Review: Ozric Tentacles – Harmonic Mind Kscope – September 18th, 2026 Reviewer – Chris O’Connor Ah, the Ozrics. Here is a band I can honestly say I have been a fan and follower of since their very earliest free festival days… and in my case, happy daze! I think it was 1985 (maybe?) when I […]
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Wildfire .
The post Wildfire to release debut single “Sweet Sensation” on August 21st first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.
Shots of the band recording new material have been circulating as of late.
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7th August 2026
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
The use of the main stage last night gives this first day of Bloodstock proper something of a different feel, as though we’ve already had a full day. Which means the festival will feel like a four-dayer!
Opening the show on the Ronnie James Dio are Australians Battlesnake, who have brought a very Southern Hemisphere weather with them. Dressed in ecumenical robes, above tighty-whities, the band serve up some blasphemous heavy metal before the clock has struck noon. I Killed Satan and I am the Vomit are odd self-references, Mud Apocalypse gets a live debut, and Shepherd Hunter is as religion-bating as anything out of Norway in the nineties. Vocalist Sam Frank heads off into the crowd to be carried at above head-height. He returns for the set-climax of Let There Be Rock and the guitarist stands on a flight case and is spun until dizzy.
Glaswegian party slammers, Party Cannon, make the first of two Bloodstock appearances in 2026, with them being scheduled to appear at KK’s for the Winter Gathering. Truthfully, cold December days in the Black Country couldn’t be further from the mind as the sun batters Catton Park and, before a note has been struck, the crowd is awash with inflatables, people are dressed as bananas and cardboard cut-out genitalia is being wafted from the stage. Weird, But Not Illegal kicks things off in a thoroughly abrasive fashion; the return of a missing shoe takes us into Improper Use of a Speculum, before the band, keen on breaking records and necks today, call out a representative from the Guiness Book of Records, named Joe.
He’s unsure of which records he’s here to judge on but as an official from Guiness he’s about as convincing as the Heavysaurus dinosaurs were yesterday. He ends up getting hit by a chair and shanked, so make your own mind up. It’s huge break breakdowns, costumed crowd-surfers and chaotic walls of death; in fact everything you could ever want from a Party Cannon set. High Tariff Behaviour, Thirst Trap, Duct Taped to a Flag-Pole and the usual closer of Human Slime bring level of mania unseen on a Bloodstock stage at this time of the morning.
It’s odd to say that Skynd, with her serial killer fixated music, arrives with something of a calming effect after the madness of the Cannon. Making a main stage debut after headlining the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage back in the Thursday of 2023, the twisted tales of true crime, delivered against industrial beats make the show chillingly stark, regardless of the suffocating heat. Catchy chorus of Michelle Carter has people singing along, heavy hits of Columbine recreate the school massacre of 1999, and the almost-nursery rhyme feel of John Wayne Gacy belies the true horrors of Pogo the Clown. New track, Jimmy Savile fits into the middle of the set, proving a British wrong ‘un can hold his own against stiff international competition. Strong dance beats greet Mikhail Popkov, crunching guitars signal the arrival of Gary Heidnik, leaving the tale of parent killer, Tyler Hadley to close things out. Maybe without the ripping energy of Party Cannon, but a Skynd performance is always captivating.
Brooklyn, New York, is well represented today, with the first from that locale, Life of Agony, finally hitting the Bloodstock stage after the cancellation due to Covid in 2020, and the late withdrawal from the festival in 2022. But they’re here now and that’s all that matters. I was hoping for great things from LoA today – what we got exceeded my expectations. Debut album – and let’s face it – one of the greatest genre albums of the nineties, River Runs Red plays a major part in today’s set, with the opening salvo of This Time, River Runs Red and Bad Seed hitting like combination punches. Before the start of the set, guitarist Joey Z takes a moment to pay tribute to their fallen brother, Lou Koller, who sadly last his battle with cancer a couple of weeks ago. The first non-debut song, Ugly, is rife with emotional scars, anchored by a heavy bass sound. Keith’s voice is on top form this afternoon and the best I’ve heard him in a while, as he hit’s those high notes during Lost at 22.
A mass rowing – akin to Amon Amarth – breaks out in the pit during Weeds and Keith heads into the photo pit for Through and Through, extols the need for live music in the intro to Underground and teases a snippet of Pantera’s Walk to bring the set to a triumphant conclusion. Already Bloodstock 2026 is feeling like a classic year, and we’re not yet halfway through the RJD roster for the day.
Jersey City, NJ, deathcore machine, Fit For an Autopsy make a second appearance at Catton Park and must surely be under the misapprehension that British summers are idyllic days of intense heat; for their 2022 show was beneath blazing sunshine too. Acting as something of a firebreak between the Brooklyn massif’s domination of the afternoon stage, FFaA hit the ground raging with an opening smash & grab from the latest record, The Nothing That Is, in Lower Purpose. There something a little ironic when Joe Badolato calls for a circle pit during the introduction to A Higher Level of Hate, and even though it’s a shade more melodic, It Comes for You still stomps.
I cannot help but hear traces of Cattle Decapitation sprinkled through new single, The Wretch, and not content with making the front of the crowd pit in these conditions, Joe asks that the Bloodstock record for folks over the barrier – currently held by Machine Head – is smashed during Hostage. That stream of surfers continues for The Sea of Tragic Beasts and Pandora, and Oh, What the Future Holds’ Far From Heaven, dedicated to tonight’s headliner, Lamb of God, ends the set, confirming deathcore has plenty of fans among the Bloodstock faithful.
I’m old enough to have been at Donington in 1994 when Brooklyn bad boys, Biohazard, had the sound turned off on them for a stage invasion – great times. I was there a couple of years later when they’d been moved to the main stage and a big security presence made a point of lining the front of the stage. When they made their Bloodstock debut in 2014, the Heavens had opened and the resulting stage invasion left some people -Tim – covered in muddy boot-prints for the rest of the day. 2023 saw them headline the S.O.P.H.I.E. and now they back on the Ronnie James Dio, higher up the main stage bill and ready to tear Catton Park a new one.
They hit the stage with boundless energy, more so than would be expected from a band whose average age is closer to sixty than anyone would want to admit. But age is just a number, and every inch of the stage is covered by Evan, Billy and Bobby. Entering to the Rocky theme of Gonna Fly Now and blasting into Urban Discipline’s bouncing groove, the energy from the band is infectious and, regardless of what Fit For an Autopsy had just done, Bloodstock responded to Biohazard in kind.
Shades of Grey finds Billy taking lead vocal, newbie Fuck the System comes with the question of whether we are happy with our government – not a positive response, tbh – and Wrong Side of the Track has Billy standing on the barrier. He’s in the thick of it for Black and White and Red All Over, Eyes on Six comes with a sea of raised hands and the inflatables come out for Five Blocks to the Subway, dedicated to everyone needing to work soul destroying jobs to make ends meet. The obligatory Bad Religion cover, We’re Only Gonna Die ends with an Iron Maiden-style conclusion, Sworn Enemy take the stage to help out with Punishment, leaving Biohazard to thank the crowd for their support over the past thirty-five years of the band’s existence, and a Hold My Own finale.
Tony Foresta is quick to remind us during Municipal Waste’s set that it’s not just Brooklyn being represented at Bloodstock today, but Richmond, VA, too, with both the Waste and Lamb of God hailing from that corner of the United States. Making their fourth appearance at Catton Park, Municipal Waste are always a blast. We had party slam earlier, now it’s time for the party thrash.
It’s been four years since the band’s last record: Electrified Brain, but that hardly matters as Bloodstock is set to thrash and Municipal Waste are he to provide the soundtrack. Flame pot spit their loads into the air as the band rev up to full power, delivered with the trademark speed and utter indifference to the limitations of the human body. So much so that Tony is himself sporting a knee-brace, making me feel less conscious of mine own.
Satanic rituals rule the moment for The Thrashin’ of the Christ; Born to Party is essentially the band’s mission statement distilled down to three words, Poison the Preacher and High Speed Steel go out to the heat stroke the band are about to have and Slime and Punishment loads up with fat, meaty chugs. Circle pits and crowd surfing are commonplace throughout, prevalent during the closing Beer Pressure and The Art of Partying, of course. The band make their own, heart-felt tribute to Lou, who clearly meant much to the band on a personal level.
As is customary at Bloodstock on Friday, we get a band announcement – or, in this case, twenty-seven bands announced, including all seven stage headliners, including Gaerea, Kanonenfieber and Dethklok topping the S.O.P.H.I.E. line-ups and Mercyful Fate, Electric Callboy and Motionless in White headlining the Ronnie James Dio. The undercard is varied, with something for everyone, regardless of musical taste: stand-out names include Acid Bath, Corrosion of Conformity, Devil Driver, and some old school Bloodstockery in Hammerfall. My own mouth-watering confirmations are Pig Destroyer, Decapitated, Fulci, Gutalax, and Madball headlining the Thursday tent. Folks have grumbled online, but the early tickets are apparently flying out; make of that what you will.
The Friday special guest slot is bitter-sweet for me: on the one-hand I never turn down a chance to see Brazilian legends, Sepultura, but on the other, I know this will be the last time I will as Bloodstock 2026 will be the last Sep show on British soil. Sabbath’s War Pigs fills the speakers – the first of two times it’s being used this weekend – followed by fellow Brazilians, Titãs’ Polícia, covered by the band in 1993 and available as a bonus track on Chaos AD.
Making a fourth appearance on the Ronnie James Dio, the band look to make this final show a celebration of the history of Sepultura, covering as wide a range of their discography as is possible in an hour-and-a-quarter. Inner Self starts the ball rolling, with Derrick having made it his own after nearly thirty-years fronting the band. Other Max-era stalwarts include Desperate Cry, Attitude, Dead Embryonic Cells and Territory; latter-era Kairos and Means to an End, along with three from this year’s swansong EP, The Cloud of Unknowing, show that a Cavalera-free Sepultura created comparable music in its own right.
All Souls Rising, The Place and the ballad, Beyond the Dream, come with passion that is imbued with the sadness that the end is nigh; yet it’s the only recorded instance of the band with drummer Greyson Nekrutman preserved for posterity.
Kaiowas sees a mass drum-off with a whole host of folks taking the stage and picking up sticks. There feels like a building intensity through Refuse/ Resist and Arise, with crowd action reaching its crescendo on closer Roots Bloody Roots. Not gonna lie, but tears were shed when it was over; loved Sepultura back then – love Sepultura now.
And so we’ve reached the end of the day, with only Richmond,VA, heavyweights Lamb of God left after a blistering day of high-quality music and unforgiving heat. Making their third headlining appearance, LoG know their way around Bloodstock’s main stage as well as anyone and hit it with the triple-whammy of old school classics: Ruin, Laid to Rest and Now You’ve Got Something to Die For before going anywhere near this year’s new record, the my-mate-Matt-approved Into Oblivion’s title track.
It has been a long a draining day, but Bloodstock is finding new levels of energy stored somewhere in heat-ravaged bodies, feeding back the power that is coming from the band. Resurrection Man and Grace come and go before another new-one, Blunt Force Blues, which Randy dedicates to Killing Joke guitarist, Geordie Walker, who passed away in 2023, and had been Lamb of God’s special guests on their last Bloodstock appearance.
The last of Into Oblivion’s tracks played tonight, Parasocial Christ, sits seamlessly between established band classics Walk with Me in Hell and Omerta, leaving only 11th Hour to close out the main set. Encores are the self-titled’s Memento Mori and the stone-cold Lamb of God classic, Redneck, which has the capacity crowd pouring out the last of those energy reserves.
It’s another triumphant headlining set from the Virginians and, were I a gambling man, I would put a shilling on the certainty that we will see them again at Bloodstock.
Photo credits: Tim Finch
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7th August 2026
Photos: Tim Finch
Photo credits: Tim Finch
For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.
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Crazy .
The post Crazy Party share live video from Romania for track “She Calls Me” first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.