Live Review: Bloodstock 2025 – Sunday

Z Machine

Opening the tiny EMP stage for the day is something a lot of different. Swansea’s five-piece prog/jazz fusion outfit Z Machine have gathered a decent crowd of curious onlookers as they barrel through a thirty minute (or so) set of full blown King Crimson worship. It’s a phenomenal showing, genuinely one of the sets of the weekend, partially due to the seeming randomness of their appearance, but the band absolutely killed it. Z Machine aren’t taking themselves super seriously and clearly have a love for Bloodstock as a festival, bringing their own brand of alternative party with bonkers time signatures, incredible percussive and melodic work as well as a tonne of satisfying sax honking. It’s something a little different that worked very well for shaking up a Sunday afternoon.

Surya

The only band playing opposite Feuerschwanz’s daft silliness on the main stage, Leeds Metal 2 The Masses winners Surya have a pretty free grasp on a busy New Blood tent for those not interested in power metal nonsense. They make the most of it and share their groovy take on modern metalcore with some gnarlier touches of deathcore brutality thrown in for good measure. They touch on the mainstream metalcore appeal but have plenty interesting about them, the vocalist is doing a banger job working the crowd and the band are obviously enjoying themselves. Some of the breakdowns get the crowd inches away from stepping off the edge of reality, the bass drops encouraging mayhem in the pits. There is easily a strong future ahead of Surya.

Lowen

Stepping in a few weeks before the festival to take Spirit Adrift’s place (who unfortunately had a family emergency and cancelled their EU summer run) is progressive metal darlings Lowen. Having garnered quite a bit of buzz from their recent album Do Not Go To War… and their tour with Zakk Sabbath, a strong crowd has come to see what the hype is about. Thankfully, as expected, Lowen deliver on every front. Their Middle Eastern explorations of music and lyrical content works it’s way into the thematics, vocalist Nina Saeidi  using various singing bowls and additional instruments, wearing traditional clothing with an elaborate mic stand and visuals. It’s a treat as an audible and visual spectacle, received in said fashion from the adoring crowd who are loving what’s going on. Nina’s live vocals are stunning, the band sound massive after a little mix hiccup at the start and it’s no surprise they’re getting so much attention of late.

The Black Dahlia Murder

Finally having the chance to return to Bloodstock after the tragic passing of Trevor Strnad, The Black Dahlia Murder receive a hero’s welcome on the main stage. The melodic death metal five piece waste very little time and spend the set tearing through their discography, putting on a celebration of everything Black Dahlia. Opening with ‘Miasma’ straight into ‘Contagion’ is enough to send the pits spiralling, work from their 2024 album Servitude is accepted lovingly alongside the band’s classic material from Trevor’s era. They sound as vicious as ever, but still have moments like a crew member bouncing around the stage in a gorilla suit with TBDM basketball gear for ‘Statutory Ape’. Guy Kozowyk is doing an amazing job on the vocals and getting the crowd riled up when required. The tail end of the set leaves it a bit deflated though, after tearing through ‘Everything Went Black’ and ‘Warborn’ it seemed like there was one more song in the chamber until Guy unceremoniously says “Oh, nope, that’s our time, thanks everyone” and the band just walk off stage. Despite that though, it was great to see TBDM hitting their full power again and killing it.

ORME

The afternoon sun is beating down, dust clouds linger from past pits, the only sound you can hear nearby is the low rumbling mirage of drones. Tucked inside the EMP tent is not only a band debut, but possibly even the debut of an entire genre missing from Bloodstock, with fully-fledge drone three piece ORME having the opportunity to show off why drone has a place at Bloodstock. Show off they did, with engaging and expansive compositions, thick walls of sound echoing loud across the site from the tiny stage. The Hertfordshire trio know how to sound like weaponised riffs, the deep walls of sound with the guitar and bass resonating in your guts and sending shivers across your body. The occasional chanted vocal adds to the eerie and otherworldly atmosphere very slowly unfolding throughout the drone set.

Lord Of The Lost

Hitting the apex of their recent popularity off the back of their now well known standing as Germany’s Eurovision pick a few years back, Lord Of The Lost have slowly been maintaining and growing that devoted audience throughout various rock and metal festivals across the UK and Europe. Today is their first shot at Bloodstock and straight off the bat they know how to play to their audience, ditching the red and embracing trad metal aesthetic with black outfits and instruments. They’ve not exactly pulled the largest crowd of the weekend, but the core fans packing the front have a lot of passion for Lord Of The Lost, with their frontman returning the favour and spending a lot of time at the pit barrier interacting with everyone. Admittedly, the band have stepped up really well, curating their setlist to be heavier leaning and performing significantly better than previous showcases. Obviously choosing to close with their Eurovision hit ‘Blood & Glitter’, receiving the biggest reaction of the set; after somehow sitting firmly within the engaging category, Lord Of The Lost made for a good sit down set early on a Sunday evening.

Maatkare

Now for what might be one of the lowkey sets of the weekend, blackened death quartet Maatkare have the EMP tent spilling out to the sides for their Egyptian inspired brutality. Taking regular opportunities between tracks to emit powerful and affirming feminist messages, it feels like you’re watching something special with Maatkare. All four musicians are absolute rippers, playing technical and oppressive gnarled death metal with vocals fringing on absurdity with their viciousness. With a wealth of female talent across the bill this year at Bloodstock, Maatkare feels like a true celebration of the women within the metal/extreme metal world and any detractors who are still saying women can’t be brutal can get in the fucking bin as this set was not only caustic face-melter, but one of the best sets of the weekend.

Photo Credit:

Taya Llewellyn

Mastodon

(NOTE: This review was written before the tragic passing of Brent Hinds on August 20th 2025)

It’s been an interesting few years for Atlanta’s sludge/progressive metal legends Mastodon. Having only played sporadic festival shows outside of America since the pandemic, it was rather surprising when they were announced for this year’s Bloodstock as Sunday’s sub-headliner. To say they’re beloved would be an understatement, as what is essentially a headliner’s crowd files in front of the main stage for over an hour of Mastodon goodness. With Brent Hinds stepping away from the band back in March, there was concern the band wouldn’t quite be the same. However with modern guitar virtuoso/solo-artist Nick Johnston filling in and still being joined by synth wizard João “Rasta” Nogueira, the band might be on their best form in years.

There is a sense of renewed energy about them, tearing through a career spanning setlist touching on every studio album (with the exception of Crack The Sky). Often critiqued ‘Tread Lightly’ and ‘The Motherload’ go down a treat to open the set, touching on the likes of ‘Crystal Skull’, ‘Black Tongue’, ‘Megalodon’ and ‘Motherpuncher’ amongst many others. The band make great use of the stage screens to play their fitting gorgeous trippy visuals to accompany each track and plenty of pyro to make the set feel as big as it should. As expected the end of the set rolls around with the bands classic ‘Blood & Thunder’  leading the charge for one last blast of mental pits, but in a nice surprise the band opt to close the set with a touching tribute to Ozzy and cover Sabbath’s ‘Supernaut’. It’s a wild spectacle for over an hour, no doubt not one single soul would’ve batted an eye lid in protest if Mastodon were one of this year’s headliner.

3 Inches of Blood

Announcing their reformation and first UK date in over 13 years, primal heavy metal lifer’s 3 Inches Of Blood are finally back to grace the grounds of Catton Hall once again. While the tent is certainly busy enough, it is a bit of a shame large portions of the crowd decide to head back to camp and fuel up before Gojira. It’s their loss as the band rip through their trademark metal throwback and give the ravenous audience ‘Upon the Boiling Sea…’ and ‘Wykydtron’ to open the set. Vocalist Cam Pipes has a reflective moment a few songs in, talking about how good yet strange it is to be back in the same festival they’re familiar after so much time away and barely anything has changed. ‘Destroy The Orcs’ encourages the first proper goblin screeches from the crowd of the set, everyone who stuck around is having the time of their lives, 3 Inches Of Blood’s entire being consisting of getting drunk with your buddies and worshipping metal gods. They tear across their classic album to fervent reactions from die hard fans awaiting their return, dedicating ‘Battles and Brotherhood’ to Ozzy, unleashing a storm of silliness with classic anthem ‘Deadly Sinners’ and sending the metal fiends away with massive smiles on their faces with ‘The Goatriders Horde’. It was worth the wait for 3 Inches Of Blood to make it back to these shores, long live heavy metal.

Gojira

What feels like every single punter at the festival has packed themselves in front of the main stage before Gojira step up to the plate. However their advertised start time is pushed back by about 10 minutes to make way for a big Ozzy tribute on the screens, which frankly feels like it goes a bit too long (no disrespect intended, but after a weekend following weeks full of tributes, we hardly needed 10 minutes of half hearted crowd karaoke). That being said though the atmosphere is electric for the French modern metal masters when the crushing drum intro and neck wringer riffs of ‘Only Pain’ tear the audience wide open for lunatic pits. It’s a beastly opening run, powering through ‘The Axe’ and straight into triplet powered certified neck breaker ‘Backbone’. Gojira have always felt unstoppable, this reality was just a matter of time, but their set tonight is clear justification for their inevitable toppling of the modern metal throne. The set has focussed in on their modern popularity, with a lot of pulls from Magma and Fortitude, with The Art Of Dying unfortunately missing entirely (but that’s just nitpicking). Regardless though, the reaction to ‘Stranded’ and ‘Silvera’ is undeniable with how they’ve resonated with modern metal audiences.

Their onstage production is suitably ridiculous, a curved line of LED screen strips wraps around the stage alongside various other LED screens, plenty of other lighting, pyro blasts from atop the stage and fireworks to take advantage of the spectacle. The visuals themselves are great, whether manipulated and distorted camera feeds of the performances, or curated animations like the video for ‘Another World’ or a stunning animation for set closer ‘The Gift of Guilt’. As is tradition, inflatable whales are crowd surfed around for ‘Flying Whales’, ‘The Cell’ still hits like a tonne of bricks with the syncopated drum beats like being hammered in the skull. Their mainstream breakthrough from the Olympic ceremony ‘Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)’ Has a ludicrous production going into it with streamers, sparklers, pyro and rhythmically timed firework pops. All of this culminates to make Gojira feel like an unstoppable force, not that they weren’t there already. Closing with a powerful rendition of ‘Under The Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes’ by Black Sabbath and the crushing chugs of ‘The Gift of Guilt’, there shouldn’t be any doubt in any minds that this is not the future of mainstream metal dominance, it’s already arrived.

Obituary

The prospect of following arguably the hottest metal band on the planet is a tough one, but if anything can land an impact after Gojira it’s the old school death metal majesty of legend’s Obituary. Only at Bloodstock would death metal legends become the de-facto party set to close out the entire weekend and scores of folks are still up for more carnage on the second stage. Obituary know the hand they’ve been dealt and play into it flawlessly, stacking their set with fan favourite bangers and directing focus on a big crowd pleasing experience. Opening with ‘Redneck Stomp’ gets the pits off to a hot start; ‘Infected’, ‘Body Bag’, ‘Dying’ and ‘Cause of Death’ steps up a few gears into utter mayhem. There is no doubting the power of Obituary, widely hailed as legends for damn good reason. A cover of Celtic Frost’s ‘Circle of the Tyrants’ comes as a welcome surprise before the crowd are gleeful in being ‘Chopped In Half’. The hour and twenty set breezes by, a celebration of extreme metal and exactly how you want a weekend at Bloodstock to end when the band closes their set with the iconic ‘Slowly We Rot’. Here’s to the continued success and health of the metal community across the UK, after this weekend it feels stronger than ever.