Live Review : Bloodstock Festival on August 12th 2023

There is a wonderful sweet spot about the Saturday morning of a festival. You have been there enough time to bed in and become familiar with the surroundings, but it is all yet to become a slog. Also, there is the delicious realization that you still have two days to go. Ambrius have the honour of kicking off proceedings on the Sophie stage and prove to be an interesting and enticing mix of power and progressive metals. They combine the epic ambition of the former, with the urge to experiment of the latter. File under intriguing.

Seething Akira open the main stage and once again I find my bigoted and ill-informed views of Nu-metal challenged. They are a fluid and energetic six-piece with inter-changing dual vocalists. They play with conventions in a titillating manner, splattering their primal groves with pulsating electronic and revolving harmonies. Most enticing is the fact that refuse to stick to a defined template or formula. Each track skirts around the nu-metal axis but still manages to sound fundamentally different from the song that preceded it.

Tortured Demon are the nearest ROCKFLESH has to an inhouse act (video interview HERE). We have loved and revered them for a good three years and we view their second Bloodstock appearance with a sense of parental pride. Their version of thrash is fresh, aggressive, and precise. Having expanded to a four-piece, their sound has taken on real depth and reverberation. Up until now, they have been about potential but up there on the big stage, they look the real deal, confident and content. They also manage to pack the place out, dragging a highly impressive amount of people into their gravitational pull as the set proceeds. A blisteringly impressive start to their album cycle.

Also starting promotional duties for their new release are Urne. “A Feast on Sorrow” was released on the Friday before the festival and is a personal treaty on loss and grief (video interview HERE). Urne skilfully walk that thin line between progression and aggression. The musical agility on show is astonishing. There are three of them, yet they manage to create a sonic tapestry of soaring highs and crashing lows. You can hear the three instruments intertwined with each other, interweaving to build a pulsating blanket of noise. It is an extraordinary performance wrought with raw passion and virtuoso musicianship.

The set is perfectly balanced between songs from the new album and tracks from their astounding 2021 debut “Serpent & Spirit”. ‘Desolate Heart’ from the latter closes their set and just encapsulates what is so extraordinary about this band. It is simultaneously heart-wrenchingly fragile and also crushingly heavy, orchestrated with crushing riffs that invigorate the senses. An exquisite performance that just screams "The hype is real”.

You can only marvel at the diversity of what is available at Bloodstock. The Grey (hailing from Cambridge) take us in yet another musical direction. This is cosmic post-rock, dispensing waves of subtle escalating riffs into the world. This is very much a case of musical world building and it is as if the notes hang there in the air long after they have been played.

Back on the main stage, it's time for the square peg in this parade of round holes to strut their stuff. On paper Royal Republic scream out as the odd one out. They are an unapologetically irreverent pop-rock band surrounded by a sea of shouty men and women. However, in reality they fit like a (pink) glove and go down a storm. They bring fun and frivolity like no other act on the bill. They have also played enough metal festivals to know how to make their smooth melodic pop fit into our world. They crank up the self-deprecation and synchronised stage moves and smother their set in good-time vibes that it very very hard to resist. 

 With this much positivity, it is impossible for the most hardened death metal fanatic to resist and soon even those resplendent in Carcass and Deicide attire are bopping along with the rest of us. They don't need to throw in a note and growl perfect rendition of ‘Battery’ to win us over, but still do. It provides the icing on the cake of a stunningly well-choreographed and well-received set.

For many that huddle in the Sophie tent Tribe of Ghosts are providing nothing more than shelter from the storm, which is a real shame as they are a stonkingly good post-industrial noise outfit. Their riffs are sheen and angular that cut through the muggy air with laser-like precision. The vocals are smooth, accessible, and almost pop like. They look exceedingly comfortable at the big stage, and it is very obvious why they have been invited back just 12 months after having featured over on New Blood.

Employed to Serve are such a mainstay of the UK metal scene that it feels almost absurd that this is their first-ever Bloodstock appearance. Whilst the expectant crowd has been slightly dissipated by the sudden downpour, there is still a hefty chunk of people to greet them.

What is so edifying about the band is that they approach metal from a very different direction than most other outfits on show this weekend. Yes their tracks are riff heavy and brimming with grovesome undertones, but they also bring into play the clarity of vision of hardcore and the posturing of hip-hop.

They are utterly extraordinary, and Justine owns the stage with panache, conviction and bucketloads of charismatic humility. The delivery is smooth but also incendiary, and the power of the tracks is beautifully orchestrated. Everything feels intrinsically balanced, and the sheer brilliance of the performance just shines through.

Casket Feeder are as heavy and uncompromisingly brutal as their name suggests. They chuck out into the ether chunks of gnarly and discombobulated riffs. They are fuelled by righteous rage and a subjective hatred for everything (they probably even think Captain Tom is a bastard). Certainly, one of the harshest and most corrosive bands on offer this weekend, they lay waste to the Sophie tent with little regard for anything or anybody.

The friend that I watch Crowbar with comments that they sound like Status Quo on 33bpm, which is much less of a derogatory comment than it sounds. Their sound is simplistic and minimal but beautifully rendered. They prove that you don’t need to pack your sound with bells and whistles to be heavy, you just need slow, toe-curling riffs. 

It is evident that for many bands, treading the boards this weekend is a bit of a dream come true. Skin Failure come across like the kids who have found the keys to the proverbial sweetshop (video interview HERE). They are a hyperactive collusion of thrash and hardcore that seems to exist perpetually at warp speed. Former Black Peaks frontman, Will Gardener, is having the time of his life, careering around the stage like a gazelle on speed. Skin Failure’s secret sauce is that they are intelligent people doing stupid music. They create chaos but in an orderly and highly tuneful fashion. Dumb has never been so much fun.

2023 is the year that Bloodstock has discovered hardcore and the crowd that Knocked Loose has pulled is nothing short of extraordinary. This will be remembered as the moment that the festival branched out and successfully managed to take almost its entire audience with them. Fast and frantic this is hardcore at its minimal and covert best. Hardcore has always belonged at Bloodstock, we just hadn’t realised it before.

As I keep pointing out Bloodstock 2023 is a breakneck speed journey through every genre that ever has had a passing affinity to metal. Dakesis are the Ying to Knocked Loose’s Yang. A sumptuously melodic outfit fronted by a goddess in a leotard. They trade in a wonderfully uplifting brand of pomp rock, full of dynamic choruses and hooks that you could reel in a Megalodon with. Gemma Lawler’s vocal range is astonishing. It's pitched at about seven registers simultaneously and full of warmth and passion. With it she manages to bring their seven-song-strong set to life in a way that is mesmerising.

Abbath is a consummate showman. He bypasses black metal's poe-faced seriousness and delivers a highly enjoyable hour of anthemic silliness. He gurgles, he grunts, he crab-walks. In fact, he is every black metal meme brought to shimmering life. He is also incredibly entertaining. Whilst it may alienate the more kvlt black metal brethren, his almost panto-style delivery keeps the rest of us rolling in the aisles and punching the air with glee.

Gutalax have a concept and that concept is poo. Sadly, they seem to have thought more about the concept than their ability to play their instruments, as musically they stink to high heaven. I love raw unadulterated noise as much as the next Anaal Nathrakh fan but Gutalax prove to be unlistenable.

The legacy and the influence of Celtic Frost cannot be underestimated. Born out of the ashes of Hellhammer, they took the demonic extremities that Venom only hinted at and ran with it. Their first two releases, “Morbid Tales” and “To Mega Therion” provided the blueprint for black metal’s second rising in the Nordic wastelands. This afternoon set by Tom G. Warrior’s latest musical incarnation, Triptykon, is made up of tracks solely from those two records and it is utterly divine. These are songs written 30 years ago, yet they still feel like the last word in extremity and alienation. They have aged extraordinarily well, and the immaculately faithful renditions illustrate just how far ahead of their time Celtic Frost were.

This may not be the most casual fan-friendly set of the festival, but there are plenty of Celtic Frost devotees, around the place standing in rapture and adoration about what they are witnessing. Tom G. Warrior pride in the 15 songs that made him is evident. Rather than shy away from his legacy, he is embracing it with a smile and a euphoric growl. Nostalgia has never seemed more relevant.

Over on Sophie, Trollfest are bravely taking one for the team by supping up all the ludicrousness that Triptykon avoided. They are dressed as pink flamingos and have happily left all their dignity and decorum back in Norway. Anyone who tries to argue that metal takes itself too seriously should be pointed straight to their door. They are reminiscent of a ska band gone to seed and they lean into the lunacy with vim and vigour. This is folk metal bathed in brass and with the funk firmly turned up to 11. Bouncy bedlam for the masses.

The power unleashed by Meshuggah is simply extraordinary. It’s like standing in a wind tunnel of pure unadulterated noise. For a band this un-compromising to be headlining is frankly astounding. When you look at it closely you realise that there is actually not that much here. The notes are sparse and the arrangements are basic. BUT and it indeed is a capital BUT, the way it is all wired together is utterly indescribable (but I’m still going to try). They take these minimalistic refrains and just amp them up. This results in a Tsunami of driving noise that gnaws at your senses.

The riffs are repetitive but hit their intended targets with deadly accuracy every time. Everything feels polished and quantumly engineered. There is no room for sloppy production, and nothing is left to chance.  Jens Kidman is a man mountain of a front person, the bastard child of Lurch from the Adam’s Family and Sasquatch. He looms menacingly above the crowd spitting out his words as if they were toxic. There is no let up to the set, each track rolls into the other like endless barrages of heavy artillery. Yes, there is little variation in sound or style, but because it is so mesmerising a spectacle you are just swept along, entranced by the spiralling infinite cascade of noise.

The staging adds to this feeling of sensory overload. The lights pulsate in endless synchronicity and the usage of different lighting tones means for sections of the show the band exist menacingly in the shadows. I have thrown around the term masterclass a lot, but this is the pinnacle of what you can do with extreme music. As a performance and as a moment in time it just feels untoppable. Heaviness has never been presented with this much opulence and dexterity. As the crowd drifts away at the end there is an atmosphere of shellshocked, like we almost can't believe what we have just witnessed. One of the most incredible sets of the weekend and probably one of the most incredible sets Bloodstock has ever seen.

But, as they say, there is more. Brothers of Metal have been promoted to headline status because of Zeal and Abdour’s sideways move to Sunday. The first thing to point out is that there seems to be an inordinate amount of them, and the second thing is that there is at least two sisters of metal hanging about the shop therefore making their moniker rather redundant. This is pure unashamed trad metal that raids the Manowar toybox with complete conviction. They wear loincloths and they sing of daring deeds and vanquishing unworthy foes. It feels millions of light years away from the all-consuming intensity of Meshuggah but it offers a wonderfully mindless hour or so of stupefying entertainment to end the night. Yes, it's all rather silly but it also immensely fun and with big grins we head off to bed.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Ryan : Brothers Of Metal, Meshuggah, Trollfest, Triptykon, Gutalax, Abbath, Dakesis, Knocked Loose, Skin Failure, Crowbar, Casket Feeder, Employed To Serve, Tribe Of Ghosts, Royal Republic, The Grey, Urne, Tortured Demon, Seething Akira, Ambrius
Johann : Meshuggah, Triptykon, Abbath, Skin Failure, Employed To Serve, Royal Republic, Urne