After last year’s unfortunate cancellation, Phil Rind will finally bring his wildly-beloved Thrash quartet Sacred Reich to Catton Park, ensure all of us Gen X-ers who bought Ignorance and The American Way on vinyl back in the day will be suffering from bad [insert body-parts] for the rest of the weekend. Poland’s Hate make a rare stop on English soil bringing the darkness to an otherwise (hopefully) bright Friday afternoon. Turning back the clock will be Lancastrians Wytch Hazel, whose anachronistic love of Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult, Wishbone Ash and Jethro Tull will be a reminder of where we all began. Opening the whole shebang will be Hampshire doom three-piece Witchsorrow, who seem to be long-overdue an appearance on the Ronnie James Dio stage.
Whitechapel were originally announced as S.O.P.H.I.E. headliners but they unfortunately had to withdraw, leaving the space open for Swedish Doom legends, Candlemass, to make a long overdue return to Bloodstock after their only previous appearance in 2009. Formed by bassist Leif Edling in 1984 it was the release of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in 1986 that cemented the band’s status as tier-one purveyors of the highest quality Doom. Extraordinarily, the years 1987 to 1989 saw Candlemass release not one but three landmark albums; Nightfall, Ancient Dreams and Tales of Creation are all lauded as being prime examples of how to Doom.
Internal disputes caused the band’s career to splutter and stall for a time, but that did not prevent them from issuing a further nine albums. 2005’s self-titled being of particular note as standing shoulder to shoulder with the first four, but Candlemass have never allowed their quality to drop to any great extent and have consistently released interesting takes on the Doom genre. 2022’s Sweet Evil Sun, which sees original session vocalist, Johan Längqvist, reprise his position on the microphone, is as grim as anything you could hope for. It will be an epic end to Bloodstock’s first day.
Little is known of Gaerea or of from whence they came. Only that their take on Black Metal is vast, epic and wide-ranging. Incorporating elements of Death, Doom, Grind and just about any other genre you care to name – and with a new album, Unsettling Whispers due out a month before arriving at Catton Park – it is anyone’s guess what kind of unholy rite will be delivered. Bossk are no strangers to Bloodstock and have been visibly growing in stature and confidence with every performance. The Ashford post-metal quintet have an ability to mesmerse and captivate in equal measure, without skimping on the harsh tones or pummelling aggression.
Zetra have been putting the miles in over the years with appearances at Roadburn and Desertfest and support slots aplenty keeping the duo busy. Gothic grungy shoegaze might not seem the most accessible or even festival-friendly style of music, but Zetra’s performance will be engrossing. Pest Control will undoubtedly not be the most subtle band on the bill today, but what they lack in nuance they more than compensate for in sheer, bludgeoning crossover chaos. Whereas The Enigma Division will be shipping their virtuoso progressive music across the Irish Sea to hypnotise and enthral and Black Coast will bring the groove and the emotion. Black Metal meets D-Beat is always going to be a lethal combination, but Wolfbastard care not a jot for the consequences and previous Metal to the Masses winners, Bloodyard, kick everything off with some grooving Death Metal.
I was barely forty years of age the last time Meshuggah trod the Bloodstock boards – now’t but a slip of a lad – but they are finally back and to headline the RJD on Saturday. Last year’s Immutable album and the subsequent tour showed the Swedes have lost none of their ability to melt-minds and bamboozle drum-teachers the world over. Formed in Umeå in 1987 there was scant evidence of their future sonic sorcery on the 1991 debut, Contradictions Collapse, which borrowed heavily from early Metallica’s sound. Four years later came Destroy Erase Improve, which laid out the new manifesto by opening with Future Breed Machine, which still features regularly in the live shows.
Over the course of Chaosphere, and the more experimental Nothing and Catch Thirty-Three – the only album, so far, not to include a live drummer - Meshuggah would hone and refine their unique sound into the crushing musical juggernaut they are today. And yet, rather than rest on laurels, Meshuggah continue to develop and improve. obZen and Kloss would see a return to the more direct sound of the earlier material, yet the former includes such tracks as Dancers to a Discordant System and the scourge of drummers everywhere, Bleed. Kloss was built around shorter compositions which lost none of the face-melting dynamics.
The Violent Sleep of Reason followed in 2016 where the band collectively record live in the studio to give the album a grittier, less polished sound and 2022’s Immutable, the ninth album and one which perfectly encapsulates what Meshuggah are all about musically.
It was obviously a knock when Anthrax pulled out but getting such an amazing event as Triptykon performing Celtic Frost more than makes up for the New Yorker’s cancellation. If you’re too young to remember Celtic Frost the first time around or even if you’re too young to remember the brief return in 2006 with Monotheist, then prepare yourself to witness grown men weeping tears of joy as Tom leads his charges through some of the most era-defining tunes of the Eighties Extreme music scene. Chat from the shows already performed suggest the focus will be on the likes of Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion. Though, as the Frost’s reputation is built on the unpredictable and the unexpected, they could just as likely arrive at Bloodstock and perform Cold Lake in its entirety. As improbable as that may be, Mr Fischer marches to his own beat.
The cancellation of DevilDriver opened the door for the return of Abbath to Bloodstock, a dozen years after his triumphal headline slot with Immortal back in 2011. His former band mates have released a couple of records in his absence, but since his split Abbath hasn’t been dragging his feet either, having three solo albums to his name since 2016’s self-titled. I think we can expect plenty of those Immortal classics sprinkled in among the later works; though, if the weather is anything like last year, the grim and frostbitten kingdoms might be difficult to replicate.
When you’re on tour with LA legends Terror and you go on after they do, you know you’re doing something right. Such has been the case in the early parts of 2022 for Knocked Loose, the upstarts from Kentucky who have been shaking the Hardcore world to its foundations over the past few years. No small achievement with only a couple of albums and a handful of EPs under their youthful belts. But if their headlining set at last year’s Outbreak Festival in Manchester – or the late winter shows with Terror – demonstrate anything it is that they fear no one. With a line up as established as the RJD on Saturday, absolute aggression and sheer self-belief – and a catalogue of killer songs – will see these boys through.
Making their third appearance at Catton Park is NOLA sludge legends Crowbar. Although he visited with Jasta in 2018, Kirk Windstein’s four-piece have not trod these boards since 2014. Last year’s Zero and Below record was a continuation of the established Crowbar sound, in which Kirk wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel, rather crush all beneath the already perfectly good one Crowbar have been rolling on for the past near quarter of a century.
Opening the Saturday batting will be Employed to Serve who make their long overdue main stage debut. With Justine and Sammy taking a break from the Church Road Records duties it’s high-time EtS showed the world the sheer class that is 2021’s Conquering album. Sweden’s Royal Republic will bring a sense of calm and serenity to the middle day of 2023, with their take on Hard and Alternative Rock. Although four years since the release of Club Majesty, the band have been fairly prolific in the singles market, dropping eight since 2019. Likely to be challenging Crowbar for the days sludgiest riffs, London trio URNE are ready to drop the sophomore A Feast on Sorrow just before their Bloodstock appearance and, if debut Serpent and Spirit is anything to go by, then expect a wonderous walk through strange musical landscapes. Charged with beginning these innings is Seething Akira, the electronic Nu Core merchants from Portsmouth who might well frazzle as many minds as Meshuggah will do some hours later.
Having supported Meshuggah on their Immutable tour last year, Zeal & Ardor’s unconventional take on Black Metal will not be unfamiliar to many as the crowd arrive following the Swede’s show on the RJD. The avant-garde troupe, led by Manuel Gagneux take their influences from a far afield as Scandinavian filthy BM, combined with Soul, Jazz, Delta Blues and Gospel music. Throw into that mix drum and bass and electronica and a bit of Motown for good measure and you’re somewhere in the vicinity of what Z&A is about. Last year’s third, self-titled, record built on the already impressive foundation of Stranger Fruit and Devil Is Fine, preparing an impressive future legacy.
I’m going to suggest that it’s only really at Bloodstock that Sweden’s Brothers of Metal would find a UK home full of unfamiliar friends. The octet comprises of three vocalists, three guitar players, a bassist and a drummer, so expect as packed a stage as I image the tent will be. When you have songs in your repertoire entitled Fire, Blood and Steel, The Mead Song or The Other Son of Odin you’re on for a surefire winner with the evening, horn-quaffing hordes.
Not about to be outdone by their Swedish neighbours, Norway’s Trollfest will be adding saxophones and accordions to their show, whilst singing in a hybrid of Norwegian and German called Trollspråk (better get on with learning this one as I understand the cogitation of verb forms is a little tricky). Boasting just seven members, what Trollfest lose in personnel they compensate for in back-catalogue, with nine full length records to choose from. The one-time Eurovision contestants will bring a drinking jig to the fields of South Derbyshire so buckle up those dancing shoes and give fair warning to your liver. In an entirely different mode is Gutalax from – I want to say the Czech Republic but I think I should be saying Czechia – but, you know out that way where Brutal Assault is. These faecal-obsessed gore-grinders have been stinking it up since 2009 with a series of full-length records, splits and EPs. Expect a host of jobby-related tunes with titles likely to offend most, if not all; but it’s a festival and you’ve got to have a sense of humour. You really do.
Blending the fury of Death Metal with the sledgehammer sensibilities of UK hardcore, Milton Keynes mob, Casket Feeder will arrive full of bile, vitriol and rage for what promises to be the most brutal set you’ll find in the S.O.P.H.I.E. tent today. If it’s hardcore-infused, groove-adjacent thrashing you’re after then look no further than Skin Failure who seem to revel in the multiple genres they wear. Tech Fest alumni Dakesis make the short trip from Birmingham with the sort of symphonic, anthemic overblown metal extravaganza the traditional Bloodstock crowd cannot get enough of. Cambridge trio The Grey will be taking us on some Electric Wizard-type trips; Tortured Demon are young and hungry Thrashcore exponents and, as such, are unlikely to be playing ballads when they take the stage. Denmark’s EYES blend Metalcore and Hardcore into a caustic mix, generally unsuited for such an early hour. Approach with caution. I mean, of course, do, definitely approach – but with some caution.
If my calculations are correct, Sunday’s show by thrash icons Megadeth will mean Dave Mustaine has headlined Bloodstock Open Air more than any other band. It’s been forty years since Dave formed Megadeth following his departure from Metallica – whatever became of them? – and in that time he has forged his own legacy of on the back of a discography that, admittedly not all hitting the same, stratospheric heights, do have a common-feel running through. From the Last Rites demo in 1984 and the debut album, Killing is my Business… and Business is Good it was clear Mr Mustaine was fuelled with a burning passion to prove Metallica wrong in dispensing with his services.
1986 was a purple patch for Thrash and with the likes of Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood being joined my Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying all hitting the racks this year, causing those of us fresh out of school and just starting work all sorts of anxiety about where to spend those hard-earned wages. Peace Sells… was more than just a middle-finger to Metallica, rather it showed Megadeth as being a thoroughly competent unit in its own right. When you have a side one made up of Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring, Peace Sells and Devil’s Island you know you’re onto a winner. The title-track’s bassline alone means this record is cemented into the annals of Metal.
The third of the ‘ellipsis’ albums, So Far, So Good… So What! came out in 1988, just in time for an appearance at the Castle Donington Monster of Rock show and began the revolving door policy of musicians passing through Megadeth’s ranks. Yet, when Slayer was putting out Seasons in the Abyss and Anthrax came back swinging with Persistence of Time, Mustaine and another cohort would release Rust in Peace in 1990, arguably even better than what had gone before. Any record with Holy War… The Punishment Due (couldn’t keep away from those ellipsis) and Tornado of Souls has to be something a bit special.
Another dozen albums, including some that have taken the band in interesting directions, have followed in the intervening years, with a variety of receptions by the fans. During this time, Mr Mustaine has flirted with controversy and has been surrounded by rumour, some true some not so much.
In 2022, Megadeth issued album sixteen, The Sick, The Dying… and The Dead which garnered favourable reviews, even being considered the band’s best album since Endgame or even Countdown to Extinction by Dom Lawson on blabbermouth.net.
Dave and company are no strangers to the Sunday night slot at wrong on either of the previous appearances. This year is unlikely to be much different and they will once again prove they are worth of the ‘Legend’ status.
Also on that Monsters of Rock bill in 1988 were German power metal powerhouse Helloween, who haven’t played Bloodstock since 2008 and, therefore, have never stepped foot on what is now the Ronnie James Dio stage.
It’s been a productive time of late for the Teutonic legends, with the release of the self-titled sixteenth album and the Pumpkins Reunited shows, clocking in at nearly three hours and giving fans a deep dive into the band’s back catalogue. It also saw previous members Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske returning to the fold, adding for an even more spectacular experience.
Over the years Helloween have been consistent in their recorded material, never skimping on the product they release. You could make an argument that the band have not been able to recapture the heights of The Keeper of the Seven Keys albums but also that perhaps they know and that is why they pursued a different direction for Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon. These latter-era Kiske works have their detractors, yet I propose both, particularly Chameleon, is well worth a revisit.
There was a switch out of vocalist in 1994 with the departing Kiske replaced by Pink Cream 69’s Andi Deris and a string of albums taking Helloween’s sound back to the more familiar Power Metal. From that year’s Master of the Rings to 2015’s My God-Given Right the band went about their business with a ruthless efficiency. Come 2016 and the reunification concept was realised, resulting in a huge global tour and the 2021 self-titled.
It was proved last year that Helloween aren’t just about those reunion shows as they headed out on the United Forces tour with Hammerfall. Those shows proved Helloween still had much to offer and, after fifteen long years, it surely is high-time they came back to Catton Park. Better late than never.
Back for a third time, Brazilian institution, Sepultura, will show no mercy as they arrive with Quadra locked and loaded. With Max’s departure decades ago by this point I believe it does a disservice to the band – and especially Derrick – for the comments and calls for a reunion with the Cavalera brothers which, none of the parties involved actually want.
The Sepultura legacy has been being built on by this iteration of the band since 1998’s Against, through nine albums and countless tours up to and including 2020’s Quadra. Although Cavalera-free, Sep have continued to use Brazilian tribal music within their own compositions, moving award from the Thrash-oriented sound of Arise and Chaos AD to something groove-laced hardcore-punk-infused. Hardly surprising considering Derrick’s pre-Sepultura bands, Outface and Alpha Jerk dabbled heavily in the hardcore scene.
Ingrained in the band’s DNA is the desire to innovate and to push boundaries and this remains evident in the Green-era albums. Not many artists would attempt to distil The Divine Comedy’s
sprawling ecumenical ideas, written in fourteen-century Italian, in to an accessible fifteen tracks and forty minutes, but that’s what they did on Dante XXI; similarly following that up with A-Lex, based on Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange.
But, Sepultura have not completely divorced themselves from the past, so expect a healthy helping of Max-era classics among the more contemporary offerings for what is assured to be one of the defining sets of the whole festival.
Making their Bloodstock debut is Ugly Kid Joe, the Californian hard rockers who’ll bring the funky and the fun to Catton Park this year. Having had a decade of activity between 1987 and 1997, the band issued three records, finding most attention through their America’s Least Wanted debut in 1992 and the subsequent singles Neighbor, Cat’s in the Cradle and Everything About You. There were another four also from this album, but these were the ones that seemed to catapult UKJ into the big leagues.
Listening back to America’s Least Wanted it was very much of its time; still highly enjoyable but very much rooted in those early-Nineties post-grunge vibes. Following the ’97 split, vocalist Whitfield found himself fronting Life of Agony for a while, which was a curious collaboration to say the least.
Coming back together for 2015’s Uglier Than they Used to Be saw Ugly Kid Joe start to regather momentum into last year’s Rad Wings of Destiny record, which includes a cover of The Kinks’ Lola and all the other fun you come to expect from the boys. Expect a party time experience.
Poland’s Decapitated is enjoying something of a renaissance of late, despite the trials and tribulations of outrageous fortune they have had to endure. But the Nietzschean axiom of what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger is writ largest on the history of this Death Metal wrecking machine.
Having released their Winds of Creation debut in 2000, when most members of the band were still teenagers, Decapitated went on release Nihility, The Negation and Organic Hallucinosis through Earache Records up until a road traffic accident that would kill drummer Vitek and render vocalist Covan unable to continue.
Yet through sheer force of will, guitarist and younger brother of Vitek, Vogg would resurrect Decapitated, continuing with the grooves and polyrhythmic approach that gave the Poles a distinct sound of their own. Appearances at Bloodstock in 2014 and 2017 as well as headlining sets at UK Tech Fest and Damnation have made Decapitated into a finely-tuned assault weapon, ready to destroy whenever the call comes.
Continuing the Swedish invasion of 2023 is Tribulation, who blend Metal, both Heavy and Black with Occult Rock to lend Sunday an air of the esoteric. All Hail the Yeti return to the main stage four years and a global pandemic after their last Sunday Sermon from this platform. The groove-riddled tunes have a whiff of the Devil’s lettuce about them, cranking with Pantera-like guitars. Uuhai sit in the same musical sphere as Seidrblot from 2021 and, after three days of metal and metal-adjacent abuse, this might just tip you over. Before that though, Ireland’s Dead Label open proceeding on this final day with some ripping Nu-infused grooving.
Needing no introduction is Sunday S.O.P.H.I.E. top-dogs, Biohazard, who have reunited with original bassist, Evan Seinfeld, for the first time in a decade and a half. Of all the Biohazard shows I been privileged to witness – both with and without Evan – this is a band who don’t know how to do things by halves. Expect stage invasions, some potty-mouthery and nothing but utter commitment to the cause given by the band and expected from the crowd. Might be Sunday and you might feel spent after four days of solid self-abuse (in whatever way you chose, I’m not here to judge) but the
Brooklyn veterans will not accept that as an excuse. Rumour has it that a new album is on the way, and they’ll be in Manchester three days after Bloodstock; everything is coming up Biohazard.
There were, shall we say, mixed reactions when King 810’s name appeared on the screens last year, which is fine, it wouldn’t be for everyone to like the same thing. But for those of us who are acolytes of the Flint crew, having them back at Bloodstock is a real pleasure. If their shows with Alpha Wolf in the spring are anything to go by, then the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage will be treated to a journey through the dark recesses of David Gunn’s experience.
Bristol technical death metal cohort, Embodiment, will no doubt bring the precision and the filth to the stage which promises to be something of a switch of gears after Church of the Cosmic Skull‘s groovy Seventies vibes.
Young and hungry UK Metalcore upstarts, InVisions are no strangers to the festival experience having already laid waste to Download in the past and now are turning their razor-focused attention to Bloodstock; Cobra the Impaler will be bringing a heavy, yet melodic aesthetic, new Church Road signees, Tuskar, should attract a sizable crown with their Mastodon meets Yob sludge. French five-piece Stengah could barely stray too far from a Meshuggah sound with such a name and Overthrown is in prime position to shake the early morning fatigue from those legs and ears.
At the time of writing the Jagermiester and New Blood stages had just been fully confirmed, with lots of interesting names for me to look into before August. Of those I’m already familiar with I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Street Soldier again, as they promise to be a frenzy of energy and aggression.
As ever, Bloodstock Open Air is looking to be the UK’s premier alfresco Heavy Metal shindig and offers a line up to satisfy almost all palettes. Unless your jam is wall to wall Drone and you think SunnO))) were good until they went all commercial and sold out, there will be something for you at Bloodstock 2023.
Grab a ticket, a tent and some bog roll and come on down to Catton Park. Go on, you know you want to!
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography & Damian John Photography
