Bloodstock Festival 2024 – Saturday. From the moment that Metalcore Monsters Architects were announced as the Saturday night headliner, there was plenty of comment on social media along the lines of are they a Bloodstock band?Well, this was the opportunity for Architects to show exactly what they were made of.
Bloodstock Festival 2024
Catton Park, Derbyshire – Saturday 10 August 2024
Architects
A similar scenario had occurred in 2019 when Parkway Drive were announced. With Architects playing their first fullUK festival headline show, there was plenty of anticipation for what they were going to bring to the hallowed grounds of Catton Park. 
Certainly, there was plenty of interest around this appearance, with the day tickets rapidly selling out for the first time in Bloodstock history. Yet there was also a very clear division noticeable as many weekend Metal fans left the arena, which was rapidly filling with day trippers. Clearly, there is a disunion of sorts amongst rock fans, yet the reception that the band received when arriving was electrifying.
Unfortunately, despite the fans willing them on, there seemed to be something missing from the performance. This was not the great show to win over all and sundry. It seemed as though the band were playing it safe. Nobody could fault the setlist or the musicianship on show, yet there was an element of Metal By Numbers as the set rolled through.
Starting with their 2023 single Seeing Red and amid extensive pyro lighting up the night, the band stormed into their set, much of which was pulled from more recent albums. Three tracks from For Those That Wish To Exist album followed [Giving Blood, Impermanence and Black Lungs] with only Deep Fake from the Classic Symptoms album interspersed between them.
Sam Carter, on lead vocals, is a shamanic frontman prowling the stage and working for the crowd constantly. Regularly encouraging a wave of crowd surfers, he aimed at beating the Bloodstock record, which certainly kept security on their toes.
Musically, the band can be categorised alongside the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Enter Shikari and Bring Me The Horizon. Their sound is classic Metalcore comprising of choppy and driving guitar, mixed with gleeful technical moments, and their use of obscure time signatures at times leans towards a prog-Metal feel.
Yet they are also a band who are at home with bone-crushing breakdowns and, when the cerebral onslaught is at its loudest, suddenly drop into catchy choruses which were noticeably engaged with by all and sundry.
It is more conspicuous that the more recent material drips in anthemic singalong choruses and certainly provides a lightrelief from the hard-driving guitar work on show. New single Curse was a prime example and bodes well for the forthcoming album and potential new material.
Encoring with Nihilist and Animals, the audience were clearly in their element. Personally, though, I felt that the show, though well received, could have raised another level, and a very good performance would have been classic.
Time will, however, tell, and the omens are certainly positively aligned. Onwards and upwards.
Bloodstock 2024 will be held over the long weekend of 8-11 August 2024. MetalTalk’s Paul Hutchings, Adrian Stonley, Paul Monkhouse and Keith Conlin will be reporting from Catton Park.
Take Part: Are you at Bloodstock this year? Who are you looking forward to seeing? Want to get in touch and tell us how it’s going? Email MetalTalk Editor Steve Ritchie to tell us how it’s going for you. Bloodstock@MetalTalk.net
#boa24. For more information, visit bloodstock.uk.com. You can view a map of Bloodstock at bloodstock.uk.com/bloodstock_map.jpg
MetalTalk Bloodstock 2024 coverage is at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2024.
You can read all the MetalTalk Bloodstock 2023 coverage at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2023.
You can read all the MetalTalk Bloodstock 2022 coverage at metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2022.
Weekend early bird tickets (Thu-Sun) for Bloodstock 2025 are available to purchase at the box office on-site for £175. Child weekend early bird’s are £45 (ages 4 -11). Mini moshers under age four can come for free.
Wednesday early access is also available for those who want to max out their Bloodstock experience – an early bird adult Wed-Sun ticket costs £200. There is no additional cost for children under 4, or aged 4-11, to arrive with a parent on Wednesday.
Bloodstock 2025 tickets can be purchased online from the official Bloodstock website.
