Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium : 130 Bands Across 5 Stages in 4 Days

Graspop Metal Meeting 2025 brought the heat, the noise, and the kind of madness you don’t recover from overnight. Every moment felt loud, alive, and impossible to forget.

Dessel once again became the heart of heavy music. From June 19 to 22, Graspop Metal Meeting 2025 welcomed around 200,000 metalheads to a four-day event packed with unforgettable sets, scorching weather, and a lineup that blended legends with loud new blood. Across five stages, over 130 bands gave everything they had.

Day 1 – Thursday: A Strong Start with Heavy Icons

Fleshwater opened the day with a sound that was hard to pin down—in the best way. Their blend of shoegaze and metal hit the crowd right in the gut. Landmvrks from France who made their Graspop Metal Meeting debut this year, took over the South Stage with tight, high-energy metalcore packed with heavy drops and catchy choruses.

Later in the day, Soen brought prog-rock with soul. Their melodies were haunting, their presence tight and refined. Paradise Lost followed with a dose of goth metal—dark, deliberate, and built on decades of experience.

Dream Theater then turned the South Stage into a masterclass in musicianship. Mike Portnoy’s return behind the kit created huge buzz, and the band delivered a mix of classics and new tracks from Parasomnia. Fans didn’t just watch—they soaked in every note.

Iron Maiden closed out the first night with their 50th anniversary tour set. The performance showed no signs of age. Bruce Dickinson raced across the stage like a man possessed. Flames shot high, vocals hit harder, and every person in the crowd shouted back each lyric like it was their last.

Day 2 – Friday: Sweat, Mayhem, and Pure Noise

Myles Kennedy kicked things off with an emotional, high-powered set. Even in the early hours, his band sounded huge and his voice soared over the fields of Dessel.

Knocked Loose arrived and instantly turned the place into a war zone. Violent breakdowns. Bone-crushing mosh pits. Their set left dust clouds hanging in the air and fans grinning through black eyes and bruises.

Falling in Reverse followed up with a chaotic, theatrical performance. Ronnie Radke jumped between styles like it was nothing—metalcore, pop hooks, rap verses. The crowd kept up with every twist.

Behemoth delivered a fiery, ritualistic set that stunned visually as much as sonically. Nergal stalked the stage in full force, while the band built an atmosphere that was equal parts sinister and hypnotic.

Meanwhile, Skillet brought their massive stadium-rock energy. Tight choreography, pyro blasts, and sing-along choruses made their set one of the most high-energy shows of the day. Besides that, the highlight of the day happens to be the fact that we got to interview Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth.

Day 3 – Saturday: Wall-to-Wall Sound and a Brutal, Beautiful Build-Up

Saturday, which was the third day of Graspop Metal Meeting 2025, turned Dessel into a furnace, but the heat only matched the fire on stage. The day opened with Oomph! ripping into industrial rhythms that set the pace early. Their sharp delivery and stage theatrics brought the crowd to life.

Eisbrecher followed with a wall of heavy German metal—tight, polished, and punishing. The South Stage crowd didn’t get a second to breathe as Soulfly stormed in with tribal rhythms and fierce energy. Max Cavalera’s raw vocals tore through the air while mosh pits exploded on both sides.

Later in the evening, Spiritbox took over and turned the volume and emotion up even higher. Courtney LaPlante’s switch between airy vocals and piercing screams gave their set serious weight. Their balance of melody and heaviness made it one of the most memorable performances of the day.

Nine Inch Nails closed the night with a full-scale sensory attack. Strobe lights. Smoke. Industrial chaos. Trent Reznor commanded the stage like a machine on fire, unleashing tracks that felt both deeply personal and massive in scale. After three days of pounding energy, this was the perfect dose of cinematic intensity to bring Day 3 to a thundering close.

Day 4 – Sunday: Emotional Farewells and Last Blasts

The final day packed just as much heat, both from the sun and the stage. Even after three packed days, the energy didn’t fade. Sunday opened strong with Crossfaith, who fused electronic chaos with relentless metalcore. Their set felt like a rave and a pit colliding, and nobody wanted out.

Throughout the day, newer acts like Fit For An Autopsy, SiM, Paleface Swiss, and Seven Hours After Violet proved they belonged alongside the legends. Each act brought its own twist, some dark and atmospheric, some loud and unrelenting, but all undeniably sharp.

By sundown, the heavyweights took over. In Flames blasted through a tight, ferocious set on the North Stage with a mix of modern metalcore and throwback classics. Judas Priest followed on the South Stage with an arena-sized show and Rob Halford still hit those notes, and the crowd followed every beat like gospel.

Meanwhile, King Diamond turned the Marquee into a horror show with soaring falsettos and eerie theatricality. Each note told a story, and the audience stayed locked in till the final second.

To close it all out, Till Lindemann delivered a set that blurred the line between performance art and metal mayhem. Industrial beats. Flamethrowers. Screams in multiple languages. It was strange, heavy, unforgettable—and the perfect way to end four days of everything Graspop Metal Meeting 2025 stands for.

Graspop – Louder Than Ever, Even After the Final Note

So, as a final note, what made the event so special was the diverse lineup, the crowd’s raw energy, flawless management and execution, and moments that will remain etched in the hearts of the fans forever. Graspop Metal Meeting 2025 delivered four straight days of intensity, emotion, and unmatched live energy. Every artist left their mark, and every fan left a little louder than they came in. In a way, this wasn’t just a festival. It was a milestone in metal music.

Also read: Modern Machines Vol. 3 Was A Metal Blaze – Zygnema, Within Ceres and More