Bloodstock 2025 Band Feature: Lock Horns
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s Bloodstock time and 2025 is looking to be one of the best events the festival has ever put on, if we’re judging it by bands… which we are, of course.
Taking place at Catton Park, Derbyshire from August 7th to August 10th, Bloodstock Festival 2025 has not only sold out all its weekend tickets, but it also sold out day tickets for the Saturday and the Sunday and it seems likely that Friday will follow suit before the festival actually starts. Boasting a lineup that includes the likes of Emperor, Lacuna Coil, Ministry, Mastodon, Fear Factory, Static-X, Nailbomb, Kataklysm, Obituary, and headliners, Trivium, Machine Head, Gojira, and so much more spread across four stages, it’s going to be one hell of a weekend.
Lock Horns
Long overdue to return to Bloodstock, Belfast, Ireland’s Lock Horns join the ever-growing list of bands who previously played the New Blood stage and have now graduating to the Sophie Lancaster stage and absolutely no-one can deny that the progressive metal four-piece have earned their spot.
Let’s go back to 2019, which is when they last played the festival, earning their spot by winning the Belfast leg of Metal 2 the Masses. Coming into the festival with a debut full-length album already out (Molon Labe – released in 2018) and having played festivals like Siege of Limerick, Urban Assault, and touring overseas.
They came to Bloodstock to conquer and they left as champions, seemingly ready to take over the world with a brand-new album (Red Room) already planned. Except COVID-19 had other plans and Lock Horns’ momentum was halted. Finally recorded in late 2022, Red Room went through a process of evolution, starting from as far back as late 2019/early 2020, before the global pandemic forced the world into somewhat of a dystopian nightmare. By the time the world opened up again, Lock Horns found themselves in possession of material that was now three years old, and no longer a reflection of who they had become in a post Covid world.
The introduction of an 8-string guitar also drastically changed the bands creative potential, and a decision was made to wipe their creative slate clean, and embrace the rich vein to which they had stumbled upon. Five years is a long time to wait for a release from any band, but as the expression goes, good things take time, great things take a little longer. It was finally released in 2024.
Every track on this album feels like it has a place and is important while also each having a very clear identity. Musically astounding and vocally impressive, this new level comes more from just the creativity of a few additional strings on instruments. This feels like a band that have experienced personal growth, maturity and found confidence as well, then with that combining with that renewed creativity, they found the sweet spot and hit a bullseye.
Read our full review here.
More recently, Lock Horns have released the stand-alone single, ‘Frenzy’. A track we summed up as:
A frenzied display of groove-infused progressive and technical metal that needs multiple listens to fully appreciate.
Their set promises to be one of the finest of the weekend, and you can be part of it being at the Sophie stage on the Friday of the festival. We’re excited to see them back, so we asked them what it means to be asked to come back and play on a bigger stage, what they learned from playing Bloodstock last time, how much of a boost playing the festival was, and what attendees can expect from their set this time around. This is what they had to say:
We are wholeheartedly honored to have been asked to return to the Sophie stage this year at Bloodstock! Simon Hall has said some very gracious things about our latest album, and we are looking forward to proving ourselves to be leading figures in Irish metal.
After playing Bloodstock in 2019, we learned how important it is to be adaptable to every situation and the benefits of thinking big and standing out from the crowd. We also gained an appreciation for the power of networking.
Although we felt that the lockdown period might have stifled some of our momentum, we benefited greatly from our time after Bloodstock. We were given the opportunity to be part of various interviews with a plethora of magazines, featured as guests at Metal to the Masses gigs around the UK, and we received multiple radio plays on stations in the UK and abroad. We also received funding for our latest album, ‘Red Room’.
This year, attendees can expect a more powerful and polished rebirth of Lock Horns. We are road-worn and hungry for bigger stages. Our stage presence offers its own brand of unapologetic rage, and our songs unleash the cathartic experience from the very core of heavy metal.
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