Live Review : Bloodstock Festival on August 9th 2024

Friday beckons fourth with almost perfect Festival weather. Warm, but also enough breeze and cloud cover to stop the place becoming a perpetual oven. Friday may well be packed with many musical gems, but really it is all about one band, who aren’t even playing, Motörhead. Today is the day that Lemmy becomes a permanent part of Bloodstock lore, with a proportion of his ashes placed on site in a specially commissioned bust. The ceremony to invest the final resting place for some of his remains is an emotional affair.

Bloodstock Festival Coiuntdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss - Enslaved

When is a black metal band not a black metal band. The answer is when they are Enslaved. Whilst they may cling to their old Nick bothering and corpse paint adorned roots, the simple fact is Enslaved stop being a black metal band along while ago.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas12 July 2024Bloodstock Open AirEnslaved, Bloodstock 2024Comment

Live Review : Damnation Festival on November 4th 2023 (Part II)

Damnation 2023 is immaculately curated. This is not random bands thrown into some form of inconsistent order. Real thought and consideration has actually gone into who follows who. The entire day works as some sort of cathartic emotional journey, taking you from spiritual highs to desolate lows.

Directly following the astonishing Julie Christmas with Downfall of Gaia is a genius move. Whilst there are real differences between the acts, they share a common DNA strand of emotional resonance. It seems weird to pin this on black metal, but Downfall of Gaia is music to make you cry.

Live Review : Damnation Festival ' A Night Of Salvation" on November 3rd 2023

For many moons, Night of Salvation has existed as a low-key informal get-together on the eve of the Damnation festival, primarily aimed at those who found themselves in Leeds a night early. In 2001 the Lords of Damnation (Gav and Paul to their mates) decided to make it a formal part of proceedings with an emphasis on world-exclusive album sets. To say that it has escalated from then would be an understatement.