TONS OF ROCK 2024 (Oslo, Norway)
June 26-29, 2024
by Jorge Patacas
Norway’s biggest rock/metal festival, Tons of Rock, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and continues to grow and break records. On this occasion, the event was attended by a total of 150.000 people of all ages (yes, from children to grandparents) spread over four days, surpassing the mark of 100.000 from the previous edition. Thanks to the incredible work of the promoters, the crew and several volunteers, everything was very well organized ensuring that all basic needs were covered, as well as offering many other activities in addition to the concerts to make the experience complete for everyone. For example, new to this edition was “The Black Path”, which was a tour through the sculpture park located near the festival area highlighting the dark history and hidden secrets of the park, ending in “The Black Gate”, a secret entrance to the festival at Ekebergsletta. In the large area where the event took place, you could find a wide range of food and drinks, 425 toilet facilities and 500 urinals, 5 water stations and a pharmacy that offered free sunscreen, as well as games, bars, stand up comedy, live interviews with bands and artists and more. Then there was again this year the tent called Tons of Art, where some of the best artists in the country showed their work and some of it was available for sale. Of course, there were also many stalls with merch of all kinds, including t-shirts, tote bags, CDs, spike bracelets, leather jackets, boots, sunglasses and more, and you could get a new tattoo here too.
Wednesday, June 26:
The local comedy rock band Black Debbath opened the main stage (Scream) as they do every year since the first edition in 2014, but this time we chose to start the festival in the tent where the Moonlight stage is located. The first to perform there were Better Lovers, a quintet formed last year by former Dillinger Escape Plan and current Kill or Be Killed vocalist, Greg Puciato, Fit for an Autopsy’s Will Putney and former members of Every Time I Die, Jordan Buckley, Steve Micciche and Clayton Holyoak. Their sound is reminiscent of the chaotic hardcore of the early 2000’s and some in the audience decided to start crowdsurfing from the beginning to the tunes from the debut EP “God Made Me an Animal” (2023). This was Better Lovers first show in Norway. Let’s hope it won’t be the last.
Last time the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal act Saxon played in Oslo had been with Diamond Head in October 2022 at Rockefeller Music Hall. They returned with a new album, “Hell, Fire and Damnation”, and with Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler on guitars, who joined the band last year after Paul Quinn stepped down. They put on a great show in front of many fans on the main stage. Classics like “Power and the Glory” appeared very early, as well as “Heavy Metal Thunder” and “Crusader”, but the highlight was definitely “Denim and Leather”, where the audience threw denim vests on the stage. Vocalist Biff Byford wore one of them and gave the others to the other members. So for the next song, “Wheels of Steel”, everyone except drummer Nigel Glockler were wearing denim vests. Another classic followed in the form of “Princess of the Night” before signing the vests and returning them to the audience. Great show from a band that never stops touring and releasing new albums despite their age and any challenges they have to face. They gained the respect of fans decades ago and that’s confirmed once again with a great response at Tons of Rock.
Up next was Mammoth WVH on the Vampire stage, led by Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang, who played bass in Van Halen from 2007 until the band’s dissolution in 2020 when Eddie passed away. Still hard to believe that he’s no longer with us, by the way. Wolfgang began his solo project that year choosing the name Mammoth, which was the name of Eddie’s old band that eventually became Van Halen in 1973. Wolfgang has released two albums so far, “Mammoth WVH” (2021) and “Mammoth II” (2023), where he played all the instruments and also did the vocals. For the live concerts he sings and plays guitar, backed by a very good lineup. The music has influences from hard rock, but also radio friendly alternative rock and was well received by the audience. Great show!
Just like two years ago, the Swedish legends Europe delivered a great performance full of all-time hits on the Scream stage. From early on with “Rock the Night” they already got the crowd singing the chorus, and there were several moments like this especially with the ballad “Carrie”, the hits “Superstitious” (with a snippet of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry”) and “Cherokee”, another catchy 80’s tune with a great sound. But their material from this century is actually very interesting with a 70’s hard rock oriented sound that can be clearly heard in songs like “Walk the Earth” and “War of Kings”, which have been part of their set for a while now, but this time they also introduced a new song called “Hold Your Head Up” that was released last year.
As expected, they closed their set with the anthem “The Final Countdown” and the entire audience, even the little kids, were singing along to the lyrics.
The crowd roared as soon as Australian metalcore heroes Parkway Drive appeared on the Vampire stage, and vocalist Winston McCall was impressed and clearly really happy about it. They opened with “Glitch” followed by “Prey” getting one of the best responses of the festival up to that point. The songs fluctuate between melody and aggression, characteristic of their metalcore sound. The band sounded excellent and the vocalist got the audience involved at all times. A lot of pyros were also used adding an extra element to the whole experience.
The area in front of the main stage was already packed an hour before Metallica’s performance and it was clear this was going to happen, as tickets for that day quickly sold out. This stage had a big screen at the back and two on the sides and also a semi-circular walkway with microphones where the members walked during the show, and the entire stage decor was black and yellow, as they’re promoting their new album “72 Seasons” which has these colours as trademark. AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N’ Roll)” announced the arrival of James Hetfield (guitars/vocals), Kirk Hammett (guitar), Robert Trujillo (bass) and Lars Ulrich (drums). They decided to start their set in the best way possible with “Whiplash”, one of the fastest songs from their debut album “Kill ‘Em All” (1983), followed by other classics such as “Creeping Death” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” from “Ride the Lightning” (1984). By the way, in the audience was Flemming Rasmussen, the producer of that album, as well as “Master of Puppets” (1986) and “…And Justice for All” (1988), who was in Norway that week to talk about the recordings of “Ride the Lightning”, an album that turns 40 this year. He also promoted his book “Rock & Stjernestøv” in those talks in the cities of Drammen and Oslo. The first song from the self-titled album, also known as “The Black Album”, that Metallica played that night was “Enter Sandman” in front of a crowd that was cheering and singing along to this anthem. Then it was time to promote their latest material, the aforementioned “72 Seasons”, so we got the title track and “If Darkness Had a Son”, before Hetfield and Ulrich left the stage to take a break, while both Trujillo and Hammett moved closer to the audience to jam. They were going to do what they usually do everywhere, which is to play a cover of a very popular song in the country they play, so this time they did “Vill, vakker & våt”, originally by the Norwegian rock band CC Cowboys, which they learned to play early that morning, they explained. Trujillo read the lyrics in Norwegian as the crowd sang loudly. With Hetfield and Ulrich back on stage, it was time for another “Ride the Lightning” gem, in this case “Fade to Black”. One of the highlights of Metallica’s performance was definitely when Hetfield announced Brian Tatler (Saxon, Diamond Head) as guest guitarist for “Am I Evil?”, the Diamond Head cover. That was a surprise. Hetfield explained that Metallica’s second show ever was opening for Saxon and how incredible it is that they shared the stage again that night. At the end of the song, he also thanked Tatler for that riff, one of the heaviest in metal history, and we couldn’t agree more. More of “The Black Album” came later in the form of “Nothing Else Matters” and “Sad But True”, and just before continuing with “Lux Aeterna”, Ulrich moved to another drum kit located in the walkway closer to the audience. Of the songs on the new album, this one got the best response from the audience. But it was time for the last part of the show, and then the unmistakable riff of “Seek and Destroy” sounded and the crowd reacted accordingly. Some images from the early days were shown on the screen and several beach balls were thrown to the audience who at that moment were having a lot of fun. Over two hours of performance and there was still time for a couple of classics. Ulrich moved to a third drum kit and images of soldiers appeared on the screens, so they played “One” before coming to an end with “Master of Puppets”. As soon as they finished, there were fireworks and the band threw a huge amount of guitar picks into the crowd. A perfect way to end the first day with an audience that met their expectations and left satisfied.
Thursday, June 27:
Fortunately, we had sunny and warm weather throughout the festival and the second day started early at 13:10 with the Metal Queen, the legendary Doro. Backed by a great lineup consisting of Bill Hudson and Bas Maas on guitars, Stefan Herkenhoff on bass and Johnny Dee on drums, she confirmed once again that she can still deliver amazing performances more than 40 years since her career began. Opening with “I Rule the Ruins” and “Burning the Witches”, two classics from her former band Warlock, she made the audience part of the show from the start, proving that she is not only a great vocalist, but also a charismatic frontwoman.
The energetic performance continued with some songs from her latest album “Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud” (2023) such as “Time for Justice”, her personal favorite “Children of the Dawn” and “Fire in the Sky”. “Raise Your Fist in the Air” from the album “Raise Your Fist” (2012) followed, and of course everyone did what the title says. In Warlock’s anthem “All We Are”, Doro made sure the entire audience sang along and got an amazing response. The fast “Metal Racer”, another old school gem from Warlock’s “Burning the Witches” album (1984), was chosen to close the set. Judas Priest’s “Living After Midnight” was heard over the P.A. as they left the stage to applause. A perfect way to start the day!
On the Scream stage, Opeth performed a number of fan-requested songs, starting with “The Grand Conjuration” from the “Ghost Reveries” (2005). The guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt was in a very good mood and made some jokes about the fan requests, because people had chosen old songs that are extremely long, so they didn’t have time to play many of them. So we got to hear only five songs in an hour, but it was definitely worth it as they played some of the golden material like “Demon of the Fall” from “My Arms, Your Hearse” (1998) and “The Drapery Falls” from the “Blackwater Park” album (2001), where Åkerfeldt’s growls impressed once again.
He introduced the next song as a song that should not be played on a sunny day outdoors and then joked that none of their songs were for a sunny day. Then they played “Heir Apparent” from the “Watershed” album, and that was the most recent song played this time. After the last song, “Deliverance”, there was a standing ovation for one of the best progressive death metal bands in the world.
Heart had to cancel their European tour and therefore their participation in the festival due to Ann Wilson’s illness, which was very sad, but the organizers eventually found a great replacement. That’s how the legendary W.A.S.P. ended up performing at the festival. The frontman Blackie Lawless explained that he was sitting in a chair while playing because he has two slipped discs and a broken back, but he still performs live for the fans, against doctor’s advice.
W.A.S.P. gave the audience what they wanted and that’s old school classics, so they started with “Blind In Texas” and “L.O.V.E. Machine”, the latter from their debut album which turns 40 this year, followed by “The Real Me”, originally by The Who. Then it was the turn of the concept album “The Crimson Idol” (1992), starting with the ballad “The Idol” in which Blackie’s unique voice stands out for its emotion, and “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)”. Great selection!
After a very good performance of “Miss You”, Lawless stood alone on stage with his guitar and began playing and singing the classic “Wild Child” letting the audience sing along as well. He was then joined by the rest of the band currently consisting of Doug Blair on guitars, Mike Duda on bass, and Brazilian drummer Aquiles Prester (ex Angra), as the music video for the song was shown on the screen behind him. This was the highlight of the concert with a very engaged crowd singing along loudly. Last song was “I Wanna Be Somebody” meeting expectations. Now let’s hope for Blackie’s quick recovery.
One of the funniest and craziest performances at Tons of Rock this year was Mr. Bungle on the Vampire stage. When they reunited after nineteen years, Mike Patton (lead vocals, keyboards), Trey Spruance (guitars) and Trevor Dunn (bass) decided to recruit two thrash metal legends: Scott Ian (Anthrax) on guitar and the mighty Dave Lombardo (ex Slayer) on drums. We already know that this is an experimental band and we know about Patton’s amazing vocal range, humor and wild musical projects, but seeing Ian and Lombardo playing Spandau Ballet’s “True” alternating with 7 Seconds’ “You Lose”, that was something else, not to mention their version of “Funky Town” by Lipps Inc. Extremely funny. This set had a little bit of everything, from classic crossover tracks like S.O.D.’s “Speak English or Die” and D.R.I.’s “I Don’t Need Society” to all time metal anthems like Slayer’s “Hell Awaits” or Sepultura’s “Territory” to Lipps Inc’s “Funky Town” and some of their own songs in between like “Eracist” and “My Ass is On Fire”. Patton’s jokes between songs were also there and he even sang the popular Spanish song “La Cucaracha” at some point. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, they decided to close the show with the Eric Carmen’s classic “All By Myself”, but renamed it “Go Fuck Yourself” and made everyone in the audience wave their middle finger.
As always, lots of people gathered to see the headliners who that day were none other than prog/alternative masters Tool. The bass player Justin Chancellor came out with a Norwegian flag and the rest of the band followed. Chancellor and guitar player Adam Jones stood in the front, while vocalist Maynard James Keenan remained throughout the show alongside drummer Danny Carey.
They opened with “Jambi” to continue with the title track of their latest album “Fear Inoculum” while images were projected on the screens behind and to the sides of the stage. The visual aspect is as important as the music for a band like Tool. “Pneuma” and “Schism” were some of the highlights, as well as the singles from the “Aenema” album, the title track and “Stinkfist”, which was the final song of the evening.
Friday, June 28:
The third day on the main stage started with some Norwegian rock thanks to Valentourettes, a tribute band to legendary Norwegian vocalist Joachim “Jokke” Nielsen, who passed away in October 2000. Valentourettes are named after Jokke’s bands, Jokke & Valentinerne and Jokke med Tourettes, and the lineup features former members of these bands, Petter Baarli (Backstreet Girls) on guitars, Petter Pogo on bass and Runar Johannessen on drums, with Tarjei Foshaug (Hard Luck Street) on vocals. On this occassion they were celebrating what would have been Jokke’s 60th birthday, so they turned the entire area into a rock and roll party in his memory with classics like “Gutta”, “To fulle Menn”, “Sola Skinner” and “Øl” getting a great response from the crowd. Actress Marte Engebrigsten was a guest on “Hr. Smith” and “Hvis jeg var deg” and the Swedish singer/songwriter Stefan Sundström appeared on the well-known “Verdiløse Menn”. Great atmosphere in Ekeberg to start the day.
The legendary Uriah Heep was next to perform their all time classics as well as songs from “Chaos & Colour” (2023), their 25th (!) album released last year, and opened with a song taken from it, “Save Me Tonight”. Although there were old loyal fans in the crowd, it was a surprise to see a lot of very young people there, not just because they were waiting for the next band or something, but they were actually enjoying and even singing along to the songs. Guitarist Mick Box is the only remaining original member and still plays those riffs and solos as well as ever, even though he’s now 77 years old. The rest of the band does a fantastic job as well, especially vocalist Bernie Shaw, who has been in the band since 1986 as keyboardist Phil Lanzon. Fan favorites like “Gypsy” and “Easy Livin'” sounded great, although the highlight was the last song “Lady In Black”, where the entire crowd sang along. What a magical moment!
54 years on the road and there’s no sign of them stopping anytime soon!
A large crowd awaited Abbath, who had played the same Vampire stage two years ago. However, this time he only performed Immortal songs, so the audience hadn’t heard them live in a long time. The corpsepaint and outfits were there in addition to the pyros, and the crowdsurfing was intense throughout the set that featured songs like “One by One” (one of the best in Immortal’s catalog), “Tyrants”, “The Sun No Longer Rises” and “Damned in Black”, closing with the classic “Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)” from the album “Battles in the North” (1995). The sound was not the best during this performance, probably because of the wind, but looking at people’s faces, it was clear that they enjoyed it.
American hardcore band Turnstile put on an intense and powerful performance on the Scream stage. The band formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2010 and has been growing ever since, conquering audiences around the world. Tons of Rock was no exception, as there were fans of the band there, but also a lot of people who were simply curious about them since they were playing on the main stage right before the headliners. The quintet has a lot of energy and a great stage presence, which allowed them to have the audience in their pockets in a matter of minutes.
At the end of the show, vocalist Brendan Yates jumped down and shook hands with everyone in the front row. One of the memorable moments of the festival. Surprisingly, as posted on Judas Priest’s social media, Rob Halford and James Hetfield were watching the band together from the back of the stage!
Former Morbid Angel members David Vincent (bass/vocals) and Pete “Commando” Sandoval (drums), along with Richie Brown and Bill Hudson on guitars, who played with Doro the day before, are the current lineup of I Am Morbid and they came out determined to devastate the Moonlight stage. Their debut album “Altars of Madness” (1989) turned 35 this year, so they opened with “Immortal Rites”, and from the beginning crowd surfing was constant. Vincent’s vocals are still outstanding after forty years, and the entire band did a brilliant job performing some of the best Morbid Angel material. “Fall from Grace”, “Visions from the Dark Side”, the classic “Rapture” from the “Covenant” album (1993), “Pain Divine”, “Maze of Torment”. Vincent also asked how many were alive when “Altars of Madness” came out and commented on the fact that there were a lot of young people in the crowd. The last part of the set consisted of more classic stuff like “Dominate”, “Where the Slime Live”, “God of Emptiness” with Vincent’s fantastic clean vocals at the end and “World of Shit” concluded a brilliant performance.
Now it was time for the headliners of the day, the mighy Judas Priest! The British legends released a new album this year, “Invincible Shield”, which they’re currently promoting. In fact, they opened with “Panic Attack” from this album.
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” was the first of many metal anthems that we got to enjoy that evening. The guitar work by Andy Sneap, who replaces Glenn Tipton, and Richie Faulkner, who is back after serious health issues, was simply excellent and they know how to entertain the audience on each side of the stage. Bassist and founder Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis delivered as always, and Rob Halford’s voice is still amazing at 72, truly impressive! The band gives the audience what they want to hear and that’s a great selection of songs including “Breaking the Law”, “Sinner”, “Turbo Lover”, “Victim of Changes” and “Painkiller”. The encore began with “The Hellion / Electric Eye”, then Halford left and took the stage again on his motorcycle for “Hell Bent for Leather”, ending with another metal anthem, the sing-along “Living After Midnight”. Fans expectations were met. Fantastic end to the third day.
Saturday, June 29:
Although there were fewer people the last day of the festival compared to the other days, there was still a large crowd that arrived early to see the Norwegian rock band Seigmen perform on the Scream stage, showing their support for local bands. The vocalist Alex Møklebust (also Zeromancer vocalist) has been through a very serious health issue in recent years, so it was great to see him back in action. They opened with “Fra X Til Døden” and “Ohm”, but it was with the classic “Döderlein” that the crowd started singing. The focus of the show was on their 90s material with the exception of “Berlin” from their new album “Resonans” released this year. Great show!
One of the best and most intense shows of the festival was the Cavalera brothers performing old Sepultura classics. Opening with the rawness of “Bestial Devastation”, Max Cavalera (guitars/vocals) immediately stated once again that “since 1983 this is the real Sepultura”, and then proceeded with a devastating version of “Antichrist”. More old school stuff followed in the form of “Morbid Visions” and “Mayhem” while the audience was crowd surfing and doing circle pits. Just like they did with Sepultura’s “Bestial Devastation” EP and debut album “Morbid Visions”, the band recently released a re-recording of the album “Schizophrenia” (1987), so we got to hear some of the best songs on it such as the opener “From the Past Comes the Storms”, “Septic Schizo”, the instrumental “Inquisition Symphony” and the fast-paced “Escape to the Void”. The audience erupted in ecstasy when Cavalera announced “Refuse/Resist” from the “Chaos AD” album (1993), then “Territory” followed with the entire audience loudly shouting the chorus, closing with another classic, “Troops of Doom” and part of “Dead Embryonic Cells”. Simply amazing!
Right after Cavalera’s bestial devastation on the Vampire stage, the German thrash legends Kreator performed on the Scream stage. The stage was adorned with a large blow-up statue of the band’s mascot, Violent Mind, behind the drum kit, a couple of impaled dolls on either side of the stage and a few others hanging from the ceiling, which the strong wind helped to make them move, so the visual effect was even better. Starting with “Hate Uber Alles”, the first pyros were released, then they continued with “Phobia” getting a very good response. Immediately, guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza asked for the biggest wall of death of the festival and so his wishes came true as they played “Enemy of God”. It was also drummer Ventor’s birthday, so the entire crowd sang happy birthday to him right after the band played “666 – World Divided”. More recent classics such as “Hordes of Chaos”, “Hail to the Hordes” and “Satan is Real” followed. During the latter two girls dressed as nuns could be seen crowdsurfing. Later, the set continued with the great “Violent Revolution” and the title track of the second album “Pleasure to Kill” and another wall of death began. This time we didn’t get to hear “Flag of Hate” which was strange as it’s usually in their set, but no complaints at all, they have a vast catalogue and not enough time to play all the great material they have. Kreator never disappoints and hopefully, as they always say, the Kreator will return!
Avantasia, the symphonic power metal project of Edguy’s Tobias Sammet, was next on the Vampire stage and, in addition to the music, they impressed with the stage props that fit the stories of the songs. The musicians accompanying Sammet are Sascha Paeth and Arne Wiegand on guitars, Dirk Schlächter (Gamma Ray) on bass, Miro Rodenberg on keyboards and Felix Bohnke on drums, but in addition to them, there were also guests on several songs, such as they do it in the studio. This time we had the opportunity to see Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) in “The Scarecrow”, Bob Catley (Magnum) in “The Story Ain’t Over” and Kenny Leckremo (H.E.A.T.), who was invited to sing “Dying For An Angel” live with the band for the first time and clearly got the best response from the crowd.
Sammet himself said that they didn’t know what to expect about the Norwegian audience, but the response was much better than expected.
Blues rock legends ZZ Top were next to take the Scream stage. Billy Gibbons (guitar/vocals) and Frank Beard (drums) appeared on stage along with bassist Elwood Francis, whom the legendary Dusty Hill chose as his replacement, before he passed away in 2021. Francis appeared on stage with a 17-string bass for the first song “Got Me Under Pressure”. From there, we got a selection of songs from different periods of their career, including very old songs like “Just Got Paid” from their second album “Rio Grande Mud” and “Brown Sugar” from their debut album, but the best moments where the crowd got more excited were, as expected, with 80’s hits like “Gimme All Your Lovin'”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, “Legs” and “La Grange”. There were frequent changes of both outfits and instruments, and also the synchronized dance moves the trio is famous for, but for some reason the concert never turned into the big party one might have expected beforehand.
The sky turned grey just in time when the Norwegian black metal outfit Satyricon was about to appear on the Vampire stage in front of a very large audience. Satyr (vocals) and Frost (drummer) took the stage accompanied by Attila Vörös and Steinar Gundersen on guitars, and the surprise of this European tour, Frank Bello from Anthrax on bass.
“To Your Brethren in the Dark” from their album “Deep Calleth upon Deep” (2017) was the opener and from there they spanned their discography with many of the most well-known songs. So we were able to hear “Now, Diabolical”, “Black Crow on a Tombstone”, “The Pentagram Burns” and the black n’ roll classic “Fuel for Hatred”. But the best moment was definitely when the whole crowd sang the intro to the black metal masterpiece “Mother North”. Another single, “K.I.N.G.” from the “Now, Diabolical” album (2006) was the one they chose to conclude a fantastic performance. It’s been awhile since they played live and they’re in great form.
With a performance by the hard rock band Greta Van Fleet and fireworks, it was time to say goodbye to this year’s edition of Tons of Rock. A great 10th anniversary celebration. Here’s to ten more years! Cheers and see you all in 2025!
