Three local acts to play at prestigious English heavy metal festival
Northern Ireland’s heaviest and hardest will play at premier English heavy metal festival this coming weekend, alongside superstar bands Killswitch Engage, Megadeth and Helloween.
Cookstown’s Acid Age, Doagh’s Skypilot and Belfast’s Wild Heat play Bloodstock Open Air, which will see 20,000 fans of extreme metal gather in Derbyshire between August 10 and 13 in what will be the 23rd year of the festival.
Acid Age won through tough competitive heats of the Metal2TheMasses try-outs before being selected by Bloodstock organiser, Simon Hall to represent Northern Ireland.
Singer and lead guitarist of the three-piece said they were delighted to bring their thrash metal ‘war jazz’ to Bloodstock.
“Since the inception of Aid Age we have received positive attention from both sophisticated music snobs and metallers alike,” he said. “To be given the opportunity to play UK’s premium metal festival alongside bands who have influenced us will be a special moment in the band’s journey.”
Doagh’s Skypilot will be making their second appearance at Bloodstock and singer and guitarist David Hall said 2023 will see a step up for the County Antrim riffers.
“Having played the Jagermeister stage in 2019 we are relishing the opportunity to step on to the larger New Blood Stage,” he said. “If we get a similar reception, then it will be the highlight of our career so far.”
For Wild Heat it will be a massive opportunity, as explained by singer Tommy Vice.
“Bloodstock will be the biggest show we have played to date, and to say we are excited is a major understatement,” the singer said. “Our music is more hard rock orientated but we have played our share of metal gigs and we always get a great reception/
“Hopefully our high energy shred=pop will win over the Bloodstock fan too.”
Wild Heat play the Jagermeister stage on Friday, August 11, with Acid Age and Skypilot play the New Blood Stage on Sunday, August 13.
Headliners at Bloodstock include Killswitch Engage, Megadeth, Meshuhggah, In Flames and Helloween, and 135 plus other metal bands. Sunday is already sold out, with only a limited number of weekend tickets available.
Acid Age’s album Semper Pessimus is available now, as is Wild Heat’s Hustle. Skypilot’s 2022 album Simple Beasts will be released on vinyl later in August.