Yes, you read that right. Due to missing a year during Covid, 2025 sees Rockwich celebrating its 10th birthday in style. Year on year this humble little gathering has expanded, outgrowing several previous venues and selling out pretty much every year. To mark this auspicious occasion the previously indoor-only event has managed to secure the use of a marquee just outside the main doors of the club that it calls home.
Read MoreSunday morning also starts with Jack's Jam, with Jack J Hutchinson inviting festival-goers and the odd musician (Hi again Matt from Ransom!) onto his little stage. This time there’s a definite slant towards the music of Ozzy Osbourne, and a rollicking good time is had by all again. This is helped along by the fact that the festival management were obviously taking feedback on board and although the bar in the barn remained resolutely shut due to licencing restrictions, the bar by the main stage was very much open for business. Niggle put to bed in under 24 hours, kudos Firevolt!
Read MoreSaturday starts with Jack J Hutchinson in the barn having a bit of a jam session. He’s not on the proper stage so it’s semi-acoustic and although he starts with his own band doing his usual bluesy stuff he soon gets people up from the crowd to strut through some well-known covers. Names have been picked beforehand and there’s a couple of ringers (looking at you Matt from Ransom!) and it turned out to be a happy, hum-along session.
Read MoreFriday starts with negotiating the token system for the bars – essentially they come in a couple of colours and you buy a handful from the helpful staff and then proffer them hopefully when ordering a drink! It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it though, so attention turns to opening band Rare Breed.
Read MoreIn these days of smaller, independent festivals going to the wall due to lack of interest and advance sales, it’s heartening to meet Firevolt and see how well they are doing.
Since its inception in 2022 it has grown like a virus, attracting bands and punters alike and building itself a solid reputation year-on-year. As the date clashes with that bastion of All Things Metal that is Bloodstock, 2025 is the first year that Rockflesh have been able to attend and what we found was truly delightful.
Read MoreAnd we reach numero uno. Our final must-watch. This one is special. This one is different. This one is personal. For the first time ever we have got real skin in the game. Yes, we have had bands that ROCKFLESH have championed play Bloodstock before, but this is the first time we have had a band we are intrinsically connected with play the festival and we cannot contain our excitement.
Read MoreSo “that man” is none other than Behemoth’s enigmatic leader Nergal. This is his Nick Cave obsessed side project that keeps him busy when he is not singing odes to old nick and annoying the hell out of the Polish state church. This is country and blues via the fevered imagination of a metal icon.
Read MoreMachine “fuckin” head. The real frikin deal. A reliable constant that reminds us the metal is a rallying cry for the indisposed and unfranchised. Machine Head are the people’s champion. They are so entwined with modern metal that you can align the genre’s development over the last three decades with the evolution of Robb Flynn’s crew.
Read MoreTrivia fans, Ghosts of Atlantis played their first ever gig here at Bloodstock in 2021. They were promoted from the New Blood stage to Sophie Lancaster stage because of Covid casualties and they won an awful lot of friends with their anthemic Death Metal that is rich in melody and storytelling.
Read MoreBloodstock promotes from within. It looks after its own, and it believes that it has a central role to play in invigorating the scene that it relies upon. Famyne are band that has grown with Bloodstock. They appeared in the new Blood stage in 2016 as winners of the legendary Metal to Masses competition. They returned on the Sophie Lancaster in 2021 as part of the elongated post-covid offer and now they have made it onto the main stage.
Read MoreDo you want to know the true reason as to why the tickets for this year's Bloodstock have flown out like hot cakes laced with LSD? Most will reason it is the unholy trinity of Trivium, Machine Head, and Gojira, but here at ROCKFLESH Towers we have another theory. You see we think it is the undercard that has caught the public’s imagination and most importantly the inclusion of Paleface Swiss and Kublai Khan. Metal is changing, contorting and evolving. These are its new champions.
Read MoreDeath Metal is going through rather a purple patch, or forgive the pun, an evocative re-birth. Its reanimation (I’m on a roll now) is being led by youngsters whose parents probably weren’t even about when pissed off teenagers from Florida decided that thrash wasn’t going far enough and they wanted a noise of their own that was even nastier….. Death Metal has had so many iterations and derivatives, that for many of us felt it was becoming in danger of losing its core essence.
Read MoreEveryone loves Obituary. They are the unifier of the tribes when it comes to metal. You can be a devotee to the alters of Death, Black, Trad, core or even Power, and you will have a soft spot for these Floridian veterans. They have been producing simple but putrefying powerful metal since the mid-eighties.
Read MoreSunday dawns bright and sunny which means Asomvel kick off proceedings with beaming smiles beneath their Lemmy-like beards. In fact everything about them is Lemmy-like. If ever there was a tribute band who aren’t actually a tribute band then that band is Asomvel and the band they are emulating is of course Motörhead.
Read MoreHave you ever looked at something, a gig, a festival, and thought “that looks good, but maybe it’s a bit out of reach?” Time To Rock Festival was formed by a couple of the ex-directors of Sweden Rock some 19 years ago. They felt, even back then, that Sweden Rock was just too damn big so they formed their own, smaller, more intimate affair. Known as Helge A Festival for 15 years (named for the river that runs along the boundary of the site) they became Time To Rock in 2022 and set about bringing some pretty decent names in music to this small corner of southern Sweden. They bill themselves as “Sweden’s cosiest festival” and having been there now I understand why.
Read MoreCage Fight are a particular fav at ROCKFLESH towers. They play it hard and they play it heavy. This is prickly, corrosive modern metal. It brims with agitated energy and is angry as hell. The riffs are angular and dripping with attitude. Leading their hyperactive dispatches on the ills of the world is Rachel Aspe. A Duracell bunny on speed with venomous growls. This is social commentary for ...
Read MoreCreeper are storytellers and world builders. They have taken the vision of Jim Steinman and transferred it an alternative modern world where vampire ride motorbikes and creatures of the night rule the land. This is teenage angst with bold choruses and technicolour back stories. They inhabit a world with no musical boundaries. It is free for all of emo, soft rock, goth and rock-a-billy...
Read MoreMetal is ludicrous. It is over the top and it is lacking any sense of irony. If we wanted reality we would go listen to dour folk or urban grime. We crave escapism, an audio distraction from all the woes and wearies of modern life. Metal provides that portal into a reality where we are united and not divided. It is a genre that lets you be what you want to be as opposed to who you are...
Read MoreMy favourite first date conversation is what is the greatest thrash act outside of the big four (you can tell I am a bit a catch). During appetisers the conversation usually darts around Testament, Exodus, Nuclear Assault and Sacred Reich. During the mains there is always a debate about Death or Dark Angel and as desert is served I make a leftfield pitch for the British contingent of Onslaught ...
Read MoreThe final day of RADAR Festival 2025 kicks off with serious momentum as Waterlines launch into their set with enough energy to shake off any lingering festival fatigue. From the first note, they’re firing on all cylinders - tight, explosive, and clearly here to make a statement. Frontman Benji Mars is magnetic, effortlessly switching between razor-sharp cleans and thunderous gutturals, all ...
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