Sunday… The final day.
By this point, the campsite smells like death, your legs don’t work properly & your neck has completely given up. Three days of metal will do that to you.
But Bloodstock isn’t finished yet. Not even fucking close. Because Sunday has one hell of a lineup.
Castle Rat bring their twisted heavy-metal theatre. Kittie arrives to celebrate thirty years of being one of the most recognisable names in alternative metal. Testament brings four decades of Bay Area thrash. Black Label Society brings the riffs, the leather & the Zakk Wylde guitar solos. Body Count brings Ice-T & one of the most entertaining live shows on the planet. And then there’s Judas Priest.
The mighty Judas fucking Priest. Closing the 25th anniversary edition of Bloodstock. And with Rob Halford being a Black Country man born just down the road in Walsall, this isn’t just another festival headline set. This is a fucking homecoming.
But before we get to the Metal God, there’s a full day of business to take care of.
Sunday starts with Castle Rat. And honestly, what better way to begin the final day than with a band who look like they’ve escaped from a heavy-metal Dungeons & Dragons game? Castle Rat are theatre. They’re fantasy. They’re doom. They’re heavy fucking metal. And they’re brilliant fun. The New York band have built their whole live identity around the Castle Rat world, with the Rat Queen at the centre of it all. There are costumes, characters, dramatic poses & enough medieval imagery to make it feel like you’ve stumbled into a metal version of “The Dark Crystal”. But here’s the important part.Underneath all the theatrics are some seriously good songs. “Dagger Dragger” is a killer opener. “Wizard” sounds exactly like the title suggests. “Siren” and “Serpent” bring that classic doom-heavy-metal groove that makes Castle Rat so easy to get into. And the Bloodstock crowd absolutely fucking gets it. There are plenty of people dressed for the occasion, plenty of people holding horns in the air & plenty of people simply standing there with a massive grin on their face. That’s the Castle Rat experience. You don’t just watch them. You enter their world for half an hour. The band looks completely committed to the performance, and that makes the whole thing work.
There’s no awkwardness. No sense that they’re trying too hard. They’ve created a visual identity & they’re fucking owning it. The riffs are heavy, the atmosphere is dark & the crowd reaction is fantastic. Later, a few friends would name Castle Rat among the highlights of the whole weekend, with one fan describing them simply as “pure metal theatre” while others placed them among their best sets of the festival. And that’s exactly what this is. Metal theatre. Big fucking fun.
A perfect Sunday morning.
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
Now this is a band with history, Kittie. Thirty years of Kittie. Think about that for a second.
A band that started when their members were teenagers are now standing on a Bloodstock stage three decades into their career, and somehow the songs still sound as angry as ever. And that’s the key to Kittie. They have never been afraid of heaviness. They’ve always had the riffs. They’ve always had aggression. And today they sound fucking confident.
The 2026 setlist has been heavily focused on the band’s career, with songs including “Fire”, “Cut Throat”, “Oracle”, “Spit”, “Do You Think I’m a Whore”, before “Brackish” and “Eyes Wide Open” close things out. That’s a fucking setlist. And “Spit” still hits. Hard…You can see people in the crowd who have clearly been waiting years to hear it again. Then there are younger fans who weren’t even alive when some of these songs originally came out. That’s one of the best things about Bloodstock.
Generations standing next to each other, singing the same fucking song. Kittie sounds tight. The guitars are heavy. The drums hit hard. And Morgan Lander remains an absolute powerhouse at the front. There is also a sense that Kittie is enjoying this period of their career. They’re not trying to recreate 1999. They’re not pretending the last thirty years didn’t happen. They’re celebrating it. And the crowd responded. One fan reaction after the weekend simply said Kittie “smashed it out of the park”, while another included them among their personal highlights. That’s about as accurate as you can get. The Sunday crowd are fucking loving it.
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
Now we get serious. Proper serious. Testament.
Bay Area thrash. Forty years of riffs. And a catalogue that contains some of the best thrash metal ever written.
This is exactly the sort of band Bloodstock was built for. The moment Testament hits the stage, the energy changes.
Suddenly it’s less about the festival hangover and more about getting your fucking head kicked in by Chuck Billy.
With a setlist that includes “Into the Pit”, “Henchmen Ride”, “So Many Lies”, “Practice What You Preach”, “Nature of the Beast”, “First Strike Is Deadly” and “Over the Wall”. That’s enough to destroy most crowds. And Testament absolutely does.
Alex Skolnick is still one of the great thrash guitarists. Eric Peterson provides the other half of that guitar attack. Steve DiGiorgio’s bass is fucking monstrous. And Chuck Billy? What a voice. There is something brilliant about seeing a band this experienced still playing with this much aggression.
There’s no going through the motions. They look hungry; hell, they sound hungry. And the Bloodstock crowd are hungry too.
The pit is going. Heads are banging. People are screaming the words back. Into the Pit” gets a massive reaction. “Practice What You Preach” brings out another wave of old-school fans. And when “Over the Wall” comes around, the place is absolutely fucking bouncing. The only complaint? It’s not long enough.
That was a common reaction after the festival, with fans specifically mentioning Testament as one of the bands they wished had been given longer sets. That’s the problem with festivals. You can have four decades of material & still only get an hour. Testament could play for two hours & people would still be asking for more. A fucking brilliant thrash-metal masterclass.
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
Now it’s time for Zakk Wylde with Black Label Society.
And if you’ve ever seen BLS before, you know what you’re getting.
Riffs. Beards. Leather. Guitar solos. More riffs.
And Zakk Wylde standing there looking like he has just walked out of a biker bar at the end of the world. It’s fucking brilliant.
Today’s set is wall to wall with bangers like “Funeral Bell”, “Name in Blood”, “Destroy & Conquer”, “Suicide Messiah” and “Stillborn”. And there is one obvious moment everyone is waiting for. “No More Tears”. The Ozzy Osbourne cover carries a little extra weight now, and the Bloodstock crowd absolutely fucking love it. There are phones in the air. People are singing.
And for a few minutes, it feels like everyone is paying tribute to Ozzy while watching one of his most famous guitar disciples. Then there’s “Stillborn”. This is where the whole thing goes up another gear. The riff is fucking enormous. The crowd is singing. Zakk is shredding. And suddenly the Sunday hangover doesn’t matter anymore. This is classic festival metal. Black Label Society isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. They don’t need to. They’ve got the songs. They’ve got the sound. And they’ve got one of the most recognisable guitarists in metal. The performance is loose in the best possible way. It feels like a rock show rather than a carefully rehearsed festival production. And that suits BLS. You want the big guitar solos. You want the massive riffs. You want Zakk to make that fucking guitar scream. And that’s exactly what you get.
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
Now then… Ice-T at Bloodstock. Let that sink in.
Body Count are one of those bands that can walk into a festival full of metal bands & immediately make the place feel like their own.
Because Body Count are not just a metal band. They’re hardcore, They’re rap, They’re punk, hell they’re crossover. They’re fucking attitude. And at the centre of it all is Ice-T. The man doesn’t need an introduction. He walks onto the stage & the crowd erupts. There is an instant feeling that this is going to be one of the most entertaining performances of the entire weekend. And it is. The music hits hard. The riffs are huge. The band is tight. And Ice-T knows exactly how to work a crowd.
There is a swagger to the performance that is completely different from Testament or Black Label Society. Body Count aren’t here to prove that they can play fast. They’re here to make the entire fucking field move. And they do. The crowd are bouncing. People are shouting along. There are pits opening up. There are people who probably came to Bloodstock specifically for Judas Priest suddenly realising that Body Count are fucking brilliant. And then comes the material everyone knows.
“Body Count’s in the House”, “Bowels of the Devil”, “Cop Killer”, “Born Dead”. Whatever your opinion of Body Count’s lyrics, there is no denying the reaction. The crowd fucking loses it. “Cop Killer” is one of those songs where the entire field seems to know exactly what’s coming. And Ice-T delivers it with the same attitude that made the song so controversial in the first place.
No apology. No softening. Just Body Count. A few people’s reaction after the weekend summed it up perfectly, naming Body Count the “most fun band of the weekend”, while several others placed them among their personal top performances. That’s exactly what this is. Fun, heavy, and fucking entertaining. Body Count are the kind of band that make you forget you’re tired. For an hour, you’re just there. Watching Ice-T. Watching a huge metal band. And wondering why the fuck it took so long for someone to put this combination on a Bloodstock main stage.
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
And now… The Metal Gods. Judas fucking Priest.
There is something incredibly appropriate about Judas Priest closing Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary festival.
This is a festival that has always celebrated heavy metal. Not just extreme metal. Not just modern metal. Not just one scene.
Heavy fucking metal!!! And Judas Priest are one of the bands who helped define the entire thing. Then there is the location.
Bloodstock is taking place only around twenty miles from Rob Halford’s hometown of Walsall. This is as close to a homecoming as Judas Priest could possibly get without actually playing in the Black Country. And Halford knows it. He walks onto the stage wearing a jacket featuring the Black Country flag. The crowd absolutely fucking erupts. Then comes the opening run.
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”, “Metal Gods”, “Breaking the Law”. Fucking hell. What a way to start. The crowd are instantly singing every word.
The 2026 “Faithkeepers” set has been a greatest-hits masterclass, featuring “The Ripper”, “Turbo Lover”, “Steeler”,“Victim of Changes”, “Halls of Valhalla” and “Painkiller”. And then the encore.
“The Hellion”, “Electric Eye”, “Hell Bent for Leather”, “Living After Midnight”. And yes… The fucking Harley comes out.
Because what else would Judas Priest do? Rob Halford rides across the stage like the Metal God he is, and the crowd absolutely loses its mind. This isn’t simply nostalgia. That’s what makes it so impressive. Yes, the set is packed with songs from the band’s history. It should be. But Judas Priest still sound like a working metal band.
They still sound hungry. The twin-guitar attack remains massive.
Scott Travis pounds the drums like a fucking machine. Ian Hill remains the quiet man holding the whole thing together. Richie Faulkner continues to prove himself as the perfect modern partner to Glenn Tipton’s legacy. And Rob? Rob Halford is Rob fucking Halford. That voice. That scream.
That presence. You can hear the age. Of course you can. Nobody is pretending Judas Priest are 25 years old. But that’s not the point.
The point is that Rob Halford is still standing on a stage in 2026, in front of thousands of people, delivering songs that have been part of heavy metal culture for decades. And the crowd is still screaming every word. Judas Priest feels like a timeless band, still touring. Still playing huge festivals.
Still making people scream. Still making people buy leather jackets. Still being Judas Priest. This is what a festival headliner should be. When “Living After Midnight” finally rings out across Catton Park, there’s a strange feeling in the air. It’s over.
Bloodstock 2026 is finished. And what a way to finish it.
Review: Joseph Mitchell
Photography: Artur Tarczewski
