Bloodstock 2024: Sunday Review
Words: Dan Barnes, Tim Finch, Matt Noble, Cat Finch
Photos: Tim Finch
It’s shaping up to be a hot one. Not really hot - not for us who lived through the summer of 1976 – now that was hot. So hot in fact that I died of heat-stroke. Twice. But my dad made me walk it off. We were much hardier back then.
With it barely being worth getting the car out, Derby grinders, Raised by Owls wonder whether they’re the worst band ever to play the main stage of Bloodstock. The TLDR answer is absolutely not; and I would offer, beside Nuclear Assault in 2015 and Benediction in 2010, the band’s set represented one of the most fun ways a day at the festival has started. Added to that the award for Most Creative Use of a Parent, and Raised by Owls are entertaining to the maximum. Dressed as vicars, Sam Fowler leads the band through such classics as Comedy Metal is a Fucking Embarrassment and Ross Kemp on Gang Bangs. Glenn Danzig makes an ‘appearance’ for Strictly Come Danzig and the theme is continued with the ever-popular Dance Like Barney Greenway – like a man out for a jog who’s been attacked by bees, opines Sam.
One of the biggest cheers of the day come when Sam introduces his mum, who enters stage left dresses as a nun, offering the advice that “you’d have to be pissed to listen to this shit”. The audience is split based on the pronunciation of ‘scone’ for Satanists on t’Yorkshire Moors, I’m Sorry I Wore a Dying Fetus T-Shirt to Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party and The Dark and Twisted Realm in Which Fred Durst Resides sees Mr Blobby in an inflatable dingy on top of the crowd, before a cover of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff bring it all to an end. Fantastic way to open the final day.
Venezuela’s Cultura Tres have been active since the mid-noughties and had released five records prior to the recruitment of Paulo from Sepultura into their ranks. Strangely enough, Paulo is not present at Bloodstock today, but the equally legendary Dave Ellefson, formerly of Megadeth and Dieth, fills on and provides the low end.
As the Central and South American sound was all-but defined by Sepultura back in the day, using harsh metallic progressions alongside culturally traditional instrumentation, it’s easy to hear that in the likes of Time is Up and The Land; even vocalist Alejandro Londoño Montoya, who seems genuinely pleased to have made it back to the UK, cannot escape the Cavalera comparisons as he barks lyrics. Proxy War, Day One and Zombies sum up the concepts of the band, but even a broken drum pedal doesn’t derail the momentum of the set.
That Swedish progressive metallers, Soen sound a little like Opeth could be down to something in the Scandinavian water, or that the leading light of the band just happens to be Martín López, who sat on Opeth’s drum stool from My Arms, Your Hearse to Ghost Reveries – and played on Amon Amarth’s debut, Once Sent from the Golden Hall. There are some early pyrotechnics and singer, Joel Ekelöf has decided to keep his leather jacket on, despite the weather.
Complex compositions and length running times mean the band only manage to showcase half-a-dozen tunes, three of which are from the most recent record, Memorial. Unbreakable has a fierce solo, closer Violence is a variation of the harsh and melodic, while the title track gets things going with a serious intent. They focus on the two preceding albums for the remainder of the set, leaving the first three records untouched.
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No one in this field can deny the influence of Scandinavian power metal on the early Bloodstock brand. Finns Beast in Black make their Catton Park debut with set designed to tickle the fancy of the patient power metal fans, who are thinly-served this year. It’s big, bombastic and epic; huge riffs and multi-octave vocal ranges, with titles such as Power of the Beast, Cry Out for a Hero and End of the World you just know without looking they’ve been over exposed to Priest, Manowar and a whole host of European bands only the most dedicated genre fans would know.
Hailing from the same region as Friday legends, Rotting Christ, Athenians SepticFlesh return to Bloodstock for the first time since their triumphant 2018 show. The melodic black metal outfit have thirty-years’ experience behind them and set about making short work of their limited stage time. The Vampire from Nazareth is about as blasphemous as the band get today, with its gothic undertones and dark ambience. The band’s combination of blackened riffs and low-fi bottom end inspires wave after wave of hardy souls over the barriers, including a six-year-old young lady who was handled by everyone so delicately it’s as though she were a Faberge Egg. Even the burly security guard, who walked her back to her extremely relieved mum, did so as though he were on Royal Duties.
Horns are raised for the melodic, hook-laden, Anubis and the curtain was brought down with Dark Art. The Greeks were as dark as Bloodstock 2024 got, and the blazing sun doesn’t really help when trying to create an atmosphere, but SepticFlesh did the best they could with that they had to work with.
After headlining the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage in 2022, The Night Flight Orchestra from Sweden lighten the mood with their anachronistic, Seventies and Eighties-style of classic rock. Throwing in the odd Disco or Funk element turns Catton Park’s main stage into a Vegas Cabaret Lounge. The immaculately attired Björn "Speed" Strid of Soilwork and Arch Enemy bassist Sharlee D’Angelo formed the band way back in 2007, producing six albums to date. Their fascination with over-blown presentation and bombastic pop-metal is as infectious as it is grin-inducing.
From the beginning of Midnight Flyer to the closing West Ruth Ave, The Night Flight Orchestra bring a little of the razzamatazz and a whole lot of the bonkers to Bloodstock.
Flogging Molly frontman, Dave King cut his teeth in Fast Eddie Clarke’s Fastway, including ex-UFO bassist, Pete Way, and was most notable for giving voice to the Trick or Treat soundtrack in 1986. Molly, however, are a very different animal and having seen them play live many times, I knew that Bloodstock was about to get the party of its life. The band’s Celtic Punk stylings haven’t been heard from the main stage before and Molly get the festivities started with, what else, but the anthemic Drunken Lullabies. The late afternoon is turned into a dancefloor for The Hand of John L Sullivan and Swagger; hands are raised as far as the eye can see for A Song of Liberty and the Caribbean-feel of Tobacco Island. Heck, even Dave’s having a jig along to the fiddle of his wife, Bridget Regan, who provides many of the Gaelic accoutrements to today’s musical banquet.
An updated version of The Croppy Boy ’98 doesn’t slow the flow over the barrier and Dave ponders the band’s broad ranging appeal as, a fortnight after Bloodstock they’re appearing Mosely Folk and Arts Festival. Infectious Celtic rhythms populate Devil’s Dance Club, meaning even the corpse painted blackened souls have been touched. If Ever I Leave this World Alive is dedicated to his former band mates in Fastway, and These Times Have Got Me Drinking / Tripping Up the Stairs, from the recent Anthem album fits so snuggly into the set, it’s as though it were an oldie.
Molly close things off with What’s Left of the Flag and Seven Deadly Sins for a triumphant conclusion to one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend.
Ten years of absence from Catton Park is over when grindcore legends Carcass take to the Ronnie James Dio stage as the intro tape of Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue plays. Clad in sunglasses, the band hit into Heartwork opener, Buried Dreams, and make a very real play to be band of the weekend. A rapid-fire Kelly’s Meat Emporium follows, with Bill Steer’s guitars finding that grinding sound again. Jeff Walker’s familiar left foot on monitor stance is as iconic as his bass-tones.
Death Certificate’s guitar runs ramp up the already boundlessly energetic crowd, while the soaring solo and dual harmonies between Steer and James Blackford is awe-inspiring. Tracks from the criminally under-rated Swansong are given a medley, as Black Star and Keep On Rotting in the Free World are brought together, combining the aggressive with the composed. The unforgettable beats of Corporal Jigsore Quandary are going to be lodged in you head for the rest of the night now, regardless of what Amon or Satyricon do, and the merging of Ruptured in Purulence with Heartwork just shouldn’t work at all – yet does.
Early tunes, Gential Ginder, Exhume to Consume and Pyosisified (Rotten to the Core) slide in among newer numbers, Under the Scalpel Blade and Dance of Ixtab with hardly any notice of the seam. Leaving Tools of the Trade and Reek of Putrefaction to end the set in style. I don’t know how Carcass manage it, but they seem to get better every time I see them play.
And so it comes to this: Bloodstock 2024’s final main stage headliner, Amon Amarth. It’s been fascinating to watch Amon’s rise up the Bloodstock billing since their first appearance at the Assembly Rooms in 2005, playing main support to Within Temptation, to their first Open Air show in 2009 – when they coincidentally played just before Satyricon – their 2014 special guest slot to Megadeth and their headlining show in 2017.
It feels like this show is different in some way, from the opening of Raven’s Flight, showing the Ronnie James Dio has been converted into a epic Viking setting, enough pyrotechnics to give Keith Lard a heart attack, and longer beards then an academic conference. It’s wall to wall anthems of marauding Norsemen and their conquests, mixed with the regions religious aspects.
Guardians of Asgard comes next, as pumped-fists spread as far as the eye can see. The Pursuit of the Vikings is a real foot-tapper, with its recognisable riff and melodic guitars. Deceiver of Gods and As Loki Falls are linked in their consideration of the Norse Deity of mischief, both seemingly imbued with a touch of the Iron Maiden in the leads. The trickster even pops up for a showdown during the later song.
Johan gives us a quick lesson in Norse Mythology before Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags and calls for dancing around in circles – more commonly known as a circle pit – during Heidrun.
Amon are on another level tonight, and this feels like the show they’ve always had in them but – for whatever reason – I’d never seen. Put Your Back Into the Oar has hundreds of folk at the front of the stage sitting and rowing for all their worth; I’m sure the whole of the festival ground had moved a couple of feet toward the river by the end.
Curiously, Under the Northern Star is the oldest tune played tonight, from 2006, but – to some extent – the set list is merely a means to get the blood pumping and inspire a horde of would-be Viking berserkers. Raise Your Horns and the final tune from the RJD for 2024, Twilight of the Thunder Gods, all but bring the curtain down on the weekend, showing Amon Amarth to be popular and worthy headliners of the festival.
The final day on the S.O.P.H.I.E. shows a few last-minute adjustments being made to the running order. Unexpected openers, Black Lakes are a modern take on the Nu sound, with Korn moves and an emo aesthetic. Awake By Design bring a sense of epic and grandiosity to proceedings. With power and melodic metal leanings backed by dual guitars, keys, and a powerhouse lead vocal performance, they really get their audience engaged and fist pumping along to their potent setlist. New single 'The Only Ones' rouses a lively response on its first outing since release, marking the first recording with the band's current lineup, who are watertight and strong as a unit. An uplifting and self assured performance from one of the best in the underground. Moon Reaper‘s gothic doom and female-fronted death metal assault certainly creates an impressive atmosphere.
Sunderland’s Osiah have more than a decade of experience and their technical deathcore is straight out of the Carnifex / Thy Art Is Murder stable. Ricky Lee Roper delivers pig grunts to the band’s filthy riffs and meaty beatdowns. The Eye of the Storm caught my ear from the Loss album, for its D-beats and uncompromising approach if nothing else. Hardcore, punk and thrash all meet in the guise of Southampton’s Grove Street whose two-step rhythms and big breakdowns are not the usual Bloodstock fare, but they’ve brought their own axe-wielding executioner to stalk the photo pit. Skipping beats and Urban influences give a metallic hardcore show a little slower in tempo than Hatebreed, but no less intense. Newbie, Divided Kingdom features some infectious beats and promises good things from a forthcoming album. It’s no wonder Ankor have such a vast range of music to choose from, as their full-length albums pale into comparison when set against their single releases, EPs and collaborations. The Spanish Alternative metallers are part Rollo Tomassi and part Deadlock, with a combination of soft and harsh vocals, simultaneously lulling you to sleep while scaring the b’Jesus out of you. There are plenty of groove in the likes of Darkbeat and Walking Dead, certainly enough to send you off to find out more about this quintet.
No matter how cool you might think you are, you’re not as cool as the chap sitting at Sadus’ barrier, smoking a pipe while reading his book; as the band are on stage. One of the original bands of the Eighties death metal scene – if memory serves, I think they toured with Morbid Angel on their 1991 European Sickness trek – fusing thrashing riffs into their guttural assault. Darren Travis and Jon Allen are still keeping the Sadus flame burning, including last year’s The Shadow Inside album, which provides four tunes to this afternoon’s show. First Blood, Ride the Knife, Scorched and Burnt and the title track all pepper the set, with the original numbers being really what we came for. Sadus Attack and Certain Death bookend the show, and a central medley of Hands of Fate / In Your Face and Good Ridn’z taking us back to a time when the dust had barely settled from the Berlin Wall being pulled down. It’s easy to consider Sadus’ sound as it is now, without thinking of how new and exciting it was back when we first heard it.
Straight over from Flogging Molly to the S.O.P.H.I.E. for Preston’s Xentrix who, though they might not want to admit it, are leading lights in what remains of the UK Thrash scene. Only Acid Reign from back in the day are still as active, so the ‘trix have chosen this year to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of their Shattered Existence debut by playing it in its entirety.
I’m so used to hearing this record it’s slightly disconcerting not to hear Chris’ vocals on No Compromise – I know they usually play it was the encore, but I’m used to Jay’s vocals by then – but it only takes a verse and a tent-splitting chorus to position the song squarely in Mr Walsh’s wheelhouse. Despite the slightly cheesy lyric that might not have aged as well as it could, it always has been a banger of an opening tune. Balance of Power and Crimes delve into the more pertinent wider aspects of when they were written – only to be as relevant today as back then. Back in the Real World and Dark Enemy have lost none of their power, and the dualling strings of Messrs Walsh and Harvard take us all on a trip down Memory Lane.
I always thought Position of Security was unfairly overlooked in the band’s live shows, so it was great to hear that tune get an airing, along with Heaven Cent. I’ll be doing all over again with the band in November.
Once voted the Most Eccentric Vocalist in her native Moldova, Infected Rain‘s screamer, Lena Scissorhands, takes her opportunity to become the focus of attention at Catton Park this evening,
with a dreadlock-twirling performance of groove-laden alternative metal. She instigates a jump-da-fuck-up moment during Dying Light and, while not the biggest name on Bloodstock’s bill this year, their shows at the end of the month will surely be attracting those whose interest has been piqued.
And so, Bloodstock Open Air 2024 draws to a close, with only the blackened tones of Satyricon left to fill the air. Only the darkest hearts - or the most fool-hardly – have remained to see the rite, sending this iteration of the festival into the history books. As with 2009, the Norwegians follow Amon Amarth at Catton Park and I wonder how many have crammed the S.O.P.H.I.E. tent purely to fathom out what Anthrax’s Frank Bello is doing playing black metal bass.
Satyricon have never been the blackest of the Norwegian bands and though not as egregiously flamboyant as Dimmu Borgir, are certainly closer to them in their accessibility that Mayhem or Gorgoroth.
The show is something of a trip through Satyricon’s past, opening with To Your Brethren in the Dark from 2017’s Deep Calleth Upon Deep record, going back to the sophomore release of The Shadowthrone and the sinister Hvite Krists død from 1994. Last time the band visited Bloodstock, back in 2016, they played the complete Nemesis Divina album, so only revisit it during a blistering Forhekset and their iconic Mother North.
Frank shows his chops on the swinging favourite Now, Diabolical and The Pentagram Burns, Frost demonstrates why he’s considered to be one of the genre’s premier drummers as he battles with the twisting guitars of Black Crow on a Tombstone, and Satyr winds the clock back on Filthgrinder and Rapine Bastard Nation.
As ever, the New Blood stage provided a wealth of entertainment on the third and final day. Rising Birmingham alt metallers Straight for the Sun opened proceedings in fine form. Though many by this point in the festival are bleary eyed and hungover, they attract a solid sized crowd despite their early slot. Opening with their hot off the press new single 'Pulling Teeth', which sees a few in the audience already singing along, they really entertain with a set full of catchy hooks, dirty riffs and moments to dance and not be too serious. Their older material is just as well received and it's hard not to imagine them on a much bigger stage next time they're here.
Representing Northampton are Space Pistol, whose leanings into alternative rock is a breath of fresh air at this point in a metal festival, though there's plenty of heavy undertones that doesn't make them feel out of place. They start the set on a whisper, gradually turning up the volume with their whacky anthems that mostly draw from new record 'Leave With Everything' today. All dressed in pink jumpsuits, they look the part, and with a uniqueness to their music they leave with one of the genuinely memorable sets from a lesser known band this weekend.
Birmingham Metal 2 The Masses victors Kensei put on a show to remember, making the most of their moment in the spotlight. Their melodeath-tinged metalcore acts like a shot of adrenaline to the tent, igniting a sea of mosh pits, energy and headbanging from their busy crowd. Frontman Dave has a commanding presence, dictating the ebb and flow with power while the rest of the band behind him play with an enviable tightness that puts some on the bigger stages to shame. Ending on one of the largest mosh pits seen in New Blood all weekend, here's hoping that Kensei see today as an opportunity for greater things and return to the festival soon!
And of course the EMP stage had some hidden gems on the final day! Northern doomers Goblinsmoker attract a huge crowd for their set on the EMP Stage, faithfully busting out riff after riff after fuzz soaked riff to a massive response. With a set poignantly dedicated to former member Calum, who'd tragically died the month before, Goblinsmoker truly deliver a performance to mark the occasion, their first since the passing - and also deliver to mark the huge festival slot they'd been afforded. Their thick, vicious riffs ignite a sea of banging heads which completely pack out the tent, with several watching from outside or from the back. Goblinsmoker sound like a professional unit more than ever and they're really indicating a bright future ahead these days. Could be a big name in the UK doom scene very soon.
Yorkshire's Loyds Trip deliver a performance for the ages, their unashamedly old school blues rock, delivered with a viciousness that still feels at home at a metal festival like here, has real character, swagger and attitude. Embodying the spirit of rock n' roll, they have the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands. Above all, it's entertainment. The stage presence from each is impressive, and they boast a guitar and bass tone that's particularly powerful. Frontman Dan leads the line confidently, spitting out each lyric with conviction. A strong closing act for this stage, these are definitely ones to keep an eye on going ahead.
As the last chords of K.I.N.G. fade from the PA and Satyricon have given the darkest of last rites to Bloodstock 2024, there’s chance to consider this year as a whole and look forward to the August 2025, when Trivium, Machine Head and Gojira will top the main stage bill and S.O.P.H.I.E. will play host to Me & That Man, Kataklysm, Static-X and some band called Obituary. My personal highlight of the announcement is Emperor, but each to their own.
Bloodstock Open Air 2024 felt like a transitional show – whether that’s the end of the Rock Society, or the subtle but sure movement away from the more established artists to give a platform to other bands with a more modern aesthetic. If Architects were a gamble, it certainly appears to have paid off and, like Parkway in 2019, has opened the door to attract previously unconsidered acts to Catton Park.
We shall see.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
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