Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	August 18, 2009
Event:	Bloodstock Open Air 2009 (Website)
Location:	Catton Park, Catton Hall, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Bloodstock Open Air - Catton Hall, England, 14th-16th August 2009 by Baz Anderson (284)

A shower of rain through the night, but by the time it was worth getting up most of the rain had dried up. The festival site held together extremely well considering it wasn't a light shower



There are quite a few opinions about Battlelore flying around, some people think they are the best thing since mature cheddar, others hate them. For a band that are supposed to be quite folk influenced, hardly any of this came through musically live. Although the band themselves were visually pleasing to look at, especially one particular singer of the band, they sounded more like a symphonic metal band than anything else with the rare extreme hint. The band put on a good show that showed flashes of greatness, but unfortunately on the whole the set lacked a certain something.



Wolf are a band that have some popularity in this country and were familiar faces to a some of the Bloodstock crowd as they were back here two years ago. Two years on from then and not much has changed, if anything at all. The band are still doing exactly the same thing, except with less technical problems this time around. Lets face it, they aren't the best band around, and although this can be ignored with the presence of drink, it was too early in the day for this band to receive as much of a cheer as perhaps they may have liked.



Last I knew, The Haunted had released a few cool albums and were a band worth watching. It seems however that The Haunted have changed into something much different. Was he singing? Seriously, no, don't do that. The Haunted had turned into some kind of metalcore band that didn't seem to be pleasing many people at all. Some parts of the set were enjoyable such as "99", or the older "Bury Your Dead", but on the whole it was more of a shock to see how seemingly The Haunted have been lead up a very wrong path.



Entombed on the other hand were going to give the audience a real show of super-solid metal to headbang to. They didn't pull the biggest audience the festival had seen, and they probably confused quite a lot of people wondering if this was some kind of extreme metal band or something less sinister. Entombed put on a good performance, but it lacked any kind of intensity or even any good pace at times.



In the middle of the afternoon with the sun blazing, it was time to finally experience the Candlemass experience. Perhaps not being the most accessible band of the festival, this was probably dinner time for quite a lot of people. But for the people who watched, this was actually a super-heavy, really enjoyable show complete with a frontman with magical Undertaker-like abilities to turn his eyes completely white. Either that or look very high. But either way, these guys put on a good show with a mixture of new and old material that certainly would have pleased all wielding the hammer of doom that certain afternoon.



Again with the sun blinding anyone on stage, Enslaved had a slot while the sun was still up. Although perhaps not the best settings for a show such as this, Enslaved still put on a mesmerising performance like only Enslaved can. They are masters at what they do, who have matured over the years and turned their band into one of the most stunning-sounding bands around. The Bloodstock audience seemed a little quiet, either that or they were all standing in a music-induced trance and didn't realise what was going on, but either way Enslaved put on a top quality performance as always. The set consisting of all newer material may have upset the odd black metal-starved individual at the festival, but on the whole there isn't anything bad you can say about this band.



Are you feeling aggressive? Probably the first thing anyone will say about a Kreator show these days is a warning about Mille's cringeworthy rants. In some ways they are more entertaining than the music themselves, quite a lot of people were laughing. Still, a band can have a bit of an insane frontman if they have the music to smear over it all, and Kreator do. This Bloodstock set seemed quite nicely to lean slightly more towards the old Kreator days and those extra fast songs that, as decent as the new albums are, just blow the new songs out of the water. There's not much that beats a fast thrash metal band when they get the ball rolling, and the lucky Bloodstock audience had the pleasure of witnessing one of the best Kreator shows.



There's always got to be one band for the girls doesn't there. Apocalyptica were that band today as they as they plodded through a, at times, musically superb performance, but at other times taking the whole Metallica thing too far. One, maybe two covers from one band is fine, but when your whole set seems to revolve around Metallica covers, it gets amazingly tiresome. Lack of a singer also left a huge gap that needed to be filled. The only people screaming after each songs were girls, the band members commented on the attractiveness of the girls in the audience - the only decent moment of the entire set was the "Hall Of The Mountain King" closing song. Something else they didn't write.



It's certainly not every day you can see Blind Guardian in this country. The band seemed surprised by the size of the audience, seeing as the last time Blind Guardian were at a festival in this country it was at the indoor festival in 2002 with significantly less people. The band have released, toured on, and put "A Twist In The Myth" behind them now which enabled them to create a setlist as varied as they liked. The set included songs from every album released apart from the very first one and "A Night At The Opera", which gave great pleasure to the audience, who have understandably been waiting for this moment for a long time. Oldies like "Valhalla", "Welcome To Dying" or "Lord Of The Rings" were appreciated just as well as the newer material. Songs like "Nightfall" and "Mirror Mirror" will always raise an audience to the highest level, and the Bloodstock audience also managed to sing "The Bard's Song (In The Forest)" in its entirety. Blind Guardian are just one of those bands that have "it" - whatever "it" is. An amazingly superb performance that probably surprised the band more than it did the audience, it had to be the set of the festival.



Some people just don't get Cradle Of Filth, but if you are British and care about the extreme metal scene, then you should at least respect what these guys have done. The band came out and kicked off an absolutely blistering start to what was going to be a brilliant set. Cradle Of Filth have been all over the place musically the past decade, but are finally back at doing what they do best. The new songs sounded great, especially the ones from the newest album, but it is impossible to explain how much of a rush you get from hearing this version of Cradle Of Filth play old songs such as "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh". With the new drummer the band are faster and tighter than they ever were with the past drummer, it is almost as if the band have been reborn. Even "Under Huntress Moon", which is from a generally awful album sounded brilliant live. Now, we know that not everyone likes Cradle Of Filth, but during the set they played there were a few bottles being thrown at the band. Dani even commented mid-song "missed me" after dodging one, but it wasn't until a giant gobstopper hit Paul in the back when things had gone too far. He quickly exited the stage, the band soon followed, and they were never to be seen again. Paul had to be taken to hospital in an emergency vehicle, which obviously meant the end of the set. The one person that threw the gobstopper that hit Paul, as others were also apparently found on stage, single handedly ruined the end of the second day for many thousands of people.



If anyone that attended Bloodstock is interested, I got a picture of the setlist and the only remaining songs were; "Cthulhu Dawn", "Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids", "Her Ghost In The Fog" and "From The Cradle To Enslave".

Friday, 14/08/09 / Saturday, 15/08/09 / Sunday, 16/08/09