Bloodstock Festival Countdown : 30 Bands Not To Miss

7. Hellripper - Sophie Lancaster Stage - Thursday, August 8th 2024

In the mind’s eye, a one-man band is Bert from Mary Poppins with a Bass Drum on his back and two cymbals tied to his thighs. However Hellripper are a one man band and that man is Aberdeen wonderkid James McBain. Last year’s “Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags” was an extraordinary record. Extraordinary because of its musical dexterity but also extraordinary because James played every darn note, provided every twang and pounded every bam. It reinvented black metal as something driving and incisive. It replaced the creeping malevolence with purposeful speed. It felt big and brash and certainly not the product of a single human being.

For live shows James has cajoled his mates and put together a precision engineered backed band. However Hellripper is very much his baby and expect to see our James lording over the crowd sending riff after riff hurting into the bray mob. Fast, furious and frantic, just what the doctor ordered.