Leeuwarden, Netherlands | Friday 9 June 2023
Personally I was off to a bit of a slow start, having been quite ill earlier in the morning from some off-food but we (my fiancé and I) managed the train trip from Utrecht to Leeuwarden without too much fuss. We’d decided to leave much earlier in the day for the 2 hour trek to make sure we got a seat on the train before the excited and rowdy festival-goers packed out the carriages.
We dropped our bags off at the hotel and did some laundry before finally getting our shit together and headed to the festival site around 5:30pm. It was a short stroll, winding through the back streets of Leeuwarden and looking at all of the lovely houses and seeing metalheads from all over taking over the streets of this quaint Dutch town.
We headed to the service desk to pick up my photo pass and went to get our wristbands. It was a pretty smooth process with no major lines or any fuss. I think day 1 of the festival is a little smaller, starting on the Friday afternoon with most of the crowd heading into town for the weekend. While there is camping available for attendees, there’s a limited number of hotels in the city so we made sure we booked ours months in advance to get a good rate and location.
Walking through the main gates, you could go left towards the food stalls, merch desk and the main stage but we headed to the right to check out some of the heavy metal market stalls selling all kinds of trinkets from jewellry and fashion, randomly lots of dream catchers, to band shirts and more.
We made our way over to the Reaper stage (the smaller of the two stages) to check out Blackbriar. This female fronted alternative/goth-rock band are from the Netherlands and were formed around 2012. The singer had striking red hair and a custom thorny rose mic stand but she dominated the stage with alluring and powerful vocals to a very welcoming crowd.
Not having heard them before, their lyrics were inspired by gothic, medieval, wiccan and mythological themes with songs like “I’d rather burn” which was performed about a witch preferring to be sent to the stake. It always amazes me when you think that English is usually the 2nd or even 3rd language spoken by a lot of these bands, and to write and perform in English is always super impressive. They invited another female guest singer onto the stage halfway through the set for a duet. It was lovely to hear two strong female voices on stage together.
From there we headed over to check out the merch stand, grab some drinks and suss out the mainstage. The festival merch is of great quality and priced well for a multi-day event with hats at €15 and shirts at €25 we picked up a few items each. I was a little hesitant about the card/cash situation but everywhere within the festival took our mastercards with no trouble at all (phew!!).
There are plenty of drink stations with water, soft drink and beers on sale starting at €2.5/3 for a small cup of 7up (bit on the pricier side) but… if you plan to drink beer I think that was starting at €3.5 lol. Drinks come in reusable cups from various festivals including past editions of Into the Grave (if I get another cup from 2018 when I saw Gojira I might keep that one and pay the extra euro for another cup lol!) as well as Dynamo and Eindhoven Metal Meeting (all the same promoter/company puts these awesome shows on).
Next up on the main stage in the peak sun (at 7pm might I add) was Sweden’s progressive metal band, Evergrey. Having been in the business for over 25 years, these guys were super tight on stage and delivered a hard-hitting set. This was my first ever time hearing their music, so I was quite impressed with Tom S. Englund’s vocal delivery (despite being absolutely blinded by the sun). The band had a great vibe on stage, impeccable sound and lighting, with a very receptive crowd hanging out to hear their personal favourites from albums past.
Then we headed back over to the Reaper stage for the unexpected highlight of the night, Warkings. Looking at their photo on the festival app, my immediate thought was this is going to be cheesy as fuck dont get me wrong, but holy hell they were fucking awesome.
The set started with a voice over introducing each of the members and the European region they were from/representing. Their drummer walked onto the stage in full Spartan gear head-to-toe, helmet and all… Next was the Viking (bass), then the Crusader (guitar) and the Tribune (vocals) and later followed by Morgana Le Fay (female growling vocalist).
The music was pretty much what you’d expect from their look but the band was tight and man… those vocals were powerful both from the Tribune and later with Morgana. During their set another Viking came out to light the cauldron flames, and rev up the crowd. Mid-set Morgana made her first appearance on stage and I wasn’t expecting growls at all. She joined the band for a handful of songs solo and duet.
There were a few intermittent sound issues on the stage (not the band’s fault) which were a little frustrating for the crowd, but quickly rectified.
After their set we got some chips and mayo (a Dutch staple) while waiting for Dragonforce to take the main stage. This was my first time seeing Dragonforce, so I was definitely curious after seeing the two huge arcade machines on stage during their setup… and well what can I say – it was everything I expected. A great performance from the band, super tight sound with all of the riffs, so much hair flowing in the wind, guitar solos for days, confetti, sparks, flames and more…
Every few seconds a new crowd surfer was coming over the rails, with headbangers screaming their lungs out to all their all-time fave tunes. Towards the end of their set I couldn’t help but chuckle at their cover of “My heart will go on” with guitarist, Herman Li standing up on the giant arcade machine platform with his arms out Titanic style, then making heart symbols to the crowd.
It was so refreshing to see the next generation of metalheads in the crowd and even front row with their parents seeing some of their favourite bands for the very first time. The younger kids under 12 yrs old were required to wear heavy duty headphones but they were rocking out like they’ve been doing it forever.
Another thing I loved was that the crowds were very much like those at home, helping each other out when someone goes down and generally taking care of each other. The festival was also quite accessible too, with a number of fans right up the front along the barrier in wheelchairs. The audience was very respectful and gave them the space and comfort to see these acts up close.
After Dragonforce, we wandered back over to the Reaper stage to check out TrollfesT. Again, having no idea what I was in for… I definitely wasn’t expecting a bunch of blokes in head to toe pink sequin flamingo outfits! These guys are from Oslo, Norway featuring 8 members playing drums, bass, guitar x 2, vocals, bouzouki, saxophone + the accordion/synths. These guys were one of the tightest sounding bands of the day! If the name sounds familiar, they performed at the 2022 Eurovision with their song “Dance like a pink flamingo”.
The night ended with Finnish metal legends, Amorphis. They delivered such a solid sound on stage, even in the photo pit it sounded good – opening with Northwards and then into On the Dark Waters.
That’s all I have time to write for now as I head off to capture day 2 of the festival! In the meantime head over to my instagram page for some more live shots.
The Heavy Corner 