Bloodstock 2024 – Band Feature: MAB

Bloodstock Open Air 2024 is right around the corner. Taking place August 8th to August 11th, the UK’s premier metal festival has, once again, delivered a stellar line-up. Featuring four stages of music and a litany of bands from within the rock and metal world, alongside numerous other forms of entertainment (such as official bin jousting)! You don’t want to miss out, so get off that fence, and pick up your tickets now!

Buy Bloodstock Open Air 2024 tickets here.

There are a lot of bands on the bill, and some you may not be that familiar with, which is where we come in. As is our yearly custom, we will be running features on many of the bands playing, aiming to give you some insight into who they are, what they do, and why they are a must see at the festival.

MAB

Mab is the Queen, Mab is the dark, Mab is the cutest, Mab is the mud.

There aren’t many bands on the Bloodstock bill who can say their journey began way back in 1996, but MAB certainly can. The four-piece (named after the fairy queen MAB) could be found touring the island of Sardinia in 1996, and releasing their debut album, ‘Nougat!’ in 1997.

Released on cassette, it is an album of its era and MAB’s rock and metal influences can be heard across its 13 tracks. MAB were young but had learned so much already that the album has stood the test of time and since been digitally remastered.

Relocating to London in 2001, MAB’s journey only got wilder and weirder as their sound transformed into something more psychedelic, but with strong gothic overtones and plenty of metal intensity. With this came a whole new live experience, and they built up a strong live reputation within the city, leading to one of their strongest years – 2004. Where MAB opened for HIM and Cathedral at the Hammersmith Apollo, then toured the UK with Breed 77, and found time to release their ‘Unstable Dream’ EP.

Their second studio album ‘Decay’ would see the light of day in 2007 and that was followed by the ‘Illusion’ album in 2011. Alongside these releases MAB continued to play extensively and reach greater heights along the way with impressive collaborations and projects. Which lead to a hiatus, a hiatus that ended in 2023 with their return to live performances, while releasing The Secret Demos (1999​/​2003) in 2020 and the single Marjatta in 2021.

The former is one for the long-term fans as it’s a collection of demos recorded between 1999 and 2003 that had never been released before. Whereas the latter comes from the time in 2010 when MAB was a guest for the Heading to North. An Italian-Finnish cultural exchange project sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute of Finland, on which bands from different countries came together to create songs inspired by “The Kalevala”, a Finnish epic poem, composed by Elias Lönnrot in the mid-nineteenth century, based on poems and folk songs of Finland.

So, that brings us to now and MAB’s much anticipated appearance at Bloodstock 2024. Although, if you’re desperate for a MAB fix before the festival, they have a run of warmup dates taking place at the start of August in Bournemouth, Leicester, Norwich, and London. All leading to Bloodstock, the Friday of the festival, and MAB’s headline performance on the EMP stage. This is going to be special, but don’t take our word for it though. We spoke to MAB about what it means to play Bloodstock 2024, what the festival means overall, and what attendees can expect from their show.

Playing at Bloodstock Festival this year is an incredible honour and a thrilling opportunity for us. We can’t wait to bring our music to an audience that is just right for us, it really means the world. We couldn’t think of a better way to spend a summer day: on stage, playing our music, especially after our recent reunion. It’s the perfect chance to grow as musicians, have lots of fun, and validate all the hard work we’ve put into our music.

Bloodstock is a huge deal to us — it’s THE festival, as it perfectly aligns with our musical vision and message. It’s also a great opportunity to share the stage with other great musicians in the scene. In a very difficult time in the music panorama and overall in the world, Bloodstock means resistance. Seeing a festival that keeps spreading such a powerful energy, it’s just precious, and we are ready to be powerful too! We can’t wait to connect with new fans who may not know us, and to rock out with our beloved fan base.

It’s going to be a wall of sound! Haha… No, honestly! Attendees can expect an explosion of emotions from our set, an intense and powerful show that will hopefully leave them wanting more. We hope they’ll feel our energy! We will play our hearts out, as hard as we can!

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