And just like that it’s Sunday and that great stretch of metal that was laid out before us, has now just shrunk to a single day. But what a single day and how many blooming people have turned up to join us! From the get-go, the place is heaving and it feels very obvious that the site has reached its 25,000 cap.
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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.
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And before we know it, we are straight into the first full day of festivities. The sun is up and blazing away though the plentiful cloud cover, this means it never becomes as inhospitable as last year. Bloodstock has always been about early starts and Lancastrian death metallers’ Bloodyard have pulled the short straw and are first out of the traps at the ungodly hour of 10:30 am.
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So after the "help I’m melting" desert-fest of last year, there is a distinct feeling of business as usual about this year’s Bloodstock. Whilst arid festivals are probably an unavoidable truth, this year mother nature very much behaved herself and provided what can only be described as almost perfect festival conditions. Even the drizzle on Sunday morning that seemed intent on embedding itself in actually dissipates before it manages to dampen any spirits.
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So how hot off the press are we? We have ditched our long sprawling monologue about how wonderful Helloween are (because they are and that's not up for debate) and we have replaced it with an equally subjective treaty on the wonder of KK Dowling's incarnation of Priest.
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Let's leave the downright extraordinary to last. Our final entry, our final band you cannot miss is one that is rewriting heavy metals DNA before our very eyes. Zeal & Ardor sound like nothing else you will hear this weekend.
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There are few bands that have been as chameleon-like as Swedes In Flames. During their lengthy career, they have been many things to many people. Melodic Death Metal, Groove Metal, Metalcore, Alternative Rock, you name it they have dabbled in it. What is extraordinary about them is that they have done all those various genres impeccably well.
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It’s amazing the specific memories we store from our childhoods. I can remember the cover of “Surf Nicaragua” intricately in all its simplistic glory even though I never bought the damn thing. It stared out at me from the pages of Kerrang and made me decide that I was a die-hard Sacred Reich fan even though I had never heard a darn note of their music.
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I’ve been pretty fanboy gushing over our three headliners, but if I am honest I am much more excited about the trio of special guests that will grace the stage immediately before them. Celtic Frost were a big deal and remain quintessentially influential.
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If there is one act who deserve their placing at this year's festival then it is Hampshire's finest Witchsorrow. For 15 years they have diligently and without much fanfare produced some of the finest doom metal you will come across.
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Hats off to Bloodstock and that admirable intent to not recycle headliners. Sending Sweden's tech-metal masters to headline status is a stroke of absolute genius. If you haven't experienced the sheer latent power of Meshuggah live, then boy you are in for a treat.
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Thursday night is party night at Bloodstock Manor and nothing says party more than ethereal Australian industrial-goths singing about serial killers. Okay, it's not the much-requested Vengaboys but with their mix of evocative visuals and ice-cold delivery, SKYND are sure to enthral the masses.
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If you made me narrow it down and tell you the one band that you should not miss at this year's Bloodstock I would with complete certainty answer Urne. They are the most exciting new band that this country has produced in absolute ages. They exist in every genre of metal and in none. They don't just leap perceived boundaries; they see them as inconsequential and irrelevant.
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Let's have another headliner and it's a band making their Bloodstock debut. It's difficult to find anybody who doesn't have a soft spot for these Massachusetts marauders. Stalwarts of the new wave of American heavy metal, next year they will celebrate 25 years of existence.
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Do you know what the sing-along moment of Bloodstock 2023 will be? It won’t be ‘My Last Serenade’, nor will it be ‘Symphony Of Destruction’, ‘Eagle Fly Free’ or ‘Roots Bloody Roots’. It will be, by a country mile, the point where twenty thousand voices merge as one to scream along with ‘Everything About You’.
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There is always a contingent of the Bloodstock community that bemoans the drift away from power and symphonic metal. The musical demographic has shifted on its axis over the years but the booking of Vision of Atlantis proves there is still room for a bit of bombastic pomp and circumstance.
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Let's go with a biggie, because you really can't call yourself a metal fan if you’re not planning on catching Megadeth. There isn’t even going to be anybody else on at the same time, so you have no excuse.
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Decapitated are essentially Bloodstock’s house band. Omnipresent (I gave up trying to count how many times they have appeared) they are the last word in muscular, well-oiled death metal.
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All hail the Godfather of true Nordic Black Metal. Abbath is a larger-than-life cartoon character brought to life. The architect of widescreen symphonic black metal, his persona burns off the stage.
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Gaerea are a ferocious incendiary device of a live act. They don’t play their instruments, they attack them like they are possessed by ancient demons. Clad in matching threads and shrouds they look as intimidating as they sound.
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