On the 16th – 18th August 2007, Catton Hall will be home to the UK’s premier metal festival as Bloodstock Open Air returns for its’ third year. With a highly prestigious and diverse showcase of metal bands spread out over three days and across two stages, this year promises to be the biggest and best Bloodstock since its inception.

The festival began as an indoor event back in 2001, when two metal fans noticed that since the termination of the Donnington Monsters of Rock, the true metal heads in the UK had nowhere to go. In subsequent years the festival has continuously grown, bringing to the UK audience many metal bands that would otherwise never get the opportunity to play in the country.

As the word of Bloodstock was spreading and the festival was now attracting a bigger audience, the organisers decided that it was time for expansion. In addition to the traditional indoor Bloodstock festival, 2005 marked the inaugural Bloodstock Open Air festival.

The organisers of Bloodstock festivals have always strived to bring their audience bigger and better bands year upon year although the line up for BOA 2007 pushes the festival into a whole new league, as we are brought such high profile acts as Lacuna Coil, In Flames, Testament and Arch Enemy while they still continue to bring us the best in underground metal. This goes to prove that Bloodstock really is the festival for the fans, by the fans!

TESTAMENT















Testament are one of the pioneering bands of the original Bay Area thrash movement and are regarded by many as the greatest thrash band outside of the big 4 (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax). Originally forming in 1983 under the moniker “The Legacy”, it wasn’t until four years later in 1987 that they would release their debut album of the same name through Megaforce Records. During the remainder of the 80’s Testament pumped out another two albums and while their second studio album “The New Order” reinforced the bands standing as a premier thrash metal band, their subsequent release “Practise what you preach” propelled them to almost mainstream recognition, even resulting in regular video rotation on MTV. To this date this album is regarded by many as Testament’s quintessential album.

For these Bay Area stalwarts, the 1990’s spelled change on the horizon. Their fourth album “Souls of Black” was received with divided opinions as it appeared in the heart of the incipient grunge scene, while record company pressures impacted their following release “The Ritual” which saw the band attempt a much more commercialized, radio friendly album culminating in a more traditional heavy metal sound and increased number of ballads. The band even began to incorporate elements of death metal into the mix towards the close of the decade on “The Gathering”.

Meanwhile, guitarist Alex Skolnick, feeling frustrated with the current situation decided to pursue his interest in jazz music, parting ways with Testament and forming the Alex Skolnick trio. This lead to a series of line-up changes for the band.

Now Testament are back to their original line up and a new album is expected to surface at some point in 2007. Nick Barker will be joining the band on drums for their tour.


LACUNA COIL


















Since their 1997 formation, Lacuna Coil have proved to be one of the most influential bands of the past decade and have achieved global mainstream success which can only be attributed to their unyielding work ethic combined with remarkable musicianship and let’s not forget their unique brand of melodic metal featuring a contrast of male and female vocals which intertwine with gothic elegance.

Upon signing to Century Media in 1998, the band released a self-titled E.P. and have since recorded four full length studio albums although it wasn’t really until their the release of Comalies in 2002 that the metal world really stood up and took note and the gap that separated Lacuna Coil from the mainstream began to diminish.

“Heaven’s a Lie” was the first single to be lifted from the Comalies album and was warmly embraced by the media receiving rave reviews and radio airplay. A video was shot for the follow up single “Swamped”, which garnered heavy rotation on music channels Scuzz and Kerrang! The track also featured on the soundtrack to video game “Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines". Comalies has sold in excess of 500,000 copies and the band are well on their way to topping these sales figures with their 2006 opus Karmacode. The band managed to break into the UK top 40 with their recent single “Our Truth”, also worming its way into other worldwide charts; a sure sign that Lacuna Coil are treading along the golden path to greatness.

So far 2007 has mostly been a year of touring for Lacuna Coil. In March the band teamed up with Stone Sour and Shadows fall for the Jagermeister Music Tour and in May they headlined the aptly named “Hottest Chicks in Metal” tour along with Within Temptation, The Gathering and Stolen Babies. Front woman Christina Scabbia also lent her voice to a re-recording of Megadeth classic “A Tout Le Monde” on the new album from Dave Mustaine and co; “United Abominations”.


IN FLAMES

















In Flames are one of the originators of the Gothenburg Sound together with Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates. In Flames was founded in 1990 by Jesper Stromblad, at the time a member of death metal band Ceremonial Oath. With a desire to create music of a more melodic nature than he could with his then current band, Jesper teamed up with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungstrom who became the core members of In Flames.

After being offered a deal by Wrong Again records the band entered Studio Fredman where they self produced their debut album Lunar Strain. This was released in 1994 and during that same year the band returned to Studio Fredman to record an EP entitled Subterranean, which quickly caught the attention of Nuclear Blast Records.

Still without a permanent vocalist or drummer, the band managed to complete their line up in 1995 when Anders Friden and Bjorn Anders entered the fold. Shortly after the recording of their third album Whoracle, original members Johan and Glenn left the band and were replaced by Peter Iwers and Niklas Engelin on bass and guitar respectively. Niklas didn’t last very long in the band, as not long after their successful tour of Japan and Europe, he left to focus on his other band Gardenian. At this point Bjorn climbed out from behind the drumkit and switched to playing guitar, and replacing him on drums was Daniel Svensson formerly of the band Sacrilege. With a new line up in tow the band recorded Colony. This was their biggest release and soon after embarked on a world tour where they played to sold out crowds most nights.

The turn of the millennium saw the band release their sixth studio album, Clayman, which in a matter of months exceeded all previous sales figures, reaching #17 in the Swedish charts and also landing in a number of magazine polls worldwide. The following year the band decided to end their collaboration with long standing producer Fredrik Nordstrom and instead entered Dug out Studios with producer Daniel Bergstrand to record Reroute to Remain. With a more accessible sound coming to the fore this would become the album to really thrust In Flames under the mainstream spotlight. This followed with another tour including a highly coveted support slot with Metallica where In Flames performed in front of a crowd 30,000 strong.

The band have since released two more albums; Soundtrack to your Escape and Come Clarity. A more accessible sound utilising more clean vocals could be heard as the band eschewed much of the death metal influence observable on earlier releases. This has seen a rapid ascendancy in popularity for In Flames, as they have won themselves a loyal army of fans as well as influencing a new generation of bands.

In Flames are scheduled to release their 10th studio album in 2008, which will be recorded in the newly built In Flames studios.


ARCH ENEMY

















Arch Enemy have become a formidable force in the metal world. The brainchild of Michael Amott, previously of Carcass and founding member of death metal act Carnage, Arch Enemy was born when he got together with his brother Christopher Amott, and ex. Carnage band mate Johan Liiva, with the purpose of making music which combined melody with aggression.

The band initially signed to Wrong Again Records and subsequently released their debut album Black Earth. Michael Amott was the sole songwriter for this album and is considered by many as their most aggressive effort throughout their career. Not long after its release, Arch Enemy came to the attention of Century Media records, who put out the bands sophomore album Stigmata, placing the band in the hands of a worldwide audience for the first time.

The band recruited bassist Martin Bengsston and drummer Peter Wildoer, neither whom lasted and the following year Sharlee D’Angelo took over on bass while Daniel Erlandsson, initially a session musician, was brought back to play the drums, this time on a permanent basis. With this line up Arch Enemy entered the studio for a third time to record Burning Bridges, the album which would see the band attempt a more melodic sound than was present on the first two records.

Michael Amott was beginning to notice that the live performance of Johan Liiva wasn’t quite upto scratch and realising that he was holding them back from their full potential, Johan Liiva was asked to quit and filling his shoes was amateur music journalist Angela Gossow, who Michael had met previously during an interview where the vocalist had handed him a demo. At the time, for a band within the death metal genre to be fronted by a woman was virtually unthinkable and when Angela first appeared on Wages of Sin in 2001, Arch Enemy created a huge tidal wave on the underground metal radar. While her glass-gurgling growl was anything but feminine, her natural beauty was to add a whole new level of appeal to their live performance. The album was received exceptionally well by the critics and made it’s way into numerous “best of” polls. A sold out tour of Europe followed before the band embarked on a tour of the US supporting Nile. Not long after the band returned to the States, this time headlining.

The follow up album entitled Anthems of Rebellion, released in 2003, was instantly deemed a metal masterpiece. The album received outstanding critical praise and was awarded “album of the month” in various publications. This album also proved to be quite the success story for Century Media, as Anthems of Rebellion would bring them the highest first week UK Soundscan sales up to that point. Following the success of the album, the band headed a massive touring campaign across the United States and Europe, sharing stages with metal giants Iron Maiden, Slayer and Nevermore and in the same year making appearances at Download, Graspop and Tuska festivals to name only a few. 2005 saw Arch Enemy release their sixth studio album Doomsday Machine, which has been dubbed by some as the pinnacle of their career. With this album came some commercial success for Arch Enemy as Doomsday Machine reached #87 on the Billboard top 200.

Arch Enemy is currently in the process of recording a new album which is due for release later in 2007. Arch Enemy will join forces with Trivium, Dragonforce and Machine Head for The Black Crusade tour which comes to the UK in November.

Tickets to Bloodstock Open Air have already proved to be in massive demand, so much that the festival organisers have had to limit the amount of attendees, thus announcing their decision to cap the festival at 7000 tickets. This target is already over half way to being met and with the additional sales avenues including the option to purchase mobile tickets from www.tixmob.com and from selected HMV outlets, it is anticipated that tickets will sell out prior to the event.




Luci Herbert

MTUK Metal 'Zine
www.metalteamuk.net