Post-Bloodstock Purchasing Roundup

After Bloodstock was over for another year, I came away with a long list of bands that I'd discovered by virtue of their awesome sets. Some of these were so good they warranted immediate purchase, so here's a quick roundup of what I bought and why.

Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

Primordial are a long standing Irish folk/black metal band and have released many, many albums. Their set on the Ronnie James Dio stage was memorable as much for the amazing first few tracks as it was for vocalist A.A. Nemtheanga's voice going a couple of tracks in. The crowd response was phenomenal and the rest of the set was surely one of the most memorable of the weekend.

Primordial mix Irish folk, black metal, and a peculiar stilted vocal style. The lyrics are, as implied by the title, are angry, subversive and steeped in metaphor. Album opener No Grave Deep Enough, with an almost military drum beat, gives a great overview of what this album is all about.

October File - Our Souls To You

October File are labelled as many things. Industrial post-punk is probably the most encompassing. The songs are heavy, grinding and dirty, covering themes of malaise, fury, disaffection and rebellion. This is an album for when you're pissed off with the world and want something loud, enraged and passionate to throw on and scream along to.

From their set on the Sophie Lancaster stage, the two tracks I wanted to hear were Crawl and Dredge, two anthems of punk attitude with a venomous bite and riffs that hook you in.

One part of the set that has entered our personal meme-set is to "assume to position". At the beginning of Crawl (if I recall correctly), vocalist Ben Hollyer shouted "EVERYONE, ASSUME THE POSITION" and knelt into an invisible orange stance similar to the one I'm demonstrating in this picture, as I summon the wrath of the impending storm.

Byfrost - Of Death

Rounding off the trio is Byfrost, a Norwegian black/thrash metal ensemble whose style could be described as "black 'n' roll". High speed black metal with double-kick bass and chugging, ear-drum bursting riffage. I'd heard about the band a couple of times before Bloodstock, and their completely awesome set on the Sophie Lancaster stage convinced me to give them a go.

Being Norwegian black metal, the themes are of course fantastic and morbid. Although the album title gives this away.  The highlight of the set was Eye For An Eye, and it's just as good on the album.

Three very different bands, and three very different albums. And each of them as good as I'd hoped after the greatest musical weekend of the year, or possibly so far in my life. Roll on BOA2012 for some more!