Bloodstock Festival 2017: 10 Bands You Must See
1. ONI
Gracing the Sophie Lancaster Stage on Sunday, 13th August, American metallers ONI are one of the most undefinable, technically gifted and experimental acts of the Bloodstock 2017 bill.
Add that together with the fact that they have a rapidly growing collection of destructive grooves and skull-rattling growls (both of which are must-have ingredients to getting the extreme metal party started) and you get a band that would be suffering a disservice if they were anywhere but the number one slot of this list.
Despite being only one album into their career, with that album being 2016's Ironshore, the six-piece ONI has already started to draw a huge amount of attention: legendary Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has collaborated with the young group on the track "The Only Cure" and they have been trekking worldwide with such metal mavens as Gojira, Death Angel, Devil You Know, Devin Townsend, Deafheaven, Children of Bodom and Abbath.
You don't build up a CV that impressive so quickly by being sub-par.
The secret to ONI's success lies in the amount of heavy metal quotas their gargantuan and avant-garde tunes fill. While fans of thrash and death metal will undoubtedly fall in love with the pummelling rhythms, harsh screams and monstrous shredding, connoisseurs of prog can find solace in the polyrhythms, djent- and Meshuggah-esque inclinations and Johnny DeAngelis's pioneering use of the electric xylophone (yes, really).
As a live experience, very few bands will be able to unite the fragmented metal fanbase as ONI does, bringing thrashers and experimentalists crashing together, one titanic wall of death at a time.