Run With The Torch

Continuing the Bloodstock Open Air 2009 report, I’ll now jot down my toughts on the other two stages of that festival. Friday and Saturday I generally spent most time at the unsigned stage, but on Sunday I nearly exclusively watched bands on the main stage. Again, I won’t touch upon every single band I’ve seen.

Million $ Reload
Opening the main stage were the Irish rock band Million Dollar Reload. They might not be a metal band, on a predominantly metal oriented festival. But as far I’m concerned they did a great job opening the latest edition of Bloodstock Open Air. They played a very enjoyable set of sleazy rock tunes in the vain of Buckcherry, coincidentally the band that opened Graspop. I was now fully awake and in a great mood to enjoy the rest of Bloodstock.

Katatonia
This should have been one of the highlights of my weekend. If anyone asked me prior to BOA, what bands I was looking forward to seeing, Katatonia was always amonst the first to be named. However, this set turned to be the biggest dissapointment of BOA for me. Whatever the reason might have been, the sound, the performance or the time of day. Katatonia’s set was imo very hollow, I expected a lot of atmosphere, but for me there was none. I didn’t stick around for long and went to watch Blindfolds Aside on the unsigned stage, read about that in my previous post.

Arch Enemy
I cannot claim Arch Enemy didn’t deliver a good set, I don’t know a whole lot of the band but the songs I recognized were executed  splendidly. Vocals were crisp, guitars sounded very good and a lot of good soloing made me a happy metalhead. However as Nik pointed out, there wasn’t an awfully lot of singing (or growling for that matter) going on. One could exaggerate and claim this was a mostly instrumental set.

Uncle Rotter
This mix of glam rock and metal with in your face lyrics opened the main stage on the Saturday, just to give you an idea of what I meant with “In Your Face lyrics”, here are some of those lyrics: “Fit goth chicks on the end of my dick” and “Don’t smoke crack, sniff it off your dead mums snatch” . It’s quite clear not to take these seriously, or should you? Anyway, Uncle Rotter managed to get the crowd to sing along out loud early in the morning to set a good pace for the rest of the day.

Battlelore
The Finnish metal act Battlore brings a mix of melodic death and folk metal, say mixing Fintroll with In Flames, and all this fronted by both a man and woman on vocals. Sounds like a good recipe, and I enjoyed the song I had heard of these before BOA. Though their set was in my opinion far from what I expected, especially vocals couldn’t live up to my expectations based on their studio work, nor did they deliver a show worth watching.

Wolf
Sporting Anvil t-shirts it was clear Wolf were making a point out of showing us good Heavy Metal ain’t dead at all. And they did a really good job at it. I’ve to be honest and say I didn’t know much about these, but hearing an interview on Totalrock radio I went to these with the expectation of at least a fun show to watch. No disappointments here at all, a solid, fun and well executed Heavy Metal set as it should be!

Candlemass
At 3 pm I set out to watch Swedish atmospheric death metallers Candlemass. Another band I’ve been looking forward to since I favored Suicidal Tendencies above them at Graspop. Their set was a good one, great performance etcetera… but I should have seen them at Graspop if only I could multiply… in the middle of the afternoon under a blazing sun, it just didn’t work as well as it would have at night or in a dark tent (as it was the case at Graspop). Though unlike Katatonia, I did enjoy Candlemass especially Devils Seed.

Kreator
Next on the list were the German Thrashers Kreator. Thrash like this had to grow on me, took me a while to get into it. But now seeing bands like this one giving their best on stage, just floods my system with adrenaline and I headbang the whole set with only pausing to chant along the lyrics. Another band I truly enjoyed and can’t really make any remarks about.

Apocalyptica
I don’t need to introduce these to you, if you were wondering if they were any good as a live band. Here’s my answer: they are simply amazing live. Don’t pass the opportunity to catch these!  Both the covers and the tunes originally theirs went down extremely well at Bloodstock 09.

Blind Guardian
And then there was Blind Guardian. Masters of fantasy inspired power metal, and one of my top shows at Bloodstock on the main stage. Excellent execution, great and responsive crowd. I lost time during this show, sang along to many of the songs untill sadly their hour was over. No remarks here either, a most excellent set!.

Beholder
I hadn’t heard of these lot before BOA, but I’m glad I’ve learned about them. These local thrashes have great stage presence, and good sounding songs. Although I’ll have to investigate more on them as the guitarwork was hard to distinguish in the wall of sound they were creating. On the other hand I don’t remember one particular song by theirs, so I’d claim they might lack a little identity.

Sabaton
Another good set was the one the Swedish Power metallers Sabaton did, considering I really didn’t know much about them except for their existence I enjoyed their militaristic inspired powermetal. I can hardly say anything bad about them. On the other hand they personally didn’t do it as much for me as the other powermetal act Blind Guardian the night before.

Girlschool
It was quite clear from before this show started that it would be a smooth one. Soundcheck was cumbersome and even during the set there were constant problems tuning one of the guitars. I could get into the ‘classic’ Girlschool songs, they sounded quite empty to me. But the song performed of the new album (especially ‘I Spy’) were of a whole other level, where before I had my doubt about the vocals, now the harmonies of two or more of the girls singing together sounded extremely well. Not only the singing, but even the guitars suddenly sounded a whole lot better. weird? Standing front row however, I got some great shots.

Anathema
Together with Totalrock DJ Joel I checked out the set of atmospheric doom rock band Anathema. I was curious what to expect of these, as they have a whole different, much slower pace than any other band on the bill. Surprisingly though, it turned out to be a very energetic set. Which worked out very well.

Turisas
These very popular folk metallers, attracted a crowd of crazy sword wielding metalheads (albeit plastic ones). As I’m not a big fan I could bare their set untill after the Boney-M – Rasputin cover, at which time I had heard enough and left. It wasn’t a bad set, many would have loved it. But not for me.

Moonspell
Yet another band that was high up my to see list, and these didn’t disappoint me the least bit. However that’s not hard as they played the 3 songs of theirs I love the most. That beeing Opium, Vampiria and the excellent Alma Mater. Fernando’s vocals were probably the best I’ve heard on the whole of Bloodstock, As far as growling went anyway.

Amon Amarth
These Swedish death metallers album Twilight Of The Thundergod was one of my top albums for the year 2008. Naturally I looked forward to this set. I’m a little disappointed about the accuracy of the guitar and vocal performance, but still I enjoyed it a lot as I belted along in my best growling capabilities (who are do I say it myself not utterly shite) untill my throat started burning.

Satyricon
The biggest main-stage surprise for me were Satyricon, I do like the few tunes of them but I wasn’t expecting the excellent show they delivered. Their tight performance, simple but catchy riffs and great growls weaved together into the best on stage I’ve heard the whole of BOA 09. I’m a sucker for great guitarlicks but the Norwegian Satyricon proved to me that simple can often sound much better. Not only did they sound extremely well, they also interacted the best with the crowd earning a spot amongst my favorites of this edition of  Bloodstock.

Europe
Closing up shop were Europe, the well know classic rock band from Sweden. They opened their set with the single Last Look At Eden, and finished of with no surprises here, The Final Countdown. I can’t say an awfully lot, as I nearly fell asleep a couple a times standing up. But what I’ve seen whilst awake was a great performance of these veterans. Now in contrast to Satyricon I could really enjoy those tasty licks and greatly executed solos.

Godsized
The only band I watched enough of, on the S.O.P.H.I.E Lancaster stage to form an opinion were the UK based, southern rockers Godsized, who did a great and groovy set that left little to be desired. Later they did a acoustic set at the Jaeger stage, which wasn’t that bad, but for me couldn’t top the Alternative Carpark acoustic set by far.

All in all, besides the few dissapointments. Bloodstock Open Air 2009 was a great success if you’d ask me. I might do the trip from Ostend, Belgium to Catton Hall in Derbyshire, UK… again next year as there wasn’t a moment I didn’t want to be there.