The Razor's Edge BIG BLOODSTOCK PREVIEW
Words: Dan Barnes
2024 marks the twenty-fifth festival under the Bloodstock banner, stretching back to that Whitsuntide Bank Holiday Monday in 2001, covering 2005 and 2006’s dual shows and the cancellation of 2020. Much has happened in the intervening years: steady growth, a shift from the confines of the Assembly Rooms to the expansive Catton Park, and a change in ethos from the Power Metal-centric bills of the indoor shows, to hosting then-unthinkable headline acts such as Trivium, Parkway Drive or Killswitch Engage.
But, back then, who would have believed, one day, the likes of Alice Cooper, Slayer and Judas Priest would tread those boards? Over those years we’ve seen festivals rise and fall, with only the most hardy and evolutionary-fit to survive growing and adapting to the harsh conditions.
This years’ main stage headliners bring a wealth of experience to the Bloodstock party: Friday will see Swedes Opeth taking the top billing for the third time, though their first headline slot since 2010’s festival. Having been top dogs in 2008, five years had passed before the progressive titans would return to the Ronnie James Dio stage, as Within Temptation’s special guest at the 2015 show. But, the stars have aligned and Opeth will close out the first day proper with a fan-selected set, voting for which has already been taking place.
Making their debut at Catton Park for their Saturday headline show will be Brighton-based Metalcore juggernaut, Architects, whose first foray to the festival promises to be a visceral affair. With twenty years under their collective belts, Architects will be looking the repeat the 2019 achievement of fellow Metalcore exponents, Parkway Drive, by bludgeoning Bloodstock into submission through passion, heart and a whole host of great music.
Closing mainstage shenanigans for 2024 is the ever-popular Swedish marauders, Amon Amarth, whose steady rise up the Bloodstock bills began as early as 2005, when they also played special guests to Within Temptation, though this time at the Assembly Rooms. Shows in 2009 and 2014 followed, with them finally taking a top billing in 2017. The hordes will be chomping at the bit all weekend for the Vikings to make their way up the Trent and make landfall, probably just behind the S.O.P.H.I.E. tent. I think we can all expect a bombastic and full-bloodied climax to Bloodstock 2024, will some Sunday night oarsmanship required. I suggest you get on those rowing machines as soon as possible.
Supporting Opeth, Maryland four-piece, Clutch, is perhaps the most popular announcement Bloodstock have made in many a year. The Stoner / Alternative / Hard Rock quartet have been together since 1991, have put out thirteen full-length albums over the past thirty-years, with their latest being 2022’s Sunrise on Slaughter Beach, being both dirty and sludgy and trippy and psychedelic all at the same time. I’m going to offer that the hour or so spent with Clutch, as the sun sets, will be a highlight of not only 2024, but will be written into Bloodstock lore
After all the pearl-clutching of the 2012 announcement of Hatebreed’s first Bloodstock appearance, Jamey Jasta and his Connecticut crew have all but made Catton Park a home-from-home. Their S.O.P.H.I.E. headlining appearance of 2022 having been cancelled, this will mark the band’s fourth Bloodstock show, and the first since 2017. It’s been almost four years since the release of the Weight of the False Self record and all signs point to a new album arriving soon; might get a few newbies from the lads to whet the appetite.
Two Damnation shows last November, and the March tour suggests Enslaved enjoy visiting these shores and if recent performances are anything to go by then even by their own high standards, the Norwegian progressive black metallers are firing on all cylinders. Revelling in both fiery riffs and brain-melting melodies, any Enslaved show is a treat and Bloodstock’s is unlikely to be bucking that trend. Similarly, Rotting Christ are at home at Catton Park and, having alternated their appearances between the S.O.P.H.I.E. and the Ronnie James Dio stages in the past, it is time for these Greeks to come back to the main stage. Having cornered the market in blackened-gothic-death metal, the back-to-back pairing of Enslaved and Rotting Christ is manna for everyone who wants their metal dark and epic.
Before that, will be the majestic metal of Sweden’s Grand Magus, with the Stockholm three-piece guaranteed to bring more horns raised and more fists clenched than any three individuals have any right to do. Drawing equally heavily from the musical style of Seventies bands like Purple and Sabbath, and from the English folklore, Green Lung‘s announcement was rapturously received. The stoner-doom band’s dalliances with themes of the occult, and their exceptional discography, suggest a spell will be cast upon the gathered masses. Brazilian death-thrashers, Nervosa, have been plying their trade since 2010 and have five albums to show for it. Expect to have your ears blasted and any of those Thursday hangovers to be truly exorcised. Opening the main stage proceedings for 2024 will be progressive southern metallers, Desert Storm, who’ll be making the step up from their S.O.P.H.I.E. slot in 2022.
Considering Malevolence’s presence at Bloodstock Open Air 2021 was a last-minute booking, their establishment of one of the country’s most dependable heavy commodities over the intervening years is unquestioned. Appearances at Download, Slam Dunk and Outbreak in the twelve months following that Bloodstock show, and a return to Catton Park to top the S.O.P.H.I.E. Stage when Hatebreed were forced to cancel in ’22, confirmed their status. Meaning the Sheffield bruisers promotion to Saturday Special Guest is well deserved. Their blend of Hardcore, Sludge and massive beatdowns could well see Catton Park beaten into submission long before Architects arrive.
Much like Hatebreed, Knoxville, Tennessee’s deathcore collective, Whitechapel, have divided opinion over the course of their Bloodstock bookings and, also like Hatebreed, have been forced to cancel a S.O.P.H.I.E. headlining slot in the recent past. More than merely only a deathcore band, Whitechapel have proved over the course of eight full length albums that they are no One-Trick-Pony and are as fluent in progressive, groove and just pure death metal as they are with any amount of ‘core. The Live in The Valley album from earlier in the year showed a band who knows how to bring the rage and aggression to the party. Expect fireworks.
Even though my personal faith tells me differently, I cannot wait for crazy uncle Glen and his blasphemous brethren to take the RJD stage. Originally scheduled to appear in 2012, Deicide’s debut at Catton Park feels like the last piece in Bloodstock’s Old School Death Metal jigsaw. Beginning recording life as Amon and emerging from the Floridan swamps along with Morbid Angel, Obituary and Cannibal Corpse, Deicide’s commitment to their anti-religious ideology has seen them through thirteen albums and nearly forty years of God-baiting sacrilege. In stark contrast will be Canadian Power Metallers, Unleash the Archers, who make their way to Catton Park after several unsuccessful previous attempts to get there. Straight out of the Nightwish school of overblown symphonic performance, and with 2024’s Phantoma album nicely settled, it’s likely to be a treat for those of the old school Bloodstock ethos. Raise those horns and quaff that mead, as tales of battles and myth are regaled.
The late-Eighties was a glorious time to be alive and for no other reason that we got to see all those ace Thrash bands when they were first starting out. It wasn’t just about the Big Four – or even the many other Big Fours that followed – but about the bands who, for whatever reason, didn’t have the far-reaching influence of an Anthrax, Megadeth or Slayer. The hardcore fans loved these bands, and none more so than San Fran’s Forbidden. Back at Bloodstock for the first time in thirteen years, the band have been through break-ups and an enforced hiatus but are back for the first shows outside the US in many years and with the promise of a new album coming soon. It’s unlikely that Brazilian death thrashers, Crypta weren’t influenced, either directly or indirectly by the Eighties Bay Area scene, Ukrainians Ignea offer an otherworldly take on the symphonic metal genre, and the blackened death of Deitus will be sure to wake up all those early revellers.
A decade of waiting is finally over and, following the Special Guest slot with Emperor at the 2014, Liverpool’s finest musical sons – yeah, that’s what I said – and all-round legends, Carcass reunite with Amon Amarth for a repeat of the Defenders of the Faith IV bill-topping. From the grinding filth of Reek of Putrefaction, through appearing on Red Dwarf, to the greater complexities of their later records, Carcass have amassed an exemplary discography and influenced a generation of bands.
Having been fortunate to have been present at many a Flogging Molly show, I can categorically state for the record that regardless of the condition you find yourself in come late afternoon on Sunday, you will be compelled to dance. Dave King might be stylistically a million miles away from the Eighties Metal of Fastway – the Trick or Treat soundtrack, anybody? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about! – but their Celtic Punk, complete with penny whistles, violins and accordions, and heavily influenced by the likes of The Pogues and The Clash, is absolutely guaranteed to see Catton Park swigging Guiness and singing drunken lullabies.
From headlining the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage’s Sunday finale in 2022, to the RJD, Sweden’s The Night Flight Orchestra won’t be letting Molly have all the fun and are bound to bring their Classic Rock inspired show to Bloodstock, keeping the party going with some upbeat party anthems. Since their last appearance at the festival in 2018, the other equally long-established Greek extreme metal band, Septicflesh, spent the autumn of 2022 given Hypocrisy a run for their money on tour. Like their fellow countrymen from the day before, these Greeks don’t do death metal by the numbers, and are sure to mesmerise as well as destroy.
Scandinavian Power Metal is never out of place at Bloodstock and Finnish quintet, Beast in Black, bring their Accept/ W.A.S.P./ Manowar inspired metal to the fields of Catton Park. Progressive Swedes, Soen, featuring original Opeth drummer, Martin Lopez, have been busy since their inception in 2010, releasing their sixth album, Memorial, last year and finally making it to the festival after the cancellations of 2020. Paulo, Jnr is no stranger to the Ronnie James Dio stage, though he is usually in the more familiar guise of Sepultura. For 2024, he’ll be there as part of Cultura Tres, a hard hitting outfit from Venezuela who weave bludgeoning symphonies of thrash, sludge and psychedelic metal. Kicking things off on Sunday will be Raised by Owls, who have seen themselves accelerated up the rankings after appearing on the New Blood Stage back in 2017, and whose party death metal could well be the finishing point for delicate heads after a heavy Saturday night.
If vitamin D isn’t your thing, then you’re going to be interested in what treats Bloodstock has in store under the canvas protection of the S.O.H.P.I.E. stage. As ever the organisers have not been stingy in their alternative entertainment which, in the grand tradition, fires the starting pistol on Thursday evening. Beginning life as bonus for the early arrivals, Thursday is now enshrined into the weekend and the line ups reflect that status.
Headlining in 2024 is Swedish progressives Evergrey, who have a long history with the festival, dating back a couple of decades to the indoor show of 2004. Tom Englund has been leading his charges and has been Evergrey’s ever-present since the band’s inception in 1993. With thirteen albums already in the bag, and a fourteenth, Theories of Emptiness, just dropped, now has never been a better time for the band to step up and take a top stop. Hitting the sweet-spot between proggy noodling and balls-out metal, Evergrey are bound to act as a perfect entrée to the weekend ahead.
One-man project turned full band, Hellripper will bring the darkness to the (hopefully) sunny climes of Catton Park. Loading the influences from Black Metal, Speed Metal and even Punk, James McBain to his friends, will enrapture with evil to the delight of the Thursday crowd. None more than Daryl in the Rock Soc tent, who’s been wearing Hellripper T-shirts to Bloodstock for the past… how many years?
Following on from their appearance at Stonedead 2023, and supporting Kris Barras back in April, Bournemouth’s South of Salem combine old school punk rock and raucous Heavy Metal to create a party soundtrack like the apocalypse is barrelling down the road. Bloodstock is meat and drink for this band whose wasteland marauder image will no doubt compliment most of the crowd Tailgunner are a young band with a classic metal sound, manna for all those campers who’ve been imbibing since noon. You lucky people, you! Kicking off Bloodstock 2024 will be Acid Age, whose psychedelic fusion of thrash metal and jazz has led to a coining of the phrase: War-Jazz.
When the Nu-Metal bands were merging Hip-Hop with Metal back in the day, it’s almost as if French musician, Gautier Serre, professionally known as Igorrr, had a “Hold my Beer” moment and wondered what it would be like to blend Black Metal, Trip-Hop and Breakcore with the Baroque style of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The band’s headline slot at last year’s Radar Festival showed Igorrr have the chops to close a big show and, with four albums of insane material at his disposal, Serre is sure to bring the curtain down on Friday’s live roster in a memorable fashion.
Offering a more sedate option will be Icelandic trio, The Vintage Caravan, who’s sound is influenced by the Seventies power houses of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Rush, with a dollop of Cream to add a little extra flavour. Some classic proggy psyche-rock might be just the ticket, especially with Clutch on the mainstage around the same time. In the vein of Bathory, Eternal Champion is unlikely to be looking for compromise when they hit the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage in August. Their dedication to the Heavy Metal cause is admirable, and when you’re drawing inspiration from Robert E Howard and have songs like Skullseeker and Worms of the Earth, you have an inkling it’s time to polish those broad swords (take that as you will) and pledge allegiance to the cause.
Hailing from Northern Ireland, Darkest Era are all about the darkly emotive, doom-adjacent Heavy Metal. Slow and steady as it builds in atmosphere, complete with killer riffs and soaring vocals, there won’t be a dry eye in the house (or tent, in this case). Wolf need no introduction to the Bloodstock faithful as the Swedes make a fifth appearance at the festival, there first since 2015, though previous slots every-other year between 2007 and 2011 meant they were almost Catton Park’s house band. Nineth album, Shadowlands, landed in 2022, reinforcing Wolf as one of power/ speed/ heavy metal’s most zealous warriors. Dutch band, Haliphron feature former members of Izegrim, God Dethroned and Bleeding Gods among their ranks, and whose symphonic black metal could give Dimmu Borgir a run for their money.
Exist Immortal will be bringing their brand of progressive metalcore to the party, just to mix things up. Death Collector’s Death Toll album from last year was in the running for Death Metal album of the year, hardly surprising when the band boasts former members of Bolt Thrower and Ashen Crown, amidst its personnel. Burner, also purveyors of a quality debut in 2023, will be unlikely to ask or or give any quarter whatsoever with their violent breakdowns and flesh-ripping guitars; leaving classic rock trio Häxan to ease us into the weekend proper with some timeless tunes.
Saturday in the S.O.P.H.I.E. finds another of the old school Bloodstock house bands plying their trade: Korpiklaani. Veterans of three previous festivals and also making their first return to Catton Park since 2015, the Finns will be bringing their usual folk-vibes to the stage to round off Saturday shenanigans with some irresistibly danceable tunes. With a new record this year I think we can expect a mixture of the old and the new, yet always thoroughly entertaining, songs to take us into the midnight hour.
Reading’s Sylosis return to Bloodstock just two years after their show supporting Mercyful Fate and find themselves promoted to the Special Guest slot on the S.O.P.H.I.E. Blending metalcore with thrash and melodic death metal, the quartet will not only act as a fine support to Korpiklaani, but also provide a more immediate entrée to Architects, who’ll be about the take to the mainstage around the time Sylosis end their bludgeoning. Industrial aggrotech merchants, Combichrist, find their way back to Bloodstock after their triumphant appearance in 2018. If their show at Uprising last year is anything to go by, the years have not mellowed this mob and mainstay, Andy LaPiegua, will blast through classics as well as cuts from the recently released new record CMBCRST.
Harrogate’s Asomvel have been plying their trade since 1993, with Lenny Robinson still remaining from that time. The band’s first full-length only appeared in 2009, but they have issued regular collections since, most recently the proudly titled Born to Rock ‘n’ Roll. Pirate Metallers Red Rum will be challenging Korpiklaani to who can create the biggest dancing crowd of the day, while Mimi Barks might not be the standard Bloodstock booking, but her Deadgirl album from 2022 is full of unsettling rhythms and bristles with hard-hitting energy.
In a similar vein to Mimi Barks comes Ludovico Technique from New York, who’ll be importing their electro-industrial gothic stylings, creating the first of many brain-frazzling performances of the day. Finland’s Enemies Everywhere with be bludgeoning with their modern deathcore, Unpeople’s alternative sound will have seen them opening for Metallica in Austria before arriving at Catton Park and Cauldron will begin the day in a more traditional manner.
There’s something of a synchronicity about the bill-toppers for Sunday in that the last time both Satyricon and Amon Amarth appeared at the same Bloodstock was in 2009, when Amon performed ahead of the Europe-special-guesting Norwegians; in a strange way, fifteen years later, Satyricon will take the stage again after the Swedes have finished.
Having been one of Black Metal’s more accessible artists over the years, Satyr and Frost have always been trve to their roots and manage to balance their darkness with a level of wide-spread appeal, even popping up to open for Pantera on their Reinventing the Steel tour in 2000. Always a band who deliver in the live environment, the opportunity to play in a darkened tent, create an atmosphere deserving of their status and send Bloodstock 2024 off into history in a hail of grand theatrics seems almost deigned from below.
Moldovan quartet, Infected Rain, blend Nu-Metal, Metalcore and Alternative with a large dose of groove to create a thoroughly modern sounding noise. Having formed back in 2008 and releasing their debut album in 2011, the band are still guided by original members, vocalist Lena Scissorhands and Vadim Ojog on guitar. This year saw the release of album number six, TIME, which has already produced two singles, in the form of Vivarium and Lighthouse. Pretty sure you’ll hear at least one of them in August. What can one say about Xentrix? Other than they’re from my town and we go waaaaay back. I was at the Sweet Vengeance gig when they announced their name change; used to see some of the lads at Central Park watching Wigan and once worked with Chris’ cousin. It’s been a long and bumpy road for ‘Stan and Dennis, but they’ve kept the flame burning for all of us who believed, and now make their fourth appearance at Bloodstock. Jay has fitted into the band like a glove and both Bury the Pain and 2022’s Seven Words can stand toe-to-toe with the first three classics. It’s Xentrix, they’ll be great as usual. ‘Nuff said.
I had to double-check that I was reading it right, but it definitely does say Sadus on the poster. The Eighties Californian legends were so ahead of their time back in the day that only a handful of people dug their grooves. Blending thrashing riffs with a death metal aesthetic meant they went over the heads of many, but time has been kind to the likes of Illusions, Swallowed in Black and A Vision of Misery, drawing people back to the technical aspects of those albums in light of the intervening years and citation of the band as an influence on many who followed them. New record, The Shadow Inside was seventeen years in the making, but sounds as fresh and forward-thinking as anything the band have released. Catalan five-piece, Ankor, will be bringing something a little different to Catton Park, merging harsh rhythms with aggressive vocals and powerful industrial elements for what is bound to be a devastating performance. I saw Grove Street opening for Cancer Bats last year and was amazed by the sheer energy they produced. Gravelly guitars and Urban beats place the band very much within the exploding UKHC scene, so expect fireworks.
Coming all the way from the land of the rising sun, Ryujin are a sort of Japanese Dragon Force, full of metallic bombast and traditional inspiration. The self-titled debut album, released this year, features Trivium’s Matt Heafy as a guest, though whether he’ll make it to Catton Park is questionable, the rest of the band are sure to tickle to delights of many of the Bloodstock traditionalists. Osiah are no strangers to the big show and have been spreading their crushing Deathcore across festivals all over the continent. Expect down-tuned guitars, breakdowns and guttural vocals to be the order of the day. Awake by Design are all about the big metal sounds and have attracted comparison to bands like Iron Maiden and Kamelot; with over a decade of touring under their belts, they have shared stages with such Bloodstock alumni as Apocalyptica, Sonate Arctica and Leaves’ Eyes.
With the first names for the New Blood and EMP Stages having been announced, and many more to come, Bloodstock Open Air 2024 will reach its quarter of a century milestone in the rudest of health.
Picking favourites or most anticipated is a toughie from this line-up, though Deicide, Carcass and Molly are drawing my eye on the RJD, while Igorrr, Satyricon and Xentrix will find me in the tent.
All we need now is some of that elusive sunshine and a bit less of the all-too-common sky water. Pack your cagoule, pack your factor 50 and head on down to Catton Park for a mighty shindig. And maybe a drunken go on the dodgems.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
