1. Parkway Drive

God, us metalheads can be a conservative with a small c lot. "Oh that's not Metal, they have short hair and I don't like them and how dare Bloodstock book someone different". Yes, the outcry that meet Parkway Drive's addition as Saturday headliner was deafening and also quite perplexing. They are heavy as fuck; they create catchy, crunching tracks you can tall along with and they have fire.

To sound rather combative, what is the fucking problem? For the record (and to start a stream of contrary comments questioning my parentage) Parkway Drive are as Metal as they come and fully deserve their headline slot. Like their Friday night compatriots Sabaton, this is no flash in the pan story. Parkway Drive have slogged and worked over fifteen years, slowly and surely building their brand, honing their sound. They now offer an exciting hybreed that combines traditional Metals melody with spikey confrontional delivary. They have also become a fearsome live unit, as anyone who caught the January tour will testify. So Saturday will be brutal, it will be heavy and it will prove every single doubter wrong.

By Stewart Lucas