PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
While we spoke to a lot of bands both signed and unsigned at Bloodstock, we were unable to manage to speak to all the up and coming bands who played the New Blood stage, so have been catching up with the ones we missed to see how they enjoyed their Bloodstock experience.
Can you give the readers a quick introduction to the band?
We’re a 4 piece doom band from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. The sort of place your nan comes to visit. Phil is on vocals and guitar, Jon provides the hefty tone, Dano on bass and Taz smashes the drums. We’ve only been in existence as a band since early 2013, but we’ve come far (for 4 bearded island folk) in a relatively short amount of time.
How would you describe your sound?
Blackened doomy sludge. We definitely sit on the heavier side of doom and the guttural vocals really give it that dark edge, but there’s still a groove.
What has been the bands biggest achievement so far?
Playing Bloodstock. We only formed in early 2013, so all in all not a bad result. As a band it must have been something like our 7th gig!
Why did you want to become part of the New Blood Stage line up?
We’re not going to lie… we’re from a very small island. If we’re lucky we’ll get a couple of hundred people turn up to a gig, so a chance to play a major festival was a bit of a no brainer. It was a huge opportunity and something we may not get the chance to do again.
What was your initial reaction when you found out you were playing on the New Blood Stage?
Shock, followed by the realisation that we had a fair bit of work and organising to do. As we headlined the Metal 2 The Masses final we were still packing up when it was announced, so none of us were expecting our ridiculous name to get called out.
How did you feel your set went?
Really well. It’s one of those things with festivals I guess, you get 30 mins and you need to be pretty much on the dot. So we blasted through the songs. They seemed to go down really well though, despite it being 10.30 in the morning on a sunday!
How did you enjoy your Bloodstock experience? Any particular highlights?
Aside from playing (which was a pretty big highlight to put it mildly) and the line up, we’d probably pick working with the backstage crew on the New Blood Stage. They were a bloody mental bunch, with one highlight being 4 of the crew doing the robot and tap dancing to our soundcheck.
Did you get to watch many bands? If so who did you enjoy seeing?
We got to see a fair few bands over the course of the festival, some good, some not so good. In particular Down, Triptykon, Crowbar, Emperor and Carcass really stood out from the Main stage. Gurt were excellent, as were Winterfylleth and Graveyard on the Sophie Lancaster stage as well.
Can you sum up Bloodstock in one sentence?
The best open air festival in the UK!
Any message you wish to pass on to the PM readers?
Music from the Channel Islands (let alone doom) isn’t exactly well known, but if you plunge the depths we think you’ll be presently surprised by what you find.
https://www.facebook.com/ByzanthianNeckbeard
http://byzanthianneckbeard.bandcamp.com/
Twitter @ BNeckbeardBand
