![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bloodstock Open Air, 15 July 2006
Jul. 16th, 2006 01:24 pmMy pictures are here. And a special one here.
Short review, bands first:
- Season's End: They used to impress me a lot, but they're getting a bit complacent. They don't need the superfluous cellist, their drummer has a bizarrely inflated idea of how good he is, and they really didn't go down well enough to merit the whole bowing-at-the-front-of-the-stage at the end. Perhaps they just need some more material to kick-start things, given that they've played Bloodstock 3 years running to promote a single album. I expect they'll do better in future. 3/5.
- Gorilla Monsoon: Didn't hear too much of them, but they seemed entertaining. I spotted glimpses of Cathedral, Black Sabbath, and Entombed, so if you like that down-tuned semi-sludge, semi rock-and-roll sound, this lot will suffice. 3/5.
- Callenish Circle: As I told people only half in jest, this group are Swedish death metal from Holland. Very tight and professional, perhaps only the stage presence left a little to be desired. Or maybe that was just down to the frontman's all-white suit. 4/5.
- Ensiferum: These guys did well, although I didn't recognise the songs from their new EP. Not much else to say really; they came onstage, played some songs, and left. 3/5
- Bal Sagoth: Apparently they hadn't played since 2004 at Wacken, and if so, this was a good performance given their lack of touring. Arguably this band set a template for bombastic extreme metal that bands such as Ensiferum and Turisas have followed, so it was good that they can still compete with the newer bands. 4/5.
- Turisas: Speaking of Turisas, they were up next. They were insane. Bedecked in furs and bearing all kinds of instrumentation, these crazy Finns laid waste to the stage in a way Lordi could only dream of. One highlight would be when the accordion player asked, "Do you like sauna? In Finland, we like sauna. And the best thing about sauna is... we are completely naked." Cue lifting of loincloth, before several members had their own little sauna at the back of the stage. Bizarre. A little later came the violinist, playing a solo with his violin through the guitar distortion, stopping half way only to tell us that he is a "violinist on a mission", and urging us to shout, "Fuck the guitar solos". Quality. 5/5
- Stratovarius: We were tiring at this point - as I do at all Bloodstocks these days, incidentally - and decided not to stay for their whole set. How happy I was then, when Stratovarius played my 2 favourites straight away, namely Hunting High And Low followed by Speed of Light. Immense. Then, we left. 4/5.
Over in the beer tent, where the 2nd stage was, absolutely nothing of significant merit happened. You know back when you started school, and you were painting your first picture, and found out that mixing all the paints together didn't actually yield an amazing new colour, but instead came to a yellowy-brown mess? The 2nd stage featured band after band who was the musical equivalent of this. They were all a bit thrash metal, a bit death metal, a little black metal, some metalcore, a tad emo, a bit melodic death metal, and it all blurred into one boring homogeneous mass.
The event itself seemed good enough - organisationally it was perfect, but then it's tiny compared to the bigger places like Download. No problems with the PA, unlike last year. Drinks were reasonably priced (I've paid the same at clubs here in Nottingham), food was adequate if not exactly in plentiful supply, and the shops were ok. Attendance was probably up from last year but still probably lower than the indoor event. To fix that, they're going to have to start getting better bands, and not just settling for wheeling out Season's End and Edguy every year, much as I like them both.
Personally, there were far fewer friends of mine there this year, and I didn't really spend much time talking to anybody, unlike last time. So, a different experience for me.
And, I think that's all I have to say.
(PS. Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
distorted_rage for setting me up with transport at short notice.)
Short review, bands first:
- Season's End: They used to impress me a lot, but they're getting a bit complacent. They don't need the superfluous cellist, their drummer has a bizarrely inflated idea of how good he is, and they really didn't go down well enough to merit the whole bowing-at-the-front-of-the-stage at the end. Perhaps they just need some more material to kick-start things, given that they've played Bloodstock 3 years running to promote a single album. I expect they'll do better in future. 3/5.
- Gorilla Monsoon: Didn't hear too much of them, but they seemed entertaining. I spotted glimpses of Cathedral, Black Sabbath, and Entombed, so if you like that down-tuned semi-sludge, semi rock-and-roll sound, this lot will suffice. 3/5.
- Callenish Circle: As I told people only half in jest, this group are Swedish death metal from Holland. Very tight and professional, perhaps only the stage presence left a little to be desired. Or maybe that was just down to the frontman's all-white suit. 4/5.
- Ensiferum: These guys did well, although I didn't recognise the songs from their new EP. Not much else to say really; they came onstage, played some songs, and left. 3/5
- Bal Sagoth: Apparently they hadn't played since 2004 at Wacken, and if so, this was a good performance given their lack of touring. Arguably this band set a template for bombastic extreme metal that bands such as Ensiferum and Turisas have followed, so it was good that they can still compete with the newer bands. 4/5.
- Turisas: Speaking of Turisas, they were up next. They were insane. Bedecked in furs and bearing all kinds of instrumentation, these crazy Finns laid waste to the stage in a way Lordi could only dream of. One highlight would be when the accordion player asked, "Do you like sauna? In Finland, we like sauna. And the best thing about sauna is... we are completely naked." Cue lifting of loincloth, before several members had their own little sauna at the back of the stage. Bizarre. A little later came the violinist, playing a solo with his violin through the guitar distortion, stopping half way only to tell us that he is a "violinist on a mission", and urging us to shout, "Fuck the guitar solos". Quality. 5/5
- Stratovarius: We were tiring at this point - as I do at all Bloodstocks these days, incidentally - and decided not to stay for their whole set. How happy I was then, when Stratovarius played my 2 favourites straight away, namely Hunting High And Low followed by Speed of Light. Immense. Then, we left. 4/5.
Over in the beer tent, where the 2nd stage was, absolutely nothing of significant merit happened. You know back when you started school, and you were painting your first picture, and found out that mixing all the paints together didn't actually yield an amazing new colour, but instead came to a yellowy-brown mess? The 2nd stage featured band after band who was the musical equivalent of this. They were all a bit thrash metal, a bit death metal, a little black metal, some metalcore, a tad emo, a bit melodic death metal, and it all blurred into one boring homogeneous mass.
The event itself seemed good enough - organisationally it was perfect, but then it's tiny compared to the bigger places like Download. No problems with the PA, unlike last year. Drinks were reasonably priced (I've paid the same at clubs here in Nottingham), food was adequate if not exactly in plentiful supply, and the shops were ok. Attendance was probably up from last year but still probably lower than the indoor event. To fix that, they're going to have to start getting better bands, and not just settling for wheeling out Season's End and Edguy every year, much as I like them both.
Personally, there were far fewer friends of mine there this year, and I didn't really spend much time talking to anybody, unlike last time. So, a different experience for me.
And, I think that's all I have to say.
(PS. Thanks to
distorted_rage for setting me up with transport at short notice.)
