Report and photography by ©Jeanny Petrocchi, METALPHOTO

Mud, beer and metal! For many a great metal experience, a festival you definitely have to visit if you are part of the metal community.

Pictures of day 1 click here ! 🤘

Pictures of day 2 click here ! 🤘

Graveland a well-organized, somewhat underground death and black metal festival in the middle of Drenthe’s nature in Hoogeveen, was THE place to be last weekend. The festivities already started on Thursday when the visitors set foot on the unholy camping ground.

Rain or Shine, nothing can keep the loyal Gravediggers away. The Graveland unholy ground turned to mud, but the hard-working crew was well prepared dealing with the bad weather conditions and did a damn good job making things tolerable for the visitors.

There was a metal market where you can put your claws on great vinyls or exclusive band merch, a variety of food stands and besides the usual draft beer they had an exquisite craft beer ‘The Devil’s Poison’. This blonde beer was directly extracted from the veins of the devil and has a great soul soothing taste.

Once again, the organization succeeded to create a fine and varied line-up. On Friday bands like WITCHCULT 71 – DEATHLESS VOID – WAKE – XOTH – IN TWILIGHT’S EMBRACE – DARVAZA – CENTINEX – TSJUDER – DOOL and TIAMAT delivered a powerful performance  that kept heads banging all day long.

More fine noise was offered on Saturday, starting with 3 Dutch bands;

MORTIFERO introduced the day with their atmospheric dark folk followed by the trashers of OVERRULED. And  to emphasize the versatility of this festival once again, HELLERUIN, a black metal band as the third band of the day. Later in the evening, many international bands made their appearances on Graveland’s stage, such as CLAUSTRUM – TERATOMA – MORTIFERUM – GAEREA – WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM – NECROPHOBIC and to conclude this festival the death metal pioneers of CARCASS!