Bloodstock Festival 2025 is once again set to take place at Catton Hall in Derbyshire from 7th to 10th August, and whilst the festival has always drawn bigger names to attract the crowds, its identity is also firmly rooted in supporting the underground scene.
From launching the Metal 2 The Masses program, to expanding The New Blood Stage and showcasing the best new talent on the Sophie Lancaster Stage, there’s a firm tradition now cemented into the ethos of Bloodstock, to pay attention to the bands across the whole bill, and not just the bigger names at the top.
Long may that continue… Here are our 10 new bands to check out at Bloodstock Festival 2025.
Waterlines
Saturday 9 Aug (Sophie Lancaster Stage) – 14:20 – 15:00
Having impressed with a blistering set on the Jager stage in 2023, self-styled “dirtbags from the North,” Waterlines have been welcomed back, welding EDM flair onto nu-metalcore muscle, then set it all off with vocalist Benji Mars’ elastic rage-to-melody range. Expect sing-along hooks, a 100 per cent mosh-pit strike-rate and material from their new EP WDGAF//Vol.1. Come ready to “BRACE.”
Rizen
Sunday 10 Aug (New Blood Stage) – 13:30 – 14:00
We recently saw firsthand at our Big Bang event how Rizen expertly channel the denim-and-leather flash of ’80s arena rock, think Whitesnake swagger filtered through Royal Blood grit. Their 2023 debut Ex Cinere and shout-along single “M.I.K.I.A.” already punch live; Bloodstock will no doubt prove to the faithful that their beer-raised energy can fill out a festival tent in style.
LN
Friday 8 Aug (New Blood Stage) – 18:00 – 18:30
Do you love Heilung and Wardruna? If so, this is a must-see band. Born of northern shores and Viking lore, LN bring a transcendental brew of pagan death-n-roll: Amon Amarth-sized riffs, ghostly female vocal lines and Heathen theatrics that make every chorus feel like a shield-wall chant. Grab a horn, lift it high, and don’t forget your sword.
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Lust Ritual
Friday 8 Aug (EMP Stage) – 15:40 – 16:10
Forged in London’s back-alley shadows, Lust Ritual pour blackened vocals over cathedral-sized doom riffs, then spike the chalice with classic-metal atmosphere. Their sermons are equal parts nostalgia trip and occult invocation, perfect after-dark fodder for fans who like their heaviness laced with danger and desire.
Gnome
Thursday 7 Aug (Sophie Lancaster Stage) – 19:45 – 20:25
Pointy hats, monstrous riffs. Antwerp trio Gnome smash stoner grooves into prog left-turns, all delivered with the grin of a band whose DIY videos rack up millions of views. Think The Black Keys meets Kadavar, and you’re getting close. New album Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome ups both the grease and the grandeur; Bloodstock is their first chance to road-test those heroic hooks on UK soil.
Shrapnel
Friday 8 Aug (Ronnie James Dio Stage) – 10:45 – 11:25
Graduating from 2010 Metal 2 The Masses winners to the main stage, Norwich thrashers Shrapnel arrive armed with Jens Bogren-produced opus In Gravity: Gojira, heft, melodic bite and guest spots from Bleed From Within’s Scott Kennedy and shred phenom Bradley Hall. It’s modern, furious and, if the hype sticks, album of the year calibre, this could be one of those “I was there sets”.
Ghosts Of Atlantis
Sunday 10 Aug (Ronnie James Dio Stage) – 10:45 – 11:25
Symphonic, cinematic and wrapped in Atlantean myth, Suffolk’s Ghosts Of Atlantis graduated from New Blood debuts to Fear Factory-length European tours in just four years. With film-score credits and sophomore record Riddles of the Sycophants behind them, their Bloodstock return will be a moment of triumph and celebration for underground metal breaking through.
Mantis Defeats Jaguar
Saturday 9 Aug (New Blood Stage) – 14:15 – 14:45
Imagine Rage Against The Machine detouring through the Black Country, colliding with RHCP funk and a dash of hip-hop swagger, then add confetti-gun positivity. That’s Mantis Defeats Jaguar: a four-piece band intent on turning every set into a neighbourhood block party. Positivity, party riffs, big grins, job done.
Prodigal
Saturday 9 Aug (New Blood Stage) – 12:45 – 13:15
Prodigal drift from ambient shoegaze textures into cathartic metal crescendos without ever losing the song’s beating heart. Live, that emotional dynamism translates into full-body swells, quiet eyes-closed sway one minute, fists-aloft roars the next. “This is literally the shit,” vows vocalist Stan, and Bloodstock’s New Blood tent may well agree.
Apathy UK
Sunday 10 Aug (Sophie Lancaster Stage) – 10:30 – 11:00
Psychedelic modern metal rooted in the South-West underground, Apathy UK juggle death-metal heft, grunge haze and ambient passages, then spike it all with the kind of hooks that landed them support slots with Born Of Osiris and Oceans Ate Alaska. Their debut Phasing Through the Layers dropped earlier this year and is quickly becoming the highlight of their set, a band clearly in the Ascendancy.
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