Tons of Rock 2026 – Day 2
- Posted on 04-07-2026
Full photo galleries here
Photos by Jonathan Mazin and Andrea Chirulescu
Text by Andrea Chirulescu
Audrey Horne – Scream Stage
Audrey Horne opened the Thursday program with a polished hard rock set built around strong riffs and melodic structure and a lot of scene playfulness by guitarists Arve Ice Dale and Torkjell Rød, who elegantly share the duties of solos and duos. Their performance leaned into classic rock influences while maintaining a modern heaviness in tone. It’s a band with a long history of live shows and while they can as well be a stage headliner, they also make for a fantastic opening act that sets a good tone for a warm summer day.
Apocalyptica – Moonlight Stage
Finnish cello masters Apocalyptica is an act I can never get bored to watch live. A cinematic and orchestral metal performance centered on cello arrangements and dramatic dynamics, with 3 Finns always delighted to be on stage and deliver heavy riffs. As they have been known as a Metallica on cello cover band, their set is mainly made of Metallica classics, and a couple of own compositions which sound amazing, given how tight and furious they perform live. It’s always fun to hear the crowd going loud on the chorus parts, while being mainly silent for the rest of the songs. They should have more lyrics printed on the backdrop. I actually ended up enjoying the full set and got to look at the cello gymnastics for the final act.
Angell – Storm Stage
As many others, I was one who was curious to checkout Angell‘s performance, given the family he comes from and having had noticed how highly he’s spoken of lately. It was a wow at first sight. I only made it to the entrance of the tent hosting the smal Storm stage but it was enough to experience a couple of song and realize what amazing a progressive-leaning extreme metal performance is the young man capable of. With layered arrangements and a darker tonal palette one can certainly hear different influences, but also admire the freshness in the music and the excellent live delivery of such a young band. It is an act to certainly be watched and experienced live several time. Very glad that the future of metal is in such good hands.
D-A-D – Scream Stage
A quick run to photograph the Danish rock act D-A-D and their classic hard rock performance built around groove-driven riffs. And a very eccentric bass player. Outdone at times by the fancy drum raiser, shaped as a bovine head. Cool idea. D-A-D delivers Rock and Roll for good times and do it from very first chord. They have dedicated fans that sing along and headband wildly at their songs, probably happy that the band decided to come back few years ago. While I remember little about their music, I was left with a smile on my face by all the stage shenanigans performed by everyone on stage.
Yonaka – Moonlight Stage
My biggest surprise of the day and probably of the festival: Yonaka. I actually went to the tent stage as a friend of mine wanted to show me this cool platform and I thought to watch a bit of whoever performed. Oh wow. How incredibly amazing this performance was. I guess they can be classified as alternative rock and with certain core ideas. But it’s the first time I experience such a clean voice doing the core type screaming. No voice straining made it such a beautiful experience and vocalist Theresa Jarvis has such a pleasant way of singing fast, clear and raw. She was hypnotizing, mixing gentleness and rawness. And, unlike other fancy artists, she encouraged the crowd to take care of the kids and those who might need help during a moshpit. Their mix of delicate moments and explosive bits of sounds and voice is what stood out the most for me and I hope to catch them live again. And again.
Suicidal Tendencies – Vampire Stage
American heavy metallers Suicidal Tendencies performed a fast, aggressive crossover thrash set characterized by their usual sharp rhythms and high intensity. There would have been place for even more music if the number of speeches was reduced, but I guess everyone needed a longer breathing moment among the intense show, the stage wide marathon and on such a hot day. Because of this, I only got to watch a couple of songs as I had to catch up with some food and foot-rest.
The Warning – Moonlight stage
Once my body felt more alive, I went back to the Moonlight stage to watch a bit of the new Mexican sensation, The Warning. They are three sisters delivering a cool modern rock and who have already spent countless hours on the road and playing all over the place. They’re fun to watch, as each of them has a different kind of attitude and style of delivering heavy riffs and drum kicks and they work really well as a whole. And they were, of course, thrilled to play at the festival. Not sure I was very caught by the music, but will check them out and try to make up my mind later. The live show was super cool though.
Anthrax – Scream Stage
As usual, Anthrax delivers a precision-driven thrash and heavy metal metal set built on speed, tight riffing, and good mood. Their performance highlighted decades of experience at large-scale festival and know well how to own a big stage. Joey Belladonna has the crowd at his finger as he knows how to always look at everyone and captivates you with his intensity. But so does everyone else on stage actually so you’re never bored at their shows. Scott Ian always knows how to find the right riff for the moment and at the right length to not drive you crazy. Everyone makes this fast playing and constant running around seem like an effortless childplay and I think Anthrax is one of the coolest live bands in its genre.
Ramona’s Tea Party – The Storm Stage
This year winner’s of the contest organized by the festival and the Norwegian Post service is the Tønsberg based act Ramona’s Tea Party, who were probably the most enthusiast act I’ve ever witnessed at this festival. They entered the stage with the widest of smiles and couldn’t contain their excitement throughout the show, as they constantly jumped around, fooled around and would constantly be a source of joy. Their pop-rock-punk was energetic and well delivered, maybe not the tightest ever but even that played a perfect role in the whole picture of enthusiasm. Combined with the multitude of colors, both on their backdrop and in their outfits and looks. Again, good mood bonanza!
Alice Cooper – Vampire Stage
Despite the gloomy and dark show, there’s no way to lose any of the good mood when watching Alice Cooper live and screaming along the familiar hits. The theatrical rock performance combines groovy music with stage horror aesthetics and every few songs there’s something new happening, either some fake blood, swords, knives, a Frankenstein on stage, diamonds thrown into the crowd, a sexy nurse (?) taking care of an old man (might mix this with another show though). Even if mr Furnier is closing his 80s birthday, he’s way more fun to watch than half of the other artists and he’s a really good example of how a healthy life style, even after an interesting young age, can really make a difference.
The band stayed tight for the whole performance and has a well choreographed way of making sure everyone gets into the spotlight and then they all perform together and then they all retreat and so on. Plus everyone has well detailed outfits. There’s always something you haven’t noticed before. Guitarists Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie are a well established duo and now they have a new addition (as Nita Strauss is on maternity leave) — 22-year-old Anna Cara. Anna was a great replacement and she’s got both the skills and the attitude. She’s surely gonna get far in the music industry, be it with this group or another.
All in all, another concert full of nostalgia and songs to leave you without a voice.
Iron Maiden – Scream Stage
After recently celebrating 50 years of existence and still releasing high quality albums, British legends Iron Maiden closed Thursday with a large-scale, highly structured headlining performance built around beloved material from all of their long career. Bruce is another example of how taking care of yourself can help you run around and scream your lungs out for hours without any struggles. He’s a powerhouse and very inspirational live and everyone in the band is no less. Again, everyone goes back and forth between being in the center of attention or making room for the others and that’s always a great thing to keep within a band with such a history. Everyone has an important role and it has to be shown.
The crowd kept getting wilder and wilder with each of the familiar intros and they were loud enough to be heard from far away, as we left early to prevent the full busses. And also because I didn’t have enough energy left to watch someone with Dickinson’s age be as fresh as he was and I was struggling to stand up at that hour. But they delivered a classy ending for Thursday and one could easily understand why Thursday was the first sold out day of the festival.