Photo Reports

Eight years after their last visit to Europe, Be’lakor was back on tour in Europe where they played 16 shows spread over 3 weeks, which was immediately their biggest tour ever. They played at 6 Festivals including Wacken, Summer Breeze and Brutal Assault and in 10 club shows of which more than half were in countries where they had never played before such as Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and Switzerland. No wonder 9 out of 10 club shows were sold out! This show was originally planned in Kortrijk, but because it sold out so quickly and the demand for tickets kept coming, they decided to move it to the JOC in Ypres which has double the capacity of the venue in Kortrijk.

Considering they come from Australia, they have probably already started the tour with quite a bit of jet lag. So at the very end of the tour, 3 weeks later (of which they barely had 3 days off), it’s no wonder they gave a tired impression on stage. Nevertheless, they played a flawless set. After 8 songs, they stopped and left the stage. The ‘we want more’ shouts were soon answered with the last song, by unanimous request of the audience: ‘Countless Skies’.

The support act was the German formation Hiraes, a band was formed by the musicians of the former band Dawn of Disease (Lukas Kerk, Oliver Kirchner, Christian Wösten, Mathias Blässe), supplemented by the super energetic vocalist Britta Görtz (Critical Mess, Ex-Cripper) who knows how to get the crowd along in no time! Hiraes released their first and so far only album ‘Solitary’ in 2021.

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible. But seeing so many people having the times of their lives pulled our cameras away from the bands regularly, capturing the great community and atmosphere you could find all over the place!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

The last day of a long and exhausting weekend of great music and atmosphere was all about the Belgian music scene at La Morgue with Aeveris, Brutal Sphincter, Hexa Mera, Mantah and Reject The Sickness!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

The last day of a long and exhausting weekend of great music and atmosphere with some of the most extreme music around on the Swamp Stage from Serpents Oath, Archspire, Kataklysm and Bloodbath!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

The last day of a long and exhausting weekend of great music and atmosphere brought some of the best of the sludge, post-metal and psychedelic rock scene with Psychonaut, Gaupa, Stake, Brutus and Cult of Luna!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

The last day of a long and exhausting weekend of great music and atmosphere with on the main stage shows from Sacred Reich, Bleed From Within, Blind Guardian, Killswitch Engage and of course, the party that was Electric Callboy!

Finland has a rich history in the metal scene, with some highly influential and important bands having sprouted from the fertile grounds there. And with that, also comes a whole series of great events, going from unique one time concerts to excellent festivals to pick from every summer (and throughout the year) like Tuska, Steelfest, Nummirock,… And this year it seems another one will establish itself as a crowd favorite with Hellsinki Metal Festival. With its first edition it immediately showed off how the organization seems to want to do things slightly different from most other festivals with a line-up that really showed a clearly different approach. And while this first edition wasn’t without its issues, Hellsinki Metal Festival will be marked in our calendars as a yearly “must to go”. On the second day, we caught excellent shows from Samael, Before The Dawn and Bury Tomorrow on the 2nd outdoor stage “Hellsinki 02”!

Finland has a rich history in the metal scene, with some highly influential and important bands having sprouted from the fertile grounds there. And with that, also comes a whole series of great events, going from unique one time concerts to excellent festivals to pick from every summer (and throughout the year) like Tuska, Steelfest, Nummirock,… And this year it seems another one will establish itself as a crowd favorite with Hellsinki Metal Festival. With its first edition it immediately showed off how the organization seems to want to do things slightly different from most other festivals with a line-up that really showed a clearly different approach. And while this first edition wasn’t without its issues, Hellsinki Metal Festival will be marked in our calendars as a yearly “must to go”. On the second day, we caught excellent shows from Bloodred Hourglass, I Am Morbid, Leprous and the legendary Emperor on the 1st outdoor stage “Hellsinki 01”!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

Second day at an exciting edition of Alcatraz we went to get a bit of a taste of the old school heavy metal that was playing the whole day at La Morgue with EvilDead and Vicious Rumors!

Already the 15th anniversary of the Belgian metal and rock festival Alcatraz! The fest has grown out from a fun 1-day event into a beast of a 3-day festival with every single year a killer line-up with always at least a couple of surprises. Of course, we were present again, trying to see as many of the awesome bands as possible.

Second day at an exciting edition of Alcatraz we had a very black metal heavy one with Gaerea, Taake and Belphegor, old school punk with The Exploited, gloomy industrial from Godflesh and one of Finland’s favorite bands Amorphis!