Our regular run-down of as many of the Bloodstock bands as we can get to talk to us! Moon Reaper play the New Blood stage on the Saturday…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re kind of dotted around. Me (Alex) and our drummer Chris live in Great Harwood, our guitarist Richard lives in Bispham, and our bassist Rik lives near Stoke.
We rehearse in Preston though, because it’s quite central and easy enough for everyone to get to.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We released our first single towards the end of 2018 and played our first gig at the start of 2019, although Rik has only been with us on bass since last year. Our original bassist, Connor, who played on our first two albums, The Seeds Of Seasons and Too Close To The Sun, left towards the end of 2021, with our previous manager Oli filling in on bass until we met Rik, who has also ed up with Malediction since ing us, so I’d definitely recommend checking them out if you haven’t already.
Where does the name of the band come from?
“Mores” means like a trait or characteristic of society, and so Bloodmores is supposed to mean self-destructive or self-sabotaging characteristics of society.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Some people refer to us as thrash, some refer to us as melodic death metal.
Some have compared us to say The Black Dahlia Murder, then others to As I Lay Dying, but then others have said DevilDriver, or even Kreator.
I think this difference of opinion is what sets us apart, with no two people seeming to say the same thing, and everyone being able to pull something different from our sound and influences.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Very high energy.
We all go pretty wild on stage, and I’m always encouraging the crowd to head bang along with us, and open up the pit etc. At our last show Richard was in the audience, still playing his guitar, with a circle pit going around him.
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Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
This will be Chris’ first time at Bloodstock, but the rest of us have been multiple times.
It’s such a great weekend, and besides the obvious rush of seeing so many awesome bands, everyone there is super friendly and you just meet so many people that are into all the same things as you. It’s just a great experience all round.
Which M2TM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We played in the Stoke heats.
As mentioned earlier, we’re all spread out a bit between the band , so we looked at a couple of options for which heat to take part in, and the Stoke heats were taking place only about 20 minutes away from where Rik lives, so that’s the one we decided on.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Shocked, excited, and deeply thankful for everyone’s for us.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We’ll try and bring a nice mix of the different styles across our two albums with some really fast tracks, some slower heavier ones, and some more melodic stuff too. A nice sampler of everything that we have to offer for everyone that’s not had chance to see us before, but also a good mixture of fan favourites for our current fan base as well.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
I was mainly looking forward to In Flames, Killswitch Engage, and Heaven Shall Burn, but I left a Bloodstock playlist running last weekend, and now I think I’m most excited to catch Casket Feeder. I’ve been checking out their latest album this week, and I absolutely love it.
Richard’s most looking forward to seeing Megadeth, Killswitch Engage, Ugly Kid Joe, Lokust, and In Flames.
For Rik it’s In Flames, Triptykon (performing Celtic Frost), Megadeth, Repulsive Vision, Candlemass, Meshuggah, and Sepultura.
Chris’ top picks to catch are Megadeth, In Flames, Killswitch Engage, Sepultura, Meshuggah, and Tortured Demon.
What are you working on at the moment?
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve only been working with Rik on bass for just over a year, so he’s had some catching up to do, in of learning our first two albums’ material, but he’s made amazing progress with everything, and although we were on the hunt for a replacement bassist, the rest of us are always playing around with new ideas, so we have quite a lot to work with for album three, including some great stuff that Rik has since brought to the table.
Obviously we share a lot of influences, but then Rik is drawing influence from things that we might not have before he ed, so it’s great to have some new styles to work with, and the potential to evolve our sound and try new things moving forward.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
During our first round at M2TM I gave a circular hand motion to the crowd to try and get a circle pit going during our track “Terminal Diagnosis”, but everyone took this as “take your tops off and spin them around above your head”. Not the reaction I had intended, but amazing crowd participation nonetheless.
Rik also has a wild story from his time in his previous band, Austerymn, while playing in America, where a random fan started head banging really hard into an unopened can of beer, just smashing it against his forehead essentially. He showed us the video, and this guy was really going for it. I’m not entirely sure how he didn’t knock himself out.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
The other guys might each have a beer before going on, but for me it’s just water or herbal tea while I warm my voice up.
Very rock & roll, I know!
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