Heavy Weekend - Live Report Day 1
- Jenny Jen
- Jul 10
- 11 min read
On the beautiful day of 6 June 2025, the Earama team arrived in Nancy, with an insatiable hunger for metal and meeting new people, to attend the Heavy Weekend. After checking into our hotel rooms and checking our equipment, we're ready to go! Interviews prepared, cameras, recorders, notes for reports, we're ready to work and of course, to live what we call our best life! Working in the media is no picnic, but this job brings us so much happiness! We're Jenny and Laurent, repoters for Earama, and Eden, creator of the media and director, will also be the photographer for this extraordinary weekend.
On arrival, we were greeted with a smile, guided to the press area and wished a good time. They let us into the press area, where the organisation was more than appreciable, and provided us with something to eat and something to rest and work on. Everyone was very pleasant and we shared with other medias and photographers, hello's and memories of other shows... We hung around a bit in the village where the merchandise shops abounded to our delight and the beer bars, cocktail bars and other specialities were not to be outdone. Food and drink were everywhere, and people from all walks of life with a shared passion met and smiled at each other. We were all there, united by a strong passion - the love of metal!
In short, we're there, very well received, impatient to see the first concert and to say hello to Olivier Garnier, without whom none of this would have been possible.
The photographers are fetched and ushered into the pit. Eden is off straight away, with a smile on her face and a passion in her gut, and we, like good reporters, follow. We need a good spot in the crowd, we need to describe the show and vibe with the crowd, so that we can give you the best possible account of what we're going to experience here, and believe me, it's worth this rather long intro and the story that follows...
Vandenberg, opening the festival with class and technique!
Photos : Eden Bisiot
At 5.30pm, just as Heavy Weekend festival-goers were impatient for the concerts to start, Vandenberg took to the stage to open the evening. An excellent choice, no doubt about it. For a festival that aims to offer a wide range of rock metal, it's only logical that we should be treated to a mix of established names and up-and-coming young bands.
The crowd is still small but the atmosphere is palpable: they're hungry for metal! And with the first notes of Vandenberg, the tone is set, the crowd immediately lights up and, as fine connoisseurs, welcomes them with a magical ovation of shouts and raised hands, metal fingers forward!
The first song is the famous Bad Boys, which gets the crowd going straight away, with its 80s metal sound, its insane energy and Adrian Vandenberg's first solo, which is as technical as it is magical, with a fantasy of his own: playing directly on the neck of his guitar with... his sleeve ! He's clearly happy to be here and puts on a great show, with the audience in raptures - well done for entering the arena!
From the second song onwards Adrian Vandenberg invites the audience to sing along, and they're quick to do so, while on stage singer Mats Levén puts young drummer Koen Herfst in the spotlight. The band go wild and the crowd follow suit and start to move more and more, the temperature rising, the band know how to do it!
"All your love tonight, gimme all your love tonight" exclaims the singer, addressing the audience who immediately go into a trance! Adrian Vandenberg honours us with a "viva la France!" that gets the crowd roaring.
We move on to a ballad, yes... and no... An introduction, then boom! The sharp sound of the drums is followed by a bewitching, metal guitar riff, carried by the singer's perfect, velvety voice, until he once again builds to a climax with a voice worthy of Axel Rose's in its high, atypical side and AC/DC-style intonations, mastered with ease and passion.
I feel like I've just woken up in my tender 80's/90's metal youth, but dusted off and paradoxically very new... Bravo!
After singing Crying In The Rain, Vandenberg tries his hand at French with a "pleurer quand il pluie" (cry when it rains) while the singer gently mocks his French.
A very appropriate comment, of course, as this song was performed in the rain with a happy audience who didn't give up their seats even if they got soaked!
The atmosphere is great, the crowd is growing and the enthusiasm is palpable. Flames shoot up from the stage, warming the crowd up a notch. The crowd gave them a standing ovation at the end, and they left with "merci beaucoup, à bientôt" in perfect French this time.
In short, a perfect choice to open the festival, a band that took us back in the DeLorean of metal, taking us back to the 80s but knowing so well how to renew themselves and master their art that they also took us back to 2025 with panache.
Battle Beast, the fire from the underworld,
takes to the stage and we're back for more!
Photos : Eden Bisiot
At 6.30pm, just as the rain had eased off and the festival-goers had taken a short break to wander around the merch area, we found ourselves in front of the stage, hungry for more metal. The crowd thickens, and the show that follows will live up to our expectations.
The band have just taken to the stage, and the first thing that hit me is the singer, a perfect mistress of the underworld in an unbeatable stage outfit: demon horns, leather and suspender boots, and an incredible, powerful voice: it's Battle Beast!
Noora Louhimo sets the stage on fire, says a few words in French and literally gets the audience on! "Merci beaucoup, tu vas bien? That's all I can say for now".
What energy! She holds her vocals perfectly to the powerful music of her band, and power metal is honoured! She moves, she draws people in and she doesn't give up vocally! The solos are good and controlled, the drummer is as technical as he is passionate, the breaks are a delight and the rhythmic peaches make our hearts beat faster!
The crowd goes wild in the second! Noora demands and she gets! The band go wild, her voice impeccably husky and deep, she's a queen of the underworld who can resist anything! The bassist's voice reinforces her own, and it's absolutely spellbinding! You feel totally in the Nightwish mood; it's powerful, epic, vibrant, it takes your guts, it's metal to the max and once again, what energy! There's not a single person in the crowd who's not moved by the music, singing, dancing, raising their metal fingers, headbanging - they're united and happy, these little metalheads who've come to get their fix! Battle Beast give it all they've got and go from strength to strength! As for the symphonic side of things, we've got that covered too, with violin tones intoning a track that plunges us into another world, where we're clearly no longer in reality.
I'm there and I'm still stunned by her voice and the incredible notes she holds. The audience's emotion wins me over, I feel they belong to a music that makes them feel totally at home in the Battle Beast world. At no point does Noora let the audience lose this atmosphere, inviting them to sing, shout, clap their hands and welcome the ovations with open arms and faces to the sky. Magical solos, haunting synth tracks... You can't and won't touch the ground!
During a very short break, the musicians thank the audience, who respond by the second! Then they announce a new album and a return to France soon! "A little song... Probably not in French. Are you ready to sing ?" exclaims the guitarist.
The crowd erupted into a chorus of ‘nanana’ and the singer let out a "you sound amazing" before launching into her song.
"Are you ready to go fucking crazy right now? We wanna see french horns ! Show me your horns ! Keep it up ! They are beautiful !"
People obey in a fabulous frenzy, it's infectious, a sort of magical total union! Bravo Battle Beast, that's why we come to see metal live!
"Thank you so much for being so amazing to us!"
And here's a new song from the forthcoming album: Steelbound. They're happy to give it to us, you can feel it, they're giving it their all! In the middle of the song, Noora gives us an "I love you" with a smile on her face. "Let's do this together", she tells us, and everyone follows suit, her undeniable talent and madness taking everyone by storm. The musicians exude happiness, and you're clearly right there with them, the rest of the world having disappeared...
Of course, they finish with an incredible standing ovation, with the music from Top Gun playing in the background. Conquerors, proud, they've come, they've seen and they've conquered!
The weather's a bit milder now, and we're still on our clouds as we try to get back to reality, have a drink at one of the many stands in the village, continue the merch temptation, and meet up with our colleagues at the press area before returning to savour the next dish, because clearly, the line-up is a real treat and promises us many more great moments!
The legend Saxon
Photos : Eden Bisiot
It's 8pm, the crowd has grown even bigger, we're getting excited, we're waiting for what's coming next, smiles on our faces, so when Saxon arrive, we get into the mood straight away. Good old-fashioned heavy metal, jets of flames shooting out of the stage and stands from the very first song, giving us a happy crowd that's into it from the very first notes. You can feel the experience talking, you can smell the precursor bands like Metallica, the technique and energy haven't aged a day!
The audience screams, intones the repeats and more and more metal fingers are raised! The songs begin with ultra-rhythmic solos, and the crowd starts dancing and headbanging - the recipe is working! You clap your hands non-stop and get into the mood in the space of a single song! The ovation is loud and clear at every note!
"Hey, you all right? How are you? Fantastic!" shouts Biff Byford.
Of course the energy is less physical, but the musicians and the singer's voice don't falter for a second! They hold their audience with Alice Cooper-like vocal intonations. There are some great influences from the era.
"We're going back in 1980 for this one, some of you weren't born 45 years ago, no fucking internet, no fucking Facebook or TikTok, only radios... But we put the vibe !"
And they sing a song from 1980 that even the youngest listeners can feel as they dance and headbang like crazy! And they slam! People are in the mood for the good old days, for letting go, for ‘all for rock’, and you can feel it! As a nod to France, they play Madame Guillotine.
A great lesson from a band that's been around since 1976 and still has some great years ahead of it!
As I was saying, it's a real treat, a change of style, a change of era, a feast for the ears and the heart, some of us rediscovering our favourite artists, others discovering new ones, but everyone is clearly delighted!
Powerwolf, the diamond of the night !
Photos : Eden Bisiot
The audience is waiting impatiently... The crowd has filled the pit, the stage is set and a Powerwolf flag is outstretched. It's 10pm, and the last band is about to arrive. The last but not least.
The curtain falls to the roar of the crowd, Roel van Helden and Falk Maria Schlegel arrive with torches ablaze, and then it's Attila Dorn's turn to take to the stage, dressed as dark priests, with stunning make-up and stage sets that literally draw us into their world.
It was in this setting of a Gothic cathedral in ruins and on fire that they began their first song, and the crowd gave them a standing ovation that sent shivers down our spines!
“Bonsoir Nancy, bonsoir Heavy Weekend, c'est un honneur de jouer pour la première fois dans ce festival fantastique”
"Good evening Nancy, good evening Heavy Weekend, it's an honour to be playing for the first time at this fantastic festival"
Attila asks for more noise. He plays and blesses the place, censer in hand, in the name of metal: ‘metal is religion’.
The pit is full and I have a hard time taking notes, the atmosphere is strong and everyone is already jumping up and down even though we're only on the second song. The animated images of the wolf at the back of the stage really make an impact, the musicians and singer are in their roles, it's perfect both visually and technically. Attila yells "jump" and everyone does!
"Les amis ,vous êtes incroyables et vous ressemblez à une immense armée de heavy metal ! Mais nous on ne se bat pas! On fait une immense fête du heavy metal !"
"Guys, you're incredible and you look like a huge heavy metal army!
But we're not fighting! We're having a huge heavy metal party!"
They put on a show and get the audience jumping along with them. And of course, it works! The atmosphere is great, with the crowd in a trance. There's no more room in the pit, the fans are there and they're making themselves heard!
A huge organ was brought on stage, and it was impressive! Falk settles in with technique and passion, this show is incredible!
The singer talks to us a lot: "Would you like to dance with me maybe? With Falk? With me? With Falk? With me?"
He and the singer then begin a waltz on stage, the group has a lot of humour and despite this very gothic atmosphere, where the music tinged with violin and Latin songs plunges us into an almost divine trance, we feel that no one is taking themselves seriously. We're among friends here, as Attila will often say, and we feel right at home between total admiration and laughter thanks to the complicity of Falk and Attila on stage.
Confetti and streamers burst over the audience, and our emotions are constantly on the alert!
The animations change in the broken cathedral arches, offering us the famous wolf in different tableaux. The scenography is magnificent, hats off to them! The audience is captivated and responds, jumping up and down and singing along. The singer, delighted with the response, makes us repeat little musical phrases. It's magical to hear the whole crowd singing along, it's bewitching...
Gothic and dark metal... Yes, of course, but in a light-hearted, fun way, as we've all realised, and this gives a very special touch to the band's relationship with the audience, a friendlier one at that. The singer teases us, Falk spends his time playing pranks, and we feel good, just like metal and its collective spirit, we play with darkness while remaining united and always in a benevolent, family atmosphere.
Attila suddenly has us howling like wolves, before telling us that we are now accepted into the pack. Everything works, the atmosphere is fabulous. The singer's unique, haunting voice wafts over the music of a technically perfect band.
La Bête Du Gévaudan follows, entirely in French for the occasion. Now they've got us singing along to summon our inner demons before launching into the famous Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend under a shower of red confetti. The aesthetic is incredible, the costumes, sets and instruments are all in tune with the cathedral's rose windows, and the attention to detail is breathtaking.
Musically, there's not a single misstep: the guitarists move around with ease, the drummer is powerful and subtle, the keyboardist offers flawless depth and the singer's voice never misses a note... And the emotion that runs through the songs... The atmosphere builds and pogos erupt throughout the audience.
Meanwhile, in the background you can read ‘Metal is religion’ and how true this statement is. I realise this all the more in the midst of such a united crowd, after a day spent in front of bands of different colours but still in the midst of a crowd that clearly advocates difference as its trademark and tolerance and acceptance of others as its emblem.
I can hardly touch the ground... What a day! Exhausted but fulfilled, I rejoined the Earama team and our hotel to recuperate some sleep before the next day of this tastefully organised festival. Of course, before falling into the arms of Morpheus, we'll be discussing this memorable day over a hot cup of coffee.
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