KILBURNFLYER

 

 

BLOODSTOCK: 9-11 August Catton Park, South Derbyshire

This was my first trip to this festival – it usually got overlooked as I would attend the larger and more local Sonisphere festival. But the apparent demise of the latter and with Slayer as the headliner this was a good opportunity to check it out. Overall I was very impressed – not too big so you could get round the site to see all the bands you wanted to see, the staff were courteous and helpful and the atmosphere was nice and friendly. Usual festival gripes about quality and cost of food, beer and toilets but no worse than other more established festivals. Highs and lows:

Thursday – any festival that can find room for a fun band like Oaf and a good parody band like “Tragedy” who do metal versions of songs by the Bee Gees gets my vote. A really fun way to kick things off.

Friday – I never really got King Diamond – his voice grates with me but he has a good band around him so the music pushes it all along. As for the rest; Municipal Waste were interesting, the clash between Voivod and Xentrix was a bit annoying but Accept were band of the day.

Saturday – again never much of a fan of Lamb of God but they are a decent enough headliner to keep me interested. Sabaton, Hell, Beholder played well on the main stage with glimpses of Gethika and XII Boar on the new blood stage but the whole thing overshadowed by Last in Line (all the members of the original band that DIO put together) who were really excellent. Nice to see some really big names on the Sophie Stage. Hell were as stupidly OTT as ever – good fun.

Sunday – by far and away the best day. Slayer – well what can I say – I have loved this band since my youth and they always deliver a greats show. Tom Araya was his usual calm self when talking to the crowd – I am always amazed by how softly spoken he is when not singing – but the sound was a bit iffy – Kerry’s guitar was a bit buried in the mix. Great set list (see below) – shame no room for Expendable Youth but first time I have heard Hell Awaits for a while. First Slayer gig I have seen since death of Jeff Hanneman – South of Heaven was a bit poignant.

Setlist (Ripped from Metal Hammer)
World Painted Blood
Disciple
War Ensemble
Hallowed Point
At Dawn They Sleep
Mandatory Suicide
Altar of Sacrifice
Jesus Saves
Spirit in Black
Postmortem
Snuff
Hate Worldwide
Seasons in the Abyss
Hell Awaits
Dead Skin Mask
Raining Blood
Encore:
South of Heaven
Angel of Death

Anthrax – over the last couple of years Anthrax have just got better and better. This show was no exception to that continual improvement and shows that the decision to get Joey Belladonna back in the band was the right one. Caught in a Mosh was a particular fave.

Evil Scarecrow – great fun band who drew the biggest crowd of the weekend to the Spohie stage. Getting the crowd to (a) chant the chorus of Thor vs Ra (b) scuttle left and right during Crabulon and (c) let off £80 worth of party poppers in unison were moments of great showmanship. Met them in Ibiza a few years ago so spoke to them a few times over the weekend – they were a bit nervous in the run up to the gig but completely blown away by the reception they got. A great show and I suspect it will get written up by many as the surprise band of the weekend.

RSJ – again friends from Ibiza gigs. Similarly nervous in the run up but again, rightly, got a great reception. An excellent band and a top bunch of blokes – the more I see them the more I think they deserve lots of success.

Gama Bomb – got up especially early just to see them – they didn’t disappoint and when the announced a UK tour in January with SSS in support I did a little dance (thankfully none of my mates saw that)

Exodus – utterly blistering – saw them a few times over the years but as I was due to see them at the Underworld on Tues I thought I had better refresh my knowledge.

Phil Campbell’s All Star Band – missed them – was walking past the jager stage (where they were due to be on) when I heard orgasmatron – consulted my expensive bloodstock timing sheet – saw they were not on for another 2 hours, assumed it was someone else, went to the bar. Bollocks.