This was my nineth year photographing Tons Of Rock Festival in Norway (2015 to 2025, minus the 2 years lost to the pandemic) and it feels very much like home. Every year I look forward to seeing photographers in the press tent that I only usually see at this festival, and discovering new bands that I have never even heard of before.
Unlike previous years, I had been to Oslo just a few weeks prior to Tons Of Rock to see Grima play the tiny Revolver venue (as they had to unfortunately cancel the UK-leg of their tour due to visa issues, and this was the only European date I could make work financially) so everything felt extra familiar as made my way from the airport to the centre of the city to meet my friend Andrea (from Eternal Terror) who I was once again staying with. We had a relaxing Tuesday night, preparing ourselves for the four days of hard work that were to follow. Now both over 40, we have looking after ourselves pre and post-festival down to a fine art, and part of that is knowing that getting a decent amount of sleep is key.
I had left a heatwave in London, so waking up on the morning of the first day of the festival to temperatures in the mid-twenties was such a relief. We had a healthy breakfast, packed our heavy camera bags, and made our way to Oslo S to catch the designated Tons Of Rock bus up to Ekebergsletta for the festival. This is something that the festival / city do very well -having specific and regular buses taking people where the need to go, all very well sign-posted, and with lots of volunteers around to assist.
As is traditional for Tons Of Rock, the organisers say a few words, there is a speech by a political figure (this year being Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg) and then Norwegian “heavy politically incorrect humour rock” band Black Debbath take to the stage. The band always have something exciting and unexpected about their performance, and this year it was a choir dressed in red monk’s habits. The lyrics / themes of their songs are largely lost on my as they sing in Norwegian (and Duolingo hasn’t furnished me with the words I need to understand this sort of thing yet), but the crowd are always really excited, singing along, and having a thoroughly lovely time.
Satisfied with my shots from the main stage I headed back to the press tent which I found to be surprisingly empty. Where was everyone? I checked the clash finder app and discovered that I was missing the first band on the “Moonlight” tent stage – American deathcore band Fit For An Autopsy. I rushed there as quick as I could but had missed the allotted 3 songs from the photopit, so had to try my best to capture the band from the crowd. The band were really animated which always makes for great photos, and the crowd were excited and enjoying it without being so rowdy that I couldn’t squeeze in to get take some shots. Lesson learned – check the app to work out if you need to go shoot another band or can go back to the press tent for a little sit-down.
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Back in the swing of things, I then headed to the other outdoor “Vampire” stage to photograph Alestorm. When they first played Tons Of Rock back in 2018 the Norwegians didn’t at first seem to know what to make of them, but were hooked by the end of their set. This time around there were loads of Alestorm t-shirts in the crowd, along with inflatable swords and all the things you might expect for enjoying a Scottish pirate metal band, so it was nice to see the evolution of their following.
After Alestorm I headed back to the tent stage (at the right time) to photograph French metalcore outfit Landmvrks, who I hadn’t seen before but had a big crowd, and then after that it was back to the Scream stage for German electronicore band Electric Callboy. I shot them almost 10 years ago at Impericon Festival in London under their previous title of Eskimo Callboy, but have seen some fantastic photos of their live shows more recently, so I was excited to see their performance. As expected, it was high-energy, and extremely colourful. There was a LOT of pyro / streamers which was really fun, and I enjoyed the dance-metal vibes. Definitely one of my favourite bands of the day so far.
For somet
hing completely different, I went back to the Moonlight stage for Candlemass, who were celebrating “40 years of doom” this year. I photographed them at Tons Of Rock back in 2017, but my taste in metal has evolved over the years and Swedish doom metal is now something that I very much enjoy, so I loved their performance and stayed to watch a little after my three songs in the photopit.
After that it was more deathcore in the shape of Lorna Shore on the Vampire Stage, who I have heard great things about but never seen live. The vocals were incredible and their set was really engaging. They had a huge crowd and I was glad I had finally got to see them live.
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Another American band (and another band I hadn’t seen before) next with Dream Theater bringing their progressive metal to the Scream stage, before yet another American band but of a very different flavour on the Moonlight stage – deathcore lads Whitechapel, who I photographed at Bloodstock last summer. It was at this point I think that I had decided to try and shoot as many of the bands as possible this year, which is quite tiring when there are four stages and the more you shoot means the more editing you have to do…but I challenged myself to give it my best shot, so that is what I did.
After the little run of American bands, it was time for some German power metal on the Vampire stage in the form of Powerwolf, who are always very fun to shoot as they are so theatrical in their costumes and set design. Another genre I really enjoy photographing (although it can be quite challenging) is black metal, so I went to the Moonlight stage to catch Old Man’s Child. There was corpse-paint, there were studs, there were inverted crosses, there was screaming…all very much up my street, so I really enjoyed what I saw of their set.
The last few years I haven’t been able to photograph the headliners at the festival, which has been frustrating when it has been someone who I really wanted to shoot (like Iron Maiden or Korn), but a relief when it was someone I wasn’t so fussed about as it meant my friend and I could head off nice and early. On the press room whiteboard during the day there had been a note to say that those approved to shoot their set would be notified by text message, and to my genuine surprise and delight I had been approved, so I got to shoot Muse who I have never actually seen live before but have a lot of respect for as a band. Their stage set was fantastic, with light boxes moving up and down vertically to create a whole range of different effects and scenes. After the approved three songs I watched a few more tracks from their set with my friends – what a lovely end to the first day!
Andrea and I then headed back to our apartment and indulged in a restorative ritual that we invented during last year’s festival – soaking our sore feet in a bowl of water (this year featuring bath salts hand-crafted by my friend Corina) whilst enjoying a nice cold beer, some savoury snacks, and relaxing after a long and busy day.
“Take my money” band of the day for me were Candlemass. I bought a “40 Years Of Doom” t-shirt from their online merch store whilst at the airport on my way back home that I am wearing as I type this!
All photos by Katie Frost Photography
