Music

TESTAMENT – Thursday 16 August 2007

Quite how long it has been since the Bay Area’s most technical metal crew have played a festival like this on these shores is unknown, but it seems most have took advantage of this opportunity, and ventured forth into the bogs and quagmires of nowhere-land, with wellies and woollies in tow, to catch this top name act, well, in the act.

Forming way back in the early 80s and releasing a string of integral albums since their inception, thrash metal heroes Testament are back after a break in their touring schedule, recruiting ex-Cradle Of Filth/Old Man’s Child drummer Nick Barker and inking a deal with Nuclear Blast records.

With a newbie on the way and more dates to follow, Bloodstock Open Air seemed to be first on the ‘to do’ list, and it looked like they were on the crowd’s, too.

Blasting through the speakers after a ridiculously long sound check, Testament were welcomed to adulation in spades with old school classic “The Preacher”, showing the metal hordes how it’s done, with shocking precision and technical proficiency.

Despite battling throat cancer, vocalist extraordinaire Chuck Billy wasn’t just on the ball; he was balancing his feet and rolling down the hill to hell with his menacing bellows and in your face attitude.

Original guitar duo Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson complimented each other with a confluence of harmonies and shredding solos that truly worked in the live setting, bringing tracks like the sing-along “Alone in the Dark” and the malevolent “D.N.R” to life.

Among the set of newer, more recent tracks from “The Gathering” and “Demonic”, we had “Low” from the album of the same name, “Into the Pit”, “Eerie Inhabitants” from “The New Order”, “Electric Crown”, “Souls of Black” and “Practice What You Preach”.

Song after song flowed with great ease, regardless of the constant battle for a decent sound mix, and during the mighty closing pair of “Over the Wall” and “Disciples of the Watch”, Testament proved just how indispensable their history is to the world of metal.

If anyone wondered back to their tent disenchanted, I failed to notice. Might have just been the beer, mind.

LACUNA COIL – Friday 17 August 2007

A strange choice for the festival considering the multitude of melodic death and power metal on this year’s line up, Italian gothic metallers Lacuna Coil seemed to bring a vast amount of punters to the event, marking one of the festivals largest turn outs.

Having regarded their stint on the US Ozzfest tour a mammoth leg up for the band in terms of popularity, the homesick Italians are now larger than ever, with a ludicrously large fan base, with a diverse and unknown demographic.

Four albums and two Eps into their career, and the band are ready to take over the parts of the world they have left out. Surprisingly, one of them is not the UK, but their appearance at Bloodstock, despite its irregularity, was welcomed with open arms.

From the moment duel vocalists Andrea Ferro and the delectable Cristina Scabbia waltzed onto the stage, the crowd went berserk. With a set mainly drawing from their latest, most upbeat opus “Karmacode”, Lacuna Coil barraged gracefully through tracks like “To The Edge”, “Fragile”, “What I See” and “Our Truth” with a strong, sexual finesse, giving women in metal an atrium into a world of man power overrun by masculine egos.

Ferro and Scabbia stray away from the ‘beauty and the beast’ like growl and swoon of so many of their competitors, opting for a far more accessible style that is extremely melodic, yet remains potent, and compelling.

A powerful rendition of the classic Depeche Mode track “Enjoy the Silence” received the most crowd participation, with practically every punter screaming their lungs out to join the parrying vocalists for the gigantic chorus.

With so much energy, Lacuna Coil are great to watch, holding an irresistible charm that betrays their rather shy, off stage personas. Stickman Cristiano Mozzati made good use of his drum kit, without over peppering the music with double kick drums, and with a light mix of guitars, keys and bass, the awesome “Senzafine” from 2001’s classic “Unleashed Memories” album proved satiated, and stretched with the flow of musical ideas and melodic, well delivered vocal lines.

Forcing the crowd to bounce and jaunt in their entirety for “Swamped” and fan favourite “Heaven’s A Lie”, the short, but well balanced set of hits gleamed from afar, and sounded as tight as Cristina’s shirt, to boot.

Despite my reservations, Lacuna Coil sounded amazing live, and without a doubt, they left the festival in great shape for what was to come the second day, proving extremely worthy of further investigation.

IN FLAMES – Saturday 18 August 2007

As possibly the biggest European band on the circuit at the moment, the Swedish inventors of melodic death metal entered a world not ready for the innovative combination of detuned Iron Maiden harmonies, and screaming, screechy death metal manifestos.

Not exactly unheard of in the scene today – it’s bloody everywhere, really – melody based death metal was unconventionally created by bands like At The Gates, and to a lesser extent home grown heroes Carcass, with their milestone breaking album “Heartwork”.

Inventing what is now known as the Gothenburg sound, In Flames have taken the genre further and further since their fiendishly popular “The Jester Race”, changing their approach with every album since, with “Reroute To Remain”, “Soundtrack to Your Escape” and the recent “Come Clarity” albums earning subjective criticism by both fans and press alike.

Rather than just serpentine through their career proliferating their early sound until their newer material was identical, In Flames have moved with the times, injecting more and more clean vocals into their music, and less musical progression, making the songs shorter, and simpler.

This personally doesn’t wash with me on paper, as I find their “Clayman” period the absolute pinnacle of the genre, but live, this is barely a hindrance, and is in fact, their saving grace.

100% entertainment from the word ‘go’, In Flames was the highlight of the festival.

Just beating Firewind in terms of sheer electricity, In Flames smashed through a set of choice material from practically every avenue of their back catalogue, focusing mainly on the last few years, where the tracks on offer failed to capture my attentions in the past. I might just give it another go.

Vocalist Anders Friden was the living incarnation of all the dead rock gods, baring himself in full, contorted agony to a crowd hanging on to his every word. As each lyric left his mouth, it was emulated by every member of the audience. How influential is that?

Shifting from gut-wrenching growls to clean cut harmonics, Friden couldn’t have put on a better performance, leading songs like “Leeches”, “Crawl through Knives” and “Pinball Map” with a elliptical voice that was battered by the crowd’s humongous chants, yet still soared over them.

Unforgiving, assaulting musical sorties lifted each track from the band’s instruments, with the best sound, and best actual mix of the festival making the performance the most professional, and most enjoyable.

Not being a fan of the band’s later, left-wing material, I was surprised to enjoy it so much; “The Quiet Place”, “Cloud Connected” and “Take This Life” totally rocked live, and I’m not ashamed to admit I was among those jumping up and down to Friden’s auspicious requests.

Denied access to their usual set up of stage props and pyrotechnics, In Flames decided to throw a mass of guitar picks into the audience to make up for the dearth of visual effects, and as it was the last show of the “Come Clarity” tour cycle, they announced they will be leaving the stage to start recording their ‘kick-ass new album.’

Not only that, but for the fans benefit they played a raging “Episode 666”, and a fantastic rendition of the timeless “Graveland” from “The Jester Race”.

Judging by the amount of patrons searching in the mud for left over plectrums after the show, In Flames succeeded in being worthy as event headliner, and as ever, they came, they saw, and they conquered. Fantastic.

Bruce Turnbull