Blacker than Death
Well I didn't see this coming, the great thing about a second stage at something like Bloodstock is you never know what you're going to get, to paraphrase Forest Gump.
What I got was a massive sonic kick in the head from four innocuous looking metal heads. Isaiah are Black/Death metal to the core ripping out barbed wire riffs backed by machine gun drumming and fronted by a voice even a mother couldn't love. Obviously this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but looking around I saw a few appreciative nodding heads and here and there wind-milling hair.
I have to give a quick mention to their lady guitarist Jaz Shadrack for not being the token girlie as so often happens, they usually get put up front to sing some vapid semi-operatic nonsense over a heavy riff but this lady was just part of the band, blond dreadlocks flying, and (nicely) tattooed arms throttling the life out of her guitar.
Frontman Ben Macfadyen seems such a nice guy when he's between songs and speaking to him afterwards, but as soon as the first chord is struck he's as black as Zyklon, Satyricon or any other Black metal band whose logo you can't read. The main problem for this band is their interaction with their audience, a few mumbles will get you by in a pub guys but on a stage you need to be a bit more forthright. The old adage, "let my music speak for me" is nonsense, as soon as you turn around to talk to each other the connection to the audience is lost and that's the one thing you need to keep constant.
Their sound was good, as seemed to be the case throughout the day and their stand in drummer played a blinder, their own drummer left recently leaving them short but Steve Powell filled in seamlessly. If you're a fan of extreme metal you should look them up and have your sinuses cleared out the metal way.