Friday: (08/08/25)
As we wander through the gates of BLOODSTOCK 2025, ORANGE GOBLIN - closing in on their final show ever later this year - are on FEROCIOUS form on the Ronnie James Dio stage. Their “meat and potatoes heavy metal” lacks the hedonism of PALEFACE SWISS, the chaotic deathcore band whose set they followed, and is worlds away from the pomp of the melodramatic LACUNA COIL show that follows it. But Orange Goblin need no frills. Their groovy, swaggering riffs and gruff vocals are more than enough to entertain this mid-afternoon audience, and it’s not until after the final notes of "Red Tide Rising" ring out that you realise Orange Goblin have been a subtle mainstay of metal for thirty years. It’s sad to see them go
The show goes on, though, and we catch Polish "Metal 2 The Masses" winners RASCAL on the New Blood stage. All About The Rock flew out to Bydgoszcz to join the judging panel for M2TM Poland earlier in the year, and while our winners AEONION didn’t win the final round, Rascal are worthy winners. Their melodic speed metal has earned them a decent crowd, and vocalist Kacper Pędziszewski is certainly one to watch. Over on the Sophie Lancaster stage, EIHWAR are showing off the other end of the metal spectrum. Frontwoman Asrunn is a theatrical performer with a hypnotic voice who wields a shamanic drum, while Mark (...) handles multi-instrumental duties effortlessly. Their sound is a pagan-style blurring of folk, electronica and metal influences. Like a heavy version of Jockstrap.
As is Bloodstock tradition, next year's line-up is announced early on Friday evening. Despite the hype surrounding this being the festival’s 25th anniversary, the announcement falls a little flat. Sure, we get some phenomenal bands like LAMB OF GOD, JUDAS PRIEST, SHINING, SEPULTURA and CRYPTOPSY, but there’s no return for first-ever headliners SAXON (Though admittedly this could be down to Biff Bifford’s recent cancer diagnosis) and none of the huge-scale bookings seen floating around the rumour mill. Most problematically, one of the headliner slots has been given to a certain Russian deathcore band with Nazi ties. There has already been a lot of understandable backlash, including calls to boycott next year’s festival… [Editor: We've covered said band, recently, and for transparency, it was an album review, nothing more, and in no means endorsing or championing any semblance of Nazi ideology or fascism...we don't do hypocrisy here]
But that’s next year’s problem. Spirits are lifted quickly by the triumphant return of black metal legends - at one time controversial in their own right - EMPOROR. Fronted by the bespectacled, purple-guitar-wielding IHSAHN, the band power through their dark, ferocious anthems with almost no break. They’ve felt no need to release new music in the last twenty-five years, and you can see why when the brutal shrieks of "Ye Entrancemperium" and "Inno A Satana" haven’t aged a day.
But that’s next year’s problem. Spirits are lifted quickly by the triumphant return of black metal legends - at one time controversial in their own right - EMPOROR. Fronted by the bespectacled, purple-guitar-wielding IHSAHN, the band power through their dark, ferocious anthems with almost no break. They’ve felt no need to release new music in the last twenty-five years, and you can see why when the brutal shrieks of "Ye Entrancemperium" and "Inno A Satana" haven’t aged a day.
The Sophie tent is almost as full as it was for MACHINE HEAD’s secret set a few years ago, even though until a couple of weeks ago, NAILBOMB hadn’t performed live since their debut show back in 1994. It’s hard to tell who is there as a fan (After all, the band only released one album and disbanded almost immediately after) and who is just following hype, but either way, we stand no chance of getting in the tent, so make our way back across the field and over to the miniscule EMP stage, where hidden gems are often lurking. Northern Irish death metal trio INSIDIOUS VOID are on hand to deliver one of the heaviest sets of the weekend, complete with the fastest, most mechanical-sounding blast beats I’ve ever heard.
TRIVIUM were the first metal band I ever saw live, but despite adoring "In Waves" at the time, I never really got stuck into any of their other output. I already knew their set was likely to only touch upon that album’s title track, so aside from recognising the odd tune here and there, I was going in blind. The band, clearly relishing an opportunity to headline a major festival, promised a ‘very special’ set for Bloodstock, and they weren’t lying.
‘"Rain", "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr" and "Like Light To The Flies" from the "Ascendancy" album they had been performing in full recently are clearly well-oiled and all hit hard as an opening trio. They quickly transition to a covers-heavy middle section, with their version of "Symptom Of The Universe" seeing them joined by Machine Head’s beaming Rob Flynn, and their rarely performed cover of "Master Of Puppets" going down about as well as you’d expect a true heavy metal anthem to go down.
That said, it’s frustratingly hard to ignore the duds, and Trivium certainly have some duds. The lifeless "Until The World Goes Cold", generic "The Sin And The Sentence" and especially the slog of "The Heart From Your Hate" are tough listens that can’t be salvaged by any amount of infectious live energy. Their melodies are as bland as they come, and instrumentally all three tracks just play it way too safe to be of any interest. What does bring the energy up, however, is their new track, "Bury Me With Your Screams", which is a chuggy cut that doesn’t skimp on the heaviness, leaning into Matt Heafy’s gritty shout without an over-reliance on a big clean chorus. This is immediately followed by the set’s inevitable highlight, the unfathomably groovy "In Waves", which welcomes Ihsahn back to the stage for some backing vocals, and, despite Heafy’s insistence that it wouldn’t be, should have been their closing number.
‘"Rain", "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr" and "Like Light To The Flies" from the "Ascendancy" album they had been performing in full recently are clearly well-oiled and all hit hard as an opening trio. They quickly transition to a covers-heavy middle section, with their version of "Symptom Of The Universe" seeing them joined by Machine Head’s beaming Rob Flynn, and their rarely performed cover of "Master Of Puppets" going down about as well as you’d expect a true heavy metal anthem to go down.
That said, it’s frustratingly hard to ignore the duds, and Trivium certainly have some duds. The lifeless "Until The World Goes Cold", generic "The Sin And The Sentence" and especially the slog of "The Heart From Your Hate" are tough listens that can’t be salvaged by any amount of infectious live energy. Their melodies are as bland as they come, and instrumentally all three tracks just play it way too safe to be of any interest. What does bring the energy up, however, is their new track, "Bury Me With Your Screams", which is a chuggy cut that doesn’t skimp on the heaviness, leaning into Matt Heafy’s gritty shout without an over-reliance on a big clean chorus. This is immediately followed by the set’s inevitable highlight, the unfathomably groovy "In Waves", which welcomes Ihsahn back to the stage for some backing vocals, and, despite Heafy’s insistence that it wouldn’t be, should have been their closing number.
Saturday...
Death, taxes and a bit of atmospheric post-metal on a Saturday morning at Bloodstock. VNDER A CRVMBLING MOON deliver a harsh, melancholy set of slow, doomy, widescreen metal before BA'AL replace them to do a very similar thing, but with slightly more syncopation and a slightly less visceral vocal performance. We head over to the New Blood stage to bring the energy back up in the early afternoon, and through the bouncy fun of Mantis Defeats Jaguar and intense slam of MECHROMORPH, our mission is accomplished with ease.
The same can’t be said for the main stage, which seems to be going through a bit of a mid-festival crisis. CREEPER, whose frontman William Von Ghould has been seen on the big screens relentlessly advertising Tixtel all weekend, might look the part, but their punky gothic rock lacks bite and sounds weak throughout almost the entire set. On stage performances that lack confidence and very wobbly vocals don’t help their case either
The same can’t be said for the main stage, which seems to be going through a bit of a mid-festival crisis. CREEPER, whose frontman William Von Ghould has been seen on the big screens relentlessly advertising Tixtel all weekend, might look the part, but their punky gothic rock lacks bite and sounds weak throughout almost the entire set. On stage performances that lack confidence and very wobbly vocals don’t help their case either
They’re followed by KUBLAI KHAN TX, a metalcore band who look like they’d have bullied every member of Creeper at school. The toxic masculinity is off the charts from frontman Matt Honeycutt, who spends as much time grabbing his crotch, flexing his muscles and reminding the audience the band are from Texas as he does singing. For the first time ever, I see the Bloodstock pit turn from its usual haven of heaviness, into a blurry mess of fist-flailing incels, most of whom are foaming at the mouth as they’re crowd-surfed into the photo pit. The band’s obvious popularity makes it hard to call them a bad booking, but it certainly doesn’t feel like the right atmosphere for Bloodstock.
The flamboyant NEONFLY are a great antidote to an overdose of masculinity. They’re not my usual cup of tea, but any set that opens with some unrelated fire-breathing is going to bring me on side. Willy Norton’s voice in particular is a soaring, melodic weapon and his prowling stagecraft alone should lead him to the Ronnie James Dio stage one day soon. The Sophie stage remains on fine form for the rest of the day, with the tongue-in-cheek brutality of UNDEATH contrasting the singalong flamenco metal of “the biggest unsigned band at Bloodstock”, BREED 77, who even sneak a cover of THE CRANBERRIES’ "Zombie" into their set.
The flamboyant NEONFLY are a great antidote to an overdose of masculinity. They’re not my usual cup of tea, but any set that opens with some unrelated fire-breathing is going to bring me on side. Willy Norton’s voice in particular is a soaring, melodic weapon and his prowling stagecraft alone should lead him to the Ronnie James Dio stage one day soon. The Sophie stage remains on fine form for the rest of the day, with the tongue-in-cheek brutality of UNDEATH contrasting the singalong flamenco metal of “the biggest unsigned band at Bloodstock”, BREED 77, who even sneak a cover of THE CRANBERRIES’ "Zombie" into their set.
As is the way at Bloodstock, momentum can shift at any moment, and the main stage quickly recovered from its mid-afternoon stupor to switch gears into a triple threat of legends. First up is FEAR FACTORY, playing the entirety of their groundbreaking second album, "Demanufacture". Only instantly-recognisable guitarist Dino Cazares remains from the band’s most influential era, but Milo Silverstro does a good job of stepping into the shoes of Burton C. Bell and their sound is as weighty and futuristic as ever. Their signature blend of industrial timbres, subtle electronics and grating riffs represents itself best on tracks like "Self Bias Resistor" and "Dog Day Sunrise", which sound about as close to the record as they can. They’re followed by fellow industrial legends MINISTRY. The unsmiling Al Jourgensen looks incredible and carries himself with the unshakeable confidence only a true icon can muster, but aside from the hardcore fans gathered on the barrier, there isn’t much enthusiasm for Ministry around Catton Park. Their performance is tight and their sound is loud and crisp, but to put it bluntly, they just don’t have the tunes.
An evening of certified legends is rounded out by MACHINE HEAD, who deliver one of the best headline sets in Bloodstock history. Rob Flynn, who looks simultaneously like a huge, hairy monster and a soft, cuddly teddy bear, is unmatched in terms of stage presence. He can switch between a totally genuine grin and the frenzied stare of a man locked into one of the grooviest riffs you’ve ever heard with ease. And that comes before we even mention the sheer might of the setlist. It’s hard to argue with a band that can open with "Imperium", drop their most played song fifth in the set and swap out a mid-set lull with the anthemic "Locust".
Later in the set, Flynn pays a moving tribute to Michelle Kerr, his (and, previously, Bloodstock’s) PR, who sadly died in September 2024. Over the tender chords of "Darkness Within", he tells stories from their many years working together, and leads the audience in a celebration of her legacy, pointing out the bands that many of us would never have even heard of without her influence. It’s a beautiful moment, handled with so much care that when the energy picks up again, everyone in the audience knows she wouldn’t want us to wallow, but to get stuck into yet another huge-scale metal show that wouldn’t exist without her.
Later in the set, Flynn pays a moving tribute to Michelle Kerr, his (and, previously, Bloodstock’s) PR, who sadly died in September 2024. Over the tender chords of "Darkness Within", he tells stories from their many years working together, and leads the audience in a celebration of her legacy, pointing out the bands that many of us would never have even heard of without her influence. It’s a beautiful moment, handled with so much care that when the energy picks up again, everyone in the audience knows she wouldn’t want us to wallow, but to get stuck into yet another huge-scale metal show that wouldn’t exist without her.
The back-to-back of "Davidian" and "Halo" that brings the show to a close is a fitting power move the likes of which haven’t been seen at Bloodstock since LAMB OF GOD hit us with "Laid To Rest" and "Redneck" in 2022. The night is rounded out by a mass shout-along, a sea of headbanging and a flurry of fireworks.
Sunday...
We take up our usual late morning spot at the back of the Sophie Lancaster stage. APATHY UK are as energetic as it is possible to be at 10:30am on day three of a metal festival, while BARBARIAN HERMIT are as loud as the hungover heads in front of them can take. FRAYLE, however, are just dull - they claim to take influence from the likes of SLEEP, BLACK SABBATH, BJORK and PORTISHEAD, but realistically, their sound is bland and vaguely doomy. It goes nowhere and offers very little.
RIVERS OF NIHIL, however, offer a hell of a lot. Not only is their progressive death metal musically interesting (Saxophone at Bloodstock alert!), but their performance is passionate and intense. Bassist/vocalist Adam Biggs sprays spit as he alternates between surprisingly catchy melodies and the brutal screams of "Where Owls Know My Name". Over on the EMP stage, Z MACHINE are the weekend’s token prog band. Until just an hour before, they believed themselves to be introducing Bloodstock to its first saxophone. Bad timing. But their blend of King Crimson-esque experimental prog-jazz-fusion-metal is an endearing chance of pace, and the small gathering of confused metalheads still manage to mosh to it.
RIVERS OF NIHIL, however, offer a hell of a lot. Not only is their progressive death metal musically interesting (Saxophone at Bloodstock alert!), but their performance is passionate and intense. Bassist/vocalist Adam Biggs sprays spit as he alternates between surprisingly catchy melodies and the brutal screams of "Where Owls Know My Name". Over on the EMP stage, Z MACHINE are the weekend’s token prog band. Until just an hour before, they believed themselves to be introducing Bloodstock to its first saxophone. Bad timing. But their blend of King Crimson-esque experimental prog-jazz-fusion-metal is an endearing chance of pace, and the small gathering of confused metalheads still manage to mosh to it.
In an attempt to overcome my obvious anti-metalcore bias, we sought out AUGUST BURNS RED. From their clever SYSTEM OF A DOWN fake-out opening right up until "White Washed", I was hooked. Every moment of melody was carefully balanced by a crushingly heavy groove or a tempo-chopping breakdown that would take the audience by surprise. The mellower moments didn’t feel self-indulgent, but a necessary moment of calm used to make the shift back into intensity worthwhile. Maybe not a hidden gem to the thousands that gathered to watch them, but certainly one to me.
Between seeing Cypriot progressive groove metaller's SPEAK IN WHISPERS on the New Blood stage and THROWN on the Sophie, we don’t catch much of FEUERSCHWANZ, aside from a cover of "Dragostea Din Tei" when walking in one direction, and a snippet of "Gangnam Style" while walking in the other. I feel like that may have been all I needed to know. There was a lot more intrigue surrounding ORME, though, who may be the first true drone band to grace a Bloodstock stage. Their set, which consisted of a heavily truncated performance of the normally hour-long "Onward to Sarnath", turned most passers by away with the sheer might of its unshifting slab of noise presented at a ferocious decibel level, but those who stuck with it were rewarded by a slow build into some truly satisfying doomy, sludgy riffs. This is the sort of thing the EMP tent was made for.
Between seeing Cypriot progressive groove metaller's SPEAK IN WHISPERS on the New Blood stage and THROWN on the Sophie, we don’t catch much of FEUERSCHWANZ, aside from a cover of "Dragostea Din Tei" when walking in one direction, and a snippet of "Gangnam Style" while walking in the other. I feel like that may have been all I needed to know. There was a lot more intrigue surrounding ORME, though, who may be the first true drone band to grace a Bloodstock stage. Their set, which consisted of a heavily truncated performance of the normally hour-long "Onward to Sarnath", turned most passers by away with the sheer might of its unshifting slab of noise presented at a ferocious decibel level, but those who stuck with it were rewarded by a slow build into some truly satisfying doomy, sludgy riffs. This is the sort of thing the EMP tent was made for.
MASTODON were always the band I was most excited to see this weekend, and it was especially interesting to see how they played without recently not-so-amicably-departed guitarist Brent Hinds. The answer seems to be that it made absolutely no impact on them whatsoever. Brann Dailor’s ability to sing the band’s most melodic tracks while unflinchingly powering through proggy drum beats is incredible. Equally, Troy Sanders’ hoarse grunt is the perfect match to the thunderous tone of the likes of "Black Tongue".
"The Motherload" is a frenzied web of riffs interspersed with the band’s biggest hook, while "Megalodon" offers a dreamy, psychedelic haze of rhythmic instability that keeps the listener on their toes. The evergreen "Blood And Thunder" holds an almost indefinable power that makes the entire audience ignore almost every lyric in favour of relentlessly singing along to that riff.
[Editor: In the process of publishing this review, it has come to light that Brent Hinds, former guitarist of Mastodon, tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident, on August 20th. Everyone involved in the All About The Rock / Gav The Gothic Chav collaborative team, sends our condolences to Brent's immediate family, close friends and loved ones. A powerful force in modern metal...talented, creative and adored by many. RIP Brent Hinds.]
"The Motherload" is a frenzied web of riffs interspersed with the band’s biggest hook, while "Megalodon" offers a dreamy, psychedelic haze of rhythmic instability that keeps the listener on their toes. The evergreen "Blood And Thunder" holds an almost indefinable power that makes the entire audience ignore almost every lyric in favour of relentlessly singing along to that riff.
[Editor: In the process of publishing this review, it has come to light that Brent Hinds, former guitarist of Mastodon, tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident, on August 20th. Everyone involved in the All About The Rock / Gav The Gothic Chav collaborative team, sends our condolences to Brent's immediate family, close friends and loved ones. A powerful force in modern metal...talented, creative and adored by many. RIP Brent Hinds.]
In the eight years I’ve been reviewing Bloodstock, GOJIRA are the first returning headliners I’ve seen. If there’s a band more deserving, I don’t know who it is. Since their last performance, they’ve become tighter, their stage show has expanded into a true spectacle and they’ve become international flag carriers of metal thanks to their Olympic triumph.
Their music, however, remains largely unchanged. Aside from three tracks from "Fortitude", a lot of their set overlaps with that of 2018 - but that’s no bad thing. The opening sucker punch of "Only Pain" is the perfect way to set the tone, filled with those trademark walls of thick, distorted sound Gojira are known for, completed by an off-kilter, polyrhythmic drumming style that could only be Mario Duplantier. "The Axe" gives his brother Joe Duplantier a vocal workout with its ferociously catchy tech-death first half, before giving way to a cinematic instrumental outro that is every bit as perfect live as it is on the album.
Tracks 4, 5 and 6 are identical to 2018, probably because they act as a beautiful way to encapsulate the band’s career and evolution, with the Grammy-winning, ultra-catchy "Stranded" giving way to the atmospheric expanse of "Flying Whales" from more than ten years earlier, before returning to "Magma" for the relentless energy of "The Cell". "Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)" is a welcome new addition to the set, and its blend of ferocious Gojira-style groove and operatic interjections show exactly why this was the perfect choice for their Olympic performance.
Their music, however, remains largely unchanged. Aside from three tracks from "Fortitude", a lot of their set overlaps with that of 2018 - but that’s no bad thing. The opening sucker punch of "Only Pain" is the perfect way to set the tone, filled with those trademark walls of thick, distorted sound Gojira are known for, completed by an off-kilter, polyrhythmic drumming style that could only be Mario Duplantier. "The Axe" gives his brother Joe Duplantier a vocal workout with its ferociously catchy tech-death first half, before giving way to a cinematic instrumental outro that is every bit as perfect live as it is on the album.
Tracks 4, 5 and 6 are identical to 2018, probably because they act as a beautiful way to encapsulate the band’s career and evolution, with the Grammy-winning, ultra-catchy "Stranded" giving way to the atmospheric expanse of "Flying Whales" from more than ten years earlier, before returning to "Magma" for the relentless energy of "The Cell". "Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)" is a welcome new addition to the set, and its blend of ferocious Gojira-style groove and operatic interjections show exactly why this was the perfect choice for their Olympic performance.
The only thing that disappoints is the way they bring the set to a close. Aside from the incredible encore-opening "L'enfant Sauvage", their decision to with the two tracks from the disappointing "Fortitude" shows that they either aren’t in tune with what their audience wants, or a need to back their newer material overshadows their commitment to better show structure. Their "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes" BLACK SABBATH cover is great, but it feels like it may have landed better earlier in the set rather than in place of a hard-hitting penultimate number. Similarly, the show-closing "The Gift Of Guilt" is anticlimactic, especially when the likes of "The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe" are left out entirely. But these are minor details, and the important thing is that overall their set is a triumphant success and a welcome return to Catton Hall.
2025 is yet another impeccable year for Bloodstock. Where else can you see Mastodon and Gojira back to back, discover your new favourite unsigned band, watch a potato-eating competition, do a Raised By Owls-hosted metal pub quiz and mosh to an authentic classic-era Slipknot tribute band in the same day? There’s nowhere else quite like it...
Words AND Photography: Dan Peeke
2025 is yet another impeccable year for Bloodstock. Where else can you see Mastodon and Gojira back to back, discover your new favourite unsigned band, watch a potato-eating competition, do a Raised By Owls-hosted metal pub quiz and mosh to an authentic classic-era Slipknot tribute band in the same day? There’s nowhere else quite like it...
Words AND Photography: Dan Peeke
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