Finally home from Graspop, so I figured, I’d share my highlights and thoughts on our headliners!
Mass Hysteria - Man, I wish these guys would tour outside of France more often. My first time seeing MH live and I was blown away. The production, visuals, mixing, performance, the crowd, everything was perfect about this. I skipped the second half of Maiden‘s set for this and I have no regrets whatsoever. This show was absolute lightning in the bottle and the perfect closer to Thursday‘s stacked Metal Dome line up! 10/10 show, if I’ve ever seen one.
Nine Inch Nails - As discussed previously, this was certainly a unique headliner and perhaps one that is not for everybody. However, I think we can all agree that the show was impeccable. The production was a little inferior to that of their indoor shows but they made up for it with an amazing best of setlist. For me, as a big fan of NINs music, this was such an overwhelming experience. I also had a great time meeting @Special Monkey and watching the show together! Huge!
Julie Christmas - This woman is something else, truly. What a mesmerising vocal performance and a nice setlist as well. Still hyped about her opening the show with Battle of Mice‘s Bones In The Water. Having a spot in the front row certainly helped as well!
Falling In Reverse - Okay, this one may be a bit more divisive. FIR isn’t for everyone, musically and thematically. With that being said, the show was extremely fun and I am very impressed with the diverse song selection. This one didn’t get boring for even a second and the moshpit was no slouch either.
The packed infield is a testament to this band‘s rise in popularity and I would love to see them close the North Stage at some point in the future.
I also want to give a big compliment to Brutus, Triptykon and SiM, all of whom played amazing sets.
In terms of the other headliners, I thought Korn put on another tight show, as per usual. Judas Priest had a couple of age-related hiccups but I found their show to be just right for a more relaxed final evening. Till was…something. I still haven’t made up my mind to be honest. While I understand the need for censoring his show at a festival with minors, I think the way in which they just cut out the visuals was very lazy and did the energetic band performance a disservice. Till‘s voice has aged quite a bit but I thought it was fine, still. Overall a very weird show and I don’t know if it was weird-good or just a bit too strange.
The first half of Iron Maiden was pretty good, as always, but I wasn’t upset about leaving early for Mass Hysteria.
Slipknot‘s show felt a little too safe for me. As expected, when we found out about their return to a best of setlist, the show just gave me a sense of deja vu. I think they really need to change up their show for future tours because it felt very predictable to me. Solid performance but a little too much of the same thing to me.
I didn’t catch Behemoth‘s and Powerwolf‘s set, so no comment on that.
TLDR - Graspop 2025 was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait for 2026!
Mass Hysteria - Man, I wish these guys would tour outside of France more often. My first time seeing MH live and I was blown away. The production, visuals, mixing, performance, the crowd, everything was perfect about this. I skipped the second half of Maiden‘s set for this and I have no regrets whatsoever. This show was absolute lightning in the bottle and the perfect closer to Thursday‘s stacked Metal Dome line up! 10/10 show, if I’ve ever seen one.
Nine Inch Nails - As discussed previously, this was certainly a unique headliner and perhaps one that is not for everybody. However, I think we can all agree that the show was impeccable. The production was a little inferior to that of their indoor shows but they made up for it with an amazing best of setlist. For me, as a big fan of NINs music, this was such an overwhelming experience. I also had a great time meeting @Special Monkey and watching the show together! Huge!
Julie Christmas - This woman is something else, truly. What a mesmerising vocal performance and a nice setlist as well. Still hyped about her opening the show with Battle of Mice‘s Bones In The Water. Having a spot in the front row certainly helped as well!
Falling In Reverse - Okay, this one may be a bit more divisive. FIR isn’t for everyone, musically and thematically. With that being said, the show was extremely fun and I am very impressed with the diverse song selection. This one didn’t get boring for even a second and the moshpit was no slouch either.
The packed infield is a testament to this band‘s rise in popularity and I would love to see them close the North Stage at some point in the future.
I also want to give a big compliment to Brutus, Triptykon and SiM, all of whom played amazing sets.
In terms of the other headliners, I thought Korn put on another tight show, as per usual. Judas Priest had a couple of age-related hiccups but I found their show to be just right for a more relaxed final evening. Till was…something. I still haven’t made up my mind to be honest. While I understand the need for censoring his show at a festival with minors, I think the way in which they just cut out the visuals was very lazy and did the energetic band performance a disservice. Till‘s voice has aged quite a bit but I thought it was fine, still. Overall a very weird show and I don’t know if it was weird-good or just a bit too strange.
The first half of Iron Maiden was pretty good, as always, but I wasn’t upset about leaving early for Mass Hysteria.
Slipknot‘s show felt a little too safe for me. As expected, when we found out about their return to a best of setlist, the show just gave me a sense of deja vu. I think they really need to change up their show for future tours because it felt very predictable to me. Solid performance but a little too much of the same thing to me.
I didn’t catch Behemoth‘s and Powerwolf‘s set, so no comment on that.
TLDR - Graspop 2025 was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait for 2026!
