Tons of Rock 2026 – Day 3
- Posted on 09-07-2026
Photo galleries can be seen here
Photos by Jonathan Mazin/Andrea Chirulescu
text by Andrea Chirulescu
Eivør – Vampire Stage
As the festival has announced that they’d show a football game on a screen on the main stage and thus having the day’s headliner end their show before 9PM, the whole of Friday’s schedule was a bit more rushed and started 30 minutes earlier than usual. Eivør took over Moonlight stage around 12:30, delivered a haunting and atmospheric performance blending Nordic folk elements with experimental soundscapes. Her vocal delivery carried the set, shifting between fragile and powerful tones. The Faroese singer and her band were a highly pleasant and mellow start of the day and I found myself carried away by the beautiful rhythms of their songs.
Raga Rockers – Scream Stage
Probably one of Norway’s most anti-charismatic stage performance, yet highly loved by the local attendance, Raga Rockers delivered what seemed like a hit parade. I am not familiar with their music, so it was actually more fascinating to watch the happy crowd singing and dancing than the lack of show on stage. But in the end, to each its own. They delivered the music that everyone loves and did it well and tight. We’re too spoiled by many other fancy shows.
Kublai Khan TX – Moonlight Stage
Kublai Khan TX brought an aggressive metalcore set defined by breakdown-heavy rhythms and relentless pacing, which seemed and felt too much for the tent stage. Physical intensity and tight synchronization were the main ingredients as the band maintained a constant high-energy output throughout. Wild crowd was wild, but as the concerts started to overlap, I only got to watch a small part of the show.
Queensrÿche – Vampire Stage
American prog/power metallers Queensrÿche had already started on Vampire stage and I had certainly forgotten that they had a new singer since last time I watched them. I was very nicely surprised by the attitude and high quality delivery of the catchy songs, as I had arrived right during Operation: mindcrime. The band is precise in their melodic arrangements, has a lot of fun being on stage but also don’t overdo anything. I must admit it was nice to get to listen this style of metal live, after everything else from the other days.
The Hellacopters – Scream Stage
The festival also offered tons of cancellations this year and one of the last last moment ones was the one from tom Morello, who was quickly replaced by the Swedish rockers The Hellacopters. They’re always a fun show to watch and listen to, as they have cool hard rock/classic rock’n’roll combo in their style and deliver it with the right attitude and stage presence for it. over 30 years of career and live shows surely show and while I believe a lot of people disagreed with the late minute change, they still gathered a lots of fans that were really happy to see them.
Storm– Moonlight Stage
The young man performing under the name STORM has been another sensation for the past years in the Norwegian musical news. Highly acclaimed releases and shows, made me curious to finally have a chance to catch it live. And it didn’t disappoint. The performance matches the previously heard rumors, about it being explosive and engaging and the music is certainly raw and powerful. They had a video crew, so I’m sure there will be a few professional images from this show, but now I know what the hype is about and that I should catch Storm live again on a future occasion.
Avatar – Vampire Stage
Not easy to find the right words to describe a show by the Swedish melodic death metallers AVATAR, who deliver their rough music with a dark theatrical and carnival like performance. Their performance begins with the singer coming out of a box in the middle of the stage and holding a red balloon….once the balloon breaks, the madness begins. Both on stage and in the crowd, as crowdsurfers started poring into the pit in front of the stage and once they sent out the photographers, the guards got relatively busy. The Swedes are certainly one of those unique live acts, who always deliver high quality shows and make for some special 40-50 minutes of entertainment.
Dogstar – Moonlight Stage
I wasn’t too surprise to notice how packed the tent stage go during the Dogstar show, as I guess a lot of people wanted to watch the actor Keanu Reeves live on stage, as he plays the bass. So I didn’t get a chance to get too close to the stage, but watched from afar and I certainly enjoyed their laid-back alternative rock set, focused on steady grooves and a sound which could both remind of Radiohead and Muse. I enjoyed the mellow break among the heavier shows and the fact that the star-level of the actor was not an ingredient in the show, but rather the opposite, he simply stayed as quiet and in the background as possible and delivered some smooth bass lines. I shall certainly check out more of their music as it was another pleasant discovery at the festival.
The Hives – Scream Stage
It took a long time to get out of the packed tent stage so I missed the beginning of The Hives show, but I got enough of it to be amazed at the energy level on stage, despite the warm weather and heavy-looking clothes. It was the band with most jumps and high’leg moves of the festival so they’re really delivering one hell of a show with tons of confidence. They even mock a bit the usual Swedish-Norwegian ‘inner jokes’ but it was all in good spirit. A very chaotic and explosive spirit, which I barely had energy to watch.
Elder – Moonlight Stage
I was rather glad that the next show was inside the tent stage and was meant to be another mellow and soothing one, this time from American riff masters Elder and their sweet mix of prog/psych/stoner rock. Long intros, heavy passages, it’s the good old recipe for beautiful songs, and the show is enhanced by a fantastic light show, it is almost eerie. And very loud. Always glad when such atmospheric soundtrack is added to the festival lineup, and while I know there are events dedicated to this type of music, I hope there’s place for even more of this style at tons of Rock in the future.
Behemoth – Vampire Stage
I only got to see a very short moment from the Polish black metall act Behemoth and it felt like an exact copy of the show delivered few years ago, but this time with less sun in their face, so the makeup and pyro made more sense now. The experienced musicians are always intense and tight in their live performances and it feels like there’s almost no space left for catching your breath. I wasn’t expecting to see people crowdsurfing at such a show, but the habit is probably too popular by now so the genre becomes less important. I’m sure there were some very tired necks after the concert though.
Koco Franco – The Storm Stage
Led by one of the festival’s staff, Jorun Stiansen, this Koco Franco punk act was wild beyond imagination and with members of The Dogs (another wild Norwegian live act), there was barely any space to get too close to the stage and witness the insanity. I got to listen a bit from the outside and got glimpses of the stage action, which I saw more of afterwards in pictures. There were a lot of sweaty faces in that tent though.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts– Scream Stage
Another last minute cancellation for this year’s Tons of Rock, Yungblud got replaced by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. I am, like many others probably, only familiar with a song or two of theirs and I would have, probably like many others, been curious to see the new young star instead. But his weird excuse of having tonsilitis and performing the day after at his own festival made me lose interest for him and it felt like an awkward move. Anyway. Again, because of the football game that was supposed to begin at 9PM, the headliner on main stage started around 7 PM and as it was a rather dull show to watch, we left after a couple of song and enjoyed a way longer night sleep than usual (as both me and my friend have a complete lack of interest for watching sports). We know there were several bands left to play on the other stages, but the logistic of fetching our luggage and relocating to another place that evening made it so that we needed the extra non festival hours. We heard it was a rather big party, as Norway was already qualified for the next round and then both Mayhem and Rival Sons and Possessed delivered high quality shows, each within their own genre. Hopefully there’ll be other times to catch any of these acts. Our colleague, Jonathan, was there and captured some of them though so checkout the photo galleries.