Bloodstock Metal Festival are busy adding new bands to the line-up. The New Blood Stage has even more winners added and the Jägermeister Stage has also seen more bands announced. Let’s get on with telling you all the latest announcements, starting with the Jägermeister.
Jägermeister Stage:
Two bands are added to Saturday the first act being a “one man death metal band“. Tom Reynolds is that man and he goes under the name of Foul Body Autopsy and he has been described as a “fucking riff machine“. He has a few EPs out as well as 2 albums the last of which is called The Unquiet Dead. This will be his third visit to Bloodstock having played both 2011 and 2015. On his recordings, he plays guitars, bass and does all the programming and vocals. The talented chap who singly wants to rip your head off! Which is very kind of him!
Also on Saturday on the Jager is Black Shuck from Galway in Ireland. They are a groove-heavy band who put on apparently a “chaotic stage show” so this could be a fun band to check out. How much chaos they can create on the stage as small as the Jager is anyone’s guess. They are a 3 piece outfit and I do rather like bands that size. No hiding place for any of the musicians which is cool.
Jägermeister Sunday:
Sunday brings another Irish based band called the Jailbirds. In the best time honored traditions of AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Airbourne and Thin Lizzy this half Irish half Australian band create feelgood infectious rock and roll. They only formed in 2016 but have an album out (Spotify and iTunes) called Break The Silence. Check it out if you love old school classic rock.
Finally for Sunday on this stage is a crazy band who are not all women as the name suggests. You can tell which band they are a bit of a tribute to by the name Womenowar. They are advertised (quite cleverly) as “100% of Manowar at 1% of the price“. With ex Manowar man Ross The Boss playing the main stage the same day who knows maybe there will be some meetup and jam? Who knows?
New Blood Friday:
Moving onto the New Blood Stage on Friday we have 3 new bands to talk about. First up are Anakim a progressive death metal band from Dorset. Although they formed in 2011 they only got round to recording their first album Monuments To Departed Worlds in 2017. Since then they have changed their singer who is described as a “guttural machine” which will go nicely with what they play which is technical, brutal but also with some melody.
Blind Divide are from Cardiff in Wales and are described as being “death, groove and thrash” and likened to the sounds made by Gojira and Lamb Of God. They have released one EP called Blind Divide back in 2017 so must be close to something new coming along soon.
Grand Elder are stoner southern metal from Accrington. Unlike the football club they don’t have an advert about themselves yet but will no doubt be happy with plenty of folks going nuts in the New Blood tent for them. They are a mix of Alabama Thunderpussy, Kyuss, Mastodon and Monster Magnet. Sounds good to me! They just changed their line up with a brand new rhythm section and their first gig with them was the first heat of Metal 2 The Masses which is quite impressive.
Saturday:
Moving onto Saturday we have Scars Of Remembrance from Wrexham in Wales. They formed quite a few years ago but had a long break due to line up problems but they are back to play Bloodstock. I loved the comment from the band themselves where they said: “Scars was only a hobby for us as we are no spring chickens, but we have had so many folks showing interest, it really is an eye-opener“. Get along and support these older guys (bet they are still younger than me…) in the tent on Saturday.
Sunday:
Moving onto Sunday we have a 4 piece melodic thrash metal outfit who are definitely on the progressive side. Elyrean are from the West Midlands and have 2 singles out called “Where Shadows Dwell” and “Blacken The Sun” which have plenty of time changes and are suitably heavy and thrashy. They have a new EP coming soon so watch out for that.
Fear Bound are a melodic death metal outfit from Hitchin. Apparently fans of both Devin Townsend and Children Of Bodom (who play the main stage themselves on Friday) will find much to enjoy. The track I checked out certainly had some melody but with growled vocals with some time changes hinting at a bit of love of progressive music. They have dual guitars going on at points as well. Formed back in 2013 they have 3 albums out with the newest called “Seize The Day“.
Finally, from Stoke, we have Lost In Lavender Town (great name but will be called Lilt for the rest of this piece!). They are the very first instrumental band to win through in M2TM competitions. They have 3, yes THREE guitarists but unlike Lynyrd Skynyrd, they play progressive music rather than southern rock. On their Facebook page they describe themselves as “something different” and on that I have no disagreements. Great to see bands who are left of centre even in this field can win through to play Bloodstock.
All this and headliners Scorpions, Parkway Drive, Sabaton along with Powerwolf, Dimmu Borgir, Anthrax, Tesseract, Cradle Of Filth, Queensryche, Dee Snider, Grand Magus, Taake, Eluveitie and lots more. From August 8 to 11 at Catton Park Derbyshire.
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