Solace entertain, yet their set is marred and inconsistent at times
One thing that I've always said is simply that whilst Bloodstock caters well for fans of the heavy and power metal sides of the genre, more extreme genres are often less well covered. It seems to redress it, this years UK unsigned rock tent was filled chock-a-block with death or death-influenced acts and Solace certainly provided one of the heaviest, although not most enjoyable, offerings of the weekend.
With their extreme death metal sounds, more so than many other bands of the day, Solace had both the opportunity to entertain fans of the genre but alienate mere curious passers-by, and this is on show due to the small yet rather enthusiastic crowd they draw and manage to entertain with their brutal walls of sound. However, at times even for me this simple blast-in-the-ears that Solace provide proved too much and whilst they can't be faulted on it really, for they do what they do well, they weren't the most accessible listen of the festival by far.
Musically speaking, as mentioned before, Solace go for an incredibly heavy almost sludge-like approach to the death genre, which was performed with enthusiasm and energy by the admittedly quite talented band. Their front man in particular managed to draw my personal attention due to his strong vocals, reminiscent at times of the heavier death growls of Opeth singer Mikael Akerfeldt.
Overall Solace cannot be faulted, as they achieve their aim of providing heavy-as-hell death metal in the live environment, however their set really did lack the pulling power or attractiveness of bands such as Black River Project who managed to combine heavyiness with accessibility. An enjoyably, yet somewhat flawed set.