It was the 4th time I walked the fields of Graspop as a normal visitor, with in my eyes one of the best line-ups ever in the history of this metal festival. It was a great weekend filled with darkness although the sun was burning hot.

Friday:
The kick-off day that started of well with bands such as In Extremo and Hypocrisy. It was the third time I saw both bands live and always at a festival. Hypocrisy gave one of their best shows I believe, with a good set list playing most of their ‘hits’ but without playing my favourite one being ‘Fractured Millennium’. These Swedes have already released 9 albums in almost the same number of years so not every amazing Hypocrisy song can be played in such a short time period. In Extremo didn’t let themselves down either but couldn’t manage to create anything new on stage. The Germans did entertain the crowd though with al the spitting fire and the medieval atmosphere but I have already seen them do that twice. I look forward seeing them live in a smaller club and playing a longer set. Anathema really disappointed me by playing a really uninteresting and boring set. I am not very fond of their newer material and even when they played something of their older stuff they had to (in my eyes) ‘rape’ the song by making it sound artificially modern. Some other bands that played on this day were: Circle ll Circle, Suffocation, After Forever, Iced Earth and Exodus.

Saturday:
I had enough time to start the day off at my own pace because the first bands weren’t of interest to me. Apart from that I knew that this day would turn out to be very promising. Max Cavallera’s Soulfly was my first appointment with the main stage. Being a huge fan of Sepultura and the first Soulfly album I had to see the band live again. Besides the irritating new guitar player (who did these pseudo karate kicks on stage while carrying a backpack) the show was great. Many Sepultura classics were delivered including regular songs such as ‘Refuse/Resist’, ‘Territory’ and ‘Roots’, but amazingly also ‘Dead Embryonic Sells’ was taken out of the dusty archives. A great moment! The Soulfly songs were also chosen well with ‘Fire’ and ‘No’ as top ones. After this it was time for the almighty Anthrax. An excellent show with lots of classic sing-a-longs such as ‘Indians’, ‘I am the Law’, ‘Antisocial’ and ‘Only’ but also many new songs from the album ‘We’ve Come For You All’. Anthrax never disappoints. This night was to be remembered with the amazing performance of the doom masters My Dying Bride. Although most songs played were from the more recent albums, after seeing them for the fifth time, I must say I never felt so satisfied with their show as this night. It was dark, harsh and beautiful with Aaron and the band really giving themselves totally. Excellent would be very appropriate to describe it and the audience agreed with me. Pity that nothing from ‘Turn Loose The Swans’ was played but at that point it didn’t really matter. After this nothing could go wrong, the evening was a success. I went to see Slipknot next. Yes, I do appreciate their music at times but not always their arrogance. Luckily they learned a few things since last time I saw them and really kicked some ass this time with a good choice of songs and attitude. Cradle Of Filth would end the night for me and as usual the sound was terrible. I can’t understand why most bands in the same genre do succeed to create a good sound on stage but with Cradle it is a curse that keeps following them around. In the end the show wasn’t that bad but nothing too special. A cool thing occurred when the guitarist ‘James McIlroy’ surprised everyone by speaking fluently some sentences in Dutch. Later I found out that he was raised near Dessel in Belgium but later moved back to England. With Alice Cooper in the background we headed back home. Schools out for Summer! Bands I missed were Evergrey, Scarve, Oomph!, Morbid Angel, Queensryche, Motorhead and Agnostic Front to name a few.

Sunday:
I had to get up early and rush to the marquee tent to see Killswitch Engage. One of the better bands that combine metal-core with the Swedish melodic death sound but I prefer not to categorize. It was damn hot inside the tent and the circle pit didn’t help much either. Their crazy guitar player ‘Adam’ (dressed in super tight shorties and with an orange winter cap) took care of the amusement part of the show, as usual! Their also short set list ended a good performance but the time had come to finally witness the legendary Testament. Chuck Billy has returned after a successful battle against cancer. His hair has grown back and you could see that he really enjoyed head banging again. A mix of old and new songs were played to please everyone. My personal favourites were ‘Low’ and ‘D.N.R.’. After checking out the metal market and missing out on metal legends Death Angel and Saxon (sorry!) the Swedish mastermind Christofer Johnsson with his legendary Therion was up next. What can I say, Therion is a truly unique band and with the twin album Lemuria and Sirius B they have delivered a true masterpiece. In my eyes the show was excellent although some people complained about the sound not being as good but it didn’t matter because the music was in my head. I recall a very well balanced set list with enough classics from ‘Lepaca Kliffoth’ till the new twin album. The 50 minutes past much to quick but I had to run to the main stage again. The industrial metal act Fear Factory is back again without ‘Dino Cazares’ but with Flemish ex-bassist ‘Christian Olde Wolbers’ plucking the guitar strings. The song choices were quite good and I am happy with their new release ‘Archetype’ but they didn’t sound to great live on this occasion. Better luck next time. During my lunch break I watched Children Of Bodom blowing a lot of noise out of one tent and saw a large crowd being entertained, well I wasn’t! Another band that split up but reunited again is Life Of Agony. The mix of hardcore songs from the earlier days together with the more softer ballads shows the contrasts of this band. The guys did a fine job but singer ‘Keith Caputo’ was stoned, again! He sang alright but always with a delay while stretching the lyrics a bit too much. The river runs again which is good news. With great anticipation I rushed to the black marquee tent to see Dimmu Borgir. A name that is disliked by many ‘true’ underground black metal fans but nonetheless a band that has delivered great albums such as ‘Stormblast’ and ‘Enthrone Darkness Triumphant’. Unlike COF these Norwegians had a pretty satisfactory sound. The show was very pleasing at times but I was also very tired. All this tiredness was forgotten during the song ‘Mourning Palace’. Hatebreed played at the same time as Dimmu Borgir so I only saw the beginning of their show but the crowd went already mad at that point. Graspop Metal Meeting 2004 was coming to its end and Judas Priest was in charge of finishing the festival off. A perfect headliner but not really my kind of music. It was time to go home. A list of bands that also played on Sunday is Seven Witches, Destruction, Malevolent Creation, Dying Fetus and Ignite.

Graspop Metal Meeting 2004 was a success. Belgium’s best metal festival did it again. See you again next year.