BLOODSTOCK this year offers the strongest line up to date, with headline sets from BEHEMOTH, MACHINE HEAD and ALICE COOPER as well as dozens of exclusive appearances from the top names in metal.
The main RONNIE JAMES DIO stage and the SOPHIE LANCASTER stage boasts some of metal’s biggest names, both international and homegrown. But no less exciting is the NEW BLOOD stage, which offers emerging talent the chance to play an internationally renown festival. The METAL 2 THE MASSES initiative works hard scouring the length and breadth of the country to discover the UK’s best new talent, hosting heats where bands will compete for a coveted spot at BLOODSTOCK.
This year the quality of the unsigned bands on offer is outstanding, resulting in the NEW BLOOD stage’s most exciting line up to date. With sold out finals up and down the country in 200 - 600 capacity venues, as well as reaching over the borders to include talent from abroad - plus rewarding homegrown talent with the opportunity to play partner festivals abroad, WACKEN and METALCAMP, the future of metal has never looked so bright, and with this latest batch there may well be a future BLOODSTOCK headliner in amongst them.
Bloodstock’s Simon Hall can’t help being excited about the talent on display:
“This year’s Metal 2 The Masses has blown me away with the diversity and talent that is turning heads within the UK underground scene. The quality of the New Blood Stage is undeniable and I can’t wait to unleash these bands on Bloodstock along with some more to come in the next week or so.”
On the Friday, EXILE THE TRAITOR bring thier melodic death metal to the NEW BLOOD stage, joined by Brummie death metallers KATALEPTIC, Norwich thrashers KILLER HURTS, Romanian experimentalists KREPUSKUL, Manchester bruisers MY WOODEN PILLOW, Liverpool’s SCARE TATICS and WAKING THEO from Selby.
Saturday sees Welsh trad-metallers APOLLYON join midlands doomsters COSMIC VORTEX OF DOOM and all the way from Croatia, RATHER, while the Sunday offers Nottingham glamsters AIRSTRYKE, Cypriot death/thrash/groove combo BLYND, Welsh sludge monsters HAKIN, Nottingham Trash-Merchants INCINERY and Preston Industrialists SA-DA-KO.
Whatever you do, make sure you stick your head into the NEW BLOOD stage and support these incredible bands - you may well discover the next big thing!
