With Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Motörhead and Soulfly (and Wolfmother…) set to fill the main stage of a day at British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park this July, it struck Raziq Rauf that the same bill could easily have been announced in 2000 to the same fanfare. What has (or has not) happened in the last 14 years for this to be the case and what does the future have in store?

What is the future of music festivals? I’m not talking 2015 (because 2014’s summer season lineup is just about fully lined up), I’m talking about something more like 2025. What is going to happen to our music festivals in the next ten years? Will Metallica still be headlining on a rota with Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Linkin Park? The classic rockers like Aerosmith, Def Leppard and Black Sabbath have a shelf-life. Are Avenged Sevenfold or Rammstein the answer? While they sell out arenas in London and that simply translates to headlining Donington or Knebworth, neither have ever had quite the same impact as those first mentioned few and they likely never will.

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It’s been nine months since the last installment of ProgTology. That’s partly due to James “Metal” Monteith touring the world with his excellent band, TesseracT, but also because we’re lazy. Either way, let’s talk about the significant goings on…

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We’re at the mercy of modern technology for this episode of the Thrash Hits Podcast – Raz has decamped to the USA for a few weeks for SXSW and some California sunshine, leaving the rest of us here in miserable old England. With possibly the dodgiest Skype connection imaginable, Hugh and Raz discuss how SXSW has changed over the years, as well as speculating on how two very different kinds of hype affect bands – that currently being felt by Ghost (or Ghost BC, if you’re an American) and the kind that surrounds Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats.

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Following the week that saw Steph Carter leave Gallows, Dave Lombardo get kicked out of Slayer, and Adam Duce and Machine Head part ways, Raz and Hugh talk about the various bits of music industry politics that invariably accompany a band member leaving an established act. And then they do some awful word-association with the 49 new bands that were announced for Download Festival 2013. At least it’s over quickly.

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With Bloodstock Open Air 2012 now over, Hugh Platt and Tom Dare have reconvened in the studio to look back at the highs and lows of Thrash Hits’ Bloodstock experience this year – talking about our high and lows, the winners and losers, and just what Tom was doing with a Hairy Helmet and an Old Growler on the Friday night.

We also took time out to see what nonsense MegaDave has been spouting this week, to discuss Peter Dolving’s revelations about what really went on with his split from The Haunted earlier this year, as well as a check-up on the situation with Baroness, who suffered a truly awful bus crash last week. Get well soon, guys.

The Thrash Hits Podcast 010: Bloodstock Open Air 2012 REVIEWED

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Is there anything better than a Thrash Hits Festival Splash Page? Yeah, loads of things but you won’t find the best online festival coverage on any of them. You’ll find that right here. All our work from Bloodstock Open 2012 is going be linked to from this page (eventually), so give it a bookmark or just don’t close it, because it’s all you’re going to need. Interviews, photos, setlists, rumours, and who knows? – maybe even some tiny reviews – it’s all here. [Read more →]

Most people think the correct way to spell Machine Head is M-a-c-h-i-n-e H-e-a-d. Those people are wrong. As everyone who saw them at Bloodstock Open Air 2012 knows, the correct way is MACHINE FUCKIN’ HEAD. MACHINE FUCKIN’ HEAD.

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Remember when we poked fun at Machine Head for having cheap-looking videos? Yeah, we pretty much found something to laugh at from every era in their history. Well, their latest video for ‘Darkness Within’ pretty much put paid to that – we’d like to think it was the cosmic impact of our bitter, bitter blogging that spurred them to break the cycle of naffness, but let’s face it – it probably wasn’t.

In fact, this video is pretty damn swish – we’d go so far as to say it has the highest production values of any MH video to date. It’s also very much NOT SAFE FOR WORK, so unless you work in the kind of place where violence, self mutilation, worm-eating, mutation, blood-letting and the like are all par the course, don’t go watching this until you’re out of the office.

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Ten Ton Hammer are playing a show at London King’s College Student Union tonight, Wednesday, 06 June 2012. This band is suspected (but not confirmed) to be Machine Head. OK, it’s obviously Machine Head.

Also, Bloodstock Open Air Festival will be revealing its third and final headliner at 6pm (666, ahoy), just before the gig. Why on earth are we writing a post about these two completely separate events? Hmmm.

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Here’s a great account from TesseracT guitarist, James Monteith about why he feels strongly about Record Store Day. He’s in a band so is actually naturally part of RSD every single day. It’s also a great way for us to brag about what we got from Record Store Day last year.

Another blog within a month? No way. Well I pulled my finger out for this one as it’s Record Store Day this weekend, and it was something I felt I should comment on. Independently-owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music; there are special vinyl and CD releases, gigs and a whole bunch of stuff and it happens all over the world. Cool eh?

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