Bloodstock Festival 2019: Part 3 (11th August)

WORDS: Ross Donald

As the sun rose on the Sunday morning, only then did it dawn on me how quickly the weekend had passed by. It felt like hardly anytime at all since we’d arrived on Thursday afternoon and suddenly it was almost time to pack up and leave, and this did sadden me a bit. Still, as it was the final day, I was going to make sure I made the most of it and checked out all the bands I wanted to see.

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If Cancer Bats were a great way to start off Saturday, then the Belgian brutal death metallers Aborted were something else entirely. This was a band I was looking forward to seeing as they were one of the bigger extreme metal bands playing at the festival and I was a fan of their TerrorVision album that was released last year (the album artwork is divine). I also wanted to see how well they could play these chaotic songs in a live setting.

Now, right as the band started performing it started to rain. And I don’t just mean a bit of light rain. It was absolutely pouring down to the point where just after a couple of minutes had passed, I was totally soaked through my t-shirt because I was a dumbass and left my hoodie in my tent. Some people left the performance to seek shelter, including a friend of mine who had joined me out of curiosity about the band. This only left the people left who were willing to brave it through the elements to enjoy some madness. Thankfully the weather didn’t stop the band from going all-out though, and they really brought a fire to their performance.

They started off with cuts from the new album with the title track 'Terrorvision' and ‘Deep Red’. Then it really didn’t stop from this point on. I was curious to see if lead vocalist Sven could unleash those guttural growls of his in the live environment, and I can confirm that the man has one hell of a set of pipes on him. It was almost frightening. I’m not too familiar with the band’s earlier works and can’t find a setlist online, so I’m unsure what other songs were played as the band never really introduced them. But I can assure you that they were all brutal in nature.

Even with the bad weather, the circle pits remained undisturbed and I even witnessed my first wall of death of the weekend. A great performance from a band I’m eager to see again once I’m more familiar with their works and when there's less rain involved.

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After a bit of a short break, it was time to head back to the main stage in time to check out the solo performance from the legendary Twisted Sister front-man, Dee Snider. Given that he is a fair age, I wasn’t sure how this performance would go, but I needn’t have worried as Snider stormed the stage with the energy of a man half his age. The man is 64 years old and I have no idea how he does it. It’s just incredible. He even took the time to banter with the crowd in between songs, joking that he was on the lookout for anyone nipping to the toilets when he was about to play a song from the new album. If anyone was going to go, they had better do it during the drum solo instead.

As far as the setlist goes, it was one of the most consistent sets of the festival. With ten songs in total, there was five cuts from his most recent solo album For The Love Of Metal, as well as five Twisted Sister covers to keep everyone interested. I hadn’t actually listened to his latest album before heading to the festival, but the performances of some of these songs had me aching to check it. Highlights include ‘American Made’ and ‘For the Love of Metal’. The latter had some sick riffing and easy to learn choruses which made it perfect for a sing along.

Of course the biggest highlight of the set came in the form of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ though, as it had everyone singing along. And the singing of the chorus actually continued even after the song had ended too. That moment was a weekend highlight for me that I won’t soon be forgetting. This only continued with the set closer ‘I Wanna Rock’ where Dee commanded that the audience sing the chorus with death metal growls. As it was Bloodstock after all, we were all only happy to oblige the legend.

This was one of the highlights and favourite performances of the weekend from a front-man that can still go better than anyone else.

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After a drink refill and a snack, it was time to head back to the main stage for Cradle of Filth who had been moved from their Saturday slot due to some high winds that closed the main stage off for a few hours.

They are a band I wasn’t too familiar with outside of a couple of the older albums I’d checked out months prior, so I was seeing them more of curiosity than anything else. It did annoy me how there were people behind me making fun of the band when they could have easily went to another stage to see a band they might actually enjoy (but I guess that would be too difficult...). What was also weird was that there was never any circle pits or even any crowdsurfing during the set given the fast paced style of the music played. To be fair, it was a bit weird seeing the band during a sunny day as they’re definitely more suited to a darker, indoor venue for best effect. Even with all the fire in effect, it still looked strange as this point in the day.

With the setlist, the band were able to cover six studio albums with the eight tracks they played. The only song I recognised myself was set closer ‘Her Ghost in the Fog’, which was one hell of a song to end on. I really need to listen to it more. Every song was performed well with Dani Filth on fine form, and there was also the inclusion of the female background singer who was also on the keyboard. That gave us a great performance and provided some haunting vocal work that worked well alongside Dani’s.

While not my favourite set of the weekend, it was still highly enjoyable and made me want to check out more of the band’s work, so I’d say it’s a job well done.

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Now it was time to head to the Sophie stage for the first time since Thursday to check out Polish black metallers Batushka, who were a last minute replacement for Dimmu Borgir. They were also meant to play on the main stage before the previously mentioned high winds moved the schedule around. Relegating the band to a smaller stage which may have been for the best though.

I’m not gonna comment on all the drama surrounding the band, as it has been done to death at this point. It’s more about the quality of the music for me anyway, and I quite enjoyed what I heard of their latest album.

The set didn’t get off to the best of starts though as the band took about ten minutes to get started after lighting a few candles with the crowd hilariously singing ‘Happy Birthday’ the whole time. The band did not appear to be in a joking mood. Once the music started, the performances were fine and even got the crowd into the music, but the band themselves rarely ever made a move on stage as they were just content to stand around. So while the music was good, the actual performance of the band came across as boring.

There’s a lot of comparisons made between Batushka and Behemoth, but the difference is that Behemoth do all their ritualistic stuff without affecting the full performance and you can at least see their faces so there’s a human connection to be made. For Batushka, it may as well just be some robots playing the songs as no one would tell the difference.

I had no issues with leaving the set twenty minutes early to get a good spot for the final band of the night. This was easily the worst band I saw during the weekend. Your mileage may vary.

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And now it was time to bring an epic weekend to a suitably epic conclusion with classic rockers Scorpions. The band were formed all the way back in 1965 and are still going strong which just amazes me. Lead singer Klaus Meine is 71 years old, and can still hold a high note amazingly well. What a guy.

The band kicked off proceedings with ‘Going Out With A Bang’, a song which is one of their most recent efforts and a great choice to start things off with a killer riff and big chorus. This one can easily hang with their classic material. After a couple of older tracks with ‘Make It Real’ and ‘Is There Anybody There?’, we hit one of the big ones already with ‘The Zoo’. This is quite a heavy track and definitely sounded like it suited being played live more than the studio version would suggest. It was also the first track to get a big sing along with the crowd.

Another one of the newer tracks ‘We Built This House’ was played with the song lyrics on the screen so everyone could join in. I’d been listening to this track non-stop before the festival so I was ready though. Check this one out, it’s a killer. Shortly afterwards, the band made their way further towards the front of the stage for a lovely acoustic performance of ‘Send Me an Angel’, which would led perfectly into a pick for highlight of the weekend: ‘Wind of Change’. I think this is the track everyone was waiting for and just hearing the full crowd sing along to the massive chorus was just stunning and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.

Even after that epic track we still had some big numbers to go to though. ‘Blackout’ was probably the most metal track in the set and it brought along another big mad chorus. Set closer ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ had the whole crowd going nuts and the singing may have actually been even louder than what it was for ‘Wind of Change’. If that’s possible. Overall, this was a great set by a band that can still power along even with their age, giving us classic track after classic track. An awesome way to end the festival.

I know I’ve said it already, but I can’t stress enough just how amazing this festival was. The choice of bands was great and the atmosphere of the campsite as a whole was just astounding. It was all an experience I’d highly recommend for all fans of metal to try at least once in their lives.

There’s something for everyone here and the memories you make are worth every penny.

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Thanks to Ross for writing the last part of this Bloodstock Festival coverage and thanks to you for reading! If you missed the previous coverage of the Festival, then the Saturday round-up is over here if you want to catch up. Leave a comment below, or give RWEI a like/follow on the socials if you want to see more from us. We're open to submissions/contributions too as well if that's your thing.

Cheers!