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Events and Reports - Bloodstock Open Air 2010 - Day 3 - Doro, Bloodbath, Twisted Sister
Sunday
If the previous day had been a little quite for "must see" bands then the last day of the festival was anything but. There were no fewer than ten bands that I wanted to check out and thankfully I made it through pretty much all of them.
This feat was aided by a miraculous turn around in the weather, we woke up to the sun beating down on us and it remained unchallenged in the sky all day. This was a terrific boost to the spirits of festival goers who had been trudging through three days of rain and mud.
This good weather got us in such high spirits that we made it into the festival ground for a rather early 10.30am set from Bonded By Blood. I own the band's first record and can safely say that they are a much stronger proposition live as they really put their heart and soul into playing. Frontman Jose "Aladdin" Barrales voice also works better in a live setting.
There was a very respectable crowd for the bands short and sweet 20 minute set and by the time closer "Feed The Beast" created havoc in the pit the band members were grinning ear to ear and looked unbelievably happy to be on stage.
There was a bizarre moment later that day in the beer tent when some rather drunk guy started talking to me, convinced I was the bass player from Bonded By Blood. If you are not familiar with the band, they are American and Hispanic. The fact that I was neither of these things didn't seem to convince this guy otherwise as he wandered off shaking his head and looking confused.
We grabbed a space on a bench at the bar and drank our way though New Yorker's Suffocation. In contrast to John Tardy the day before, Frank Mullen was one of the most talkative and amiable guys I've ever seen fronting a death metal band. He was constantly thanking the crowd for coming out so early and checking out the band.
I couldn't really see that much from the beer tent but they sounded a little too groovy and beat-down filled for my, more traditional, death metal taste.
The decent size crowd that had gathered for Suffocation seemed to evaporate into nothing for the next act Holy Moses. It was a shame as it was one of the long-standing German act's first shows in the UK and they took to the stage to a sparse crowd of perhaps 2,000 souls.
Holy Moses play fast, hard Germanic thrash with some death influences. Sabina Classen's throat shredding snarls are pretty fearsome on record but live they came across as a little flat and forced. I was only familiar with one of their early albums "Finished With The Dogs" so I was happy when they played "Life Destroyer" from that record early on in the set.
Guitarists Michael Hankel and Oliver Jaath tried to whip up some enthusiasm in the crowd but even though they got a decent response after every song it was clear it wasn't going to be their day.
There was more Germanic metal up next but this time in the form of the undisputed heavy metal queen Doro. I have seen her Highness on several occasions and she and her band have yet to disappoint me.
They are just such a perfect band for a festival as Doro's smile and enthusiasm for metal could lighten up even the most jaded of festival goer's moods. It was heartening to see the arena fill up for the show and to see the great response classics like "I Rule The Ruins" and "Earthshaker Rock" received.
It was clear to see that everyone was having a great time as the sunshine and traditional heavy metal combined to make a party atmosphere. Hopefully it gives the festival organisers food for thought for next year as I feel that this year's line-up really lacked bands of this nature and saw far too many slots higher up the bill given to death metal acts.
Towards the end of the set Doro brought Sabina from Holy Moses onstage to sing the newer track "Celebrate" which summed up the party vibe of her slot. The set was finished with her superb cover of "Breaking The Law" by Judas Priest and of course crowd pleaser "All We Are". Come back soon Doro, you are always welcome round these parts!
Doro Set-list:
Earthshaker Rock
I Rule the Ruins
Running From the Devil
Burning The Witches
Metal Racer
Celebrate
Breaking The Law
All We Are
Thankfully, before a triple dose of death metal there was another band who it was clear would do nothing but enhance the party feeling even further, Finnish folk metal merry-men Korpiklaani.
They drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend and had people jigging away right from the opening chords of their latest single "Vodka". Again this is the kind of music you want to hear on a sunny day at a festival. The bands jovial nature combined with a beer in you hand make for the perfect entertainment.
"Journey Man" got people dancing even faster before band slowed things down for a sing-along with "Korpiklaani". Well ok not so much a "sing-along" as a "shout-along with the chorus" due to the lyrics being all in Finnish, but fun all the same.
The band played one of my favourite tracks "Tuli Kokko" which again slows things down for an atmospheric flute lead build up from Jaakko Lemmetty before the rest of the band kick things in with a crunching riff and some stunning traditional singing from Jonne Järvelä in the chorus. Speaking of his traditional singing, the section where he is left on his own to mesmerise the crowd with some Yoik singing was as spellbinding as always.
As good as the rest of the set was, when it comes to crowd pleasers then the Finns have an ace up their sleeves in "Happy Little Boozer", it simply sends the crowd into fits of ecstasy every time it's played. After all it's one of the most stupidly happy songs you are ever likely to hear in your life.
The set was ended with another drinking anthem "Beer Beer" and after it was all over I think everyone was left with an overriding thirst only to be cured with a visit to the beer tent. Can't for the life of me understand why???
Korpiklaani Set-list:
Vodka
Journey Man
Korpiklaani
Cottages and Saunas
Kipumylly
Tuli kokko
Viima
Juodaan Viinaa
Pellonpekko
Happy Little Boozer
Beer Beer
There was not much time to accomplish this mission however as over in the unsigned tent there was some more thrash to be had in the form of the excellent English group Mutant.
We made our way into the tent just as the band were launching into "Scrap Brain Zone" (that's right, you can't fail with a song about Sonic The Hedgehog) and were impressed to see how many people the group had drawn in.
It was hot as hell in the tent and this seemed to send everyone even wilder than normal. Mutant capitalised on this as frontman Tom Luchtenstein demanded: "I don't want to see a mosh pit, I want to see a black hole pit!" before one of their songs. I'm not quite sure what a black hole pit calls for but the crowd put in a damn good effort in at making one.
A pulsating version of "Psycho Surgery" brought proceedings to a close and I walked away from this gig very impressed indeed with the level of inventiveness and musicianship the band posses. It's clear that Megadeth are a big influence and on the evidence of that show I see no reason why they can't ascend towards that end of the thrash pantheon.
GWAR were up next and since I was rather tired and not interested in getting covered in green sperm from Oderus Urungus' massive penis (there is a sentence I never through I would have to type). I grabbed a seat way over to the side and watched the mayhem commence.
I'd never bothered to listen to GWAR on record and their show really pointed out why. Musically the band is a jumble of styles that could be loosely described as comedy thrash. Parts of songs caught my ear only to leave me let down as the next section turned me off. And as for Oderus' vocals, well they are crap but I suppose that's part of the charm.
Still if there is one thing that we all know about GWAR, they know how to put on a zany show. The band took the stage dressed in their traditional oversized costumes and set about spraying as much gunk on the crowd as possible from some massive cannons and the aforementioned penis.
A truly mental part of the set is when Oderus announced that one of the bands enemies was present, the evil Nazi Pope. And true enough out comes a guy dressed as the Pope with massive Swastika's on his cloak (Am I actually typing this? Christ, I really am) and the band set about beating him up. All highly tongue in cheek of course but utterly bizarre all the same.
I headed into the backstage bar for a rest and met up with Eric and friends for a quick pint before one of the most talked about bands of the weekend, the Swedish death metal super-group Bloodbath.
Much had been made of Bloodbath's announcement for Bloodstock, it was their first gig on UK soil and gigs by this band are a rare thing at the best of times. This is due to the fact that their line up includes Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth on vocals, three members of Katatonia (Jonas Renkse on bass and guitarists Anders Nystrom and the wonderfully nicknamed Per "Sodomizer" Eriksson) plus Opeth's current drummer Martin Axenrot.
There was another of the largest crowds of the weekend gathered to greet the band and the excitement before they came onstage was palatable. Strange then, that the show itself fell rather flat.
There were many factors that I think led to this deflation of expectation, the main one being that the band's death metal was expertly played but it seemed to lack intensity and hunger. Having heard a couple of their albums they are solid slabs of old school Swedish death but the live show seemed to lack a savage edge.
Some of this blame can be attributed to Akerfeldt. I don't think he is a particularly good frontman at the best of times in his day job with Opeth but he is completely ill suited to fronting a straight-up death metal outfit.
He looked the part dressed in tight leather trousers and a skinny leather jacket, his eyes shrouded by dark sunglasses. But while his vocals were certainly delivered with a vicious edge his after song interaction with the crowd was awful. His droll humour and soft-spoken tones just felt at odds with the brutality it was interrupting.
I lost track of the times that he had to ask the crowd "Are you guys still ok out there?" as yet another of his deadpan statements fell flat with the expectant crowd. There were points when the songs worked, "Cancer Of The Soul" and "Mock The Cross" sounded excellent. But mostly the set lacked a sense of danger and true excitement.
In fact the only time that the crowd exploded was for the closer "Eaten" it's a real, direct, gut punch of a track and was finally delivered with an authentic amount of force from all its participants. In the end it was a good show, but nowhere near the apocalyptic event many were predicting.
Bloodbath Set-list:
Ways To The Grave
Soul Evisceration
Process of Disillumination
Iesous
Breeding Death
Mouth of Empty Praise
Mass Strangulation
Cancer of the Soul
Mock the Cross
Like Fire
Outnumbering the Day
Eaten
More death metal was to follow, this time delivered by the always-reliable Cannibal Corpse. Standing further back than normal I enjoyed what I saw of the band as they brutalised the crowd with their patented, bowl-shaking metal of death and gore.
They completely succeeded where Bloodbath failed and had the crowd in a frenzy right from the start. Much of this can be attributed to man-mountain George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Simply put, you would not fuck around with this gentleman. His neck is bigger than your entire body and the sounds emitted from his throat would reduce an unsuspecting victim to a quivering wreck.
He is also an expert at working the crowd, as seen by him goading them by saying "Try to headbang along with me on this one, you will fail" before they pounded through the wonderfully entitled "I Cum Blood".
As much as I was enjoying the 'Corpse I had made up my mind to check out English Heritage Metal (That's black metal about English history to you and me) purveyors Winterfylleth on the Sophie stage.
The crowd was pretty small given the band they were up against so I was able to grab a spot at the barrier. I'm glad I made the choice to check them out as they put on a stunning show. Their style is epic black metal, think of music with the feeling of Drudkh, Primordial and mid-period Bathory but with a more contemporary, post-metal edge and you are not a million miles away.
Vocalist Chris Naughton has a distinctive howl that carries the feelings conveyed in the music very well indeed and the music itself swept over the crowd in massive waves of dark emotion. The only thing that took my mind off the music slightly was that the bass player reminded me of a metal version of Phil Tufnell (a famous English cricketer turned TV personality), which was very distracting!
I was not familiar with the bands material beforehand so I can't tell you what they played other than the fact they finished with a triumphant version of the haunting "Defending The Realm". The beautiful, clear sung refrain at the end of this track lingered long in my mind after the gig.
It was then time to head to the front of the main stage one last time for the closing headliners Twisted Sister. There had been a slight bit of scepticism on the Bloodstock forum over whether or not Twisted Sister were "heavy" enough to headline the festival. But I'm pleased to tell you that Twisted Fucking Sister care not for internet prattle and delivered the unifying, show-piece set that the festival was crying out for.
Opening with "Come Out And Play" the four musical members of the band came out on stage while Dee sung the opening lines from backstage before rushing on to face the crowd with his trademark maniacal energy as the song kicked in.
The sound for the band was crystal clear and made each and every anthem to the power of heavy metal and rock 'n' roll come across perfectly. It was odd seeing the band without make-up for the first time but I guess it's something I will have to get used to as they have said that it's the way they will be performing from now on.
The lack of make-up mattered not a jot as they rushed through the 'Sister back catalogue hitting home run after home run into the crowd. You could see that some members of the audience were not familiar with the bands work but by third track "Stay Hungry" it was obvious that everyone present was being moved by the power of the music.
It's the energy in the bands show that is guaranteed to win anyone over. Dee Snider runs about the stage like a rather disturbed, ADD-affected child (while still looking like Christina Aguilera's rather less attractive sister even without the make-up), Mark "The Animal" Mendoza doesn't so much play the bass as beat it within an inch of its sorry life and Jay Jay French pulls every rock star pose in the book leaving Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda to lay down his superb riffing and solo's.
In fact I would say that while not being the most technically gifted singer in the world of heavy metal, Dee Snider is one of the best, most watchable frontman in the business. Whether is putting the boot into journalists who dislike the band or stopping "Burn In Hell" to let the audience know that "Yes, this is not a Dimmu Borgir song, It's a Twisted Sister song", there is just something about him that connects with the audience and gets them to give a little bit more.
This is perfectly illustrated by the bands two biggest hits "We're Not Gonna Take It and "I Wanna Rock". I seriously think that the crowd would have sung these songs long into the next morning if Dee had asked us. The reaction they got was out of this world don't think that there would have been many other bands capable of turning the cancellation of Heaven And Hell into something joyful.
Indeed the 'Sister paid tribute to the fallen Ronnie James Dio by playing a raucous and heartfelt cover of Rainbow's "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll" before bringing the entire weekend to a close with "S.M.F"
There was a certainly a feeling of "triumph over adversity" written over the face of everyone at the festival during the last day as the weather finally gave us a break and I think that Twisted Sister encapsulated this feeling perfectly. In fact I'll leave you with the words of Dee Snider:
"Thank you Bloodstock and here's to ten more years!"
Twisted Sister Set-list:
Come Out and Play
The Kids are Back
Stay Hungry
Captain Howdy
Shoot 'em Down
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll
The Fire Still Burns
I Am (I'm Me)
We're Not Gonna Take It
The Price
Burn In Hell
Drum Solo
I Wanna Rock
----------------------------
Under the Blade
Long Live Rock 'N' Roll (Rainbow cover - Dio Tribute)
S.M.F.
· Day 1
· Day 2
· Day 3
| | Written by Stuart
Thursday, October 14, 2010 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Steen (Staff) - Friday, October 15, 2010 | 
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Comments: 518 | | Great report! Sounds like an excellent time except for the mud. Wish I can make it some day.
Posted by Steen (Staff)
Friday, October 15, 2010 |
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| Comment by Stuart (Staff) - Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 
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Comments: 116 | | Next year Steen, no excuses! ;)
Posted by Stuart (Staff)
Saturday, October 16, 2010 |
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