Thank the Metal Gods; it’s good to be back at Bloodstock. After last year’s furnace-like heat, Derbyshire’s Catton Hall is the scene of some more conventionally ‘British summertime’ weather in 2023, starting sunny and growing progressively more sodden, but there’s no damping the atmosphere on this most metallic weekend of the year. With Megadeth, Sepultura and Tom G Warrior’s Triptykon revisiting Celtic Frost, there are plenty of heavy legends in attendance, but there’s a continued push towards the future with Killswitch Engage getting a first UK festival headline, while Meshuggah smash the Saturday night slot.
It’s not all smooth sailing – a last-minute cancellation by German power-metal legends Helloween sees KK’s Priest drafted in last-minute – but with everything from the yearly bin-jousting, heavy metal exercise sessions and Viking battle re-enactments and all the usual foolishness, there’s simply too much going down to be anything other than pumped.
With a jam-packed timetable shoved into our battle-jacket, and a belly full of beer, we dove headlong into the good, the bad and the ugly of BOA 2023...