If Britain had a metal Mecca, it would probably be Bloodstock. 2010 saw Bloodstock’s tenth anniversary, which was marked by the renaming of the main stage, a great line up bands and (unfortunately) torrential rain.

The atmosphere at the festival is amazing. There’s a real feeling of comradeship between the people who come to Bloodstock, who all come for one thing – Metal.  Bloodstock has a reputation for being the most ‘metal’ held in the UK and it does not disappoint. The camp sites are even named after different places in Viking mythology, such as Midgard, Valhalla and Hel. There were even Viking battle re-enactments taking place in the main arena, which housed a fairground as well as a good number of food and merchandise vendors. For the most part the merchandise stands were stocked with merchandise at a reasonable price. The people who go to Bloodstock make up a big part of the atmosphere. It’s not uncommon to hear groups of people roaring lines from songs around the campsite, and to see people proudly raising flags from where-ever they were from. The atmosphere was charged with energy.

The weather was of course completely unexpected, by both the Bloodstock crew and the campers. Veterans of the ‘stock would go on about how they’d never seen it like this before and described the usual stifling heat. The ground became a marsh, particularly on the walk ways between camps, meaning that dry clothes became a valuable commodity.

The death of Ronnie James Dio is still very recent in the minds of metal heads, and understandably, there were many tributes to Dio. Various bands would acknowledge Dio and some even covered songs, among them ‘Opeth’ covering ‘Rainbow’’s ‘Catch the Rainbow’ and ‘Twisted Sister’ covered Rainbow’s ‘Long Live Rock ‘N Roll’. The biggest tribute was the permanent re-naming of the main stage to the Ronnie James Dio stage. The main stage isn’t the only stage that has re-named. The second stage was last year renamed ‘The Sophie Lancaster Stage’ to promote the S.O.P.H.I.E campaign, named after the tragic murder of Sophie Lancaster.

The line-up at this year’s festival was great. Highlights of Friday’s bands included ‘Ensiferum’, ‘Meshuggah’ and ‘Opeth’. ‘Behemoth’ had to pull out due to illness, but ‘Catherdral’ who stepped in at the last minute did a good job nonetheless. Viking Folk metal band ‘Enisferum’ played a great show, dressed in little more than kilts (trying to prove something in the freezing cold of that day?), and ‘Meshuggah’s’ set perplexed just about everyone. They have a fast and unique sound which they replicated on stage skillfully (fittingly, the name of the band means crazy in Hebrew). It was my first time seeing ‘Opeth’ live and the lead singer Mikael Åkerfeldt was by all accounts a great front man. “We are going to play some Heavy Metal music today … if that’s alright with you guys,” he said in his somewhat slow melodic voice at the start of the set, to a roar of approval. By that time, night had fallen, meaning that the stage lighting gave a little more atmosphere to the prog metal set.

One of the bands that I was particularly interested in seeing on the Saturday was ‘Edguy’, and their lead singer Tobias Sammet had, as usual, a great energy that was infectious making the set all the more enjoyable. The bassist of ‘Edguy’ was absent, having just become a father, but there to fill in for him was a special guest - Markus Großkopf of ‘Helloween’.  Of the day’s line-up, it was ‘Fear Factory’ who played the strongest set. With a near perfect setlist full of the old classics mixed with some of the new critically acclaimed material from the new album injected an aggressive energy into the crowd. It was very much a return to form performance, the band having recently reformed with founding members and new already proven artists (notably Gene Hoglan of ‘Death’, ‘Strapping Young Lad’ and ‘Dethklok’ fame among other things) to create an all star line-up. ‘Children of Bodom’ followed, headlining the day which, although enjoyable, was not performed as well as hoped due to (what some suspected to be) a drunk singer/lead guitarist and keyboardist.

Sunday was the weekends strongest line-up by which time the rain had died off, one of the most notable acts being ‘GWAR’, the costumed Thrash Metal band who’s show and costumes are the most extravagant around. They finished the set by spraying the crowd with what we assume was supposed to blood and green ejaculate to the rhythm of ‘Sick of You’ (much funnier live than it sounds in print!). We received more Finnish folk metal in the form of ‘Korpiklaani’ who had the crowd breaking into jigs and a massive conga line that wound itself through the audience. They played some of they’re greatest songs, among them ‘Happy Little Boozer’ and ‘Vodka’. They do have a way of writing great drinking songs and although they were playing early in the day, the majority of the crowd had a cup in their hand in the spirit of the set. The Swedish super group ‘Bloodbath’ also put on a great show, only the 9^th that they’ve ever performed in the twelve years that the project has been running, which was also filmed to produce a live DVD of the bands performance (and what a performance to choose!). From looking at him, you wouldn’t expect Åkerfeldt (also the lead singer of this band) to be producing the harsh vocals of Bloodbath. It was obvious he was enjoying the performance as much as the audience, wearing a beaming smile when he wasn’t grunting into the mic. The most extreme bands to play on the stage that weekend went next – ‘Cannibal Corpse’. Not being a huge fan of the band I watched their set more out morbid curiosity, but they didn’t disappoint. “I want to see every-one banging their heads to this next one. Try to keep up with me. You will fail, but you can try!” Corpsegrinder wasn’t joking when he said it. He must work on his headbanging skills daily. The speed he achieved was almost unbelievable! After the Corpse finished their set, an announcement was made regarding next years line up. Headlining next year’s Bloodstock – ‘Immortal’. Although the reveal video showed wasn’t the best I’d ever seen the response to this announcement was massive and understandably so for the legendary band’s first performance in the UK for eleven years. Twisted Sister headlined the day, and while I was skeptical about that decision before I saw them play, by the end of the performance all the doubts I’d had were gone. They put on a great performance full of energy and ended the festival on a massive high.

Would I recommend this festival? Without a doubt. The atmosphere is amazing at it’s small size, and especially after this years strong line-up, and next years already shaping up well (albeit with just one band announced so far) it is unquestionably awesome. You can’t go wrong with Bloodstock. When shows begin again, expect to hear Bloodstock interviews from Fear Factory, Edguy, Violation Complex and Hanging Doll!

- Jamie Sperrey