Poppy is something special. You like it or you don’t like it. I only came to know about her when Babymetal released the song ‘From Me to U‘ featuring Poppy. People who aren’t a big fan of the genre will often question if this is a metal genre. It is, but it is really not my cup of tea except for a few songs. It has, as her name says, a poppy vibe to it with lots of beats and electric guitars. Some songs are very heavy with screams, some songs could be on the regular radio. She has a unique style that she made her own and she’s conquering the world with it. So, good for her, but not my style.

One of the best performances of Graspop 2025. Soulfly always gives a solid performance with their bass filled riffs and pounding drums. Guitars are low and fast and the crowd goes crazy. Even in very very warm weather, the circle pits and mosh pits are always there. Soulfly also created a little bit of a family reunion. Max Cavalera’s son Zyon was on drums and his other son Richie sang Bleed. And he sang it very well. I guess music runs in the family over there. Soulfly launched their Brazilian based groove metal all over the Graspop field. In three words: loud and good.

Classical rock’n roll was given to us by The Dead Daisies. They look rock’n roll, they breathe rock’n roll and they bring that vibe from the stage to us. It was a solid performance, but not outstanding. Meaning; I can’t tell you something incredible that happened during the show. They take the stage, they play, they play very good, but that’s it. I had a good time watching them playing their groovy music. But I can’t write a book about it. It was simple, but good. No extras, just plain rock’n roll. They played 7 songs, of which 3 of them were covers. It sounded good, but once again, nothing to write home about.

Bullet For My Valentine visited the country back in February on their ‘The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour’ with Trivium, now they visited Graspop as the last show of this summer of the same tour. And when you watch a band twice on the same tour, you get the same setlist. They played one extra song in February called ‘Knives‘. We didn’t hear that one at Graspop. But hey, I have nothing to complain. They gave an excellent show both times and sounded great both times. And when you like a band, you don’t mind hearing your favourite songs live another time. So yeah, it were the same songs and technically the same show, but it didn’t feel repetitive at all because of the other surroundings and different vibes that you have on a festival and at a show.

Probably the discovery of the festival for me. I didn’t know them, but my boyfriend convinced me to see them, and damn, I’m happy I did. The Mongolian metal band uses native instruments that I don’t quite know the names of, but it gives their music a special sound. Also, at one point I thought I heard one of those instruments, but it was the singer Galbadrakh Tsendbaatar who had a great vibration in his voice. It almost sounded like a didgeridoo. This technique is called throat singing and I’ve never heard something like that before. The Hu defines their own genre as Hunnu Rock; a fusion between traditional Mongolian music and Western rock and metal. It’s hard to describe it in words, you know it best if you just listen to them. It creates a vibe that’s danceable and gets people moving, but also rocks hard. The Hu played in the Marquee, but the crowd was way too big to fit inside. Next time, main stage would be a perfect fit.

Energetic rock’n rollers from Australia are getting at it again. An amazing energetic performance that went all the way back to the tribune at Jupiler stage. This is the only time I’ve seen a band get almost everybody along that far back. Their energy is just that catchy. The only thing is; if they play on main stage, which they have done before, they get a bigger audience because people are also there who just want to check the band out. There are three large screens that the band can be seen on and the sound does have a better quality. At Jupiler stage, where Airbourne played tonight, you couldn’t really see them or what they were doing unfortunately. It would be great to have one screen behind the PA here too, so we can see that lead singer Joel O’Keeffe is running around and going through the audience playing guitar once again. A great show and for me a great closer of the night.