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We’ve reached Rockharz Day 3 for 2025 and if you’ve been thinking: “Where’s anything on inclusion?”, you’ll find your answer now. Once again this year, Björn Schulz from the inclusion team took a lot of time (despite his stress!) to answer my questions. If you have any questions, opinions or suggestions about inclusion at Rockharz, the inclusion team is always available by email at inklusion@rockharz.de!
Here you can find out what has changed this year, how I liked the bands on the third day of the festival and why I didn’t like the running order on this day in particular!
A little more inclusive every year!
Since it has somehow become a tradition here that we dedicate part of the daily report to inclusion at the festival, now is exactly the right time to do so! As in previous years, my thanks go to Björn Schulz, who once again took a lot of time for me and my questions!
There was one innovation this year that I found particularly interesting: the launch of the “Rockharz Kompass” navigation app. This is an app that people can use to navigate around the site. Virtual paths are created, which the app then uses to guide you around the festival site. The app not only includes important points such as the stage, the sanitary facilities and the inclusion areas, but also food and merchandise stands, including a rough overview of what they offer. According to Björn, the feedback on the app’s functionality has been positive so far, but that hasn’t stopped the team from making improvements on site. In the initial version of the app, the orientation feedback could be heard via audio. Logically, this doesn’t work so well at a festival, which is why the feedback is now provided via vibration.
„Rockharz Kompass“ has already combined many important aids that make it easier for people to find their way around the festival: In addition to the given points, such as the dynamic running order, users were also able to store their own orientation points in the app. The location of the tent in particular is something individual, which was taken into account with this feature. Anyone who has ever looked for their tent on the campground in the dark (and possibly drunk) knows what a difficult undertaking this can be. How difficult must it be for those who are not in full possession of their eyesight? This is where the app really comes to the rescue and other festivals can learn a lot from it!
This year, the inclusion camp has grown again by around a third to 300 people, which shows the enormous demand for such offers! On the channel of Mr. Wheelchair you can also see again how exactly the offers were presented this year. In my opinion, the e-wheelchair rental service deserves special mention and is set to be expanded in the coming years. The big thank you that logically has to follow here for all the efforts goes to Lebenshilfe Rautheim and all their employees on site!
Caution, contrasts!
Unfortunately, I only got to hear the last two songs from HARPYIE that day. I just wanted to sleep a bit more than the day before. But it was very nice that they got the audience to shake off the dust of HEAVEN SHALL BURN from the day before!
The first highlight of the day for me was the French band AEPHANEMER. I’ve been following this band since their 2016 release Memento Mori, but somehow I’ve never managed to see them live! So it was the perfect opportunity to change that. With their wonderful blend of symphony, guitar action and versatile vocals, they certainly played their way not only deeper into my heart, but also into the hearts of the large audience. When you experience so many bands and listen to so much music as I do, it’s really hard to be seriously surprised. But AEPHANEMER managed to do just that and I enjoyed every minute of their unfortunately far too short set!
While DESERTED FEAR conquered the stage, I went to interview no. 1 of the day! Since I’m not a fan of VADER either, I used the time of the set to relax a bit and write some reports.
My second highlight of the day was DRACONIAN, who had already been booked a huge number of times, but were performing on the Rockharz stage for the very first time that day. The set was a tribute to the Swedes‘ long band history, who had to wait so long for their appearance at Rockharz. The beginning alone with The Sacrificial Flame and the transition to Elysian Night was just so beautiful! To hear singer Lisa again with the songs from A Rose for the Apocalypse and Turning Season Within sent such a wonderful shiver down my spine. It was a very special high that was only enhanced by the emotional performance of the band. The highlight for me was the song Bloodflower, which can rightly be described as a classic in the band’s discography. The only downside to the gig for me was the time: DRACONIAN played from 16:15 to 17:00. Logically, it is still daylight in summer at this time of day and so the atmosphere that is needed for a good DRACONIAN concert simply cannot arise. They could have taken a better look at the booking and the running order. Considering the playing time of 45 minutes, a different order would have been better. I would have put OVERKILL in DRACONIAN’s slot, for example, then swapped GLORYHAMMER and CRADLE OF FILTH to avoid such strong contrasts. That would have been a bit more purposeful. Quite apart from the fact that I would probably have had DIE KASSIERER play much earlier (or preferably not at all), the running order should really have been a bit more sensitive to the stylistic differences between the bands! It’s not fair if you make the contrasts too stark, because ultimately the bands then face an audience that camps out there for the upcoming bands. I already had the same problem with TRIBULATION in 2023, who were also very much drowned out by a very high-contrast running order and who I know for a fact were very unhappy with it…
My surprise of the day was ANY GIVEN DAY. I always make a point of keeping an eye on the bands playing as much as possible so that I can assess who might be worth interviewing. But ANY GIVEN DAY slipped through the cracks! The set was full of power and joy and an Anglophile would definitely say: “I felt truly BLEGHssed!” ANY GIVEN DAY definitely found a new fan in me that day and they won’t disappear from my radar any time soon!
I don’t want to waste my words on DIE KASSIERER, everyone has to decide for themselves what they think of them and as I’m not a fan of Thrash Metal, I also skipped OVERKILL.
Next up was the third highlight of the day: GLORYHAMMER! It’s been a few years since I’ve seen them live! I used to be a very big power metal girlie and even though I’ve shed that 90% in the last few years, some bands still fascinate me a lot. GLORYHAMMER are such a band and already with the intro song Delilah by Tom Jones (supported by a cardboard stand-up of the singer) they had me! In their usual fast playing style, the band around singer Sozos … er… I mean Angus McFife, of course, quickly got the crowd dancing. The first song The Land of Unicorns was already the first reason for the catchy tune warning and the band kept up this strong energy the whole time. The stage set, which was modeled after a fortress, was also my favorite on the Rockharz stages that day. I thought it was a bit of a shame that they didn’t incorporate it better into the show, especially because the heroic fight against a goblin and his master Zargothrax, as well as the Hootsman’s artful consumption of an entire beer in one go, made for truly stylish interludes. You can just tell the band are extremely well-rehearsed and that only adds to the enjoyment. The new songs, He Has Returned and On A Quest for Aberdeen, also gave Rockharz an interesting insight into the upcoming adventures of Angus McFife and his bandmates. I would like to see a dinosaur (preferably a neon-colored T-Rex) somewhere in one of the upcoming releases, because a few crowdsurfers in inflatable dinosaur costumes have impressively shown how well that fits GLORYHAMMER! If I had to make one criticism of this gig, it would be that they didn’t play longer. (Is this the perfect opportunity to mention that you’ll be reading more about them here soon…?)
After GLORYHAMMER, CRADLE OF FILTH had a very difficult start, which could have been easily avoided with a few adjustments (see above).
Even if the change from “OMG unicorns” to „You want horror? You get horror!“ was difficult for me, I was still really looking forward to the band around vocal icon Dani Filth. The band’s music is certainly not for everyone, but I’ve always been fascinated by their versatile vocals. Considering that the lyrics tell multi-layered (horror) stories, I think it fits very well! I also liked the band’s choice of songs, which focused on the current album The Screaming of the Valkyries. Of course, I was particularly pleased that my favorite from the album, To Live Deliciously, was among them! The performance was a wonderfully eerie interplay of the skills of the individual musicians, which testified to the high level of professionalism and passion of the band members. While singer Dani performed his special art, the others were by no means just decorative accessories. Keyboarder Zoe in particular enriched the songs in style with her bell-like voice. It was just a shame that the gig was over so quickly!
Please don’t stone me now, but I just don’t like MONO INC. and so I took the opportunity to eat something and simply enjoy the fact that I was at a festival!
The headliners of the third day of Rockharz were POWERWOLF, who are a consistent guest every two years. In this respect, I was also of the opinion that nothing could really surprise me. I think POWERWOLF are a band full of good musicians, but it bothers me that everything is so rehearsed and leaves hardly any room for spontaneity. Before every set, I can think exactly what’s going to happen at which point and it just doesn’t excite me anymore. But the truth is that there was a whole festival looking forward to this gig and the infield was fuller than ever before! I’m not going too far out on a limb when I say that POWERWOLF are the German answer to GHOST.
Despite all my weariness towards this band, I have to admit without envy that they always deliver a really good show, which for me is not so much carried by the elaborate pyrotechnic effects, but above all by the cool artwork that they project onto the LED wall. Every time poor Falk Maria more or less voluntarily approaches a source of fire, the lawyer in me just can’t help but think “Oha! Self-endangerment”! (Falk Maria, if you ever hurt yourself, give me a call, I have a professional opinion!!!) But speaking of fire: There was still a big surprise for me, because there was a wonderful firework display, which I have never seen before at Rockharz, and I can’t remember ever having seen anything like it at Rockharz before! I would definitely like to see that again next year!
But my final highlight of the day was definitely the Icelandic band SÓLSTAFIR! Anyone who has ever seen them live knows that they are probably one of the most atmospheric bands in our genre at the moment and there was an atmosphere at the gig that I wanted to preserve forever! It really was the perfect end to such an eventful day. Every single note, every chord and every movement of the musicians not only gave me goosebumps, but was also full of devotion and emotion. The blue light, the light mist on stage and the gentle breeze that swept across the festival grounds were the perfect setting for the sounds that transported us to the rugged Icelandic landscapes. Anyone who missed out on this truly missed out and I know that we will live on this intimate performance for a long time to come!
They say all good things come in threes and if you’re only interested in three of the four days of Rockharz 2025, then that’s true for you too! But “four wins” applies here and that’s why you can expect the fourth day report and the previously announced interviews here soon!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 