Live Review: Bloodstock Winter Gathering
6th Deceember 2025
Words: Dan Barnes (Main Stage), Cat Finch (Second Stage)
Photos: Tim Finch
Not since 2004 has Bloodstock hosted a December event, with that show being the Xmas Bash at JB’s in Dudley, headlined by German-power metal maniacs, Edguy. The proposed shindig a year later was cancelled at short notice, leaving Bloodstock to forge ahead into the summer behemoth we all know today.
Yet there’s scope in the schedule to accommodate one more festival before the waiting bells of advent ring, and Bloodstock have dipped their toes once again into the December market, with this Winter Gathering at Wolverhampton’s KK’s Steel Mill and, by the healthy turn out, it would appear there is certainly an appetite for one last get-together before Christmas.
Kicking off this inaugural event are Welsh warriors King Kraken who’d managed to start Stondead with such aplomb back in August. The obligatory “Release the Kraken” from the Clash of the Titan’s remake takes us into the opening three tracks of this years’ March of the Gods sophomore album. Scream, El Giganto and Berserker set the scene for the show. Magnum Opus has some Clutch-like laidback vibes, Freak and Chainsaw Survivor carry classic metal tropes as their fat low end meets soaring solos. Man Made Monster is the one and only time the band look to their debut record, MCLXXX, closing things off with March’s title track. Unlike at Newark, King Kraken were not able to blast the air with pyrotechnics, but they were able to fire the starting pistol on the day with equal amount of aplomb they brought to Stonedead.
Oldham blackened technical thrasher, Tortured Demon have a history with Bloodstock that goes back to their appearance on 2021’s Jagermeister Stage. Since then they have continued to gather experience and hit KK’s with the force of a hydrogen bomb. There are early outings for Rise of the Lifeless trio, Conflict of Interest, Virtual Death and Disfavour, filled with unbridled energy which flows directly from the stage into the crowd themselves. Fast and furious, the front of KK’s is suddenly a mass of bodies, writhing and bouncing on command. The Invasion started life as the band’s 2020 demo, eventually finding itself on the In Desperation’s Grip debut, and is given a new sheen here through the five-years of the band’s experience since it’s inception. It still has the feel of a youthful innocence and excess, as fists pump along with the anthemic riffs. Smoke pots and a rapid double bass kick comes with Oppressed, a wall of death greets A Knee to the Face of Corruption’s abrasive fat drops, and closer, Global Threat, goes out to all the Thrashers in the room, taking us back to the hey-day of the genre, when many of us were also in the flushes of that youthful exuberance. By the close, the Winter Gathering was certainly suitably warmed up.
The second stage opened for the first time as Tortured Demon walked off the main stage for a Q&A session with the festival directors. Hosted by Bloodstock TV's Oran O'Beirne; the fans were treated to Adam Vicky and Simon giving an insight to the event, highlighted by Simon somehow being cast as the pantomime villain, chorus' of "Boo's" and all.
Terrible news out of the Hellripper camp on the eve of the show that the band would be unable to perform and the call went out for a replacement. Fresh from their triumphant Damnation appearance merely four weeks ago, Nottingham Venom-worshippers, Devastator heeded the call and slotted right in. Conjurers of Cruelty’s Beyond the Gate intro gives way to the album’s title track’s blackened speed metal assault, joined tonight with the subtly named Worship the Goat, leading a rampant charge into battle. Black Witchery and Liar in Wait are the kinds of dirty rock n’ roll we love Motörhead and Venom for, and Spiritual Warfare opens with an Anthrax Among the Living type progression, into some darkly Eighties musical vibes. The portmanteau of Baptised in Blasphemy’s jack the Ripper-inspired Send them to Hell and the equally in your face Death Slut continue the blackened speed metal, Death Forever and Baptised’s title track take us into a frenzied finale following a technical delay which almost – but not quite – disrupts the flow of the set. Only the revelation that a new single will be released on Christmas Eve and, to help out, they introduce Venom Inc main man, Tony, to the stage who adds his vocal weight to the cover of ‘head’s Iron Fist.
Another British band with a Bloodstock pedigree and a bright future, Devastator plug the gap left by Hellripper as though they were always meant to be here.
Back in KK's Lounge Room for stage two and it's more thrash as Hellbearer tear things up. A no-holds-barred assault; noisy, sweaty, and brutally energetic. The riffs hit hard and the energy never dropped, it's not often you get pits in this smaller room but today the crowd were wild.
Bumped up the bill due to the cancellation comes the always popular Sam’s Mum joined again by her Raised By Owls backing band. She’s even got her own merch this year which is selling at a brisk pace judging by the number of folks sporting one throughout the day. In the spirit of Axl Rose, Sam’s Mum makes her public wait before gracing us with her presence, leaving it up to the boys in the band to fill time. Using the Sunday sermon from last year’s Catton Park show as a metric against which to judge, then Raised By Owls is just about to go full party mode on Bloodstock Winter Gathering, with forty-five minutes of humorous grind before the business end of the event.
The band hit the stage with The Dark and Twisted Realm in Which Fred Durst Resides, introducing Satan himself, in the guise of Mr Blobby, to weave black magic over Wolverhampton. Blobby heads out into the crowd for a surf during Strictly Come Danzig, and the calls for the lady of the moment arrive as soon as Ainsley Harriot Advises You to Give Your Meat a Good Ol’ Rub. Sam – son of the mother in question – breaks the bad news that Mum will not be making an appearance, before donning a gold lame jacket for Round One of the Raise By Owls Game Show. This, he admits, is what happens when you give a grindcore band forty-five minutes.
Prize for the Best Headbanger to Going for a Pint with Corpsegrinder is a Circumcision Survivor t-shirt; Matthew from Kidderminster gets to give the world his rendition of Napalm Death’s You Suffer, for which he wins a Best Growler trophy. Owls classic Dance Like Barney Greenway is the only real option after that, and one cannot help but wonder what Barney thinks of this tune? I’m Sorry I Wore a Dying Fetus T-Shirt to Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party plays havoc with a limited word count; but the icing on the cake come when Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst himself is introduced.
Except it’s not Mr Durst, it’s Sam’s Mum – we’ve been hoodwinked into thinking she wasn’t even in the building – wearing a red cap and taking the stage for the finale of Break Stuff. Every festival needs a band that revs the crowd up for the headlining bands and Sam’s Mum, with a little help from Raised By Owls increased the Winter Gathering’s energy ten-fold.
Next up on stage two are Thuum, who feel like a gritty, groove-metal punch straight to the chest. It's heavy, thick riffs, guttural vocals, and an atmosphere that pulls no punches. On stage they build from slow, doom-laden moments into full-on groove/sludge thrusts: the kind of set where the bass rumbles under your feet and the drums hit like a wrecking ball.
On the Beyond the Black tour back in the spring, Venom Inc delivered a masterclass of abrasive and dark speed metal, taking material from the band’s recorded catalogue and mixing it with a hearty dose of Demolition Man’s tenure in Venom. Tracks from Prime Evil and Temples of Ice became a appetiser for the upcoming Blackened Priests collection and, along with other Venom classics, showed Candlemass have much to fear.
Brave then, that the band chose to go a more uncertain route with this festival show and opted to play their own 2017 debut album, Avé, in its eleven-track entirety. No Black Metal, no Welcome to Hell, no Countess Bathory, no playing it safe. Ave Satanas shows how demonic speed metal is done, including onstage firebreathers; Forged In Hell and Metal We Bleed are piledrivers of a pair of tunes, as robust and stomping as you could find on any of the mother-band’s work. Dein Fleisch reintroduces the flames along with a grooving bass, making your fists pump and your face to morph into a musically joyous grimace.
Blood Stained is a slow stomper, Time to Die ticks all the rampaging speed metal boxes, The Evil Dead pays tribute to the Eighties classic horror movie of the same name, and Preacher Man proves haste doesn’t necessarily equal power. Undoubtedly the Venom influences made their way onto the record, none more so than on War, where guitar god - and seemingly more-beard-than-man - Curran "Beleth" Murphy more than earns his corn for the day. In comparison I Kneel to No God feels laidback, leaving just Black N’ Roll to close out the show, on which the band is joined by former
Venom six-stinger – and possible relative – Al Barnes to reunite part of Venom’s 1989 – 1991 line-up. Knew they were going to be great back in April; wasn’t wrong.
Closing out the second stage in style are the almighty Red Method. With band members filling up the small stage room was at a premium, but the band made the most of it. It felt like being thrown into an industrial-metal storm right from the first scream by frontman Jeremy Gomez, who wasted no time romping round the stage and into the crowd.
The energy grips you and there is a sense of theatrical menace, with heavy electronics and industrial touches framing sheer aggression. The band proved that this stage is far to small for them and next time they should be on the main stage, as they stole the thunder of many of the upstarts in the bigger room today.
Then, suddenly, the day’s almost over, leaving Swedish doom legends Candlemass to sign off this inaugural event in an appropriately cold and ruinous style. Original Epicus Doomicus Metallicus vocalist, Johan Längqvist, has been back in the fold for a few years now and it comes as no real shock that the debut does most of the heavy lifting throughout this set. Yet, it’s Nightfall duo, Bewitched and Dark Are the Veils of Death, to get things going, with icy riffs and near-religious dirges. Mirror Mirror is a sure-fire crowd pleasing classic, as is Under the Oak’s magisterial melancholy.
Johan looks to raising the tempo a little with Dark Reflection’s unusually brisk pace, only for it to plummet like a stone once Darkness in Paradise is revealed. Clearly this is a band so very close to a large number of people’s hearts, usually folk of a certain age who treasure the memories of playing Epicus, Nightfall, Tales of Creation and Ancient Dreams to death back in the day. Age and growing old gracefully is forgotten tonight as heads are banged, fists pumped and crowds are surfed. There will be a price to pay through aches and pains in the coming days, but this is Candlemass, and they don’t get over here anywhere near enough to put it off until next time.
The most modern song on offer tonight is the title track from the 2022 album, Sweet Evil Sun, which takes the doom elements and blends them with a little more accessibility, downplaying the sadness somewhat; Crystal Ball and A Sorcerer’s Pledge brings the main set to an epic conclusion.
Encores of The Well of Souls, the infernal Demon’s Gate and the unrelenting misery that is Solitude bring the curtain down on this Winter event, with people pondering whether this will be a one-off show or something we can expect to see again in the future. Only time will tell on that one, although Vicky has confirmed a second edition in 2026 is on the cards.
Photo Credits: Tim Finch Photography
