Bloodstock Metal Festival is continuing to announce new artists for the metal gathering to take place at Catton Hall in Derbyshire, England between the dates of August 8 to 11, 2019. They have announced in the last few days the headliners for both main stages on Saturday night. In amongst the announcements (7 bands in all), there are bands from not only England but also Australia, Canada, Norway, and the US. Several of the bands are also first timers for the festival. First up is the news that Saturday the main stage (named the Dio stage after the great man himself) will be headlined by Australian metalcore crew Parkway Drive who will be playing the festival for the first time. This is also the band’s first headline festival show certainly in the UK. Parkway Drive are a band that this reviewer had to check out before writing this piece as the band had kind of passed me by. The videos I checked out I liked on the whole. Reading reviews of the recent tour they played all them were full of praise saying what a fabulous show they put on. The word “incendiary” cropped up quite a lot from folks talking about them. Most of the band have been together since 2003 (apart from the bassist who joined in 2006) so are a tight unit having played so many shows around the world. They are indeed heavy, have plenty of riffs and the singer even when growling is still pretty easy to understand! It is good to see the festival trying to find new and worthy headliners as the future of the genre depends on those opportunities. I for one am certainly looking forward to seeing what they said will be a “full production show worthy of a headline slot at Bloodstock”
The other headliner for the second stage Saturday night (called the Sophie stage in memory of a lass that sadly lost her life due to a hate crime) are Norwegian black metal outfit Taake who are dark and heavy and really the project of one man called Hoest who composes and records everything himself and uses touring musicians for live shows. They can be quite controversial as the main man likes to stir things up and try to offend mainstream society as he goes. The songs are all in a dialect of his country’s language so what he is singing about is to me a complete mystery. However the music is good and at times atmospheric so still worthy of attention.
Also on Saturday on the Dio are Canadians Cancer Bats who sometimes get called Bat Sabbath due to sometimes playing as a tribute to Black Sabbath. However, they are no Sabbath clones, as they are punky, sludgy and often heavy as hell as well. This is a band that I personally have not seen but always get told how good they are live. To be honest I have never heard a bad review from friends or acquaintances who have seen them. They have a new album (their sixth) out called The Spark That Moves which is worth your attention. It is a belter!
Moving to Friday and the Sophie stage we have Raging Speedhorn, a band once describe as a “bunch of noisy bastards” in a magazine (can’t remember which one, long time ago) and who always live up to that description. They last were at Bloodstock back in 2015 and last year celebrated 20 years anniversary with a gig that featured all original members. They are full brutal assault, which of course is a very good thing indeed. Be good to see them again.
Once again on the Sophie, Saturday comes Shvpes from Birmingham, England. They are a bit diverse from a lot of the other bands as they have rap vocals, feature electronica and hip hop in amongst their brand of metal. They have the approval of Matt Heafy from Trivium who guests on their album Greater Than (features on “Rain“).
Coming from the USA are Generation Kill who are led by ex-Exodus vocalist (from 2005 to 2014) Rob Dukes. Their new album will have a guest appearance from Gary Holt (now of Slayer) so immediately you can tell what the band and music are about. Their album We’re All Gonna Die which came out a few years ago was quality and I am sure we will get to hear quite a few tracks from that along with some new tracks as well. Catch them in the Sophie tent on the Saturday of the festival.
Finally, we have a band for the Sunday in the Sophie tent in Leicester post-grunge rockers Resin. They played the New Blood tent away back in 2014 and have continued to grow resulting in them moving up onto one of the main stages. It is great to see new blood being nurtured, given a chance by Bloodstock and bands taking those opportunities to make a bigger name for themselves. The future as I said earlier for our scene depends on festivals giving younger and newer bands a chance to shine. They did and have the chance to do so again. If you like bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden then get along to the tent on Sunday.
All this alongside other artists such as headliners Sabaton, Scorpions, Eluveitie, and an undercard of bands like Powerwolf, Dee Snider, Anthrax, Soulfly, Death Angel, Queensryche, and Dimmu Borgir makes this a hell of a good festival to come.
There are also ways to pay up for tickets (a deposit scheme) which are still available for a limited time which you can find via the Web Page
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