Vallenfyre — Bloodstock Open Air 2016

The sun hits Bloodstock's main stage on August 13, 2016, but Vallenfyre arrives to darken the afternoon. Gregor Mackintosh pulls double duty: he handles vocals now and returns about four hours later with Paradise Lost. Here, he sets aside the guitar to front the group.

Scabs opens an eight-song set, with six tracks from Splinters supplying the weight. Hamish Glencross and Sam Kelly-Wallace share guitar duties, while Waltteri Väyrynen drives Cathedrals of Dread on drums. Mackintosh calls for a circle pit during Instinct Slaughter; at the close, Splinters and Desecration bring the first two albums together.

The performance falls between the second album and Fear Those Who Fear Him, which arrives in June 2017. The full recording preserves this phase in just under forty minutes, with footage captured by the festival itself. This is no extensive retrospective: it is two albums compressed into a daytime slot on the main stage.