BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR 2012

DATE:

VENUE:

Friday 10th August - Sunday 12th August 2012

Catton Hall in Derbyshire, UK

Anvil at Bloodstock Open Air, 12th August 2012

Photograph copyright © 2012 Graham Hilling - www.metal-discovery.com

Reviews by Mark Holmes & Hannah Sylvester; Photography by Mark Holmes & Graham Hilling

(Freedom Call; The Commander-In-Chief; Grand Magus)

(Moonsorrow; Andraste; Sepultura; Dio Disciples)

(Watain; Alcest; Behemoth)

(Splintered Soul; I Am I; Dripback; Chthonic; Crowbar)

(Rising Dream; Mayhem; Bull-Riff Stampede; Winterfylleth)

(Tempus Fusion; Witchsorrow; Sight of Emptiness; Testament; Machine Head)

(Kobra and the Lotus; Corrosion of Conformity; Flayed Disciple)

(Nile; The Black Dahlia Murder; Anvil; Shattered Skies)

(Paradise Lost; Dimmu Borgir; Alice Cooper)

NILE

As the day's early sunshine disappears behind a thick cloud covering and the weekend's first drops of rain fall upon festival attendees, it seems the change in weather garners a degree of disorganisation on Bloodstock's main stage. American Egyptian-themed deathsters Nile seem to take an age soundchecking and setting up their gear with band members faffing around onstage prior to the start of their set. Communicating with their sound engineer, all clearly heard through the PA, this eventually leads to a premature announcement from one of the festival's compères - "Okay Bloodstock, are you ready for some more?" - which is swiftly countered by an irate engineer saying: "we're not fucking ready, I didn't cue you". This sparks crowd chants of "you fucked up...you fucked up" and a defensive compère who states "it wasn't me!" Literally a second later, intro music commences, the compère announces "Nile!", exits the stage, band members appear once again, the intro music stops abruptly after just a few seconds, the engineer can be heard muttering something else...then, eventually, the band just get on and start performing, commencing attack with 'Sacrifice Unto Sebek'. From what has seemed like an entirely disorganised, unprofessional mess, these legendary tech-deathsters manage to deliver a forty minute performance that is far from such as the band are tight, slick, precise and with a fully resonant, heavy sound, all lapped up by a mammoth crowd, undeterred by the bad weather. Just one new album track is aired, 'Supreme Humanism of Megalomania', in favour of a set of fan-favourites including the ridiculously titled 'Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld'. It's a little inexplicable Nile weren't billed higher on Bloodstock's main stage, particularly considering the likes of overrated thrash plagiarists Evile would be performing in a couple of hours time and were promoted from the Sophie stage to fill a gap left by Deicide. The enthusiastic crowd reaction they receive and ubiquitous chants of "Nile...Nile...Nile" as they exit the stage is surely a sign of such mis-billing. (MH)

SUNDAY 12th AUGUST - PART 2

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

It’s officially fist o’clock at Bloodstock this afternoon, despite the masses flagging from heat, sunburn and 3 days of drink-fuelled lethargy. With a smaller, but eager-to-pit and air-punching crowd, Michigan “metalcore” (well, as far as I’m concerned technical death metal, metalcore’s such a lame term) band The Black Dahlia Murder (TBDM) whip up a frenzied crowd in no time at all. With the most vibrant energetic stage presence of the day and working the crowd well, this is impressive stuff, even for a TBDM newbie such as I. By the time they play ‘Necropolis’ from 2009’s ‘Deflorate’ mid-set, with its awesome relentless blast beats and seriously slick riffs, the pit is monstrous. Following up with ‘Everything Went Black’, which is dedicated to the “wild childs in the audience” (well, considering the rumours as to what was happening in the pit, I’m guessing they had the best view of all), surely their music couldn’t conjure up any more happenings? Wrong. The rest of the set is “dedicated to the naked guy” in the pit, who then crowd-surfs his way to the front, with charismatic frontman Trevor announcing jovially “it’s a boy!” The faces of the security crew are a picture to say the least, especially when they are handed blue rubber gloves to wear for the rest of the set. And from then onwards it is carte blanche for more frenzied pits and crowd-surfers to stream over the audience, as the band storm their way through tracks from across their back catalogue, ending with ‘Funeral Thirst’, with its atmospheric opening and very Swedish death metal feel. Surprisingly enjoyable and disturbingly memorable! (HS)

ANVIL

Whatever your view of Anvil's music, you cannot deny or become at least a little inspired by the Canadians' determination, passion, obstinacy and optimism that became evident to the masses a few years ago for all those who viewed the heartwarming, award-winning documentary film, 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil'. And Lips, Robb Reiner and recently recruited bassist Sal Italiano have made it onto Bloodstock's main stage in 2012 to entertain the festival's audience with 45 minutes of their retro, one-time influential metal tunes. Airing four tracks from last year's full-length release, 'Juggernaut of Justice', it's their 'classic' compositions that really spark festival goers into any kind of mass movement, and a quartet of songs from their seminal 'Metal on Metal' album, including, predictably, the title track, secures such a reaction. The usual Anvil gimmickry is also present - giving a whole new meaning to fretboard vibrato for years, Lips has his solo moment with his vibrator (kind of a poor-man's E-Bow substitute I guess), as well as his distorted voice engendered by yelling into his guitar pickups, and grinning like the most grateful, happiest man on earth for the best part of three quarters of an hour. While the frontman is having his own party with Bloodstock's audience, it's Reiner who's most impressive musically today with his solid, tight performance behind the kit, a man whose drumming talents have never waned with age. Collectively, though, the camaraderie evident between Lips and Reiner is still intact and in evidence this afternoon. Anvil have always been, and still are about unmitigated metal entertainment and it's joviality and smiles all around Catton Hall during their set. (MH)

Reviews by Mark Holmes & Hannah Sylvester; Photography by Mark Holmes & Graham Hilling

(Freedom Call; The Commander-In-Chief; Grand Magus)

(Moonsorrow; Andraste; Sepultura; Dio Disciples)

(Watain; Alcest; Behemoth)

(Splintered Soul; I Am I; Dripback; Chthonic; Crowbar)

(Rising Dream; Mayhem; Bull-Riff Stampede; Winterfylleth)

(Tempus Fusion; Witchsorrow; Sight of Emptiness; Testament; Machine Head)

(Kobra and the Lotus; Corrosion of Conformity; Flayed Disciple)

(Nile; The Black Dahlia Murder; Anvil; Shattered Skies)

(Paradise Lost; Dimmu Borgir; Alice Cooper)

SHATTERED SKIES

Now this is what the New Blood Stage is all about; discovering some right proper gems! It also transpired that this is exactly what was needed as the remedy for end of festival fatigue. With a couple of hundred expectant onlookers, the Irish ‘melodic groove metal’ (with undeniable prog metal, industrial and djent influences) quartet, who many I’m assuming like me had been impressed by their output on listening shortly before the festival (one track, ‘Saviours’, did it for me!), were out to impress, and impress they do. Having the fortune of an excellent sound at the start, with their programmed/keys backing track set perfectly in the mix (so important for this style), and ultra-slick, technical and seriously tight musicality, combined with twitchy riffs, awesome techy guitar playing and perfect clean-sung vocals, makes for a flawless first-impression. Getting the same awesome feeling watching them as you do when you discover a band at the ProgPower Europe festival in Holland, I find myself thinking, “they’d fit in perfectly at ProgPower” (and unbeknownst to me at the time, it turns out they’re actually playing there in October!) Considering they’ve only been together since early 2011, not only is their performance impressive, but their songwriting has an admirably mature quality to it, and if this is them at the start of their careers, god knows what levels they’ll have progressed to in a few years. The only minor negative point (which isn’t their fault), is that the mix starts losing it half way through, thanks to a sound engineer that seemingly can’t twig he’d got it bang on at the start, but neither I nor anyone else in the tent cared, as we had already been well untruly drawn in. Ending their set with ‘As the Sea Divides’, their half hour on stage passes by way too quickly and I, for one, will be keeping a close eye on these guys in the future. By far my best discovery of the weekend, and a massive highlight of the entire festival. (HS)

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