The biggest metal and rock festival of Belgium was here again! With 5 stages and over 100 bands this is every year one big party celebrating the realm of the guitar riff. This year promised to be a very interesting edition with of instance the first ever appearance of much loved Rammstein as one of the headliners. Much to be looking forward to in other words…

SATURDAY

Bands:
Deep Purple, Alter Bridge, Danko Jones, Gojira, Rhapsody, Alex Rudi Pell, In Flames, Five Finger Death Punch, A Day To Remember, Avatar, Architects, Devil Driver, Igor & Max Cavalera, Ministry, Amorphis, Mayhem, Devin Townsend Project, Sanctuary, Svart Crown, Subrosa, Stiff Bizkit, DJ Rock The Fox, Korn Again, Helmet, Monster Magnet, Clutch, Coheed And Cambria, Red Fang, Baroness, Toseland, While She Sleeps, Of Mice And Men, As Lions, Code Orange, Crown The Empire, DJ Carl, Skreem.

Sweden ruled on Saturday! Avatar started the day on the Main Stage 2 and we ended the day with headliner In Flames on the same stage! We were also lucky enough to get to interview both bands! Again we’ll be mentioning the bands that left the biggest impression on us on this day:

First time at Graspop and already opening directly on Main Stage 2, Sweden’s Avatar is a rising star at the moment when it comes to metal. The show, the outfits, the music, the whole circus was fun and the fans were fond of it! You can always be sure that court jester Johannes Eckerström and his friends will bring you topnotch modern melodic metal with a bit of a twist.

Setlist: Hail The Apocalypse – Paint Me Red – New Land – Bloody Angel – The Eagle Has Landed – Let It Burn – Smells Like a Freakshow.

We were mesmerized by the clear vocals and heavy metal riffs of Axel Rudi Pell who played on Main Stage 1. The old rats have been playing for so long already but have not lost a bit of their charm or voice! They play music for the lovers of classic hard rock and heavy metal and seemed just that perfect warm-up for Deep Purple later that day.

Setlist: Burning Chains – Fool Fool – Nasty Reputation – The Line – The Masquerade Ball / Casbah – Rock the Nation.

Normally, an interview with Five Finger Death Punch was planned for us, but unfortunately this was cancelled because of the recent events during a performance in the Netherlands. Five Finger Death Punch had to prove something at Graspop, because they made a mess of it at 013 in Tilburg. Many fans and interested people therefore went to their live show at Graspop to see what it would give without singer Ivan Moody. His replacement (who was also present in Tilburg) was Tommy Vext. Eventually they gave us a spectacular performance as is to be expected of FFDP, full of big hits.

Setlist: Lift Me Up – Never Enough – Wash It All Away – Got Your Six – Bad Company – Jekyll and Hyde – Burn MF – The Agany of Regret – Wrong Side of Heaven – Coming Down – Under and Over It – The Bleeding – House of the Rising Sun.

We ended the day with In Flames. The band played phenomenal on Main Stage 2. The band has evolved from old school death metal to melodic death metal with modern influences. And eventhough they mainly focused on the later stage of their music, they seemed to have to crowd in their grasp. The Graspop security crew even confirmed that during the performance of In Flames, there were no less than 1600 crowdsurfers, according to them, a new record is broken by them again!

“According to the full length available footage, we caught 1272 crowdsurfers in 58 minutes with 0 casualties. The last 15 minutes of your concert were not counted due to a failing camera battery. That’s a pity. But we can confidently say that more than 1600 crowdsurfers crossed the barriers. The weight of the crowdsurfers varied between 45 and 145 kg with an average of about 75-80 kg. At one moment the number of crowdsurfers reached the maximum of what could physically pass over the barriers at once in this configuration. (or we had to stack them smile-emoticon )” – Graspop security crew

Setlist: Wallflower – Alias – Before I Fall – Leeches – All for Me – Where the Dead Ships Dwell – Moonshield – The Jester’s Dance – Only for the Weak – Cloud Connected – Deliver Us – Here Until Forever – The Truth – Paralyzed – The End – Take This Life.

pictures by Graspop.