In my work as a freelance journalist, I develop heuristics to help me navigate the amount of promotional material I receive daily. One of them is the band logo; if it's illegible and convoluted, then the band is playing black metal; if it's more geometric and accurate, then the band is playing thrash metal. Death metal bands fall between these two extremes. Stagewar opened the festival with classic Thrash Metal that inspired the rather large crowd to form tentative mosh pits and headbanging. The sound was perfect, the stage posing was correct, good music, a great start.

Nihilo from Switzerland ripped through all genres of Death Metal. One song featured hard-hitting Death'n Roll à la Entombed, another was classic Florida old school, and then they touched on a bit of Black and Thrash Metal, which overall was a great cross-section. Accordingly, the band was already being celebrated on the Beach Stage.

The Belgian band surprised with a perfectly balanced and melodic blend of death and doom metal. The added death metal gave the doom elements a bit more speed, thus reducing their static. Great music from a very likeable band.

The hero of the day was the sound engineer for the Italian thrash metal band Game Over. According to my phone's dB/A meter, the average level was 104 dB/A, with peaks around 110 dB/A. It was both very loud and very well-mixed. Not Motörhead volume, where everything meets in the midrange; no, all frequencies were loud and clear. On top of that, the band had the best singer yet, the best stage show, and all the girls on their side. That's what you call rock 'n' roll.

Comparing female bands with male bands is like comparing women's soccer with men's soccer. But when you compare female bands with women's soccer, you come to the conclusion that they have the same amount of power, fun, and self-irony, something you look for in vain in all the male-dominated things. That's why I like this band; they simply have fun on stage and bring fun to the audience. That's simply rock 'n' roll.

Then, some bad guys emerged from behind the dike, swimming across the IJsselmeer in front of them and trying to destroy the stage with old-school death metal. After the first announcement and the first song, Unlocked were light years away from fun and rock 'n' roll.

After a few minutes, I thought the band sounded something like Paradise Lost and was from Yorkshire. And yes, the first announcement by former "My Dying Bride" singer Alain Stainthorpe confirmed my suspicion. Musically, this band is very close to Paradise Lost, and geographically, the two bands are 20 km apart. The music oscillated between classic 90s British doom with ragged vocals and interspersed clean vocal passages, so the end result was something like death doom pop, which crescendoed to mid-tempo at most and otherwise staggered through a murky northern English fog.

Perfect. Everything. Timing. Vocals. Precision. Acting

The next musical twist came with the band Ghost Bath, which can be roughly classified as ambient black metal shoegaze. Of these three attributes, ambient is my favorite. This undoubtedly dynamic music, which oscillates between different moods and volumes, is intense festival fare, as it demands your full concentration to appreciate all its facets. A stage surrounded by sofas should be set up for bands like this.

The Finnish melodic death metal institution may be quite old-fashioned, but they still manage to avoid sounding like a cheap In Flames knockoff. They're definitely a far more likeable version on stage than their musical idols. Sure, you can hear many similarities, but their presentation style is very warm and close to the audience. That's something a band has to achieve.

The Californian band Warbringer did everything they could to get the exhausted audience going, or rather, to get them fired up for Kreator. But after chilling in the tent, by the river, or on the beach, a few beers, and the overall relaxed atmosphere of the festival, that didn't quite work. John Kevin is a fantastic singer and frontman who really invested a lot in getting the crowd excited. At times, the sparks flew, but ultimately, everyone waited for Kreator, and then it was time for bed.

The Serbian band played technically demanding and almost progressive thrash metal, frequently throwing out political slogans. It was astonishing how complex the three-piece band was able to craft songs with incredible ease.

During the band Insurrection it became dark and gloomy and black despite the sunshine and I then went back to the sandy beach and took a bath in the Soca River.

Scalpture took no prisoners with their merciless mix of death metal, thrash, and a small pinch of black metal. It was surgical, precisely timed, and without any element of fun. A very consistent concert and a convincing performance.

After all the anger, power, and aggression of the previous bands, my wife and I simply sat in the deck chairs, smoked a cigarette, and quite by chance became guests of the heavy metal bar piano. Pianist George Heinle manages to shrink heavy metal into a healthy size. Heavy metal without Marshal amps turned up to 11, without fire-breathing monsters, without macho posturing and faster-harder-louder posturing. He brings out what you wouldn't notice due to the surroundings; for example, that "Nothing Else Matters" in the piano version turns out to be a perfectly harmonious song, or that "In Flames" turns out to be a Rachmaniov symphony. A groundbreaking experience.

The Italian band Fulci is named after the Italian horror film director Luigi Fulci. I didn't know this until my Italian neighbor at the mixing desk explained it to me. After looking it up on Wikipedia, I realized that I saw all of his brutal films together during my visit to France with my French exchange partner in 1983. The band consistently played brutal death metal, which also fit the projected film sequences in the background.

The band Midnight may be known for their black metal demeanor, but they are a pure rock 'n' roll band. This concert was the first rock 'n' roll concert since Motörhead at Hellfest in 2015. We need many more bands like Midnight at festivals.

Cro-Mags may have been active for almost 40 years, but they're still a band better suited to small to medium-sized clubs. Sure, Harley Flanegan is the focal point of this band, but what's overlooked is the heavy and incredibly good riffs the two guitarists have up their sleeves, and the drums relentlessly push the whole thing forward. Take this mix to a small club, and the next day, a bulldozer would have to clear away the remains.

A band in the middle of finishing a follow-up to "Age of Aquarius" drops by for 50 minutes and, with a minimal lineup, delivers a performance the audience has been longing for. VIC's songs are predominantly in C minor, which is very close to the natural sounds of nature, music that fits the environment of this festival, music that fits the sound of the River Soca, the trees, and the surrounding mountains. The audience felt it and totally celebrated this band. A fantastic concert.

Just as we decided at short notice on July 22nd at 11 a.m. to drive to Tolminator because the weather was perfect both on the route and on site, we decided to return after this concert and these two intense days. In our opinion, there could have been no better experience in terms of impressions, music, and meeting very nice people. The helpfulness of everyone involved in the festival touched us deeply; the scenery is truly spectacular, and we were honored to be invited. We drove with tears in our eyes, tears of joy. Thank you, Tolminator.