BLOODSTOCK: More Bands, Ram Gallery And New Charity Tie-In (Festival News)

Bloodstock: Happening August 11 - 15 Catton Park Derbyshire
Bloodstock: Happening August 11 – 15 Catton Park Derbyshire

With only 3 weeks to go Bloodstock is putting the finishing touches to the event at Catton Park in Derbyshire England. The event being held from 11 August to the 15th is officially sold out of weekend tickets. There are still a few day tickets for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday which are available from the website at this linkIf there are any weekend resales to be had they will be found at this resales link.

Saturday Sophie Stage Openers

Netherhall (Planet Rock competition winners). Formed back in 2015 they were at one point a trio, however, they are now a 4-piece who play alternative metal, with influences such as Deftones and Karnivool. Part atmospheric and part heavy dark grooves this Midlands-based band have a new album coming featuring their new singer Matt very soon. They plan to entertain us with some of those songs as well as tracks from their EP and their 2 singles.

Friday New Stage Band Additions

Pearler (South Wales winner). A 4 piece band playing dirty-sounding rock music with clean but gritty style vocals. Featuring plenty of melodies this is old-school rock with a bit of edge.

Struck/Down (Kent winners). A band from Canterbury who play groove/doom style metal. They have an album called Gone along with a couple of singles out including the new one “Shackle The Preacher” which has a little touch of Metallica about it (but not the clean commercial stuff).

Sound Of Origin (Leeds winners) Described as “fuzzy sludge” the band have been around since 2017 but changed singer a year later. The music definitely merges with prog and classic rock for a more all-round listen whilst still having a fuzzy edge. Their debut album All-Seeing Eye is out now and they will soon be heard on a tribute to Alice Cooper’s Killers album. Looking forward to finding out which track they are covering.

Insurgent (Birmingham winners). A 4-piece outfit with a female vocalist. They aren’t operatic/symphonic but rather more alternative 90s (from what I listened to), with great melodies, strong dynamics and some fine heavy grooves.  They do have 2 singles out called “Colours Bleed” and the new one “Dogma“.

Elder Druid (Northern Ireland winners). Formed back in 2016 this band focus on doom and sludge. They have not only 2 guitarists (a singer and a drummer) but 2 bassists as well to make some scarily low-heavy shit. They have 2 EPs and 2 albums for your listening pleasure including a new one called Golgotha.

Wildhearts: Friday @Bloodstock (photo by Down The Barrel photography)
Wildhearts: Friday @Bloodstock (photo by Down The Barrel photography)

Saturday New Blood Stage Additions

Kinzoku (Brighton winners). Formed in 2016 this 4-piece merge a mix of progressive metal along with thrash and death to go along with lyrics that can be political as well as dealing with environmental issues. They focus on hooks, riffs and breakdowns. Their debut EP Monolith is available now.

Irontooth (Chesterfield winners). The Hull-based band formed 2018 who play a mix of groove and thrash metal with harsh vocals. There are touches of both stoner and black metal in their sound too. They have 2 singles out the latest being “The Horde“.

Blood

Blood Church (Wolverhampton winners). Blackened deathcore from Telford. 4 very scary-looking dudes who play music that will be enjoyed by fans of artists like Behemoth and Black Dahlia Murder.  They have an EP out now called God Complex.

Cottonmouth (Nottingham winners). A 4 piece classic rock band formed back in 2017. They write and perform catchy and melodic hard rock songs with a bit of oomph. They do have 5 singles out including their latest “Altered Mind“.

The Ghoules (Stoke winners). I will tell you what the description says at Bloodstock, “dread soaked dropouts have crafted Tony Iommi‘s hands onto Roy Orbison‘s cold body.” It also says “drug jams and sugar melodies”. From listening to their single “The Heartache And The Horror” I would say they are a doomy low fi Misfits who obviously play a lot slower!

Nassau Now officially announced the winners of Edinburgh and Scotland’s M2TM are also playing Saturday. I wrote about them in the last news piece but to be honest the blurb on the Bloodstock page says it better. To quote, “Lovecraftian monsters comprised of various personality disorders playing prog metal and the offcuts of any other genre they can find”. Nobody can disagree with a word of that!

Bloodstock Crowd: From The Stage (photo by Amplified Gig Photography)
Bloodstock Crowd: From The Stage (photo by Amplified Gig Photography)

The Ram Gallery

For those who don’t know or have never attended the festival for the last number of years the event has had an art gallery featuring work from various artists involved with the metal (or general rock) scene. This year they have paintings from Mark Wilkinson who has done covers for bands such as MarillionJudas PriestIron Maiden.Also Fish who’s latest album covers original work for the album Weltschmerz will be on show. There will be artwork from someone involved with Trivium including the artwork for In The Court Of The Dragon. For the first 100 through the doors, there is a free print of this to take away from the festival! There will also be work from Metal Hammer and Iron Maiden photographer John McMurtie.

Also on display will be hand-crafted guitars inspired by various musicians such as this year Jimi HendrixDioVan Halen and this year’s Friday night headliner Devin Townsend. These are brought to the festival by Cynosure.

New Charity Partner For 2021

Each year Bloodstock likes to work along with a worthy cause, and this time they are raising money for a charity that is reasonably close to the home of the festival itself. The charity is called Derbyshire Blood Bikes. They offer a free service to local NHS hospitals. This includes transferring blood, human milk (often for premature babies), biological and diagnostic samples, medicines and urgently needed equipment. They have 65 volunteers, 13 motorbikes, 3 cars and travel over 200,000 miles a year to help all the NHS hospitals. Those who are media etc, who get in for free will be asked to donate towards that before receiving their wristbands and I imagine there will be ways to donate on-site for anyone else who wishes to donate change etc.

Fat Frank’s Camping Store

Benji (Skindred) Playing Friday @ Bloodstock
Benji (Skindred) Playing Friday @ Bloodstock

Just a reminder for folks that there is a way to avoid carrying lots of camping gear to the festival and that is to contact Fat Frank’s Camping Store HEREYou can pre-order all your gear, or just that one missing item and collect it on-site. You can have them blow up your air bed while you wait, or even ‘rent-a-tent’ from them for the weekend.  Not only that, they can also solve the problem of towing it all home on the train with their ‘festival bag’ service, where they’ll deliver all your kit back to your home address within 3-5 days post-event, or if you don’t want your tent any more, you can drop it off at their donation point in the Midgard campsite.

So all systems are GO for Bloodstock. I think there will be tears on entering the site. It has been so long and we have all missed the event, the people, the bands and the laughs. So many bands to watch over 4 stages in a 5 day period. This is a marathon. It is going to be brilliant, no doubt about it.

The Rest Of The Bill

Devin Townsend (Friday headliner), Kreator (Saturday headliner) and Judas Priest (Sunday headliner) along with SkindredThe WildheartsCradle Of Filth. TherapyNapalm Death, Paradise Lost, While She Sleeps, Raging SpeedhornBleed From WithinLawnmower Deth, Diamond Head, Jinjer, Vio-lence, SaxonLoatheWhile She SleepsBlack SpidersFoetal Juice.

Gloryhammer, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons. Evil ScarecrowOnslaught, Conan, Memoriam, Ramage Inc. Green Lung, Conjurer, Orange Goblin, Black Spiders, Sylosis, Hacktivist, Winterfylleth, The Crawling, Loathe, Raised By Owls, AnakimColpocleisisBroken JawHanowar.

More…

Devilfire, Divine Chaos, Venom, PrisonBorstal, Acid ReignBeholder, Svalbard, Dog Tired, Bailer, King CreatureGrey StagGhosts Of AtlantisStrangle WireShrapnel, Necronautical, Spectral Darkwave, Frozen In ShadowsDeitusSouth Of SalemMaster ChargerBad Earth. FellowshipThis Is Endless, King CorpseShackledTortured Demon, Hybridize, Halveksia, Odysseus, Solcura, Riptide, Casket Feeder, Son Of Boar, Words That Burn, Sorceress Of Sin, Wired, The Injested, Primitai.

 Black Tongue, Liberty Lies, Pist, Terra IV, Internal Conflict, Thunderous Jones, Ashen Crown, Ward XVI. Slave Steel, The Best Medicine, Godeater. Luna’s Call, Urne, Forlorn World, Pemphigoid, As The World Dies, Battle Born, Kurokuma, Ghosts Of Men, Milliner, Axiom, Seething Akira, King Witch, Sharks In Your Mouth, Mother Vulture,  Famyne, and Party Cannon.

Terminal SunBeyond ExtinctionSailBeyond Salvation, SeverenthBlack AtlasA Horse Called WarAscarisDesolationHawxx.

The event takes place as always at Catton Park in Derbyshire for 5 (FIVE) days August 11 – 15!

Photos all taken from the Bloodstock Gallery pages, with thanks!

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