Four days, one legendary birthday party: we were at Catton Park as Bloodstock marked 25 years with Judas Priest, Slaughter To Prevail, Sepultura’s farewell and an obscene amount of pyro…
Words by James Crisp (@james_taking_pictures) | Aug 19, 2026
Bloodstock Festival 2026……. 25th Anniversary Party
Bloodstock is officially the big 2-5 WOOP WOOP!! Yep, the little metal festival that began life back in 2001 has somehow reached a quarter of a century old. Growing into one of the biggest dates on the UK metal calendar along the way. And if you’re going to throw a 25th birthday party, you might as well make it ridiculously loud right? RIGHT!
For the anniversary, the organisers have gone all out with one of the most stacked line-ups in Bloodstock history. We have Metal legends, festival favourites and some of the best newer bands around descended on Catton Park for four whole days of glorious, loud carnage, leaving barely a moment for those little feet and battered ears to recover.
But that has always been the magic of Bloodstock. Even after 25 years, it still feels like one massive friendly party. Just with more riffs, more beer, more circle pits and thousands of black T-shirts covered in logos that require the Magic Eye technique to decipher. Stare long enough and the band name might appear. Maybe. I just want to say I was in the white T-Shirt crew this year, pretty much so I could be found.
Right then peeps. Enough about that and more about this. Let’s get into it shall we?
Thursday
Opening the Sophie Lancaster stage and pretty much opening the festival, we have Mantis Defeats Jaguar who wasted no time whatsoever in getting Bloodstock’s birthday bash moving. There was a clear Rage Against the Machine influence running through their sound, not a bad thing at all. From the bouncing grooves to the sharp, hip-hop-inspired vocal delivery, but this was far from simple imitation.
Instead, they dragged that sound into the modern day with a healthy dose of nu-metal, huge chunky riffs and plenty of lovely swagger. Angry, energetic and easy to move to, it was a little like Rage being fed through an angry but fun-filled modern nu-metal filter. Not a bad way to wake up Catton Park.
Heavysaurus then took things in a very different direction indeed. Dinosaurs playing heavy metal shouldn’t work this well (yes, dinosaurs), but chunky riffs, catchy choruses and constant crowd participation made them ridiculously good fun.
The kids absolutely loved it, although plenty of grown-up metalheads were just as invested. And for some of those younger faces, this could easily be their gateway into metal. Dinosaurs today, Slayer and Metallica tomorrow. Job done.
Evil Scarecrow were one of those bands where, the second they arrived on stage, I quickly assumed I knew exactly what I was about to get, which was blast beats and screaming. Within a few minutes, it became very clear that I was so very wrong about that.
They looked at the idea of simply playing some good old-fashioned metal songs and decided “nah mate” that sounds far too sensible. Instead, their set became a full-blown heavy metal pantomime, packed with insane costumes, props, choreographed stupidity and all manner of bizarre characters. Beneath all the madness is a genuinely great metal band though, but the real joy comes from watching thousands of people enthusiastically joining in with their ridiculous chants and odd spinning dances.
Whatever I thought Evil Scarecrow were going to be, they ended up being far more entertaining. Completely stupid, completely brilliant and very, very Bloodstock.
After that, Black Spiders faced the near-impossible task of making things feel normal again. They managed it with a no-nonsense blast of filthy, swaggering rock ’n’ roll, huge guitar riffs and enough groove to keep heads moving across the field. Sometimes you don’t need giant robots, monsters or whatever the hell Evil Scarecrow had just unleashed. Sometimes a cheeky ripping riff will do.
Thursday, though, was always going to belong to the legendary Saxon. The British heavy metal legends headlined the very first Bloodstock a quarter of a decade ago, so bringing them back to close the opening night of the anniversary weekend felt like a full-circle moment.
This was far more than the festival simply wheeling out some old-school nostalgia for its birthday. Biff Byford and co. still sounded as gigantic as ever. Powering through a set crammed with classic metal riffage and huge choruses. Biff still remains one of the best frontmen to ever do it, while the sight of fists and horns stretching back across Catton Park made the occasion feel even more special.
There was something genuinely cool about seeing Saxon back at the top of the Bloodstock bill. They were there when it all began in 2001, and here they were again 25 years later, looking out over the monster the festival has become.
Friday
Thursday had warmed up the birthday party nicely. Friday was where Bloodstock 2026 really showed its teeth. The crowds were bigger, the music was heavier and the festival had well and truly kicked into gear.
Life of Agony brought plenty of that New York grit we love so much, while Redeemon over on the New Blood delivered a welcome blast of brass-fuelled ska-punk chaos among all the chugging.
But it was Fit For An Autopsy who provided one of my personal highlights of the weekend. Their mix of deathcore brutality and enormous grooves sounded monstrous across Catton Park and then came the attempt to break Bloodstock’s crowdsurfer record. I have no idea what the final number was, but my God, there were a lot of them. At points it looked as though the entire crowd had decided the floor was optional, with bodies constantly sailing towards the barrier. Absolute carnage, and brilliant to watch.
Biohazard kept the energy at completely unhinged as expected. Bringing that unmistakable New York hardcore swagger and turning the field into one enormous bouncy castle. Seething Akira followed with their collision of electronics, punk and metal, before Martyrs Saint, winners of Bristol’s Metal 2 the Masses, brought things firmly back to basics with a proper old-school thrash metal battering.
No gimmicks needed, just riffs, speed and aggression.
NOTrixx then over on the VIP stage added even more fuel to an already brutal Friday.
There was history in the air when Sepultura took the stage for their final UK performance. After more than four decades, they certainly weren’t going quietly, tearing through their farewell with every ounce of fury you would expect. Hearing those riffs rip across Bloodstock one last time was bittersweet, enormous and a fitting UK goodbye to one of metal’s most influential bands and I have to say it was of course amazing to hear Roots Bloody Roots live, but seeing 24-year-old drumming wizard Greyson Nekrutman do his thing in the flesh is what dreams are made of.
Shining, meanwhile, decided normal time signatures were far too boring. Their set lurched between frantic metal, prog and wonderfully weird bursts of jazzy jazz, with a saxophone adding another layer of glorious madness to their already insane set. One minute it was crushingly heavy, the next, it felt like stumbling into a late-night jazz club. Technical, unpredictable and brilliantly strange, it made nodding along in time a lost cause. Honestly, I stood there for a while looking for the 1 count.
When Friday headliners Lamb of God arrived, subtlety was hurled straight out of the window.
Opening with ‘Ruin’, they immediately sent Catton Park into meltdown and basically refused to let up from there. It was banger after banger, with ‘Laid to Rest’, ‘Desolation’ and ‘512’ keeping pits ripping open across the field before the unmistakable opening of ‘Walk With Me in Hell’ landed. Everyone’s favourite Lamb of God song? Quite possibly. And everyone’s favourite guitar solo, courtesy of the great Mark Morton? I’ll happily argue yes.
From the moment Randy Blythe exploded onto the stage, Bloodstock was theirs. The riffs were gigantic, the pits even bigger, and Blythe prowled and launched himself around like a man physically incapable of standing still. Then there was the pyro. So. Much. Lovely. Pyro. Flames erupted with alarming regularity, bathing the stage in enough fire to make you wonder whether anyone had warned the local fire brigade.
Beneath all that always lovely fire was a band built for festival headline slots. Lamb of God sounded absolutely colossal, with thousands of voices roaring back every word and seemingly every song triggering another eruption from the crowd. By the time the final flames disappeared, Friday had delivered everything you could want from Bloodstock and more. History was made, crowdsurfing was done, jazz-fuelled weirdness and enough pyro to set the world ablaze.
Saturday
After Friday had done a fine job of completely destroying everyone, Saturday arrived with no interest in offering a cheeky little break. Blistered feet and ringing ears would have to wait. Walking around looking for shade from the intense weather felt like a criminal waste of that line-up.
Kicking Saturday off on the Sophie Lancaster Stage were Bristol’s own Froglord, and if you’d never encountered the self-styled “amphibian doom” outfit before, this was quite the introduction. Robes, masks, dancers and even the Mystic Frog himself paraded across the stage as the band tore through their slime-drenched, riff-heavy doom, and despite the early slot, the tent was rammed with fans, plenty of them dressed as frogs themselves. Ridiculous, thoroughly entertaining, and about as Bloodstock as it gets.
URNE were an early standout for me, their progressive, emotionally charged metal sounded absolutely huge across Catton Park. Watching them from up close made the whole thing even more impressive, because you could properly appreciate just how ridiculously good these guys are at what they do. The musicianship was incredible – intricate riffs, constantly shifting rhythms and huge heavier sections all delivered with frightening precision, while somehow never feeling like technicality for technicality’s sake.
There’s something very cool about standing just a few feet away and watching musicians make incredibly complicated stuff look almost effortless. URNE absolutely nailed it and provided one of those sets where I spent half the time enjoying the songs and the other half staring at their hands wondering how the hell they were doing it.
Vended then brought a very different energy. Young, angry and seemingly incapable of standing still, they tore through their set with groove and aggression. You can hear the Slipknot influence in their music, but that is hardly surprising is it? Especially when Slipknot quite literally runs through the band’s blood. Griffin Taylor and Simon Crahan are the sons of Corey Taylor and Shawn “Clown” Crahan, but Vended are increasingly forging an identity of their own rather than living in their famous dads’ shadows.
Celestial Sanctuary dragged things somewhere considerably filthier with their gloriously disgusting old-school death metal, while Inscape added another dose of heaviness to an already battered afternoon.
Things took a bit of a futuristic turn with Aussie metallers Northlane, whose collision of crushing low-end riffs, electronics and huge atmospheric passages sounded absolutely massive across Catton Park.
The real weapon, though, was Marcus Bridge’s voice. His ability to switch between soaring cleans and vicious screams/growls was seriously impressive, with both sounding equally enormous live. Crushing when they needed to be but packed with melody and atmosphere, Northlane delivered a seriously impressive set.
Stampin Ground brought old-school UK hardcore fury before the return of the iconic Nevermore.
After so many years away, seeing them back felt genuinely significant and bloody hell, what a return it was. The set was about as close to flawless as you could ask for, with Jeff Loomis making those ridiculous riffs and solos look almost annoyingly effortless.
Nobody can replace the late Warrel Dane, nor should they ever even try, but Berzan Önen handled a shockingly difficult job brilliantly. Technical, crushingly heavy and performed almost flawlessly, Nevermore delivered one of Saturday’s standout sets for sure.
Bleed From Within had no interest in leaving anything behind for the evening’s main event. The Scots sounded frighteningly colossal, hammering through huge riffs and even bigger breakdowns as pits opened across the field. And, much to my delight, there was an ever-so-exciting amount of pyro involved too, with huge blasts of flame making an already boiling-hot Bloodstock somehow feel even hotter.
For once, I was pretty glad to be standing somewhere around the middle of the field. Any closer and the combination of that pyro and the absolutely roasting weather might genuinely have finished me off. Still, it looked bloody spectacular from a safe-ish distance.
It was another reminder of just how far Bleed From Within have come and on this evidence, you wouldn’t bet against them climbing even higher up future Bloodstock bills.
Saturday belonged to headliners Slaughter To Prevail though, and whatever your opinion of the band, there was no ignoring the enormous crowd waiting for them. From the moment they hit the stage, everything was cranked to ridiculous levels.
And yes, they also brought the pyro, in fact, I think they brought all the pyro. After Lamb of God’s inferno the previous night, Slaughter to Prevail clearly fancied a go themselves, with huge flames erupting around the stage while breakdown after breakdown shook Catton Park. At times it felt like standing in a Hell, but like, in a good way you know.
At the centre of it all was of course captain controversy himself Alex Terrible, whose monstrous vocals somehow sounded even more insane live. And yes, he did the thing guys, you know what I am talking about. The no-microphone growl plastered across countless viral videos got its Bloodstock outing, and it really was as impressive in person as the social media clips suggest. Hearing that noise come from an actual human live, completely unaided, produced one of those wonderfully stupid “holy sh*t” moments.
Between the fire, insane vocals, countless breakdowns and mosh/circle pits, choose your favourite. Slaughter To Prevail delivered a headline show as subtle as being hit by a flaming truck and again, they were not short of flames. Over the top? Yes! But hey, if you can be over the top on a giant festival stage, then you so should be.
Sunday
Right then, it ain’t over until it’s over. Somehow we had already reached the last day, and while our feet and constant need for a cold bevvy were questioning every life choice that had brought us here, Bloodstock had no intention of easing towards the finish line. Another full day of riffage, dusty eyes, circle-pits and general mental things awaited us all and there was no chance we were calling it quits early.
Castle Rat were, well, frigging bonkers (in the best way possible) to get things moving. Their fantasy-soaked storytelling doom already commanded attention from a massive audience, but the wild theatrics made the set. Elaborate costumes, swords, bizarre characters, choreographed battles between the rat queen and Death and easily enough medieval madness to turn the stage into a heavy metal fantasy opera. Completely over the top, wonderfully weird and without a shadow of a doubt perfectly at home at Bloodstock.
Kittie arrived with a huge hit of personal nostalgia. Having listened to them almost non-stop as a teenager, watching them tear up Bloodstock all these years later felt genuinely special. Nostalgia wasn’t doing all the heavy lifting, either. Morgan Lander and co. sounded ferocious, proving their return is far more than a trip down memory lane for old people like myself. Teenage me and adult were so very bloody happy to finally catch them.
Over on the New Blood Stage, winners of the Cheltenham Metal 2 the Masses, Chug tore the place apart, although to be fair, they’d made bloody sure everyone knew they were playing. You couldn’t move around the festival without seeing Chug cards and stickers everywhere, while their drummer could even be spotted wandering around wearing a sandwich board reading “Choose the Chug Life… New Blood Stage, 3pm.” Now that’s commitment to self-promotion and I love it.
Thankfully, they absolutely backed it up. The drummer handled lead vocals while battering the life out of the kit, leaving the guitarist to two-step across seemingly every available inch of the stage. They made a ridiculous amount of noise for a two-piece, delivering the kind of New Blood performance that stops you in your tracks and proves that sometimes choosing the Chug life is absolutely the right decision.
Thrown Into Exile kept Sunday’s aggression firmly in the red with a seriously punishing set. Their mix of modern metal, hardcore aggression and neck-snapping grooves sounded monstrous, with breakdowns landing harder than concrete. Enough to immediately get sweaty bodies moving around.
The band barely stopped moving throughout, throwing themselves around the stage while remaining impressively tight which always impresses. Loud, pissed-off and utterly relentless, they might not have arrived with the biggest name of the weekend, but they certainly played as if they belonged there.
Then Testament arrived to deliver a lesson in Bay Area thrash.
And really, Testament’s legendary status deserves a little more than simply calling them another thrash band. These are genuine icons of the genre, flying the flag for Bay Area thrash since the ’80s and building a catalogue packed with riffs that continue to influence generations of metal bands.
The brilliant thing is that none of that history seems to have slowed them down at all. Decades into their career, Testament still play with ridiculous precision and ferocity. Chuck Billy remains a towering presence at the front of the band, while those razor-sharp guitars sounded absolutely vicious ripping across Catton Park. There was no sense of a veteran band simply turning up and going through the motions. They still attacked the stage like they had something to prove, which, of course, they do not.
There was something special about watching a band with that kind of history at Bloodstock’s own 25th anniversary. Testament have survived changing trends, changing line-ups and decades of metal evolving around them, yet those riffs still sound absolutely lethal live. Genuine legends of thrash, and still more than capable of showing bands half their age how it’s done.
Dream State were a bit of a wildcard for me. They were one of those bands I’d heard plenty about over the years but had somehow never actually listened to.
Their mix of huge melodies, heavier moments and infectious energy grabbed me almost immediately. By the end, I’d gone from “yeah, I’ve heard of Dream State” to wondering why the hell I hadn’t checked them out sooner. Exactly the kind of unexpected festival discovery you hope for.
Then came Black Label Society, and seeing Zakk Wylde play live was just truly unreal. Everyone knows he is ridiculously talented, but standing there watching him tear through those solos is something else entirely. The tone, the speed, the seemingly endless sustain. Half the time you’re staring at his hands, trying to work out what the hell he is doing. Add those massive Black Label Society grooves and, of course all the whipping hair and beards on that stage and it became a proper “holy shit, that’s Zakk Wylde, holy shit, that’s Black Label Society” moment.
Mushroomhead delivered another heavy dose of nostalgia. They were another band I listened to as a teenager, so finally experiencing all that masked madness in the flesh felt pretty damn special. Madness really is the word. All three vocalists spent more time offstage than on it – climbing onto the barrier, disappearing into the crowd and, at points, literally standing on the audience while somehow continuing the performance. Add the masks, pounding percussion and industrial stomp, and the whole thing became sensory overload. Chaotic, ridiculously entertaining and impossible to look away from.
Finally, it was time for Sunday’s headliners, well Bloodstock 2026 headliners. When you’re celebrating 25 years of a metal festival, you need someone pretty damn special to close us out.
The anticipation was already ridiculous, but then hearing the mighty Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ blasting across Catton Park took it somewhere else entirely. With the curtain still swinging in the wind, hiding the stage, thousands of people sang along before the moment finally arrived. The curtain dropped and there they were.
Judas. Fucking. Priest.
Few bands could make an entrance feel quite that effortlessly iconic. Then they launched into ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’’, and suddenly Bloodstock’s 25th birthday party felt oh’ so very real. Priest weren’t here to gently wander through the greatest hits either. This was a set stacked to the sky with songs that helped write the heavy metal rulebook.
‘Breaking the Law’ inevitably produced one of those massive singalongs where legend Rob Halford barely needed to bother with the words himself, while ‘The Ripper’ and ‘Delivering the Goods’ dug deeper into a catalogue that stretches back more than half a century. Then there was ‘Painkiller’ still one of the most completely ridiculous heavy metal songs ever written and another opportunity for Halford to demonstrate that apparently the normal rules surrounding the human voice don’t apply to him.
Calling Priest legends almost feels like underselling them. They helped define what heavy metal looks, sounds and even feels like, yet watching them here never felt like watching some heritage act surviving purely on nostalgia. Those unmistakable riffs still sounded enormous, the band were frighteningly tight and Halford remained every inch the Metal God he is.
Seriously though, how does he still do it? More than five decades into Priest’s career, those screams still cut straight through everything with ease, and hearing him unleash them vocals over songs that have become part of metal’s DNA was something genuinely special.
After four days of discovering new bands, revisiting teenage favourites, watching iconic names return, getting battered by riffs and standing far too close to an irresponsible amount of pyro, this was exactly how Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary needed to end.
Black Sabbath ringing around Catton Park. The curtain falling. Judas fucking Priest standing there. Then a set packed with some of the greatest heavy metal songs EVER! written.
So, another year of Bloodstock is complete and I won’t lie, I am so excited for next year already. Especially because we all know 27 bands that will be gracing the stage. Including Acid Bath, Children of Bodom, Madball, Mercyful Fate, Green Lung, Electric Callboy, Devildriver, Motionless in White and so so so so many more… See y’all next year peeps.
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