When Genesis wrapped up their hugely successful The Last Domino? reunion tour in March 2022, it wasn’t just the end of the road for one of the most successful British bands of the last 50 years, it also marked Phil Collins’ own swansong as a live performer.
The drummer-turned-singer had been suffering from health issues for years, including severe nerve damage, a foot condition that left him unable to walk properly, and periods of alcohol addiction that resulted in him coming close to death after being hospitalised in 2024.
But in a new interview with Prog, Collins reveals that his career may not be completely over. Asked if he will ever make any new music, he doesn’t rule out the prospect.
“Um, I’m never gonna say no now,” says Collins, whose last album was 2010’s covers set Going Back. “I’ve got my little studio still, and I’d like to get down there and just mess about and see what happens. There are some things I could finish. And other things which are finished. So, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.”
Collins also tells Prog about his relapse into alcohol addiction after several years of sobriety, and the resultant hospitalisation in 2024 that left him on life support.
“I went through some pretty dark times,” he admits. “I was never ‘falling over’ drunk. That wasn’t it. It was just drinking ‘normally’, as one would drink water. I’d wake up, have a glass of wine. Watch TV, read a book, have a glass of wine. And suddenly… Some people’s insides can’t take it. Mine broke down.
“My manager, Tony, called all the kids to Switzerland to have a meeting about me and my future. Because at one point it was kind of life support. Kidneys and liver were waving the white flag. I was close to dying, and I hadn’t realised. I just thought I was sick. Well, really dark times. Spent a lot of time in hospital. Then, pulling through that, I’ve had five operations on this knee. And drop foot. That’s why I have the crutches, just to make sure – I don’t want to fall over.
Collins adds that he’s in better health today than he has been in a long time. “Physically, now, I reckon I’m A1, 100%. I’ve worked at it. Haven’t drunk for three years. I do physio three times a week, to bring me up to speed. All is good!
Collins’s debut solo album, Face Value, is reissued on September 8 as an expanded 4-LP 45th anniversary edition.
Read the full interview with Collins in the brand new issue of Prog, on sale now. Order it online here.
The second day at SonicBlast 2026 had even more up its sleeve. After the psych explorations of Portugal’s Jesus The Snake that included a super tasty snippet of Echoes (this band would be right at home on the El Paraiso label) and the hard rock stylings of Portland’s Hög (if you’re familiar with the excellent Brown Acid series on Riding Easy, you know what I am talking about), those pesky moving parts came into play.
Voivod – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
Dead Meadow had to pull out as the band incurred a medical situation that unfortunately led to the cancellation of all their remaining European dates (Clamm was a last-minute substitution), and Voivod came on the stage with a singer who had an iPad for lyrics and was decidedly not Snake.
It was not a new singer breaking in before he learned all the words, just a one-off fill-in for the uncategorisable Quebecois band.
Conan – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
If you are gonna name your band Conan, you better be bringing monolithic, bone-crushing power. Do not worry, Jon Davis has that all figured out.
With all the subtlety of an overhead mace strike to your cranium, the band riled up the crowd like a gigantic cattle prod hit the centre of the pit. I still laugh at the memory of a person trying to take a mobile call during their set. Talk about futility.
Kylesa – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
Kylesa surprised the Metal world last year when Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope announced their return to the stage, starting with Roadburn. They have obviously been having fun with this current stint, and it was great to hear bona fide classics like Unknown Awareness and Where The Horizon Unfolds after their decade-long hiatus.
The Casualties – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
The Casualties were not hard to spot around the festival grounds, brightly colored mohawks towering over their scalps. Though they hail from New York City, their brand of punk was more in line with the classic early ’80s UK style of bands such as Discharge, Charged GBH or Subhumans, and they were another act who got the circle pit spinning round and round.
The Casualties – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
Like Sizemore, singer Daniel Rodriguez decided to take flight from the scaffolding as their set drew to a close.
Turbonegro – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
As band lore goes, Turbonegro is up near the pinnacle of having a very specific niche. Riffing on the machismo culture of hard rock and Metal, they take inspiration from gay icon Tom of Finland crossed with Hells Angels, with regional chapters of fans (aka Turbojugend) dotted all across the globe. Pure, unadulterated fun, the band comes off as a less po-faced Hives mixed with the grittiness of The Hellacopters.
Deathchant – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
Was there still crowd energy to be tapped as the clock hands passed 2 AM? Deathchant made sure of that. Celebrating their fourth appearance here, the LA quartet took the stage, took no prisoners, and plain and simple took over, period.
Gearing up for the release of their fourth record, they started with Enemy, and if that is indicative of what is on the rest of the record, it is clearly going to be their best yet. If you like twinned guitars that intertwine at breakneck speed like prime-era Thin Lizzy, you have come to the right spot.
Deathchant – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalk
At festivals like this, there’s definitely a ‘look’, and these guys have that dialled in and then some, shirtless and heavily tattooed, ’70s moustaches, oozing rock ‘n’ roll danger. But do not let that fool you. They are sweethearts when the amps stop howling.
Remember that PA scaffolding I keep talking about? Doug Stuckey obviously noted the previous uses and upped the ante, climbing up the scaffolding to new heights and with a Flying V that was meant to take flight, sailed into the crowd.
Rumours are swirling that he has not yet landed, so if you see him, give me a heads up. His mom is worried.
Deathchant – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkConan – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkSonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkDeathchant – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkHög – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkJesus The Snake – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkThe Casualties – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkThe Casualties – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkTurbonegro – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkVoivod – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkVoivod – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkDeathchant – SonicBlast 2026 – Photo: Tim Bugbee/MetalTalkThe post SonicBlast 2026 Day Two – Another Day Of Riffs, Chaos And Relentless Energy first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.
German/Aussie rockers Sweet Electric have released their third single, ‘Long Way Back‘, ahead of their UK/EU Tour and upcoming studio album ‘Something Something Disco‘, due out 10th September. Pre-order the album – here ‘Long Way Back‘ is written about the painful reality that is the rock n roll journey. Dedicating every breathing moment to rock n […]
Chris Johnson & The Hollywood Hillbillies return with ‘Live To Ride‘, the second single and video taken from their forthcoming album ‘Tales From The Cowboy Palace‘, due out December 11th, 2026 via Rustbelt Electric. Listen to ‘Live to Ride’ – here Pre-order the album ‘Tales From the Cowboy Palace‘ – here Following ‘Better Days Ahead‘, […]
This is the third album from Spanish doom metal band Todomal. Graveyards of Joy brings us 43 minutes of compelling material. Todomal’s style can be described as doom metal mixed with progressive rock stylings and atmospheric depth. Atmospheric doom, in essence. The promo blurb names Pink Floyd, Katatonia, Candlemass, and Anathema, which sets the scene … Continue reading “Todomal – Graveyards of Joy (Review)”
Peter Svensson has spent much of his career deep in the Swedish Metal underground, most notably as a songwriter, bassist and guitarist with doom Metallers Void Moon. A prolific multi-instrumentalist, he has also been involved with bands and projects including Assassin’s Blade, Gauntlet Rule, Amaurot, Cult Of The Fox, Furnace and Solus Rex, moving between traditional Heavy Metal, Doom and Death Metal along the way.
As well as performing and writing, Svensson has increasingly taken on production, mixing and mastering duties, making him one of those musicians whose fingerprints can be found across considerably more records than his name recognition might suggest.
What’s the most Metal thing you’ve ever done off stage? Attending business meetings in Metal shirts. Quite unusual in the pharmaceutical industry, at least.
What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played, and why? Probably the second gig with my first band, Demon’s Eye. Our first gig was at our school, and we were quite pleased with ourselves. The second gig was at a big music competition, and I realised on stage there just how godawful we actually were.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever played, and why? Void Moon live at Doom over Vienna last year. The live rebirth of the band closest to my heart. Everything was perfect. Travel, performance, crowd response and merch sales.
Would you choose a platinum record or one perfect, legendary live show? Platinum record. I love to write music.
What’s your greatest fear? Dying before I see my daughter grow up.
What’s the trait you most deplore in yourself? My ability to hold a grudge longer than most other people.
What’s the trait you most deplore in other musicians? Not showing respect to band members and/or fans
Describe yourself in three words. Worrying. Calm. Creative.
What’s your guiltiest pleasure? Watching mindless comedy series.
What does a great riff feel like to write? Like something otherworldly. If I stumble upon something I wrote that I think is great, I’m always surprised that I wrote it.
What’s the worst thing a fan has ever said to you? That we sound better on record than live, and this was with Cult Of The Fox and the first abysmal record.
What’s the worst thing a critic has ever said to you? That they started laughing when they heard the record.
If you weren’t in music, what would you be doing? Writing books or poetry. Maybe programming games, which I did when I was young in the early ’90s.
What’s one album outside your genre you secretly love? Old Ways by Neil Young
When did you last cry, and why? Last year, when I had sort of a very serious health scare.
What keeps you awake at night? Work.
Riffs, royalties or recognition, if you had to choose? Recognition, the only thing I lack [laughs].
How do you want to be remembered? As somebody doing his own thing, and who was not a complete idiot.
What’s the most important lesson the road has taught you? Things work out, and if they don’t, do something different. Don’t beat a dead horse.
What happens when the music stops? Hopefully some other creative output takes its place.
Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make. With a combined age of 451, you would be forgiven for thinking that the seven-piece Hollywood Vampires should be about ready for retirement. You would be wrong, of course, given that these guys are more sprightly than a spring lamb and rock harder than the devil himself.
Led by everybody’s favourite rock-god Alice Cooper, the Hollywood Vampires are loud, boisterous and bags of fun. With Joe Perry, Tommy Henriksen and Johnny Depp on guitar, The O2 Arena became their own personal playground. Not only did they own The O2, but they also owned a sold-out crowd too.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Multiple jets releasing plumes of heavy smoke at the front of the stage, vampiric imagery displayed on a huge digital screen, howls and squeals emanate from multiple speakers. Then the most famous line from Bram Stoker’s novel. “Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make.”
Was it recited by Lugosi, Palance, Louis Jordan, maybe? Perhaps it was Gary Oldman. Who knows, who cares! It heralded the entrance of one of rock’s greatest entertainers along with his legendary, guitar-wielding disciples. Hollywood Vampires were here, and they were here for a “bloody” good time.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Greeting the crowd and twirling his baton, the incomparable Alice Cooper and his bloodsuckers take their first bite out of the audience, opening with I Want My Now from the Vampires’ 2019 offering, Rise. With its raw and aggressive attack on the audience, it set us all up nicely for the lads to sink their fangs into us again with Raise The Dead.
With a thunderous bassline, courtesy of Chris Wyse and a zombie-laden video, this dark and dramatic number had the crowd on its feet. Oh, and a bespectacled, cap-imbued Johnny Depp took the solo, much to the delight of everybody in attendance.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
My Dead Drunk Friends, a rather slinky, bluesy number, celebrating the lives of one or two rock legends who took the term “drink until you drop” a little too literally, flew in like a bat in the night. With the keyboard talents of Buck Johnson heavily featured and some rather solid tub-thumping from drummer Glen Sobel, again this number had the crowd mesmerised.
Aerosmith legend Joe Perry, unmistakable with his streaked hair, enters into some guitar interplay with Depp during the solo. Depp’s laconic style of playing compared to Perry’s more flamboyant approach makes him look almost uncomfortable. But nothing could be further from the truth. They were clearly having fun.
The Alice Cooper classic, I’m Eighteen, followed, with Alice waving a wooden crutch in the air, clearly mocking the fact that at 78, he is still performing that particular track. Tommy Henriksen was the main focus guitar-wise. Highly energetic, Henriksen is the baby of the Vampires at a mere 62. He was thrashing around like a 20-year-old, guitar slung low. Every note played was spot on.
Boogie Man Surprise and Venus In Furs, were all up next, before People Who Died fired up.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
A stunning keyboard opening, then boom, a superfast start with Johnny on vox followed by Alice Cooper backing. Featuring Depp on lead vocals, this blues number has a Leonard Cohen feel about it, and then Joe Perry’s Telecaster, minus its neck pickup, goes into overdrive and blows that right out the window.
It was rather sobering to see images of all the music greats that we have lost over the years. Everybody, from John Lennon to Edward Van Halen and Joe Strummer to Elvis, was featured in the accompanying video. The tributes continued with the next song dedicated to Johnny Thunders.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Joe Perry took on vocal duties for You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory, which was originally written by the former New York Dolls guitarist who passed away in 1991.
It also featured Alice on guitar, which surprised me somewhat as I had never seen him live before and did not realise he could play. Every day is a school day.
Who’s Laughing Now, Living On The Edge, a Hollywood Vampires live debut, and Baba O’ Riley then seduced the audience like the brides of Dracula, with Cooper announcing that the third of this trio was dedicated to the court jester of rock, the greatest drummer of all time, and the greatest bassist of all time, Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
With Depp taking up the acoustic guitar and then switching back to his usual axe of choice, he finally moved across to the opposite side of the stage. He took his time, but it was worth it. Oh, and let’s not ignore Greg Sobel’s awesome drum solo. Anybody trying to emulate Keith Moon deserves as much recognition as possible, and Sobel absolutely nailed it.
There was so much audience interaction it was actually quite difficult to hear the vocals, but everybody was having fun.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Bright Light Fright led up to a tribute to the late, great Jeff Beck. The three guitarists were flowing like the blood from one of Dracula’s victims. Tommy with his power stance, Joe working that slide, and Johnny doing a Lindsay Buckingham and engaging in some finger-picking. Was Johnny using Beck’s white Fender Strat? I think he might have been. Fantastic.
A quick change of his shirt and Alice is back on the vocals for Roadhouse Blues, before The Death And Resurrection Show flew out of the traps, with its Amazonian feel and rather mad guitar and vocal effects. Featuring Depp on vocals and Cooper shaking his skull-imbued maracas, this song continued the emphasis on lost rock legends with images of tombstones featuring Bowie, Ozzy, Beck, Lemmy and Bonham among others.
This band really are tighter than Alice Cooper’s trousers and more bombastic than Cap’n Jack Sparrow.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
A blast of Bowie’s Heroes, followed by Highway to Hell and Walk This Way, led into a mash-up of Cooper’s School’s Out and Floyd’s Brick in the Wall.
Incidentally, you have to give credit to the chap who was two rows in front of me doing The Bangles Walk Like An Egyptian dance. Right idea, wrong gig, but bloody funny, and your dancing was awesome.
Then enters another legend, bringing up the combined age to 530, Hillingdon’s finest son, the one and only Ronnie Wood, took to the stage for a couple of tracks.
Hollywood Vampires – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The Train Kept A-Rollin’ and Brown Sugar slammed into the audience like a stake in the heart from Abraham Van Helsing himself. Four guitars, a plethora of legends. The crowd stood no chance. If you were not up dancing, you were either drunk or dead. It was a party. A vampiric orgy.
Let’s face it, no party would be complete without a blast of Hi-Ho Silver Lining, and Hollywood Vampires did not disappoint. A capacity crowd was shaking what their mama gave ’em and punching the air as though their very souls depended on it. What a night.
This was the Hollywood Vampires’ world, and we were just living in it for a brief couple of hours.
Fangs for a great gig. Yep, another gratuitous vampire pun.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
The Jesus And Mary Chain brought their hard-rocking, yet understated energy to The O2 Arena, supporting Hollywood Vampires.
The Jesus And Mary Chain – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
The Scottish rockers, fronted by Jim and William Reid, blasted out a 7-song setlist, featuring tracks such as Blues From A Gun, Just Like Honey and Reverence.
There is a slightly melancholic aspect to how this group go about their business, but do not be fooled by this. They really are rock powerhouses, wolves dressed as lambs, and will blow you right off your feet.
The Jesus And Mary Chain – The O2 – 12 August 2026. Photo: Manuela Langotsch/MetalTalk
Although their setlist is career-spanning, they could do with a few more tracks and a little more stage-time. After all, their career spans more than 40 years. With some excellent musicianship and some rather nice guitar riffs, they were a great opener for the evening’s events.
The Jesus And Mary Chain have still got it and are definitely worth seeing live. You will not be disappointed.
Leanne Binder is a seasoned singer-songwriter and powerhouse entertainer who has taken her music around the globe—from her roots in Northeast Ohio to heavy gigging in Nashville, New Orleans, and iconic international stops like Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Over her career, she’s shared stages with legends like Joe Bonamassa, The Outlaws, and Dickey Betts, and even graced both the Blues and Gospel stages at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
When she’s not on the road, Leanne gives back to the next generation of talent through her SongMill Studio, coaching singers and encouraging original songwriting. Now, after a prolific wave of writing, she’s gearing up to release her fourth and finest record yet: “On The Inside.” A throwback to the golden era of vinyl and root-level music making, it’s a stunning showcase of her best work alongside a few favourite guest artists.
She describes her new song Hallelujah to the Moon as “full of sass, good vibes, whiskey vocals and a band sent
from the land of groove. Written on my old Gibson it’s begging to be
turned up and the windows rolled down!” I love the mood and I think it’s perfect for a road trip (you can find the appropriate playlist by clicking here). The song is amazingly written, performed and arranged, definitely a quality release.
Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and follow Leanne Binder if you like what you hear.
Bloodstock Festival Review 2026 – A Quarter Century Of Chaos
Once more unto the breach mighty metal warriors. Saturday offered barely a moment’s respite but there were two defining moments, an opening statement from a British crossover force, a genuine reunion for the ages and an extremely long wait after things we’d rather miss for Swedish prog veterans. It was a day of discovery in the smaller stages with South Wales shining.
Saturday 08.08.26
Handing a British crossover-thrash band the job of opening the main stage on the busiest day of the weekend is a statement of faith, and Inhuman Nature repaid it. There is nothing fashionable about what they do, this is fast, mean, riff-first thrash with hardcore in its bloodstream and at a quarter to eleven in the morning that is precisely the jolt a hungover field needs. They played to a crowd notably larger than a main-stage opener has any right to expect, a sign both band’s rising stock and of a Bloodstock audience that has always turned up early for its own.
An early Sophie-tent slot for Outergods brought a welcome dose of genuine extremity to Saturday morning, churning, punishing heaviness that rewards the committed few who make it into the tent before lunch. There is a particular satisfaction in a band who treat a late-morning festival slot as an opportunity rather than a warm-up, and Outergods played with the conviction of a group determined to be remembered by everyone who wandered in.
One of the earlier names on a stacked New Blood Saturday, Vampyra brought a dose of theatrical darkness to the tent while much of the site was still surfacing. Playing early on New Blood is a trial by fire small crowd, everything to prove and it is exactly the crucible that has forged so many bands who later graduated to the bigger stages. Vampyra used their window to make the case and left a trail of newly curious onlookers heading back into the day. I have not stopped humming baked bean monster since I have got back.
By early afternoon, the New Blood tent had properly filled, and Apothis stepped up to a crowd with its blood up. This is what the stage does best — hand a hungry, ambitious band a proper audience and let them prove they belong. Apothis attacked the opportunity, the sort of set that sends a knot of new believers off to the merch stall and to follow the band home online. Grassroots metal doing precisely what grassroots metal is for.
URNE, on a blazing Saturday afternoon at Catton Hall, arrived by both routes at once. Bumped up to the Ronnie James Dio Stage after Of Mice & Men’s late withdrawal reshuffled the weekend’s running order, the London four-piece could have looked like beneficiaries of a lucky break. Instead, they played like a band that had been waiting for exactly this a big, open-air canvas broad enough to hold everything they have been building toward.
It is not, of course, their first time up here. URNE tore up the same stage back in 2023, and the memory of that showing is a large part of why the promotion felt less like a gamble and more like an overdue correction. This time they came armed with Setting Fire To The Sky, January’s third album and comfortably their most ambitious statement yet — a record that trades some of the suffocating darkness of A Feast On Sorrow for something more expansive, defiant, almost triumphant.
The set opened the way the album does, an acoustic passage drifting out across the arena before the band crashed in on top of it. Be Not Dismayed is a canny choice of curtain-raiser — a song written, in part, to reassure younger fans not to feel intimidated by the seasoned, patch-clad regulars at metal shows — and its lurch from gentle intro to grinding riff set the template for everything that followed. This is a band that lives in the space between crushing weight and open melody, and they spent their whole slot proving how much territory that space contains.
Now bolstered to a four-piece with the addition of second guitarist Kurtis Bagley, URNE sound denser and more muscular live than the trio that made their name, the extra guitar thickening the sludgier passages without smothering the intricacy that sets them apart. Songs like the title track a sprawling monster of a thing churn between thrash urgency and doom-weighted heft, while Nally’s voice ranges from guttural roar to genuinely stirring clean, dismissing once and for all the old accusation that he was a one-trick vocalist.
It is the light and shade that lingers. For every pulverising breakdown there is a passage of real beauty, the band unafraid to let a song stretch out, wander, and build. That progressive streak, the willingness to follow a riff wherever it leads rather than bludgeon a crowd into submission is exactly what marks URNE out from the crowded field of UK heavy bands, and it translates surprisingly well to a festival field that, minutes earlier, had been baking quietly in the sun. They do not offer an easy way in. They make you meet them halfway. And on this evidence, plenty were more than willing.
By the close, any lingering question about whether URNE belonged on the main stage had been answered emphatically. This was a band seizing an opportunity with both hands, delivering the kind of performance that sends the uninitiated scrambling to find out who they had just watched. Vended had the unenviable task of following it.
Britain’s heavy underground is in ferociously good hands. On this showing, URNE’s next promotion up the bill will not need a last-minute reshuffle to justify it.
A mid-afternoon New Blood slot gave Metal To The Masses South Wales winners INSCAPE their moment in front of one of the day’s more engaged tent crowds, and they seized it. There is a particular energy to a New Blood set that lands the sense of a band visibly levelling up in real time, playing what may be the biggest show of their career to date and rising to meet it. Inscape had that quality in droves and watching the crowd and band themselves go through the emotions of dejection at some quite serious technical issues beforehand and the elation which the band used a huge positive carried them through and honestly and were among the acts I was still enthusiastically thinking about over the weekend. I cannot wait to see what they do next.
This was the one. Sixteen years on from their last UK appearance Nevermore walked onto the Ronnie James Dio Stage and reminded a packed field why their name has been spoken in reverent tones for a decade and a half. Few bands from the American progressive/power-thrash tradition ever fused technicality and genuine emotional weight the way Nevermore did, and the question hanging over this reunion can they still do it with such huge boots to fill and well, this was answered within the first few minutes.
Opening with the taped strains of Ophidian before launching into Beyond Within, the set leaned hard on the material that made the band’s reputation. Inside Four Walls and the surging This Godless Endeavor landed with the force of songs a crowd had waited a very long time to hear in the flesh; The Heart Collector provided the set’s dark, dramatic centrepiece; and the run through Narcosynthesis, The River Dragon Has Come and Enemies of Reality underlined how much ferocity still lives in these songs. For a certain kind of Bloodstock veteran, this was the set of the entire weekend a performance that justified itself completely, staged in front of exactly the crowd who had kept the flame burning.
Four decades on and still one of thrash’s most dependable live thrills, Death Angel brought their full arsenal to a Sophie tent packed out long before they struck a note, the kind of set where the crowd, the hair and the airborne pints all end up moving in the same direction. Slotted opposite the back end of the main stage run, this was a set for the purists, the people who would happily sprint across a field for a taste of genuine, first-generation thrash.
The band tore through a career-spanning selection, from the older venom of Evil Priest and Seemingly Endless Time to the more recent bite of The Moth, Hatred United/United Hate and The Dream Calls for Blood, closing on Thrown To The Wolves. Mark Osegueda remains one of thrash’s great frontmen, all wild energy and easy command, and in the compressed 45-minute festival format the band simply hit and kept hitting. No theatrics, no fat — just four-plus decades of Bay Area thrash delivered at full tilt to a crowd who knew exactly what they were there for.
Closing off the night for me was the SWHC of the primal Døsed who offered another of those left-field festival discoveries that reward anyone willing to wander away from the bigger names for half an hour. The EMP Stage spends the weekend quietly turning out gems for the curious, and as it turned was a low-stakes, high-reward proposition you go looking for somewhere to stand in the shade and leave with a new band followed being battered along the way.
Saturday is where Bloodstock’s scale and its soul meet most obviously. What it felt like was a festival firing on every cylinder at once, from the grassroots urgency of New Blood to a genuine, era-defining reunion in Nevermore and the first-generation thrash mastery of Death Angel. the signing queues and the campsite chaos, and you have the quintessential Bloodstock day: too much to see, no way to see it all, and not a single dull hour in which to try. Twenty-five years in, the festival’s middle day remains its most complete argument for itself.
