25. Deicide - Ronnie James Dio Stage - Saturday, August 10th 2024 - 16.05 - 16.50

You cannot underestimate the impact that Deicide had when they first arrived on the scene in the late 80s. They were nasty, repugnant and offensive in a way that other fledgling death metal acts can only dream of. They have one objective to piss off as many people and ideologies as possible. They went Christian baiting in a way that Venom and Merciful Fate could only dream of. Glen Benton leaned into the analogy that "all publicity is good publicity” hard and spouted blasphemous utterances at any given turn. Whilst the Norwegian black metal brethren were still watching Mickey Mouse cartoons, Glen was screaming obscenities about Christian icons and thoroughly annoying the evangelical right. He also decided to poke a hornet nest that is the left-wing animal-rights activists by joyfully omitting to sacrifice live animals as part of his stage act and shooting squirrels during interviews. The antivivisection mob turned out to be much more militant than middle-aged Christians and for a good 10 years plagued the band with bomb threats and an actual incendiary device attack in Stockholm.

But Deicide have always been more than just a gimmick. They were the originators of the ultrafast school death metal. Rather than grind their riffs, they dispensed them at a monumental speed. But as much as they are revered they are also branded with the label of being incredibly unreliable. Their first two records (self-titled debut and even better “Legion”) were phenomenal efforts that forever shaped the template of death metal. But from then onwards their output massively varied in quality. They also gained a reputation of cancelling shows and this is, by my reckoning, Bloodstock’s fourth attempt to have them tread the hallowed grounds of Catton Hall.

But recent reports are good and those who attended their Manchester and London shows last year were treated to an exhilarating trip through 35 years of malignant nihilism. We are less than a month away from the festival and then name it still firmly adorned to the lineup posters, so fingers crossed we will finally get to witness the malevolent majesty that is Deicide. They may now be veterans of the scene but that doesn't mean they are any less caustic and controversial and fingers crossed we will get to understand why they were so revered in the first place.