Basically just copy and pasted from the Metal Hell.
Bloodstock was fucking amazing!
Fucking, fucking, fucking amazing!
If you're British and you like your Metal, goooooo!
My reviews of bands I saw:
Friday
Insomnium:
I can't really remember, I don't like them anyhow and I all I can recall is that I didn't like them and thought they were boring.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter:
I think its Ryan who always claims these are brilliant (or maybe his alt...), anyway, yeah, they were. I've not listened to any songs before but I was thoroughly impressed. The music was catchy, the show they put on was great and their keyboardist is a fucking gimp on a swing! Great stuff!
Municipal Waste:
MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP!
MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP!
And they did. It was brutal and painful and great fun. To be honest I don't know if I liked them for their music because I was just in the pits all the time, or being booted in the face by the abundance of crowd surfers (428 during Beer Pressure - broke the record I believe :)).
I wanted to buy a yellow Sadistic Magician shirt too but I was poor :(.
Sodom:
I didn't really enjoy these that much as I was just being lazy off to the side, but Agent Orange, Surfin' Bird and Saw is the Law were all good songs. I would of liked them better had I been in the crowd though.
Arch Enemy:
Snore!
Carcass:
... but seriously, Arch Enemy are crap! Why do people like them? They have moments in certain songs that are quite decent and then they go and spoil it all by saying something stupi... by running out of ideas and putting crap sections in that just don't fit and sound gay. Twice I've seen them now and twice I wanted to beat myself to sleep with a pillow.
Anyway, Carcass. They were good :). Good show, good set and good banter. They were a lot better than that description and really deserve an amazing, cause they were. But in terms of fun I think DAR and Municpal Waste were better, even if Carcass surpassed them musically.
Plus you can't sing along to Death Metal if you don't know the words and don't feel like a crowd growling poorly amoungst people.
Saturday
The Haunted:
They were better than the last time I saw them, but to be honest, I don't give a shit either way.
Entombed:
Like Sodom I didn't go into the pit for these so my lack of impressedness may be due to that, but I wasn't really bothered about them once they started. They were good, by all means. Just, you know, I didn't really feeeeeeel it... man!
Candlemass:
I wasn't expecting much from these, obviously I love them but I wasn't sure how Rob would handle the Messiah material. But he did it very well, and I was drunk and they played At the Gallows End and Samarithan (but no Bewitched :() and for all those reasons they were the second best band of the festival for me. It was just so epic shouting 'RING BROTHER! RING FOR ME! RING THE BELLS OF HOPE AND FAAITTTH!
Celesty (Acoustic Set):
I watched this cause I wanted to see them but they clashed with Kreator so fuck that :P. This was quite good though, they just played a load of Power Metal songs on an acoustic and was decent entertainment between bands on the mainstage.
Enslaved:
Caught a bit of their set after Celesty and I wasn't really listening, I was just dreaming about how good Candlemass were and how good Kreator were going to be.
Kreator:
Despite not really knowing that much of their set (stuff from EoG and PtK) I thought they were tits. Good shouty, headbanging fun, and again I was nice and drunk on cider :).
Celesty:
Caught a bit of their set after Kreator. I liked the album but I wasn't really bothered it being so soon after some Thrashin'.
Apocalyptica:
Don't care for them, but I don't have many complaints. The Metallica stuff sounded good and had I been further in the crowd it would of been good singing along with everyone. I thought a lot of it sounded very dissonant though, like the higher parts in songs just sounded screechy and bad. But apart from that, they were fine.
Blind Guardian:
Jizz everywhere!
It probably goes without saying but these were aaaaammmaaaazzzziiinnggg! The show was great, Hansi looks loads better with short hair and he was such a cool performer (albeit, totally lame too :P) and the singalongs were incredible. VALHALLA! DELIVERANCE! WHY HAVE YOU EVER FORGOTTEN ME!
Unfortunately I was in a section of the crowd who'd got to the barrier for Cradle of Filth so no one for a few people around me knew any of the stuff (and sucked at headbanging), really it doesn't matter cause I sang my heart out. But it would of been nice to had fellow mans in my direct vicinity. But when you're feet awat from Hansi that is inconsequential.
Tits, tits, tits, tits, tit :D.
Sunday
Sabaton:
Even not being near the thick of the crowd I enjoyed these just because I've only ever heard that 'POLISH HANDS!' song. So I'll be checking these out su'more.
Girlschool:
These bored the hell out of me.
Equilibrium:
And I don't like these (or didn't like Sagas at least - thought it was a boring album) but I'll concede that they were pretty good live. I still don't care for them but I'll at least give them that credit.
Turisas:
In terms of the show I didn't really care all that much (although jigging to Rasputin and Battle Metal with my friends was fun). But the whole getting facepainted up and just being twats and shouting shit in the campsite and the arena was fun as hell. I wasn't going to get painted up either, I was just going to be miserable but everyone else did so I thought 'Fuck it'. And I'm glad I did, was certainly a highlight :).
Amon Amarth:
Watched these from the bar at the back of the arena, so wasn't really paying attention. Didn't sound like my cup of tea though. So meeh.
Europe:
Same as with Amon, in that we watched from the bar (with Dani Filth's head on a stick nonetheless :D) as we didn't care about them at all, but the plan was to get up and sing when The Final Countdown came on. And sing we did and for that one moment Europe were fucking excellent. Besides that though, meh. Still, TFC is one hell of a song and it was worth it, and a lovely way to end a festival of music :).
yodd
Man, I met Municipal waste when they were on tour with Lamb Of God.
I put my hands over my head like a shark and ran around the moshpit to the song "Terror Shark". And when they come near here in November I am gonna go shark costume.
Haunted, Kreator and Amon Amarth are all killer