VERY WELL ORGANISED,
GREAT ATMOSPHERE.
ROCK MUSIC IS ALIVE AT
BLOODSTOCK!
fuelled punk-metal
anthems such as
‘Terminator’
and
‘Predator’. Bassist
Barrakuda throws
his guitar case out
to the crowd and
leaps on to it and is ACTUALLY surfing the crowd
while wielding a fan-made plastic machine gun during ‘Commando’. I see a theme going on with these
songs, not sure what? Well, they are all about heroic
tales.
The six-piece from the San Francisco Bay area hold an
impromptu inter-gender bodybuilding competition
during ‘Pumping Iron’ and everyone wins! Either that
or Holzfeuer doesn’t have a prize. Well everyone wins
because the next track is crowd-favourite ‘I’m Ballsy’
in which the chorus really encapsulates the nature of
ArnoCorps: I’m Ballsy/I’m a stud/ I don’t take no shit
from anyone! The action-adventure hardcore rock n
rollers finish with a tribute to the ‘Goddamn Heroes
and Sheroes’ in attendance tonight with ‘Last Action
Hero’. I walk out the pit automatically wearing black
way-farers and camo paint, wondering why so many
members of the audience were wearing t-shirts with
this ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger’ character on them. The
bar has been raised a lot here Bloodstock! Time for
bed? What’s that? Party until 2AM? Bed can wait.
18:25 – Some don’t realise there are actual
bands on the night before the festival kicks off.
The Sophie Lancaster stage hosts five bands
tonight including cult favourites Reign Of Fury,
Metaprism and speed-metallers Desecration
– who really draw in the crowds. Its official:
the first crowd surfers of 2015 have been pulled over the barrier by security. Something we
should expect to see more of over the weekend.
Photo by Nei
l Jarvie
As British residents we
forget how spoilt we are for music festivals. Whatever you listen to, there will be fest for you. RAMzine
readers will be familiar with other major rock festivals
this year, but it is universally recognised that Bloodstock Open Air is tailor-made for metal-heads. Since
going ‘open air’ in 2005 this site has seen all kinds of
acts from Slayer to Alice Cooper and everything in
between. This year’s line-up was no different – four
nights of carnage at Catton Hall headlined by Trivium, Within Temptation and Rob Zombie.
Day 1: Thursday, August 6th
14:15 – Slightly later than planned, I set foot in the
Midlands – the birthplace of metal. I can tell just by
the fact the first campsite is called ‘Valhalla’ that this
is going to be a memorable weekend. I see someone
dressed as Luigi, two pirates and a topless man with
obscenities scribbled all over him. Yup, this is the
right place.
12
20:55 – We already have folk donning the jolly
roger and swigging ales, it is only fitting piratemetal crew Red Rum should join the party. With
a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of…overpriced rum the
band who started as a college project bring the
party mood to this tent, something that is really
infectious tonight. They end the set by paying tribute
to legendary actor and metal fan Christopher Lee
with a cover of ‘The Hobbits Have gone to Isengard’
which brings out the many Lord Of The Rings fans in
the mosh pit.
21:55 – Can you believe this right now? Not only are
‘The Greatest Band of All Time’ headlining the festival BEFORE it even begins, this is their Bloodstock
debut. In fact, it’s their festival
debut! ArnoCorps fill the air
with cigar smoke and fans faces
with camo-paint. As everyone
should know this band are bringing back Austrian folk stories of
true heroes to the masses, after
they have been pilfered by Hollywood. As front man Holzfeuer
says these songs are “Old, but
not obsolete” they fire out rocket-
Day 2: Friday, August 7th
8:00am – What day is it? That was a good one last
night, oh well time to get up and alive for some serious head banging.
11:00am – Thrash veterans Nuclear Assault give the
festival site a much needed wakeup call with the
appropriately named ‘Rise From The Ashes’ and ‘F#
(Wake Up!)’. Probably the world’s loudest alarm clock.
Ease us in lightly I paid £4 for this bacon sarnie.
12:00pm – It’s midday and saviours of British Metal,
Raging Speedhorn, make a welcome return. Their
guitarist takes a bit of a tumble a la Charlie Chaplin
but picks himself up to give the audience what they
really want – the classics. It’s hard to believe ‘The
Gush’ was released 14 years ago.
13:00 – Armoured Saint still have it! Although their
performance is relatively brief, they perform a track
from their latest album ’Win Hands Down’ plus favourites like ‘Can U Deliver’ and ‘March of The Saint’
showing metal can still be melodic as well as heavy.
15:15 – Norway’s Enslaved bring
some extreme black metal
gloom to what is otherwise a
bright, sunny day. Although
they aren’t everyone’s cup of
tea – but it’s hard to deny Ivar
and the guys are talented musicians. Totally dark, totally metal
and most importantly….totally
Bloodstock!