I always have mixed emotions on the final day of a festival – sad that it is coming to an end, but also a little relieved not to have further days of carrying around heavy photography gear! I honestly can highly recommend a little morning swim for the aches and pains when shooting a festival if you have access to a pool. If not, then just soaking your feet in cool water at the end of the day still vastly reduced the amount of pain I was in by the end of the 4 days.
I started my fourth and final day of the festival with Norwegian rock band Bokassa on the Vampire stage. They were a great choice to open that stage as they were very energetic and fun, which is just what is needed to get everyone in the mood. Their self-proclaimed “stoner punk” went perfectly with a bright sunny early-afternoon.

Next I headed to the Scream stage (main stage) for Seigmen, who I photographed at my first ever visit to Tons of Rock back in 2015. They started their set with a video playing on the big screen at the back of the stage featuring little Seigmen logo men traveling like aliens to take over the festival, which was pretty cool. Vocalist Alex Møklebus’s movements were just as I had remembered them from 9 years ago, and capturing his poses was fun.
After Seigmen it was back to the Vampire stage for Brazilian-American heavy metal band Cavalera Conspiracy, who are always great to watch and photograph. They had a huge crowd for their set that spilled out almost as far back as the Moonlight stage, and their set consisted entirely of Sepultura “covers”, much to everyone’s delight.
Next I headed into the Moonlight tent for the first time that day for Polish black metal outfit Batushka. There are 2 Batushka bands due to a disagreement between original band members, and honestly I am never sure which is the “true” one, but I have photographed this particular version of Batushka once before at The Dome in February last year and thoroughly enjoyed them. Their music and lyrics are exclusively in Church Slavonic language, and are inspired by the Eastern Orthodox Church. This might sound weird, but for me deep throat / chanting with blast beats acts like a weighted blanket, and I am a sucker for thematic stage props, which is something that Batushka does really well. The stage was adorned with candles, skulls and altars, and all band members wear a black cloth mask which entirely obscures their faces, and long embellished cloaks. Just like last time I saw them, I really enjoyed their set, and a packed tent of people seemed to agree with me.
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After a bit of a sit-down in the press tent I headed over to the Scream stage for German thrash metallers Kreator. The wind had really picked up and the bodies hanging from the rigging (part of their usual stage set-up) were swinging quite a lot in the wind, which only added to the eriness. Kreator always put on a great show which isn’t short of pyro, but unfortunately the wind got the upper hand and the flame jets for the first song began to spray petrol at the band and also into the photpit so by the end of the song they had to stop using them, which was a shame. Similarly, the jets of CO2 for one of the other songs that usually rise up vertically were largely horizontal, but that didn’t take away from their performance.
Next for me over on the Vampire stage were Avantasia – a German supergroup metal opera project created by Tobias Sammet. I had heard good things about this band, and I do secretly enjoy a bit of operatic metal, so I was looking forward to seeing them. The stage set was fantastic and featured what seemed to be cemetery gates. Flames and CO2 plumes erupted from behind the gates at various points which honestly just looked really cool. Tobias was an excellent performer and very engaging, and all of the band members and other vocalists on stage were equally impressive. Definitely a fun one to shoot.
After Avantasia I headed to the Moonlight stage for Swedish rock band Thundermother who were full of energy right from the start and really good fun to watch and shoot. My final band of the festival was Asinhell also in the Moonlight stage. I hadn’t heard of Asinhell but they are a death metal band featuring Michael Poulsen of Volbeat and they were really great. Absolutely classic death metal in all its glory, and everyone on stage seemed to be having a lovely time.

The final festival headliners were Greta Van Fleet, who we hadn’t received any information about shooting so we all make our way into the Scream stage photopit only to discover we were being shuffled into a pen to one side of the stage. Asked if this would be for all of our three allotted songs we were told yes, so a few of us just left as there was no way we were going to get decent shots of the band from that angle. Turned out that it was just for the first song (a safety precaution due to pyro), but by that point my friend and I were already having a beer and watching from the crowd. I hadn’t seen Greta Van Fleet before, but they are an American rock band who seemed to have a strong following as I had seen people wearing their merch throughout the day as I walked around the festival. Their music wasn’t right up my street, but they were very entertaining and energetic so I could see why people liked them and why they were chosen to close the festival.
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To avoid being stuck in a huge queue for the shuttle bus back to central Oslo, we headed off early but got to watch the big firework display at the end of the night from our hotel room, which was great as we usually end up missing it. I had another thoroughly enjoyable time at Tons of Rock festival, and booked my return flight from Oslo to London to be late the following day to allow me some extra time to hang out with my friend and see some sights. I highly recommend Tons of Rock as a good-sized, friendly festival that always has a decent and varied line-up of everything from popular rock bands, some down-right peculiar but incredible bands, classic rock, and of course some Scandinavian black metal – something for everyone! No bands have been announced yet, but 4-day early-bird tickets for the 2025 edition of Tons of Rock are available already.
All photos by Katie Frost Photography