Northeast Music Guide

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...

Over the past few weeks, 25 great bands have graced the stage in the first ever Newcastle round of the Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses. The Newcastle winner will go on to play Bloodstock Festival in August. There have been some high quality and extremely tight battles in the heat stages, but now only 10 bands remain. "I knew there was a lot of talent in Newcastle," says promoter Kev Morris of RFTK Promotions, "Though I hadn't expected some of the heats to be so tight." "I'm genuinely gutted for some of the bands that didn't go through - but - that only goes to show the bands we've got to be all the better" There are two semi finals which will reduce the field from 10 down to 5.   The semi finals take place in Think Tank on Time Square on May 15th and May 29th. This Sunday, 5 bands battle it out - they are; Hellion Rising - local Groove metal Arcite - Melodic Metal Guardian - hardcore from Nort...

Heat 2 of Metal2TheMasses:  The Battle for Bloodstock Last month saw the first ever heat in the first ever Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses competition in Newcastle. Five amazing bands graced the stage at Trillians, with Guilt City and Hellion Rising progressing to the semi finals in May. Now it is time to do it all again. Thursday, 31st March, is heat 2 of the competition - and if the first heat is anything to go by, it's going to be fun - and it's going to be diverse. The five bands competing to reach the semis this time are : Autoimmune - an alternative rock band from Darlington, citing influences from Led Zepplin to Motorhead to Nirvana to Pantera. A New Nowhere - A Newcastle band with hints of nu-metal and grunge.  Like a mix up of Foo Fighters and Deftones. Arcite - Local Melodic Metal, for fans of bands like Kilswitch Engage, Machine Head or Crowbar.  They've recently supported Mushroomhead. Life Amongst Wolves - From Berwick an...