Bloodstock 2026: Friday Review – S.O.P.H.I.E. Stage

Bloodstock 2026: Friday Review – S.O.P.H.I.E. Stage

7th August 2026
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch

It’s an early start for the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage as London sludge gang, Gurt make their triumphal return to the fields of Catton Park after nine years away. There’s a sizable crowd already in the tent as Sludgepuppies’ twisted riffs and molasses-thick brutality fill the PA. Newer tune, Knife Fever sits between the opening oldie and its contemporary, Horrendosaurus; I get the feeling that Gurt are not fans of Live Nation, as frontman, Gareth Kelly introduces Live Nation Dead Scene by giving the company a big Fuck Off! Traditional closer, Rolling Stoned, is moved one song up, and the band is joined by The Hell singer for a rendition of 2 Unlimited’s No Limits, with the lyric changed to cover having a toot of the devil’s lettuce.

Raw black metal exponents, Blood Countess, don’t let the bright weather outside the tent mess with their Satanic mojo, rather focus their energies on performing their dark rituals uninhibited. They open their show with the Shackles of Sin introduction from this year’s sophomore album, Imperatrix Sanguinis, before going on to play Chains of Misdeed, Purge of Trenčín and Anna Nádasdy from that Elisabeth Bathory-inspired work. Evil, rasping vocals and high BPM blasts complete the atmosphere. In Virgin’s Blood and Orgasm Leading to Death come from the debut, Occulta Tenebris, an equally Countess Bathory focused collection. Fast, furious and so very blasphemous, Blood Countess rallied the Hordes this morning.

Edinburgh’s groove metal posse, Hammer take the stage and deliver a muscular collection of tunes from their two full-length records. No airs of graces, just a series of pounding, merciless, songs, including the fear-inducing subject matter of Trapped in a House with a Maniac; it’s the perfect blend of extremity in technical brutality and anxiety-riddled lyrical content. Uncompromising and at times feral, Hammer show the future of the genre is safe in the new generation’s hands.

SellSword is the sort of band Bloodstock’s foundations are built upon. Unashamedly chest-beating, fist-pumping Power Metal, it’s the sort of timelessly heroic performance every iteration of Bloodstock should have somewhere on the bill. Staunchly defending the metal faith with outrageous fretboard runs and anthemic tales of past glories, SellSword attract those looking for some escape from the dark realities of Skynd and Life of Agony. The new record …With Might and Vengeance has only been in stores a week, but the band are so confident in the material we get the title track and Mighty Mercenaries to waggle plastic swords and raise drinking horns to.

Australian thrashers, Hidden Intent, play to their national form and eschew airs and graces in favour of a heads-down approach to music. Brutality abounds throughout, as do some grooving elements. This is hardcore Aussie thrash at its finest and the band should be forever lauded for one of the best genre songs since the heyday, in Drop Bears are Real. As an Englishman, koalas raining from eucalyptus trees is not a menace I keep front of mind – but should I visit Australia, I will certainly be taking note and walk mindfully through effected areas.

Hanover comedy grinders, Excrementory Grindfuckers make their UK debut with a strange combination of extreme metal, rapid electronics and humpa. Beating SellSword in the recency stakes of a new album, EG’s latest, Jetz is Auch Egal, was hitting the shelves this very day. Theirs is a set built on pure chaos, lapped up by the assembled crowd, and shows that Bloodstock’s tendencies to book broader interest bands is a sound policy.

After opening the main stage on the Saturday of 2023, Portsmouth nucore band, Seething Akira have been regular – and welcome – features on festivals across the country due to their constant high-energy fun performances. Through dual vocals and perpetual motion, the band is custom-built to party like it ‘s 1999 all over again. Put them anywhere and Seething Akira will lift the mood into the stratosphere. Now taking bookings for funerals and wakes.

Denmark’s Neckbreakker is here to play their new version of an old thing by taking the established genre of Scandinavian death metal and dragging it kicking and screaming into the modern age. But I think we can all agree that Scandinavian death metal doesn’t need much fixing, allowing the band to focus on tinkering rather than re-inventing the wheel. A young band, Neckbreakker have but a single debut album, alongside an EP and a demo from which to cull their set, but the likes of early material Face-Splitting Madness and Purified Body Fluid are punch and uncompromising, a scorched earth policy of hard-hitting riffs and flaying vocals. Only Shackle to a Corpse from the debut appears in the first half of the set, with the later tracks, Unholy Inquisition, Horizon of Spikes and Silo being saved for the end. Neckbreakker suggest a big future ahead and, on this form, who would bet against them?

Shining main man and crazed sonic scientist, Jørgen Munkeby, was here last year with Emperor but brings his experimental black jazz outfit back to Bloodstock for a third time and the first in ten years. In 2016 they had the misfortune of being billed against Gojira, this year they overlap with Sepultura’s UK swansong. Such is life. For this show Shining is playing the breakthrough Blackjazz album from 2010, a dense and intricate manifesto of the band’s musical policies that gives up its secrets slowly and through repeated exposure. Blending extremity with alternative, industrial and progressive elements means Blackjazz is a bold choice to play front to back, but it’s inspired and will hopefully be the signifier new material is in the works.

From the insane The Madness and the Damage Done, though Fisheye, and Healter Skelter to Blackjazz Deathtrance and Omen, there is little immediately accessible among the soaring passages and saxophone accompaniment. To those familiar with the record, it’s a wonderous trip into Jørgen’s maverick creativity. When the cover of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man is the most accessible moment of the set, you know Blackjazz is a work of twisted genius.

After Lamb of God as concluded their performance there was only ex-Murderdoll Wednesday 13 to draw a line beneath Bloodstock 2026’s first full day. Overblow theatricality in the vein of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie, earworm riffs and a whistling-passed-the-graveyard view of life are all baked into the band’s shows. Opener When the Devil Commands comes from Wednesday’s most recent record, Mid-Death Crisis; Rotting Away from the same record appears early, and there’s a mid-set In Misery.

But the heavy-lifting is being done by the debut album, Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying, and the Dead, from 2005, with early airings of I Want you… Dead and the Munsters-like play on words of Look What the Bats Dragged In. Good Day to Be a Bad Guy is loads of fun, and the inclusion of Murderdolls tunes Summertime Suicide and Nowhere is a nice touch.

No Wednesday 13 show would be complete without I Walked With a Zombie and the closing cover of Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13’s I Love to Say Fuck. After a long day in the sun, this was the perfect way to bring an end to day one of the festival; just some good PG-friendly spooky fun to send everyone back to their – or other’s – tents for the remainder of the evening.