Bloodstock 2025 Friday Recap

Compounds

Winners of Southampton’s Metal 2 The Masses contest showed why they deserved the slot on the New Blood stage. Festival revellers two-stepped their way into the smaller tent to witness and feel the band’s renegade energy, with their drummer still not knowing how to play bass (long-time fans will know what’s up, not too late to jump on that). Their screaming vocals echo your problems within tightly packed lyrics, and melodic riffs inject much-needed hope. Their melodic-hardcore is reminiscent of early 2000s punk, yet it’s tender and nostalgic, almost like putting on an old pair of kicks for one last tango. Remember, Millennials don’t age, we only grow cooler and shamelessly revisit the good old days, re-wearing the same fits, re-writing the old songs. (NK)

Famyne

Kent’s Quinent Doom Metal band Famyne, one of the Bloodstock favourites, mentions this year’s festival season. They know how to write and perform an absolutely strong set. Their hypnotic doom sound just takes you on a journey through their short time on the main stage tonight. Something which fits them perfectly, they capture their crowd and hold them throughout their set. These guys are just gonna get bigger with time!

Rough Justice

Over at the Sophie Lancaster stage, Sheffield’s hardcore beasts stirred the crowd with their grinding and explosive tempos. Dang it, this one could have been a no-barrier set for some extra stage-dive acrobatics. Sadly, health and safety do not allow it, something the hardcore community is a bit more relaxed about anyway. The band was very mean to us with their violent riffs, really holding their own and hitting us with their chuggy grooves. The tent was packed, considering it was still early afternoon. Everyone’s feet were stomping, jumping, fists pumping, and somehow pints didn’t overspill. Metallic hardcore is, personally, one of my favourite subgenres, combining hardcore and metal to make it that extra bit spicy. Who says British people cannot cook? Rough Justice served us a feast of sounds. (NK)

Paleface Swiss

Paleface Swiss are busy this year promoting their newest release, another explosive full feature – Cursed.
When I was walking between the sets, yet to arrive at the main stage, I could feel its slightly sleepy atmosphere. Acts were incredible, don’t get me wrong, but on Friday, I was after a bit of violence.
When their time slot arrived, I got what I was asking for. This deathcore ensemble had an insanely good se, one of the best that weekend, easily making my personal top five list. We all moshed, two-stepped, and jumped so high at times and did not dare to stop. Many came out of the melting pot of humans bleeding, matching the dangerous sounds made by the band. The energy shifted on that grassy field, enough to entice Marc, the band’s vocalist, to leave the stage and sing parts of their songs by the barrier, face to face with the people. I think he wanted to be in the pit with us. Their breakdowns were relentless, heavy, and chugged through till the end. We did slow down for a moment towards the end; their ballad was so soft that many women climbed onto their partners’ shoulders to look the band right in the eyes, just as requested.
Truly unforgettable booking this year, Bloodstock! (NK)

Orange Goblin

There is something bittersweet about seeing Orange Goblin take the Ronnie James Dio stage for their final UK festival appearance. The London stoners were on deck for the first-ever instalment of the festival back in 2001. They quite fittingly start off on ‘Solarisphere’ from 1998’s Time Travelling Blues, ‘Scorpionica’ from 2000, and ‘Saruman’s Wish’ from 1997. The opening trio cast minds back to Goblin as their much younger selves, but here in  the modern day they are as much of a presence as ever. Frontman Ben Ward thanks the Bloodstock faithful for their decades of “Blood, sweat, tears, metal and beers”, which is arguably the most poetic thing he says all set, and that’s saying something. The accompanying ‘The Filthy & The Few’ shows there is still life in them despite the pending split come December. The hot weather during ‘Made of Rats’ casts a melancholic glow across Catton Hall as the crowd knows this is the last ride on this soil, but it does very little to stop the enthusiasm in the pit. There is a singular track from last year’s Science, Not Fiction album in ‘(Not) Rocket Science’ before fittingly rolling back 10 years with ‘The Devil’s Whip’, and then another 14 with the iconic ‘Quincy the Pigboy’. There are fewer notes for the band to victoriously end on than with ‘Red Tide Rising’ given how prolifically their albums were received in the 2010s. It may not be the last we hear from Orange Goblin this year, there’s a tour for that, but this set is truly a “remember them as they were” instalment. With barely a track produced in the last decade, this was truly a band playing the hits, and a crowd loving them for it. What all good bands deserve as they go out. Godspeed for December, gents.

Vmbra

One of the hotly anticipated acts of the New Blood Stage was Manchester M2TM winners Vmbra. Manchester scene has proved to be amongst the most competitive in the competition, with them beating out some of the harshest brackets of the North West scene. The New Blood tent has had the cleanest production in recent years, and the form stays as the Jack Hogg kicks off their first track, ‘The Crows,’ from 2022. Prog-leaning bands aren’t necessarily the normal flavour for the New Blood stage, but given how heavily Vmbra were praised for their etiquette in song during the Masses comp as well as at this year’s Radar Festival, it’s no surprise to see them going down very well with the Friday crowd. Bassist Pete Cook is the lynchpin underneath the track ‘Creed’, but by having three performers on vocals between Jack, vocalist/keyboards player Ai Sanchez, as well as Kieran Byrne contributing from behind the kit, the arrangement fills the space in the New Blood tent with a lot of atmosphere. As is expected in the genre, the setlist is shorter in number of tracks, but filled with some well-developed tracks. That’s proving to be the case for their most recent efforts as well as future direction, as for the latter half of their set they treat the crowd to unreleased track ‘Dark Shepherd’ and then this April’s most recent single ‘Money Tree’ that switches pace several times in a way that emphasises a sort of show closing triumph. It’s no surprise they were pinned as the best of the flock for this year’s masses, and with shows of this quality continuing to be a thing, they won’t be much of a secret

Photos courtesy of Nic Howells

LN

Following the effort from Vmbra is Newcastle native LN. Both bands clashed with Main Stage’s Lacuna Coil and still drew impressive and enthusiastic crowds. This is an act that, in some ways it’s just waiting to burst into a larger scene, and in others is raging as a full flame. As they open with 2023’s ‘The Slaughter’, the tone from the guitars of Gwae Bloom and Ironside puts them in league with the bands that often go down well at Bloodstock. Vocalist Ellen Hirst is performative, bordering on full interpretive dance, whilst maintaining a very commanding performance on the mic. The rise and fall in pronunciation on their vocals adds substantially to the storytelling, both the opener as well as ‘Broken Hearts’, also from 2023, as it casts a strong but emotionally raw character. The set itself is overflowing with sentiment as Ellen prefaces the track ‘Mothers’ with a message from the crowd that people from all neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ spaces are welcome and encouraged at their shows, before diving into the slower but very melodic track, this change in pace drew a noticeable silence from the crowd, but one of awe and captivation. The pleasures of that lull were quite quickly destroyed, though, and Hirst seems to morph into a beast during ‘Shield Wall’, demanding pits and energy like only a few others managed to across the course of the weekend. The track lends itself to some very identifiable chanting of the words “Shield Wall” that the enjoyers of a good mosh were very happy to take part in. Though things are truly at their peak when LN’s most recent material, ‘Summon’ comes around. While musically it has the same visceral intensity of ‘Shield Wall’, experiencing this track live is where LN set themselves apart from the other acts of the day. Hirst has had an ominous golden bowl at the foot of the stage for the duration of the set, and in it is “blood” which during ‘Summon’ is scooped up, poured, smeared and roared from behind, as Hirst’s face is covered in it. It draws an incredible reaction from the crowd, and doesn’t just spotlight the one track as it creates an imposing visual during the final song ‘Hangman’s Son’, some of their earliest material, whilst being an incredibly sung performance from Hirst during the chorus to cap off the performance

Photos courtesy of Nic Howells

Eihwar

Have you ever heard the Viking War Trance? That’s what Eihwar brings with them every time they step out to perform on the stage. We got to witness their shamanic performance, drawing from traditional Nordic themes and chants, sprinkling in what’s the modern take on hypnotic, endorphin-inducing sounds – techno. Yes, you read that right. Bringing out the most primal behaviours in us, we danced and soaked up the visual aspects of the show: their costumes, their moves, falling in love with the neo-folk that’s currently taking over mainstream festival lineups. Something that back in the day was mostly reserved for themed festivals is now getting its well-deserved spotlight on the main stages of major European outdoor events, thanks to interesting bands like this one. If you see Eihwar on the poster, make time to go and see their set. (NK)

Lacuna Coil

It’s been a decade since Italian Gothic metal band Lacuna Coil took to the stage. Their presence is proudly taken in by the crowd forming on the main stage for them. Technical issues didn’t stop them from performing a lifetime, though! With contented cannons going off in the Italian flag’s colours, “Layers Of Time” kicks off the set. Swapping out last year’s black boiler suits the new wardrobe is showing them coming into a new era with “I Wish You Were Dead” capturing the audience while classic “Heaven’s A Lie” just brings us back to 2002. Some lucky fans in the audience got a nice treat of merch being launched into the crowd. Dedicating the song “Enjoy The Silence” to Ozzy Osbourne. Lacuna Coil just showed the growth that they are still going to be smashing their sets, and after this performance, I am looking forward to seeing them on tour later this year.

Trivium

Time for Friday night’s main stage headliners, Trivium, with 4 extra special guests over the evening, join them on stage. First up, a Black Sabbath cover, “Symptom Of The Universe” featuring Robert Flynn. Moving on with Sleep Token Number III to help out with some serious guitar work on “Thrones Of Perition”. This was also followed by “In Waves” Featuring Ihasnh, and “The Deveived” featuring Josh Baines. With a cover of Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets”. With flames soaring high into the sky, with mosh pits, Crowd surfing, and tangling into their stacked lineup with well-known classic festival songs, to slipping in a few of their newer album. Trivium knows how to pull in their festival crowd and put on a performance!