Bloodstock Open Air: 2010

[DFF]

Behemoth have been forced to pull out which is a shame however their replacements are SO much better and should have been booked WAY before this

http://www.bloodstock.uk.com/news/index.php?/archives/307-BEHEMOTH-FORCED-TO-CANCEL-CATHEDRAL-STEP-UP-TO-REPLACE-THEM.html

FUCKING CATHEDRAL! YES!

My mate saw them at High Voltage and was disappointed. I'll probably see a bit of them, but they are gonna clash with Enforcer which sucks.

Stage times are out on the iPhone app. They keep changing slightly (mainly on the lower stages). Friday looks awesome as, Cathedral aside, I can watch Sonata Arctica, Steelwing, Enforcer, Powerwolf and Opeth back-to-back!

[DFF]

Of course, I had to jinx it didn't I? Sonata have been bumped up (yay!), but now I'll miss Steelwing (boo!)

Here are the set times, as they stand (they have been changing a little over the past day or so):

THURSDAY

17:00 – 18:00 DJ’s

18:00 – 19:45 Comedy Hour

19:20 – 20:00 Hospital Of Death

20:20 – 21:00 Desecration

21:20 – 23:00 Metal Karaoke

23:00 – 02:00 DJ’s

---------------------------------------------------

FRIDAY MAINSTAGE

10:30 – 10:50 Snakebite

11:10 – 11:40 Black Spiders

12:00 – 12:40 Ross The Boss

13:05 – 13:45 Rage

14:10 – 14:55 Ensiferum

15:25 – 16:10 Cathedral

16:40 – 17:25 Gorgoroth

18:00 - 19:00 Sonata Artica

19:35 – 20:35 Meshuggah

21:15 – 22:45 Opeth

SOPHIE STAGE

13:00 – 15:00 ‘Suck’ The Movie

17:00 – 17:40 Collapse

18:00 – 18:40 Steelwing

19:00 – 19:40 Enforcer

20:00 – 21:00 Powerwolf

NEW BLOOD

10:30 – 11:00 Under Blackened Skies

11:15 – 11:45 Lordaeron

12:00 – 12:30 Betraeus

12:45 – 13:15 Grieve

13:30 – 14:00 Morgue Orgy

14:15 – 14:45 Tempestora

15:00 – 15:30 Senturia

15:45 – 16:15 Splintered Soul

16:30 – 17:00 Shrapnel

17:15 – 17:45 Credit To Demetia

18:00 – 18:30 Arceye

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SATURDAY MAINSTAGE

10:30 – 11:00 Andromeda

11:20 – 11:50 Leaves’ Eyes

12:10 – 12:40 Evile

13:00 – 13:40 Onslaught

14:10 – 14:55 Edguy

15:25 – 16:10 Obituary

16:40 – 17:25 Amorphis

18:00 – 19:00 Devin Townsend Band

19:35 – 20:50 Fear Factory

21:30 – 22:45 Children Of Bodom

SOPHIE STAGE

13:00 – 15:00 Movie

17:00 – 17:40 Mordecai

18:00 – 18:40 Regardless Of Me

19:00 – 19:40 Benediction

20:00 – 21:00 Sylosis

NEW BLOOD

10:30 – 11:00 Burn The Hives

11:15 – 11:45 Echoes Fall

12:00 – 12:30 Archren

12:45 - 13:15 Zocalo

13:30 – 14:00 Lithurgy

14:15 – 14:45 Aghast

15:00 – 15:30 Flayed Disciple

15:45 – 16:15 Silas

16:30 – 17:00 Chaos Asylum

17:15 – 17:45 Reism

18:00 – 18:30 The Whores

--------------------------------------------------------

SUNDAY MAINSTAGE

10:30 – 10:50 Bonded By Blood

11:10 – 11:40 Suffocation

12:00 – 12:40 Holy Moses

13:05 – 13:45 Doro

14:10 – 14:55 Korpiklaani

15:25 – 16:10 Gwar

16:40 – 17:25 Gojira

18:00 – 19:00 Bloodbath

19:35 – 20:45 Cannibal Corpse

21:15 – 22:45 Twisted Sister

SOPHIE STAGE

17:00 – 17:40 Purified In Blood

18:00 – 18:40 The Prophecy

19:00 – 19:40 Witchsorrow

20:00 - 21:00 Winterfylleth

NEW BLOOD

10:30 – 11:00 Old Corpse Road

11:15 – 11:45 Neonfly

12:00 – 12:30 Hekz

12:45 – 13:15 Traces

13:30 – 14:00 Ishmael

14:15 – 14:45 Extreme OD

15:00 – 15:30 Mutant

15:45 – 16:15 Stone Circle

16:30 – 17:00 Orestea

17:15 – 17:45 Core Project

18:00 – 18:30 Furyon

[DFF]

Here's the acoustic stage times:

FRIDAY - JAGERMEISTER ACOUSTIC STAGE

14:55 - 15:25 Victor Smolski Guitar Clinic

17:30 - 18:00 Sworn To Oath

19:00 - 19:30 Betraeus

SATURDAY - JAGERMEISTER ACOUSTIC STAGE

13:45 – 14:15 Point Blank Fury

14:55 - 15:25 Hanging Doll

17:30 - 18:00 Cosmic Vortex Of Doom

19:00 - 19:30 Silas

SUNDAY- JAGERMEISTER ACOUSTIC STAGE

17:30 - 18:00 Fury UK

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

Just got back now, I am immensely hungover and every muscle in my body hurts but jesus I fucking enjoyed myself. Bands of the festival for me were Ensiferum, Amorphis, Doro and Twisted Sister

[DFF]

I fucking love it this year - best festival I've ever been too.

And, as per usual these days, here's my review:

Bloodstock Open Air Festival 2010

Catton Hall, Derbyshire

After my 2+ hour journey (featuring a shuttle bus, two trains and a taxi) my second ever trip to Bloodstock Open Air festival is done and dusted. Below are my thoughts:

Thursday

The weather forecasts were a tad foreboding before we got there. However, whilst it rained in Lichfield city, it looked a little more promising in the camp site at Walton-on-Trent, where the festival is situated.

Within five minutes of us getting the tents set up, the heavens opened and we had quite a deluge. Still, we had a great time catching up.

Music wise there were two bands booked for the Sophie Lancaster Stage. Of those, we decided to check out Hospital of Death, a kind of fun thrashy heavy metal act. We weren't expecting much, based on their name, stature, etc., but quickly went from being pleasantly surprised to outright impressed by them. I couldn't tell you a specific song that stood out - more like that their set was simply really, really good. Great entertainment to start off the fest. [8]

Friday

The weather was a bit all of the place, both through the night before and during Friday. However, this did (and indeed couldn't) do anything to dampen what turned out to be one of the best single days I've ever experienced at a festival.

After being quite unimpressed by Snakebite's opening number on the main stage, we made our way over to the New Blood Stage nearby to check out Under Blackened Skies. Genre wise they are tricky to define due to the sheer mixture of what's on offer, though I'd probably go for math-core tinged blackened death metal. They were solid throughout and showed a lot of potential. [7.5]

We watched Black Spiders [6] from the tented Bloodstock Arms whilst the heavens opened once more, before heading down to the Ronnie James Dio Stage to watch Ross The Boss.

The former Manowar guitarist might have a pretty naff name, but he has assembled a very talented band with some impressive songs too, in particularly Blood of Knives. Filling out around half of their set with Manowar material from the era in which he played, Ross went down a treat with the crowd. The set list might have had a massive nostalgic nod to it, but there guitar work was flawless, and frontman Patrick Fuchs masterfully controlled the crowd to give Bloodstock its first marquee quality set of the weekend. [9]

German heavy metal veterans Rage were up next and had a tough task matching what came before them. But match, and possibly surpass, that they did. Playing mostly songs from the second half of their now 26-year career, their catchy NWOBHM-esque tunes grabbed the crowd and never let up. Singer Peter Wagner was clearly enjoying himself in front of the decently sized crowd, and guitarist Victor Smolski was on fire throughout the entire set. Brilliant heavy metal. [9]

Folk metal was the order of the day next on the main stage, with Ensiferum. The Fins put on an accomplished performance, with a particularly strong rendition of One More Magic Potion getting the circle pits into action. Great fun. [8]

After taking a break for some food (and a much needed sit down - not to mention being able to drink non-arena priced beer back at the tent), it was back to the arena.

With some time to kill, we checked out Credit to Dementia back on the New Blood Stage. This Cornish band were notable for a few things. Firstly, the lead singer may have been the most polite, sedate frontman ever, even (jokingly, we think) asking the crowd to 'simmer down' after a few people went a little nuts for their first song. They also handed out wrist-bands and pork scratchings (?!) to the crowd. Additionally, their lead singer didn't take his own growling seriously, bopping comically from side to side whenever he delivered the lines in that manner. Finally, at the friendliest festival known to man, there managed to be not one, but two fights in the crowd during their set (though I must point out it didn't seem to be the bands fault at all). All in all, they were good entertainment. [7.5]

Bloodstock's booking team then called upon another stalwart of Finnish metal, with the very melodic Sonata Arctica next up. Lead singer Tony Kakko was pretty wasted, but not so much that he couldn't perform. In fact, it added a whole new level to their performance, with him changing vocal delivery styles on the fly, amongst other things. At one point, he started jigging from side to side, almost like a half-arsed 'twist' attempt. This little movement sparked a whole new approach to moshing at the festival, with groups doing 'Groove pits', whereby people would twist and bang into each other!

For the most part the set was quite chilled out, witha few ballads getting an airing, before a cracking rendition of Paid in Full brought things to a close. What could have been a train wreck ended up being one of the set of the week end. [9]

With none of us being fussed about seeing Meshuggah, we opted to head over to the Sophie Lancaster Stage to firstly check out Enforcer [7.5] who were a solid, if unoriginal 80's throwback, and German power metal band Powerwolf.

Coming across a little as a band who wanted to be black metal (corpse paint et al), but preferred playing power metal (as well as having a sense of humour), the Sophie Stage headliners drew quite a sizeable crowd. Highlights of their set included Saturday Satan, Catholic in the Morning... Satanist in the evening, Evangelist, and set finale Kiss of the Cobra King. Their set was silly, OTT, but above all fun. The songs were great, and they left the crowd baying for more. We didn't see all of their encore(s) (apparently they had 3 encores), but I can say they were one of the highlights of the entire weekend. [9]

And that left us with main stage headline act Opeth to round things off. The popular progressive death metal band (who stepped in at the last minute after Heaven & Hell pulled out due to the passing of Dio) seem humbled by their task and made it quite clear that they didn't see themselves as a replacement. Despite Mikael Åkerfeldt sounding a tad ill, hampering his growling voice, the legendary outfit delivered a typical high quality performance, punctuated exquisitely by a tear inducing cover of Rainbow's Catch the Rainbow. They may not be the same type of band that Dio was known for, or what we originally booked, but they were the perfect choice. [10]

Saturday

After the previous day's exceptionally high quality bands, Saturday would have to go some way to keep up, let alone top what had gone before.

The weather had improved a little and, generally, there wasn't that much rain around throughout the day in comparison to the previous two, allowing the place the dry out a fair bit.

First band up were Swedish power-progsters Andromeda, who were pretty good at everything they did without any real stand out songs. Whilst it was quite early for thinking man's metal, they got a decent sized crowd, who received them warmly. A good opener. [7.5]

Next up were Leaves' Eyes. Liv Kristine was on top form, especially for the time of morning. This combined with the band playing more of a heavier set (maybe to fit in better with the Bloodstock crowd), left the band very popular. Fantastic stuff. [9]

A double header of thrash was served next. Evile [8] were really impressive, with their British take on early Metallica and Slayer and were a tough band for Onslaught [6] to follow.

Bloodstock has always been somewhat of a haven for power metal, and the next band went down an absolute storm. Genre leaders Edguy took the stage and in moments had the crowd in the palms of their hands. A masterfully crafted set punctuated by the epic (Vain Glory Opera), the silly (Lavatory Love Machine) and the downright brilliant (King of Fools) left us knowing in no uncertain terms who the kings of power metal were. [10]

After taking a short break, it was back to the main stage for one of the bands I had most been looking forward to see. Finnish metal band Amorphis cover way too many sub-genres to accurately describe them in just a few words, so I will just go with one: "Brilliant." Playing a diverse set mostly from their newer albums, the 20-year veterans mixed some sublime, drifting tunes with crunching vocals to provide what was nothing short of an amazing set, the highlight of which for me was their ballad From the Heaven of My Heart. [10]

Canadian musician Devin Townsend was next up. After resolving some sound issues that were plaguing their set up and delaying the start time, he got us up and running with Addicted! Sticking mainly to his newest material, Devin played a great set and was entertaining throughout, with By Your Command, and Deadhead being the stand out tracks. [9]

On to the first of the two co-headlining acts of the day. Firstly, the recently reformed Fear Factory. The Californians brought their own unique blend of heavy, thrash and groove metal to the Bloodstock stage with a lot of energy and professionalism. I went in only knowing Linchpin and Powershifter (or Pandashifter as it was Christened after a seeing someone dressed in a full sized Panda outfit!), and am definitely going to delve into their discography after such a strong performance. [9]

And then there was Children of Bodom. I only recently started getting into them thanks to a mate, though I've never really been sold on the vocals. Thankfully, live they can really deliver. The Finnish melodic death metallers certainly brought their a-game, and quickly crusaded through their 75 minute set with gusto, sending everyone back to their tents all rocked out. [9]

Sunday

The final day began a bright sunny day - and continued as such throughout, drying out all the mudded areas from the previous rain.

We started off back at the main stage for Bonded By Blood [6] who were perfectly fine, but nothing special, before heading over to the New Blood Stage to check out Neonfly, who had a stand in lead singer. He did a pretty good job considering he had around a week to learn their entire set. Musically, they were perfectly fine and had a bunch of potential. [7]

Staying on the New Blood Stage we checked out Hekz next. After a ropey start from the vocalist (his voice seemed to strain at times, possibly due to nerves), the second half of their set entirely turned it on its head. A great double salvo at the end showed that this band too had some promise. [7]

I managed to catch the first half of Traces [7], though I seemed to be the only person in our group that rated them, I quite enjoyed their keyboard heavy black metal.

Rock royalty Doro was up next. The former Warlock singer gave a professional performance, mixing tracks from both her Warlock and solo days, and was received warmly. They did a pretty decent cover of Breaking The Law too. [7]

After seeing quite a lot of either solid performances, or bands that have potential but not quite realised it yet, we next got the first stand out act of the day in folk metal band Korpiklaani, who brought their unique very danceable sound to the Ronnie James Dio Stage. The only real downer was that they didn't have enough time to play Wooden Pints, but when that is the worst you can say about a band, you know they've had a good set. [8]

The Finns had certainly upped it a notch, and it certainly turned out to be too tough an act to follow for GWAR [5] whose generic thrash was exceptionally unimpressive - they only get a 5 for their on-stage antics, which were amusing at times, but resorted to too much of a similar thing. For example, spraying the crowd with random coloured gunk is funny once, twice or maybe three times in a set, but they seemed to do it all the time.

Anyway, with GWAR colossally disappointing, we moved on half way through the set and checked out progressive death metal band Stone Circle on the New Blood Stage. It's at this time that I must, in a weird way, thank GWAR - if it hadn't have been for them being underwhelming, then I wouldn't have had to good fortune to check out this excellent band, who were so impressive that I bought their album later that day. Checking them out on their MySpace, they cite Opeth, Amorphis and Katatonia as their main influences, and it certainly shows. At such an early point in their fledgling career, they have begun to learn how to craft good to excellent soundscapes ranging from softened vocals through to death grunts, and light harmonies through to pounding riffs. This band is one to watch, and they need to be signed up now. [9]

And then it happened. Back on the main stage, we finally had our star performance of that day - the one that would elevate it alongside the quality of the days prior. French groove-tinged progressive death metal band Gojira took to the stage and put all others to shame. An utterly sublime display of musicianship at it's best, the death metallers produced one of the tightest performances I've seen, leaving many stunned and in awe. None of the nuances in their sound that punctuates their recordings were lost live, and the timings changes sent shivers down spines. Performance of the weekend. [10]

Furyon [8] on the New Blood Stage did a good job of headlining their particular tent, with their slightly grungy melodic metal impressing those in attendance.

After hearing a little of Bloodbath, we decided to head back to the tent and polish off what ever beer we had left before heading back in for the last band.

Twisted Sister were originally booked to headline on the Friday, but due to the untimely passing of Dio, were moved to the Sunday to cover for Heaven & Hell (with Opeth booked on the Friday in their stead).

The New York natives certainly didn't disappoint, with the high octane delivery and charisma of Dee Snider the catalyst to great sing-along evening. The band romped through pretty much all of their big stadium friendly songs. including a great We're Not Gonna Take It and a blistering I Wanna Rock, the latter closing the main set the stand out performances.

Most memorable for the crowd, though, must be their cover of Rainbow's Long Live Rock 'n' Roll during their encore as a tribute to Dio. In stark contrast (but no more or less fitting) to Opeth's quite sombre offering on the first night, this was the perfect send off for for Dio from the band and the Bloodstock crowd alike. [10]

Out of the great sadness of Dio's passing, Bloodstock Open Air 2010 turned out to be a great tribute in itself. Great music, of many different styles and sub-genres from different parts of the world coming together under one banner.

Without doubt, this was the best festival I have ever witnessed, with the music providing the backdrop to some great times with friends old and new. I am so going next year (and year after for the foreseeable future). So, I'll so you all there in 2011 for Immortal's headlining set!

Bands of the weekend: Ross The Boss, Rage, Sonata Arctica, Powerwolf, Opeth, Leaves' Eyes, Edguy, Amorphis, Devin Townsend, Fear Factory, Children of Bodom, Stone Circle, Gojira and Twisted Sister.

Honourable mentions: Hospital of Death, Ensiferum, Evile, Korpiklaani and Furyon