BLOODSTOCK 2019
CATTON HALL, DERBY
Parkway Drive and Sabaton bring fire and thunder to Derby
THURSDAY/FRIDAY Here we go again. Four days of heavy fucking metal. With intermittent thunderstorms. But the elements be damned, Bloodstock Open Air is open for business. ROTTING CHRIST storm the Sophie Lancaster tent like the finely honed headline act they’ve become. Imperious and devastating, they’re a joy to watch. Resurrected thrashers XENTRIX make their main, Ronnie James Dio stage debut count on the Friday. Armed with a blend of old and new, the Brits are a band reborn, and if No Compromise doesn’t make you bang your head, you have no head. DEATH ANGEL are still thrash metal’s irrepressible upstarts. From Voracious Souls to Humanicide, their timeless, fiery sound is perfect for the sunshine. He might look like a personal trainer, but METAL CHURCH’s Mike Howe has one of those classic voices that induces shivers. An epic and haunting Beyond The Black is a none-more-metal peak.
rise to the challenge of waking up the Sophie tent, letting loose some triumphant and bombastic power metal stylings, complete with pyro. It feels appropriate that aren’t long for this but the London-based tech-death metallers go about their brutal business with aplomb, and some wide grins, regardless. have tons of nasty, frosted riffs that groove and grind with malevolent intent. are on better form than we’ve seen them for some time on the main stage. New material from sounds particularly strong, full of the kind of speed and guts that made Max Cavalera a name all those years ago, and he seems fitter and more focused performing it.
