By Rich Hobson
As live music makes a staggered return, the question starts to take place on exactly how it will all come together, particularly in regard to differing COVID policies [even just within the ÜK] and the requirement for musicians, crews etc. to self-isolate and avoid any exposure to the virus. Bloodstock knows this all too keenly, having worked a transparent policy since last summer that has seen the festival announce a steady raft of replacements for acts who couldn’t make the fest for one reason or another, ultimately leading to a largely ÜK-based line-up.
Not that anybody (sane) is complaining, of course – the Bloodstock 2021 line-up has a wonderful spread of talent, covering the expanse of heavy metal in everything from thrash and death metal to hardcore and even alternative as the likes of Wargasm, Malevolence and Higher Power all join at the last minute. While Bloodstock’s detractors can often be found loudly complaining about the lack of tr00 metal on the line-up, the fact remains that Bloodstock’s team have utterly smashed it out the park for the 2021 iteration.
Spread across five days for the first time (a reflection of its celebratory nature, with this being the 20th anniversary of Bloodstock over all), it’s a delightfully populated crowd that make it in for opening day, Wednesday 11th June being the first full-scale, multi-stage metal festival held in the UK since 2019. Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere is electric: people are dancing, singing and drinking as much as they can get their mitts on, all notions of the outside world forgotten once they pass the barriers and enter the festival site (having already proven themselves either COVID-negative, or otherwise double-vaccinated). With just one stage on opening day, it would feel rude to not hang about and catch every act, so without further ado we set up camp for an evening of eardrum-clattering fun…
Anakim provide a suitably apocalyptic open to proceedings, quickly filling the tent for what may very well be the first fix of live music for many people in over a year-and-a-quarter. The confines of the Sophie Lancaster tent provide a suitably claustrophobic feel to the band’s bludgeoning take on death metal, the first moshpits of the weekend breaking out scarcely seconds into the first song. Some of the instrumental nuances might not be entirely discernible above the absolute din erupting from the speakers, but there’s still plenty to enjoy for the full-throttle assault we experience.
There is a misconception at times that playing in the tent somehow curtails a band’s ability to get creative with their stagecraft. Ward XVI soon disabuse detractors of this notion. Enormously theatrical in execution, the band’s approach to live performance feels akin to the ultra-pomp of In This Moment, the songs just a part of the overall sensory experience. With gouts of flame the band announce their presence to a willing crowd and while it doesn’t quite have the bludgeoning punch of the acts either side, Ward XVI offer an immensely memorable experience.
The tonal shift to follow-ups Raised By Owls is enough to bring about whiplash. While the band certainly put on a spectacle, the fact remains comedy grindcore is an enormous departure from everything else on offer this evening. Not that it matters: the band absolutely pack the tent out. So much of the humour for RBA comes from the song-titles and between-songs banter, so much so that there’s probably more talking than actual playing. But when the band do get down to business, they tackle grindcore with brutal efficiency, jumping in hard and nasty, a whirlwind of shrieks and blastbeats that will please any lover of extremity. The band have their own priest wandering around offering lyric sheets for ‘Ainsley Harriott Advises You To Give Your Meat A Good Old Rub’, though the actual sing-along seems ill-fated given you can take longer to read the sentence than the band take to play the song. It’s a kind of daftness Bloodstock holds dear though, the enormous grins seen wall-to-wall indicative of RBO’s fan-favourite status.
It’s a somewhat more bittersweet state of affairs for sub-headliners Beholder, however. Four years on from announcing they were calling it a day, the heavy metal warriors kick up riffs one last time for a farewell gig at Bloodstock. The thunder of double bass provides a satisfyingly warlike set-up for the band’s set, a triumphant last bout that more than anything else shows just how much vitality the band still have even years after they last graced a stage together. Classic-style heavy metal might not be as prevalent at Bloodstock as it once was, but the reception to Beholder goes to show it can still kick up a storm when put in front of the right audience.
While Beholder face oblivion, Onslaught are rising from the ashes. With long-term vocalist Sy Keeler departing the band in April 2020, Onslaught haven’t had chance to give new vocalist Dave Garnett an official live debut (though confusingly Garnett did front the band for their last pre-pandemic gig, this was as a stand-in for Keeler and prior to his departure from the band). Listen hard enough and the differences can be heard, but Garnett has already proved his mettle on Onslaught’s latest record ‘Generation Antichrist’ and has a suitably throaty snarl to front the British thrash legends. Kicking things off with the furious ‘Killing Peace’, the band set off like the clappers and don’t let up as they follow in with the suitably frantic ‘Strike Fast Strike Hard’.
While British thrash never quite got the accolades its ÜS-counterpart did, Onslaught are proof positive that bands this side of the pond haven’t lost any of their fire and venom in translation. Fans of the 80s material might be disappointed to see a relative lack in the set, but when the likes of ‘66FuckingSix’, ‘A Perfect Day to Die’, ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ and ‘Burn’ sear like a merciless sun in a godless sky, we’re not about to argue with the results. Keeler even returns for a number or two mid-set, showing that the departure was anything but acrimonious and the thrash heroes aren’t about to turn their backs on a near four-decade legacy. It’s a suitable pedigree to close out the first day, a fresh beginning for stalwart champions of the underground and for heavy metal as a whole as we emerge from the clusterfuck of the past 12-plus months.
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photographs courtesy of Bloodstock.
- Bloodstock 2022 will take place over the weekend of 11-14 August. Headliners Lamb Of God and Mercyful Fate will be joined by Dimmu Borgir, Testament, Bury Tomorrow, Vio-lence, Philip H Anselmo & The Illegals, Sacred Reich, GWAR, Exodus, The Black Dahlia Murder, Static-X, Heathen, Bloodywood, Life Of Agony, The Night Flight Orchestra and Butcher Babies, with many more to be announced. Early bird tickets are on sale now.
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