Featured image: Abbi Draper

After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal.

As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings a slower burn, with a screening of Spaceballs in the Serpent’s Lair tent and a selection of metal DJs easing the crowd into the day ahead.

Hard rockers Battlesnake kick things off on the Ronnie Dio Stage. Fusing metal and hard rock, the Aussies put on a memorable performance packed with classic theatrics, avant garde outfits, and their bold refined sound of heavy sing-along riffs and melodies. Eventually shedding their gowns to reveal a pair of speedos, the band has the crowd in its grasp, prompting chants of ‘BLOOD’ and ‘STOCK’ across the grounds.

As by a change of wind, Party Cannon up the antics. Scotland’s death metal alumni, or as they like to call it ‘Party Slam’, come with one objective: to get you hench. With playful antics clashing with their guttural, roaring sound, Party Cannon amplifies the crowd atmosphere to get muscles warmed up, blood pumping and the party started.

Over on the Sophie Lancaster Stage, Edinburgh’s Hammer bring extreme metal to the pit. Blending groove and hardcore, the band are one of many Scottish talents to grace this year’s festival. With many pits opening amongst the crowd, further egged on by frontman James Andrews, chaos descends in the Sophie Lancaster tent. The audience delivers a spectacle of its own, setting a high bar for the rest of the weekend.

A taste of grunge arrives on the main stage as Life of Agony gives the Gen X contingent a change to relive their youth. Sludgy riffs and a carefree attitude define their set, which begins with one of several dedications to Sick of It All’s Lou Koller, whom the band recently lost. “All right everybody, let’s go,” cries guitarist Joey Zampella. 

With vocals twinning with grunge peers like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Keith Caputo mixes crooning melodies of “no one understands me, at all” with metal screams before venturing out into the crowd. With drop-D tuning and nihilistic lyrics, Life of Agony bring the tunes for the alternative crowd with anthems like ‘River runs red’.

“Bloodstock, I can’t hear you? Is that all you’ve got?” taunts Caputo for the last few songs, riling up the crowd, while Zampella instructs the crowd to go “round and round, make a big ass circle pit”.

With the ever-looming headliners for Bloodstock 2027 being announced at 6:20pm, just moments after Municipal Waste’s set ends, many flock to the main stage to see not only the fan-favourite, but to anticipate next year’s headliner acts. The steady release of fan favourites, returning heroes and newcomers garners echoes of cheers from the crowd and acts are announced bit by bit.

As the sun sets on Catton Park, the atmosphere builds as heavy metal forefathers Lamb of God grace the stage. This was an invitation. The highly anticipated American groove metal band produced some of metal’s biggest hits throughout the 2000s and are warmly welcomed onto the grounds of Bloodstock.

With a hellfire backdrop and pyrotechnics shooting off into the night sky, Lamb of God makes us “walk through with them in hell”. Coming off of the back of a new album cycle, the band introduce the crowd to new anthems like ‘Into Oblivion’ and brought back classic and fan favourites like ‘Now You’ve Got Something to Die For’.

Fire erupts around the stage as vocalist Randy Blythe prowls across it, swinging his microphone like a lasso and drawing the audience towards him like cattle. Ominously howling, he orders his people to circle, transforming the field into a crop circle as pit after pit erupts around us. As the set comes to a close, the band reminds us to go feral, because ‘this is a motherfuckin’ invitation’.

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