As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 9th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!
Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Sangre – Sophie Lancaster Stage, Sunday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Southern California (United States) in an area known as the Inland Empire, which is about an hour east of Los Angeles.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
The of Sangre have played in various bands in the local music scene and have been friends for nearly 20 years. Sangre was formed in the summer of 1999 with frontman/vocalist, Henry Sanchez is the only founding member. Guitarist, Mike Reyes has been in the band for over 12 years, while drummer Josh Durante has been in the band for about 9 years, and our bassist Sergio Lopez is the newest member with just a year in the band.
Where does the name of the band come from?
The name of our band is the Spanish word for “Blood” and came from the original lineup brainstorming for an original name. After several horrible ideas our then guitarist’s sister said, “What about Sangre?” and it just rolled off her tongue and was perfect for what we were creating. A blend of our Mexican & Spanish roots, culture, and music and heavy metal. Blood is the essence of life and music is something that connects us through generations no matter what race, colour, religion, etc… just as blood connects us as people.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We believe what makes our music unique is that we create what we want to play not what is trendy, we always push ourselves to make every song different from the last and at the same time maintaining the overall sound and feel of Sangre. We don’t consider ourselves a political band, but we definitely stand our ground on issues and have a lot to say about the corruption and ridiculous events going on currently in our government, world and even in our neighbourhoods. Lyrically we mix English & Spanish aka (Spanglish) and bring a street mentality that’s not a common theme in metal. We combine our different influences culturally and musically from metal, punk rock, hardcore, and even traditional Mexican, Spanish, and Latin sounds to give our band a unique fresh take on melodic heavy metal.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Our live show is full of raw energy, we have a way of connecting with the crowd by not only getting them pumped on the heaviness of the riffs and blistering double bass but with a bass groove and diverse sound that bridges gaps between specific genres and scenes. Our heavy melodic driving sound excites and entrances fans of all styles and will grab their attention immediately.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
No, Sangre has never performed at Bloodstock Open Air before.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
Sangre vocalist, Henry, met Bloodstock organisers in 2017 while performing with his other band, Brujeria, and ed along a demo, kept in touch and asked about the possibility of having Sangre perform next year. He later in the year received an email from Bloodstock organisers about the opportunity, and we found out that we would be playing the Sophie stage at BOA in 2018. We were and still are beyond excited to be a part of this amazing festival, it is such an honour to take part in the UK’s best metal open air festival.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
A blistering diverse set that encomes a wide range of musical styles and flavors. Expect lots of headbanging and eargasms!
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
Luckily we aren’t playing the same day as Gojira, Suicidal Tendencies or Judas Priest so we don’t have to worry about clashing or missing their sets. As for Sunday August 12th we hope to not clash with Devildriver, At The Gates, Fozzy, or Mr Big. Hopefully we will get to watch all of those bands.
What are you working on at the moment?
We are currently working hard on a new album, that we were hoping to have done by this summer but we keep writing and arranging. We decided to take more time on that process and are super proud of the way the new songs are coming out. When its all said and done this is going to be an epic album and now we hope to get it out sometime this fall.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
There have been some wild ones, that’s for sure. We’ve done some shows where the crowd started fire pits and proceeded to “pit” in the fire, we have had tortilla battles (a friend of the band had an idea to bring tortillas to a festival we were playing and we had our friends side stage, launching the tortillas into the crowd like frisbees, so the fans proceeded to throw them back and thus an all out battle broke out). It became so popular locally that every show after that fans started sneaking tortillas in and would battle with them in the pit. Yes, strange but tons of fun and definitely wild! Aside from that we have seen some fans lose teeth, break legs, and many fights break out. Not condoning bad behaviour but, good times.
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Red Bull, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Jägermeister of course… Not because we have been sponsored by them in the States for the past 8 years but also because we actually enjoy drinking it. Plus, Jägermeister is one of the greatest sponsors of metal music worldwide!
Sangre: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
