#m2tm @bloodstockfest gains two #northeast metal bands for its lineup ..the winners are:

Two Local Rock Bands Earn The Right

 to Play Bloodstock Festival

Over the last few months local rock and metal bands have been competing in the Metal 2 The Masses “battle of the bands” style heats at Newcastle’s Trillians Rock Bar. Last weekend the final was hosted at The Cluny and not one but two bands were chosen to play Bloodstock. They will be joining legendary local black metal innovators Venom at the festival making it a hat-trick of northeast bands entertaining people from all over the world. Bloodstock is the largest independent heavy metal festival in the UK with up to 15,000 attendees. The festival started in 2005 with only 700 people, an example of careful but ambitious growth. The size of the crowd at the Cluny reflected the enthusiasm for metal that seems to be experienced a rebirth in the Northeast.
The overall winner of the final, chosen by Bloodstock’s Simon Hall, was The Souls of Jack Ketch: angy brutal metal with fearsome vocals and yet a really friendly band who really entertain the audience.  "Success is not normally something discussed in the band, as our goal is to just get out there, play live and enjoy it." vocalist Iain said, "Our goal was to reach the final. We thought if we could do that then we're up there with the best of the local bands. To actually reach the final and then win just simply blew us away." They will get to play the New Blood Stage. 

Souls of Jack Ketch

There was such a great selection of bands that Simon decided to choose a second band, Dirty King who wowed the audience with their gritty blues flavoured doom. Dirty King won a slot on the Jaegermeister Stage. "We can't believe we're playing Bloodstock, and are flattered and amazed. ", said the band.

Dirty King

The standard was seriously high and it must have been a difficult choice. The passion and skill shown by Arcite, Hellion Rising and I’ll Play The Villain, cannot be denied and they all deserve success to have got this far through the process. 
Kevin Morris of RFTK Promotions said “We are really chuffed to see two great bands going to Bloodstock. We genuinely felt the quality of bands in the competition was high and in the final it was very, very close. We thank  everyone who came down to support the bands, whether in just one show or multiple, thanks for getting behind this and hopefully we will do it again next year.”