|
|
After
a big festival like Download earlier on in the summer, a
festival like Bloodstock is a welcome change of pace – a much
more scaled-down affair where one is far more able to relax in
between bands without having to run around like a headless
chicken trying to catch everything worth seeing.
By
the time we get there, Bloodstock has already turned into ‘mudstock’ and after wading through the bog at the entrance gates,
we make it into the main arena as ex-Manowar guitarist Ross the Boss and his band are taking the stage in the rain. |
|
Given
that Manowar have pretty much priced themselves out of the UK
market, this maybe the closest that the fans get to see the
‘kings of metal’ over here, particularly during the last few
songs when Ross is joined by current Manowar drummer Scott
Columbus for classics such as ‘Fighting the World’ and
‘Hail and Kill’.
While
Ross’ own material is competent enough and will no doubt
please Manowar fans, it’s the aforementioned classics that the
majority are watching this set for and they don’t leave
disappointed.
From ‘Kill with Power’ through to the grand
finale of ‘Hail and Kill’, the fans lap it all up
appropriately and already conversations in the crowd begin about
how Manowar are probably going to be the best band never to
headline this festival.
Setlist: 1. I.L.H, 2.Blood of Knives, 3.Hail to England, 4.We Will
Kill, 5.God of Dying 6. Kill with Power, 7. Thor (the Powerhead),
8.Fighting the World, 9.Catch the Rainbow (Rainbow Cover), 10.
Hail and Kill. |
|
|
|
Continuing
the power-metal vibe are German stalwarts Rage.
The Teutonic trio blast through a seven-song set full of big riffs
and even bigger choruses with ultimate precision.
The
rhythm section of long-time band leader ‘Peavy’ Wagner and
drummer André Hilgers are tight as hell and Victor Smolski
continues to be one of the most underrated guitarists in metal,
which comes to light even more later on at his guitar clinic.
Songs
like ‘Higher Than the Sky’ and ‘Down’ finally get the crowd
going but unfortunately it’s a little bit too late as the set
comes to an end just as the majority of people are getting into it,
which is disappointing as the band deserve a better response but
seem to have suffered somewhat from such an early set time.
Setlist:
1.The Edge of Darkness, 2.Soundchaser, 3.Hunter and Prey, 4.Drop Dead,
5.Empty Hollow, 6.Higher than the Sky, 7.Down |
|
Bloodstock
has long had a love-affair with Finnish bands and this is none more
evident than when Ensiferum take
the stage and are given a massive heroes’ welcome. Although their
style is much closer to say, Children of Bodom, than the other
folk-metal bands they’re often lumped in with, there’s still
many a danceable moment in their set.
Songs
such as ‘Ahti’ and ‘One More Magic Potion’ are the perfect
contrast to the more thrash numbers like ‘Token of Time’ (which
goes down a storm with the old-school diehards) and set-closer
‘Iron’ to which everyone goes ballistic and the biggest mosh-pit
of the day so far ensues.
Setlist: 1.By the Dividing Stream, 2.From Afar, 3.Twilight Tavern,
4.Into Battle, 5.Token of Time, 6.Ahti, 7.Stone Cold Metal, 8.One
More Magic Potion, 9.Iron |
|
|
|
Behemoth have unfortunately had to pull out due to illness but every cloud
has a silver lining and in their place have stepped doom-metal legends Cathedral and this is without a doubt the performance of the day.
The band grasp this opportunity fully with both hands and go at their set
like men possessed and really get the crowd rocking with their groovy doom
metal.
Headbanging
riffs and giant choruses are the order of the day for the 20-year
veterans, from outstanding opener ‘Vampire Sun’ through to the
Black Sabbath-esque ‘Ride’ and culminating
in the classic anthem ‘Hopkins (Witchfinder General)’ and
judging by the crowd’s reaction, Cathedral have won themselves
some long overdue converts. |
|
|
Setlist:
1.Vampire Sun, 2.Utopian Blaster, 3.Funeral of Dreams, 4.Cosmic Funeral,
5.Corpse Cycle, 6.Ride, 7.Hopkins (Witchfinder General) |
|
|
After
laughing at Gorgoroth’s make-up running in the rain to the point
where the supposedly ominous and evil black-metallers look like
angry pandas deprived of their daily bamboo intake, we decide to
check out power-metal virtuosos Sonata
Arctica.
The
set opens properly with new single ‘Flag in the Ground’ from
last year’s The Days of Grays album – a strong offering that continues the
upward trend of Sonata albums that is sure to continue – which is
followed by the title track before the band dip into their extensive
back catalogue and pull out the classics ‘Full Moon’ and ‘8th
Commandment’.
The biggest cheers however,
accompany the more recent singles ‘Paid in Full’ and ‘Don’t Say A
Word’ and it’s all over a little too quickly with the now standard
set-closer ‘Vodka’ which gets plenty of people jumping and clapping
along. |
Looking amongst the crowd, one thing that is beginning to show is
that to some people, bands like Sonata, Rage and others of that ilk
represent what Bloodstock used
to be about back in the days of the indoor festival and that the more
extreme bands represent what some people want
Bloodstock to be about in the future.
It’s a shame then that those
from the extreme metal crowd decide to write off bands like Sonata
prematurely when plenty of others are happy to check out bands like
Gorgoroth and Cannibal Corpse because they realise that a variety of bands
is what this festival needs to survive and grow - it’s unfortunate that
others don’t seem to share this view.
Setlist: 1.Everything Fades to Gray (instrumental), 2.Flag in the
Ground, 3.The Last Amazing Grays, 4.Last Drop Falls, 5.Full Moon,
6.Juliet, 7.8th Commandment, 8.The Dead Skin, 9.Paid in Full,
10.Don’t Say a Word, 11.Vodka/Everything Fades to Gray
Although we catch snippets of
Meshuggah and Opeth this evening, what’s going on in the tent over at
the Sophie Lancaster stage is far more up our street and instead, we wind
the evening down with the trad-metal stylings of
Enforcer and Powerwolf.
It’s unfortunate that the
sound in the tent is not particularly great this evening and the levels
are all over the place for Enforcer, at times struggling to hear certain
members and at times wincing at how ear-splittingly loud the vocals are.
The band battle through admirably and their Judas Priest-tinged metal is
enjoyable enough but you’re left with the feeling that with a better
sound, this would have been a much greater experience.
If you thought Enforcer were
over the top, then Romania’s Powerwolf up the ante by ten-fold. Taking
the stage looking like some sort of vampire-priest hybrids, their sound is
grandiose power-metal with a heavy emphasis on the keyboards, even if
their lyrical themes often have more in common with the tongue-in-cheek
humour of Turbonegro (‘Resurrection by Erection’). They provide one of
the most fun sets of the weekend and while Meshuggah and Opeth make a
complicated racket over on the main stage, the tent is clearly where the
fun is at as the band serenade us into the night with epic choruses and
double-entedrés aplenty.
Review by:
Adam Grindrod
|