It’s past midday and bloodstock finally feels alive. People have emerged from their tents to catch the Viking fights and a bunch of dinosaurs roam the grounds like this is another Jurassic park spinoff.
Red Rum come onto the stage and I can’t help but feel bemused. A pirate metal band. I always wanted to see the dwarf metal bands (the lyrical content of their songs usually about mining) and whilst this isn’t that, it’s a close second. This band make me wish we were at a club night where everyone was dressed within a pirate theme. The music is fun and the band is likeable as they play into the role they’ve given themselves. The crowd started to chant, demanding SpongeBob. But the vocalist, in his best pirate accent, shut it down and began to sing about ale whilst the crowd did a conga line circle pit. It’s a fun band and fun music to just completely embrace the fun nature of these festivals to.
Asomvel are a hard rock band straight from the 80s. You can tell there’s some ACDC influences from the get go. The band come out with dark long hair, clad in what looks like faux leather pants and studded belts. The vocalist got the crowd chanting “we were born to rock n roll” with the guitarist egging the crowd on. It was great to see this type of crowd interaction. Getting everyone involved and just embracing the moment. The band have a great confidence on stage when it comes to working with the crowd, that it makes you more than willing to do as they bid.
https://www.facebook.com/ASOMVEL
Combichrist came on to a droning electronic sound. The members donned in robes and makeup to make you think you’re about to experience an electronic gothic band but instead you’re smacked in the face with what I’d describe as dance metal? Do you wanna fight or do you want to start doing some form of worm in a circle pit? It’s hard to know. The crowd were really receptive to the band, some even starting clapping to beats unprovoked. The members themselves were great at hyping up the crowd. Constantly on the move and interacting with each other which only further motivated the crowd to be involved.
https://www.facebook.com/combichrist
The opening of Sylosis promised a set filled with pure riffs and sick double kick drums. What followed though was about 10 minutes of delay. Tech issues arose around the guitars, as they couldn’t be heard. The bassist and drummer kept us entertained, performing some solos to fill the silences as they tried to figure out how to fix the issue. All hope seemed lost though, when the stage runner announced the band will be back after fixing the issue. Met with a noise of disappointment from the crowd. The band came on though, not long after, and surprised the crowd by just ditching the faulty tech and going with only one guitar (where normally there are two). The vocalist apologised for not being able to deliver on riffs and but wanted to make the most of the moment. This meant the vocalist could roam the stage. In my eyes, not a bad deal. The vocalist now could be more expressive and have more involvement with the pit. Shit happens. This probably being the shittest of the shit for a band performing live. But they made the most out of this chaos and still delivered a great performance with an immense bunch of crowd surfers to show for it.
https://www.facebook.com/Sylosis
My first note for the headliner of the Sophie stage tonight was “wtf”. Korpliklaani are a finish folk metal band. You hear that description and you think maybe something akin viking metal…no no. You would be mistaken. Where viking metal wants you to wage war, Korpliklaani make you want to get drunk in a tavern and have a bastard with the serving wench. So many things are going on at once. You have guitarists, standard- then someone playing the violin. Then someone playing an accordion. The vocalist entered the stage banging a single drum held up by string. Is it music or noise, but why do I not care? You just get roped by the fun energy and vibe from the members. I don’t think any member of the band didn’t crack a smile at least once during the set. If Architects were the headliner, then Korpliklaani were the after party.
The Sophie stage has such a range of different sub genres of metal, you never quite know what you’re gonna get. No band is the perfect follow up to the previous one and really that’s what makes it the experience we all know and love.
