Bloodstock Open Air 2007

United Kingdom | by Greame Johnston | 23 August 2007

Imagine our thrill at the Thursday line-up’s opening gambit: three AC/DC songs performed by an ex-drummer who joined the band a decade after the classics were written and recorded. Chris Slade is joined by Birmingham's Exploder to fluff their way through ‘Back In Black’, ‘Highway To Hell’ and ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, before Slade treats us to an unspectacular drum solo. A set better suited to the Metal Karaoke tent than the Main Stage.

Bloodstock Unsigned Winners Sight Of Emptiness ply us with Costa Rican melodic death metal in a relentless show that loosens the neck muscles for a small crowd of early afternoon headbangers. With impressive cuts from self-financed debut ‘Trust Is A Disease’, the band win over the punters and attract stragglers with a cover of Amon Amarth's ‘Death in Fire’.

And so the invasion begins... Kiuas are the first in a long line of power metal acts this weekend. Only a Lord of the Rings battle can boast a bigger cast of characters than the genre's assault on the festival, so it's with some trepidation that we prepare ourselves for this first incursion. The Finnish pagans sing about all the beasts, Gods and rising moons you'd expect, but in doing so deliver a rabbit punch of thrashy riffs battered out of jaggy-edged guitars.

Head-On are an all together tougher breed of rock stars, crooning about issues like breaking walls, lighting fires and smashing things with hammers. Albeit bonded by a love of wrestling and "general stupidity", the southern rockers don't lack subtlety - their muscular riffs are engaging, the choruses are genius, and their powerful stage show is lovingly helmed by frontman Mark Logan. What better way to wrap up than with the stomping ‘Here Comes The Hammer’, smashing a VCR with a mallet and leaving the outdated entertainment system in pieces for the roadies to clean up?

"One of the top power metal bands in the world... Firewind!" High praise indeed for the Greeks and their introduction leaves expectations running high. Young guitar hero Gus G of Dream Evil fame leads his group through biting and bold hook-laden rock that gets the sea of long hair swishing. ‘Breaking The Silence’ is a karaoke-starter so simple that old and new fans alike can join in. The anthemic chorus sweeps through the ranks and leaving us in rapture.

Bay Area thrashers Testament have flown in for what's due to be 90 minutes that will stay with us forever. For anyone who's ever worn a "Master of Puppets" t-shirt or left the tattooist's chair with a Slayer logo, a chance to see the legends is unmissable. Chuck Billy's chillingly fierce vocals, the trademark twin guitars and new boy Nick Barker adding a fresh energy to drum duties. Their incredible back catalogue is given a stunning airing that can only be delivered with 25 years of practice.

As night draws in on the fields of Catten Hall, a massive vortex opens in the crowd for ‘Into The Pit’. The circle widens as we all scream bloody murder and brutally bruise the nearest person in a furious moshpit. By evening's end the stage is sadly empty, shirts are off and sweaty hair drips on the muddy ground as fans make their way to the field of campsite parties. The talk of Testament reverbs around the crowd - this is the reason we came.

Friday and Birmingham bad boys Exploder keep things surprisingly simple for a band including Anaal Nathrakh and Mistress Alumni. Balls-to-the-wall hair metal for dirty bikers, the stadium rocker wannabes pay tribute to Bon Jovi with their sound.  Their tracks like ‘Sympathy Love’ and ‘Kind of Evil’ are fun if a little knowing and self-conscious.

"They sound how Soilwork would if they were actually good," one fan says about Scar Symmentry. The Swedish natives certainly challenge their fellow countrymen in the progressive death metal stakes, but unfortunately their grim tunes are hampered by a sound engineer who's obviously been on the piss - where are Christian Älvestam's vocals? Although marred by technical issues, the band's intense noise is too strong to ignore and doubters are won over.

Voodoo Six do classic British metal that no band of drunken youngsters should be able to do. Covered in tattoos with cocky swagger in tow, they make the stage their own and let the Maiden-aping music do the talking. Cuts from what Steve Harris described as: "The best debut album I've heard in years," are gargantuan in size. The big field rings with the sweet sound of distorted UK guitars.

Korpiklaani turn wellies into dancing shoes as a whole crowd of pissheads start uncontrollably hopping arm-in-arm. Their wild folk metal merits only one reaction and that's to grab a pint, head to the nearest moshpit and soak all those around you in cider. With a microphone bedecked in antlers, a fiddle and a set of bagpipes, the Finns are something to behold. Their riot swells into an all out drunken brawl for ‘Happy Little Boozer’, a song so ludicrously fun that the rain clouds threaten to part in its wake.

Female-fronted Epica are a lust for the ears, Simone Simons' rich mezzo-soprano voice adding a touch of operatic class to their up-tempo heavy metal. Ex-After Forever man Mark Jansen's grunts war against Simons' angel-like singsong. The guitar parts are huge and cinematic keyboards add a ton weight of drama, but none of this is enough to pull your attention from the gorgeous Simone. Less hairy metal bastards and more hot opera chicks should be the order of the day for Bloodstock.

The story goes that Wolf formed after 666 pints were shared between two Swedish metalheads, they promise to "leave a taste of blood in your mouth." Their aim to recapture the glory of the 80s metal heyday draws influence from bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. The old boys clad in denim vests clearly love their nostalgic brilliance. There's justification for a bit of fist-waving and air-guitaring but, all in all, the songs aren't genius or original enough to merit anything but a casual afternoon glance. A frustrating power cut during their set certainly puts a dampener on proceedings too.

Nevermore take us through their 15-year career with a set spanning the early days and up as far as 2006's ‘This Godless Endeavour’. Highlights from the heaving sea of black are the violent moshpits of ‘I, Voyager’ and the relentless headbanging of ‘Inside Four Walls’. Warrel Dane's broad range borders on irritating when he hits those trousers-too-tight high notes, but the thrash metal tunes create waves of cracking festival noise to get lost in.

Dark Tranquillity sound like In Flames but with bigger balls. They are an eagerly anticipated prospect this weekend and the crowd swells as they burst into feisty melodic death of opener: ‘Terminus’. For a group who have slowly built up their following in the UK, pinching support slots with the likes of Chimaria, a main support slot at Bloodstock is clearly not one to be wasted. They waste no time ploughing through their impressive back catalogue of Euro metal hits, with the notable highlight of ‘The Wonders At Your Feet’ leaving the headliners with a job on their hands.

But when you have Christina Scabbia in your ranks, would you be worried? The Italian beauty could be without a mic tonight and we'd all still stay throughout the set. Lacuna Coil are the first of the big three "Download type" bands (also see: Arch Enemy and In Flames) to encroach on Bloodstock and they have their more elitist fans tearing off their spikes and leather patches in protest. 

Rise To Addiction shred with such pure anthemic greatness that even a mute would sing along. The Saturday openers epic Metallica moments are laced with eccentric melodies so carefully crafted that a sweatshop worker could only marvel in awe. Therapy?, Tool and Chris Cornell all spring to mind as ingredients tossed in the melting pot, as Leigh Oates' incredible voice draws intrigued fans like flies to honey-covered shit.

The fact Freedom Call fail to find anything original to add to the fantasy power metal genre is almost an achievement. No other band have ever done so well in managing to drop their own name into so many of their own songs. All we want this afternoon is freedom from this uninspired nonsense - let's just slay the dragon and be done with it boys.

Like a cup of warm coffee on a wet day, Benediction’s take on old school death metal is gratefully accepted by the men in the crowd keen to wash off the filth of Freedom Call.

The Brummie boys couldn't look more out of place before they kick-off with frontman Dave Hunt, of Mistress and Anaal Nathrakh fame, strolls around nonchalantly as if waiting on the bus before a shift in Tesco. But when they get into the swing of it, it's as good entertainment as money can buy you in a sodden wet English field.

The metal Ricky Martin has arrived! Seriously, could Niklas Isfeldt be more camp up there? And that's before he's even let out one of his motherly, glass unfriendly squeals. Dream Evil make The Darkness seem as serious as Pink Floyd when it comes to taking the piss out of a genre. Every power metal cliché is polished and taken up a level and it's impossible not to be dragged in by the cheese of it all. ‘Made Of Metal’ and ‘The Book Of Heavy Metal’ are obvious highlights as we all sign our contracts with the devil without hesitation.

On first glance by passers would be forgiven for expecting the next offering - 80s thrash kings Sabbat - to stick with the comedy as front man Andy Sneap appears in studded leather and red eyeliner. But it turns out his fondness of a gay-exchange lifestyle stops firmly at the wardrobe.

Fine slabs of straight forward metal and anti-religion rants are the order of the day, but to be fair it's almost impossible to concentrate on the stage antics as a 40 foot moshpit-come-mud bath is formed to host all sorts of wrestling games with more than one unlucky reveller landing face down in six inches of brown sludge.

If Lacuna Coil couldn't prove the doubters wrong last night, Arch Enemy, and arguably the biggest crowd of the weekend leave no room for argument with an uncompromising set of Swedish metal.

Bloodstock band or not, Angela Gossow and her merry men manage to over come the hurdle of a dull sound coming from the stage to win back a batch of old fans who wouldn't pay to see them at their own headline show.

Predictably, rebellion anthem ‘We Will Rise’ brings the show to a close and the blonde haired, blue eyes of Arch Enemy depart leaving us with their fellow countrymen to round off the weekend's action.

"We wanted to bring fireworks and blow stuff up, but we were told that people might think we were terrorists," jokes vocalist Anders Fridén, between tracks. And for those heading towards the beer tent, maybe a group of suicide bombers would have been preferable to In Flames melodic death metal but the band seem unfazed by everything tonight.

For the first half of the set, they look like the most disinterested band of the weekend, with Anders spending more time collecting drinks side stage and playing with his twisted locks than showing the energy which has won them so many fans live in recent years.

Fortunately, a dip into their early classics, including ‘Graveland’ and ‘Episode 666’ followed by livelier renditions of newer chart hits ‘Come Clarity’ and  ‘Take This Life’ made for a more exciting finale.

‘My Sweet Shadow’ is the soundtrack to our escape from Bloodstock as roadies chuck out bundles of plectrums to grateful fans and Bloodstock's first three-day extravaganza closes with pass marks and a bright future.