This year's Graspop Metal Meeting was easily one of the best metal festivals around. First, unlike Dowload's somewhat feeble billing, GMM featured the all three most wanted acts this summer - Judas Priest, Kiss and no other than the mighty Iron Maiden, with the latter headlining the third and final night of the festival in front of more than 55,000 people. By the way, as Bruce Dickinson himself proclaimed, that was the biggest number of people attending the GMM for the entire festival's history.

Day One (June 27)

It's a comparatively hot day in Belgium. We got there a bit late because of the traffic jams on the highway from The Hague to the small village of Dessel. With tents being set properly, first beers opened and initial impressions gathered, we are heading for the festival area, already flooding with metalheads from all around Europe.

We missed Tesla, but got there just in time to witness how ex-Iced Earth and Judas Priest vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens fits Yngwie Malmsteen's line-up. Although it was strange to hear his voice over classics like "Rising Force", Tim went down pretty good. Memories of "Jugulator" times spring to mind imminently…

All four stages are available at this time. With Saxon taking the main stage with their crusading NWOBHM sound, it's almost a completely different experience to go and see Deathstars and then Obituary, before going back to the main stage, where Def Leppard and Whitesnake were about to cut 2 hours of classic rock each. Testament did a great job, too, sporting only a few of their critically acclaimed new album "The Formation of Damnation" and focusing on classics like "Over the Wall" and "Practice What You Preach" for example.

Ministry leave us speechless, as their hypnotic, guru-like leader Al stares at something above us, which obviously exists only in his mind. Scary shit! Judas Priest show off grandiose stage settings, but in my opinion fail to move the crowds with the songs from their new concept CD "Nostradamus". It was old songs again that saved the day for Priest.

Day Two (June 28)

Morning starts with hangover headaches and yesterday's reflections. Add that to the highly energetic set of Throwdown and you might get the picture.

Sabaton are busy to proclaim viking metal virtues from the main stage, but we prefer to go back to Marquee 2 and see Bleeding Through. Marta, the slim and attractive keyboard player, is headbanging like hell, but it was vocalist Rob who demands a huge circlepit around the soundboard. Suddenly we are sucked into the biggest swirling moshpit I have ever seen in my life. On the third round I can clearly see some guy holding high above his head a lost shoe and only a few seconds after that another one, who is running shoeless. Total madness!

Today's most interesting acts are beyond any doubt Cavalera Conspiracy and Kiss. The first cut a perfect Sepultura/Nailbomb/CC mishmash with Max changing t-shirts every five minutes - from Kreator to Napalm Death, and Igor beating the drums like (let's admit it) no one else can. Kiss announced they will play "as long as you tell us to stop" and did a spectacular show, despite the occasional PA problems. What a night!В 

DayВ Three (June 29)

My day! I won't hide that I kept my vital energy to survive until this very day. First, it's Bullet for My Valentine and they take the main stage by fucking storm with "Scream, Aim, Fire". Talking about future, these Welsh lads certainly have a bright one.

Avenged Sevenfold come next. They are already acting like stadium stars and judging by their performance, they are heading for no less than kind of a G N' R status. Vocalist M. Shadows admits they hope to have even more followers when they return in the future, but it's clearly seen that most part of the youth are sporting A7XВ  and BFMV t-shirts even now.

Due to illness Opeth have cancelled their appearance, so all the crowd is going to see Arch Enemy. This is in fact the last act before Iron Maiden, who started in 10:00 p.m. sharp with the infamous Churchill speech, bursting into "Aces High". And there it comes down - all classics between 1983 and 1989 are executed in perfect balance, interrupted only by one obviously enthused Bruce Dickinson, who cracks jokes, humiliates MTV and most importantly sings like no other.

Maiden finished at 11:58 p.m. - in other words, 2 minutes to midnight. A night to be remembered. A festival to be attended again. For sure!

Report & photos:В Stefan YordanovВ