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Bloodstock Festival 2011 - Day 2 (Saturday) @ Catton Hall, Derbyshire
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Bloodstock Festival

Day 2 - Saturday

13.08.2011

@

Catton Hall, Derbyshire

United Kingdom
Opening the main stage to a bunch of hungover metallers is never going to be an easy task, yet US clan Skeletonwitch don’t find it difficult to wake everyone up with their thrash wrapped in blackened riffs. Latest album ‘Forever Abomination’ sounds as killer as its predecessors from the short but sweet set we get so early on. Expect to see this band higher up the bill in years to come.[LR]

London crew Pure Negative make a short but sweet entrance to their first mainstream festival. Their energy is only surpassed by the chopping of Masto-esque riffing and enough battery to flaw a horse. Dressed in full ancient Greek attire, Hammer Of The Gods certainly grab your attention visually. Luckily their brand of extreme metal is more than competent enough to change the mind of anyone who may see them as simply a gimmick band. It’s just a shame that the crowd at the Sophie Lancaster Stage is as sparse as it is as the band deserves more attention than they do today.

It’s a second set for Dripback’s drummer and this other band of London based bredrins rip the Sophie stage a new one proving that their quick jaunt into the metal world is leaving many new fans in their wake. It’s brutal, rabid and enough crust to take down any Discharge record.[JH]

Time for a bit of folk metal from Finntroll and from nowhere the crowd is invaded by a host of Vikings with horns held high! It would be fair to say things certainly pick up whenever some of the older and more accordion based tracks are played. The highlight of the set is of course ‘Trollhammeren’ and the most dedicated conga line that has ever been![CG]
    
The crowd suddenly starts to look like a bizarre collection of the Kiss army and pandas as the face paint gets caked on in time for Immortal. As black metal rarities on English turf, Abbath takes lead as the regal, yet slightly silly frontman as they blast through a nicely varied set. ‘All Shall Fall’, ‘Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms’ and ‘One By One’ are as cold as ice and despite some feedback issues which weren’t due to grimness, the fact Immortal are here and visually hypnotic is enough to keep us happy.[LR]

Reviewed by Claudia Glazzard, Jason Hicks & Lily Randall
Photography by Dale Roberts

 

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