With Norway’s Tons of Rock less than weeks away, Katie has put together a list of the bands she is most looking forward to watching at this year’s festival…
This will be my third year at Tons of Rock festival, which takes place within the walls of Fredriksten Fortress in Halden, Norway. The festival consists of three stages; Fort West (main stage), Tent Stage and Huth Stage and the line-up has something for everyone, showcasing “everything from classic rock to the famous Norwegian black metal scene”. I love this festival as it is incredibly well-organised, everyone is super-friendly (especially to the English girl who can only say a few words in Norwegian) and the setting is stunning. You can read my review of last year’s festival.
The festival’s recently-confirmed final line-up for this year is a fantastic one; featuring some world-famous bands as well as the very best in Scandinavian rock and metal. I have picked three bands from each day of the festival that I am most looking forward to seeing, so here goes:
THURSDAY
Myrkur means “darkness” in Icelandic and is the work of classically-trained multi-instrumentalist folk musician Amalie Bruun from Denmark. Her sound combines “the rawness of second-wave black metal […] with a natural, ethereal sonic beauty”. Her sound has been described as brutal, yet also delicate and feminine which is sounds really intriguing.
Black Debbath are a “heavy politically-incorrect humor-rock” band created by four of the core members of Duplex Records. I have seen Black Debbath perform at Tons of Rock the last two years I attended and, while much of the lyrical content is lost on me, their set always involves some form of elaborate costumes – in 2015 it was a space theme, and last year they wore very short denim hot-pants and cowboy boots. They are always fun to photograph!
Blink-182 were originally set to headline the main stage on Thursday night, but they recently announced the cancellation of three performances – Tons of Rock, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and a show at Grona Lund Tivoli in Sweden. The band posted the following statement on their Twitter back in May: “It is with heavy hearts that we have to announce three of our European Summer shows need to be rescheduled”. New main-stage headliners will be theatrical / horror / heavy metal legend Rob Zombie who I have been keen to see live.
FRIDAY
I had been looking forward to seeing Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons play a few songs at the launch of the Motörhead Röad Crew beer back in January but they were sadly unable to perform due to the presence of “a couple of gremlins in the system”. The band consists of Welsh guitar legend and ex-Motörhead axeman Phil Campbell, together with his three sons Todd (guitar), Dane (drums) and Tyla (bass), plus vocalist Neil Starr.
The band I am probably most excited to see are Slayer. What more do I need to say…its f*cking SLAYER!
Headlining the main stage on Friday night will be Devin Townsend Project, who caught my attention as I read some great reviews of their live shows in the UK earlier this year… including this one by James!
SATURDAY
Airbourne are another band I have been meaning to catch live for ages as they look like a lot of fun! Ross reviewed their Glasgow show back in November last year (photos by Gavin Lowrey).
Ever since attempting to play Hard To See on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, I have been keen to see Five Finger Death Punch live…and fingers-crossed they play that song as I think I still vaguely remember how to play it…albeit on a plastic guitar with buttons.
Closing the final day of the festival are Sabaton with a special worldwide exclusive performance of their album Carolus Rex in its entirety, which is rather fitting as the album was written about a battle that took place at the very same fortress in which the festival is set.
Tons of Rock festival will take place in Fredriksten Fortress in Halden, Norway from 22 to 24 June. More info on the official website.
Photos by Katie Frost Photography
