Heavy Metal festival Bloodstock Open Air kicked off on Thursday for it’s 14th year in Catton Park, Derbyshire. It was a spectacular start to the festival with plenty of sun, beer and…unicorns?
Bloodstock Festival 2019 Review – Thursday
Opening up Bloockstock Festival was Barbarian Hermit, setting the tone of the day from the get go. From the second that they opened their set on Thursday I felt ready to stomp my steel toe boots and bang my head. Throughout their set you could tell that their songs were really made to show off every instrument and the skill of the man behind it. The members looked like they were having a great time and did an amazing job of getting everyone into the spirit, which I can imagine is easier said than done on a Thursday afternoon.
Blind River came out strong, getting the crowd hyped with a “Bloodstock 2019 motherf***ers!” and they only raised the bar from where Barbarian Hermit had left it. Harry Armstrong (Vocals) had such amazing charisma that the crowd felt like a part of the experience right from the beginning. If I was to put Airbourne and Guns N’ Roses in a blender and poured it out, I’d get Blind River, throughout each of their songs they were able to keep the tempo upbeat without sacrificing any old school solo’s which they clearly have a passion for. Here at Bloodstock 2019 they played one of their new songs: “Made of dirt” and in my opinion it was the true highlight of their set, a perfect blend of old and the new, relentlessly bringing their own brand of rock to the table.
Footprints In The Custard are a band that has to be experienced firsthand. No description can quite do the performance justice. The band initially came onstage in a variety of purple and neon green clothes, the front man sporting a very flattering glittery tutu, accompanied by the Thomas the tank engine theme. From here we launch into a wild ride of crazy songs with themes ranging from “Don’t let the terrorists steal the moon!“, to a song that’s literally called “Don’t be a c**t“. Just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any weirder however, some sensual beats begun to take over our ears and on the stage the guitarist had stripped right down to a mankini that was showing more than enough skin. It turns out that it wasn’t just the guitarist, but from what I could see, several crowd surfers had also come prepared with mankini’s of their own, apparently knowing what to expect. Footprints In The Custard truly are an experience that has to be seen to be believed.
A radical departure from the band that came before, Ten Ton Slug, a sludge metal band from Ireland opened straight into heavy riffs and fast beats. The use of catchy riffs throughout the instrumental sections kept the audience engaged enough to keep wanting more. After a while however I found that a few of Ten Ton Slug’s songs began to sounds very familiar with one another, which if you like riff-driven heavy sludge metal isn’t a bad thing. It’s perfect music for headbanging and the band knew it.
9.5/10
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