The only possible criticism for the anonymous producer/vocalist behind the project is that as a frontman he does seem to lack energy on stage. Though it probably just wouldn’t feel right if he performed his unique take on emo any differently.

As the only UK band on this tour, and frankly the heaviest, Milk Teeth are a force to be reckoned with. For four small humans, they sure as hell make a hell of a racket on a stage this size.

Despite being plagued by technical difficulties, they power on like pros. Tracks off their double offering of 2017 EPs, ‘Be Nice’ and ‘Go Away’ sound huge. ‘Lillian’ off last month’s ‘Go Away’ release in particular is fantastic live. But the real standout moment in the set is ‘Swear Jar’. As the second support band, capturing the crowd like they did with this track is quite a feat. Phones are lit up and waved along to the aching tones of Chris and Billy’s wailing guitars.

While Against The Current as main support are a straightforward proposition for Good Charlotte, the package they present lacks impact. It’s overly choreographed and an uncomfortable mimicry of something that feels like it’s trying to be Paramore.

You can’t manufacture authentic alternative music in the same way that is possible with pop music. Whilst a portion of the crowd seems okay with what is happening on the stage, the majority of fans are in the venue because they love the early years of emo and pop punk. Good Charlotte deserve better than what’s being given. Putting on eyeliner and some camo trousers doesn’t give you the credibility to call yourself a rockstar.

However, all of this matters little when it comes time for Good Charlotte to take the stage. Almost 15 years on from their 2003 show at Brixton (the poster is still in the VIP bar), Good Charlotte aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. After a video recounting footage of their last Brixton show, and a timed countdown that saw a full house chorus to Linkin Park’s ‘In The End’, Good Charlotte arrived to prove nothing has changed in a decade and a half.

Opening with ‘The Anthem’ and peppering the set with other classic hits meant the crowd of die hard fans got exactly what they came for. Nostalgia laced hit after hit after hit. Only three songs of the 20-strong set were taken from their latest record.

Anyone who tries to say they didn’t jump up and down and scream “girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money” at the top of their lungs on Sunday night is a liar, because every person in that venue damn well did.

Sam Carter of Architects joined Good Charlotte on stage for a huge rendition of ‘The River’, later tweeting “if you want it enough you can make it happen”.

Closing off the set with ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’, Good Charlotte gave us exactly what we came for. A set full of bangers that are undeniably some of the best party tracks of the 2000s.

They might not look quite as youthful as they did in 2003, but Good Charlotte have been honing their craft, and if Sunday night was any indication, we can look forward to more great sets from them in the future.

Very few spaces in music feel as accepting, diverse, and special as the field at Bloodstock Open Air. Headlined by Amon Amarth, Ghost and Megadeth, Download’s slightly more extreme cousin was a joyous weekend of headbanging and horn raising.

There is a real sense of community at Bloodstock, from the families with toddlers, through to the three-deep generations laying out their camp chairs to await the main stage headliners. It’s not groups of lads – it’s groups of dads, and sons, and mums, and daughters, and everything in between. It has the sense of a big family barbecue – it’s warm and friendly.

Bloodstock is fundamentally more accessible, and therefore diverse, than any other festival in the heavy space. From the man rocking a full viking ship mod on his electric wheelchair/bed, through to the countless attendees repping legacy Bloodstock merch, it is clear that this is a festival that cares about its audience, and it’s reciprocated. On a predominantly flat field, with large viewing platforms for disabled punters, Bloodstock doesn’t feel exclusionary. In fact, they can celebrate having one of the most ethnically and socially diverse crowds seen at a festival in 2017.

The crowd is a delight. Yes, there are groups of men going hard on their horns of craft ale, but they don’t feel threatening. Bloodstock’s demographic is slightly older than that of Download, and there is a sense that these punters are here for their love of music – not their love of hitting the booze. The crowd isn’t intimidating, the pits aren’t violent, and the bands are constantly reinforcing ‘If someone falls, pick them up’. Multiple times throughout the weekend battle vest bearing individuals turn around to strike up conversations between sets, endlessly keen to share their stories of gigs long past. 

Highlights from the crowd included the most metal dad imaginable, waist length beard and hair in full battle vest denim, chasing around his little girl, who was delightfully dressed as a triceratops, in a matching denim cutoff jacket, complete with Metallica patches. In the sun of Friday, a group of five middle aged metalheads posing with their Mr. Whippy 99 Flakes was a sight to behold.

The line-up did not disappoint either. From Testament’s glorious hair blowing in the wind, onto Blind Guardian’s explosive set, right through to Amon Amarth’s full viking show on the Friday night, it was clear that Bloodstock came onto the field with the intention of playing to win.

Amon Amarth’s headline set featured a colossal viking helmet drum riser, fire and smoke galore, and even on stage viking fights. The culmination of 25 years of viking metal makes for a satisfying headline show and you couldn’t swing your viking axe in the crowd without hitting at least three pieces of Amon Amarth merch all weekend through. The band has stalwartly trooped their way to Valhalla, and they’re being celebrated for it. 2011’s ‘Surtur Rising’ featured heavily, as did 2016’s ‘Jomsviking’. ‘First Kill’ was a highlight – there is something quite powerful about a field of battlevests crying out “I am an outcast. All alone. I’m a nomad without home.”

Things didn’t slow down from there, with Saturday’s main stage line-up featured a killer set from Municipal Waste, including the classic ‘Headbanger Face Rip’. Returning to the festival after a year off, Municipal Waste clearly aren’t pleased with Gojira’s 2016 usurping of their claim to fame. ‘Most crowd surfers over the barrier’ has been a long standing point of pride for Municipal Waste and frankly, they weren’t leaving till they’d claimed back their thrown. Calling onto stage a ‘World Records Judge’ otherwise known as Cam, they whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Rumour has it the real number of surfers over the barrier during their set was upwards of 700, but figures haven’t been confirmed.  

Special mention needs to go to Flint, Michigan’s King 810. Despite being down one guitarist (unable to travel due to legal reasons), King turned up. Yes, they played to a backing track, and if you’re a bit of an obsessive you could complain that it sounded thin – but honestly, it didn’t matter.

King 810 are making metal feel dangerous again, the way heavy music should feel. They’re taking the scene back to the fearful curiosity that artists like Marilyn Manson and Slipknot invoked. Yes, it’s a safe space, but it should feel like a knife’s edge. There is a hardness that King 810 embodies that very few other bands are able to sustain in the current musical landscape. The visuals were unsettling and effective, treading the line between arthouse film and gang territory documentary – but most importantly, King got up and played. There wasn’t any theatrical crap, it was just heavy, angry, violent music. ‘Kill ‘Em All’ was roared back by the crowd, proving that Slipknot aren’t the only metal band who can get a singalong going. 

Sunday’s bands followed accordingly. Hardcore at 10.45am isn’t an easy thing to pull off, but Broken Teeth did it. Judging by the man in head to toe leather and wrist to elbow spikes standing with his sword raised in the centre of the circle pit, Bloodstock received Manchester hardcore’s finest well.

Venom Prison positively tore the main stage up before lunch on Sunday, and as one of only a handful of women gracing the stage, Larissa held her own. With more space to play with than the dinky spaces they’re normally confined to, Venom Prison opened up and let rip. It was reassuring to see the crowd throw up horns again and again over the weekend for young bands that are pushing boundaries. Obviously bands like Obituary are incredible, and proving that they still have some fight in them after more than 30 years, but seeing a scene embrace young artists is exciting.

Metal tends to be dominated by legacy acts, and it takes a lot to break in. With artists like Broken Teeth bringing hardcore, Venom Prison with feminist death metal, and Puppy with their metal fusion that no one quite seems to be able to define entering these spaces, it’s exciting to see a future in extreme heavy music. 

If you enjoy heavy music, and the unique community that it cultivates, Bloodstock Open Air is a very special way to spend a weekend. A lot of love goes into it, from the bands on the stages right down to the curated art gallery and choice of vendors.

2017 celebrates the festival’s largest attendance to date, quite a mean feat in a year of economic uncertainty. With the announcement of Gojira and Nightwish as headliners for 2018, hopefully we will continue to see the rise of Bloodstock in years to come.

On the 6th of September, ‘Day of the Gusano’ lands as a ‘one night only’ event lin over 1000 cinemas globally, including over 100 in the UK.

Directed by Slipknot’s own M.Shawn Crahan, aka ‘Clown’, the film is as much an aural experience as it is visual. It is loud and confronting, but it also shows a side of the band not often seen – they are unmasked for your viewing pleasure. It’s nice to see them on film as themselves, rather than just as their stage personas.

The film has three main parts: it features live footage from Knotfest, behind the scenes commentary from the band’s experience of Mexico, and interviews with Mexico’s top ‘gusanos’. Gusano is the Spanish translation for maggot, the title given to Slipknot fans worldwide.

With huge emphasis put on the sound quality, it’s different to watching a movie and you really do feel like you’re at a Slipknot show. The bass beats in your chest and you can’t help but bang your head along. Expect audience members to throw fists in the air throughout and clap when it’s all over.

Your heartstrings will be pulled when you hear the passion with which the gusano of Mexico speak of their love for Slipknot. You’ll choke up when Corey speaks about what the fans mean to him. You’ll be enraptured by the pure joy of it all. Some of these individuals have waited their whole lives for a Slipknot show, and having the experience immortalised on film is pretty special.

If you’re a Slipknot fan, or at all intrigued by the culture surrounding the band and its maggot fandom, this film is worth seeing.

Tickets for the one off screening on September 6th are available for purchase over at http://dayofthegusano.com/regions. Watch the trailer below.

‘And That’s Goodbye (Deluxe)’ by Senior Discount is a self-indulgent EP release from a band who have never learnt when enough is enough.

On track one, the title track of the record, things start out just fine. It’s pop punk, it’s a bit gritty, some fuzz, and a hyper-Americanised overtly nasal vocal: this is all okay. What’s strange is that it sounds like it hasn’t been mixed at all. It is unclear if this is intentional, but it sounds like the guitars, bass and vocal were all recorded at once with the drums tracked separately.

On track two you’ll get a taste of what is to come, namely that these guys just don’t know when to stop with the unnecessary instruments. On the acoustic ‘Ataxia (Bluegrass)’ there is a wholly unnecessary violin; it just whines away without any real purpose on a song where the guitar really would have been enough.

The record really starts to dive into the realm of unbearable when at track five you receive a cover of ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’. For starters, this song is hugely problematic for a male-fronted pop punk act to cover, and given the genre’s propensity for ignorance about sexual consent, it’s just bad taste. The vocal is flat, the guitar tone isn’t right, and the mix is all wrong on the drums. There is a weird bled out female back up vocal that isn’t quite in time. When the bass and secondary male vocal kicks in, it seems to have reached the peak of incredulous lack of musical ability, but then they kick in a deathcore vocal style that briefly screams approximately one line of “girls just want to have fun”, then disappears.

This record is a perfect example of trying to do absolutely everything, and therefore doing next to nothing well. There are too many ideas crammed into almost every track, and it feels schizophrenic.

Redemption comes on ‘A Death Threat to the World‘. It’s a soft acoustic guitar track featuring solid harmonies and lyrics that are actually quite touching. If the whole record had been like it, the record would have been middling but a good listen.

Moral of the story? Don’t try to do everything. You don’t need Cyndi Lauper and a deathcore vocalist cameo – just do you.