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10 of the best rising British metal bands you need to see live

  • Vee Richardson
  • Jun 19
  • 5 min read

British metal isn’t just surviving right now, it’s thriving. We’ve rounded up 10 of our best and brightest home-grown bands hitting the country’s biggest festivals this year. From the blood-soaked fields of Bloodstock to the genre-bending stages of 2000trees, UK bands are pushing boundaries, redefining heavy music, and proving that innovation and intensity go hand in hand.


Heriot

There’s a feral precision to Heriot; a band that doesn’t just play shows, but drags the underground right through to main stages. Their fusion of industrial abrasion, sludgy chaos, and hardcore menace is completely uncompromising, and live, it feels like standing in the eye of a storm. Heriot don’t do subtle. They batter through comfort zones and warp genre lines with a brutal elegance. Whether they’re grinding through dissonance or dropping into eerie calm moments, they keep you locked in. Heriot aren’t appearing at Bloodstock 2025 to simply entertain, they’ll be there to break new ground in the genre. Miss them, and you’re missing the future of heavy music.





Waterlines

If metalcore’s next leap forward has a name, it might just be Waterlines. Infusing electronic flourishes into bone-snapping breakdowns and massive choruses, this northern outfit are walking a tightrope between emotional catharsis and raw aggression, and they’re not falling. Think shimmering synths, razor-sharp hooks, and a live show that feels like being hit by lightning in a rave. There’s a clarity to their sound that cuts through the noise, and a charisma that pulls crowds in like a magnet. Bloodstock 2025 won’t know what hit it. This is future-facing metalcore for a generation raised on chaos and catharsis.


Ba’al

There’s beauty in the bleakness of Ba’al. Their music moves like shifting weather, slow, ominous, and impossible to ignore. One minute it’s spectral calm, the next, it’s blackened fury crashing down like waves in a storm. Drawing on post-metal, doom, and atmospheric black metal, Ba’al write long, cinematic pieces that feel more like rituals than songs. Their live show is a slow burn that leaves you desperate for more; moody lights, distant screams, and walls of sound that hit like grief. It’s immersive. It’s devastating. It’s unforgettable. At Bloodstock 2025, Ba’al will summon something ancient and emotional. Be still. Let it consume you.





Shrapnel

Shrapnel are thrash with a bloodlust. Hailing from Norwich, but sounding like they were raised in a nuclear bunker full of Slayer tapes, they’re here to tear the main stage down with sheer velocity and riffs for the Gods. Their sound is sharp-edged and snarling; frenzied solos, galloping drums, and a vocalist who sounds like he gargles gravel for breakfast. But there’s extreme finesse beneath the fury. Shrapnel are tight, technical, and utterly relentless. This isn’t nostalgia, it’s a fresh injection of thrash brutality with a steel-plated backbone. Prepare for a whiplash-inducing set that’ll have pits spinning and necks snapping from the first downbeat.


Cage Fight

Cage Fight sound like a riot in a concrete box, and that’s exactly what they bring live. Their blend of hardcore punk and crossover thrash is political, punishing, and boiling with rage. They don’t just play songs, they spit venom, challenge the status quo, and throw down with fists-first fury. Featuring ex-TesseracT guitarist James Monteith, there’s pedigree here, but the heart of Cage Fight is pure underground grit. Expect chaotic riffs, scathing lyrics, and a crowd erupting into a battleground. At Bloodstock 2025, Cage Fight are not here to play nice. They’re here to carve their name into the main stage for years to come.





Sylosis

Sylosis are the heavyweights who never stopped evolving. Their brand of ever-evolving, genre crossing metal is sharp as broken glass and just as dangerous. Led by the ever-prolific Josh Middleton, Sylosis fuse blistering guitar work with massive hooks and intelligent songwriting, delivered with a finesse that calls back to the urgency and precision of early Metallica. Their live show is surgical in its precision but never cold or dull, there’s fire, there’s sweat, and there’s a legacy being reaffirmed every time they hit the stage. At Download 2025, Sylosis return not as survivors of the scene but as masters of it. Prepare for an onslaught of modern metal mastery.


Bleed From Within

Bleed From Within are the UK’s answer to the global metalcore juggernaut, and at this point, they’re leading the charge. With groove that slams like a wrecking ball and choruses that could level arenas, they’ve spent years sharpening their sound to a diamond edge. Their live sets feel like controlled chaos; tight, explosive, and brimming with momentum. There’s no filler here, just wall-to-wall bangers delivered with undeniable passion. At Download 2025, Bleed From Within aren’t just taking to yet another stage, they’re planting a flag. This is modern metal with purpose and power, delivered by a band hell-bent on leaving a legacy behind, not just a setlist and a couple of guitar picks.





Split Chain

Split Chain are the sound of digital decay and emotional ruin. Synth-laced metalcore that broods, bites, and breaks down walls. Their debut offerings have caught ears for good reason: dense atmospheres, searing guitars, and vocals that drip with urgency and anguish. They lean into contrast, industrial shimmer meets jagged distortion, vulnerability meets rage. Their aesthetic is sharp, their message clear, and their live show an overwhelming sensory hit. Split Chain are the new breed. If you want to see where the UK scene is headed next, get in the crowd, or get left behind.


Unpeople

Unpeople don’t follow rules, they write new ones in feedback and defiance. Their sound is an ever-morphing beast: jagged post-hardcore, seething alt-rock, moments of spoken word and sudden eruptions of noise. It’s raw, it’s thoughtful, and it hits like a conversation you weren’t ready to have. Their sets are electric, confrontational one moment, fragile the next, always alive. At 2000trees, they’ll draw in the misfits and the musically curious alike. This isn’t just a performance; it’s a reckoning. Unpeople are carving a space for something real, and it demands your attention.





Vower

Vower glide between genres with grace and power, melding the tight musicianship of prog with the emotional punch of post-hardcore. Their debut EP hit hard, full of layered instrumentation and soaring vocal lines that feel both intimate and cinematic. Live, they harness that intensity and transform it into something physical. Visceral riffs, walls of sound, and moments of silence that speak louder than words. Playing both Download and 2000trees, Vower are stepping into their moment with a sound that’s as ambitious as it is heartfelt. This is the sound of a band ready to rise, and they’re doing it on their own terms.


Words: Vee Richardson


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