Rockharz
- Rock Metal Machine
- Jul 30
- 8 min read
Artists: Various
Venue: Ballenstedt, Saxony-Anhalt
Date: 2-5 July 2025
"In front of a packed infield and the entire ROCKHARZ team on stage, festival founder Buddy asks his long-time partner Dani to marry him. Together, they have been instrumental in making ROCKHARZ what it is today – one of the best Metal festivals in Germany."
The coolest German metal festival you haven’t heard of yet!
With 25,000 festival-goers, ROCKHARZ is now the third-largest open-air Metal festival in Germany. Founded in 1993, it has grown naturally over the years. A very loyal community has developed, creating a unique family atmosphere. In addition, there’s always a strong line-up, and a whole range of interesting unique selling points that contribute to the success of ROCKHARZ.
One of these points is undoubtedly its location. The festival takes place annually in July in Ballenstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, at the foot of the Harz Mountains. The backdrop is dominated by the Gegenstein of the legendary Teufelsmauer (Devil’s Wall) – which is why one of the slogans for this event is: “See you at the Devil’s Wall!” – an impressive rock face that rises out of a hill right next to the festival grounds. For some festival visitors, a short hike to the Devil’s Wall is a must during every visit of ROCKHARZ. Many people use the arrival day on Tuesday for this very activity. The Gegenstein can be climbed and offers a viewing platform from which you can see the entire festival area – a truly impressive sight, especially in the dark! The festival also offers another unique feature in the form of an inclusion camp – a matter close to the organiser’s heart, now offering space for more than 300 people with disabilities. This noteworthy camp is organised by Lebenshilfe Braunschweig, who are on site with 30 caregivers and available to take care of the camp residents around the clock. Of course, the inclusion camp is completely barrier-free and tailored to the individual needs of its residents, so that everyone can truly enjoy the unique festival experience at ROCKHARZ.
The calm before the storm on the day before the festival can be used e.g. to enjoy a cold drink or two in Saxony-Anhalt’s largest open-air beer garden. With over 1,000 seats in and around the “Mutantenstadl”, the beer garden in the infield offers plenty of opportunities for fun pastimes or a relaxing break. Every year on Tuesday evening, an atmospheric pre-party with a DJ takes place there, where a good mix of current Metal hits and a very wide range of classics from pretty much all relevant decades of Metal history is played: There’s no better way to warm up for a Metal festival!
Now it’s finally time to get Day 1 started, and the Excrementory Grindfuckers provide a fun start. With an interesting mix of Grindcore, Pop Music, and German Schlager, the band from Hanover, Germany, really fires up the audience and immediately creates dusty mosh pits while people already start crowd surfing. The performance by German Alternative Metal band April Art is just as entertaining. Despite the blazing heat, the audience is at its best here too, cheerfully joining in with the program of the self-proclaimed “Rock Sports Band.” The Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal double whammy in the evening glow of the setting sun is the first big highlight of the first day of the festival. With temperatures still well above 30 degrees in the evening, both Insomnium and Dark Tranquillity deliver rousing performances with perfect setlists, offering a good mix of new material and familiar hits.
An interesting change of pace is then provided by the performance of the Finnish Rock Cello band Apocalyptica, whose new Metallica set is quite captivating. It’s truly incredible what power three cellists and a drummer can unleash on stage without any vocals at all. The grand finale of day 1 is the show by legendary New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band Saxon. A few days before the festival began, worrying news spread around that frontman Biff Byford had to undergo urgent surgery and the band would therefore have to cancel some concerts this festival season. Fortunately, his performance is not affected by this, and if it wasn’t for this announcement, no one would ever think that the singer was missing anything. With their usual strong stage presence, the English band lives up to their headliner status and provides a prime example of why so many Metalheads still enjoy this band after almost 50 years.
Two things proved to be clear strengths of ROCKHARZ on the first day of the festival. On the one hand, the quality and diversity of the line-up is quite remarkable for a four-day festival with a capacity of 25,000 visitors. On the other hand, the unique stage concept is impressive. There are only two main stages on the entire festival grounds – the Rock Stage and the Dark Stage. Both stages are used alternately, which leads to very short waiting times between gigs, as the next performance can be prepared during the previous one. Another advantage of the concept is that it significantly reduces the stress that can quickly arise at larger festivals. Here, you never have to run from stage to stage, only to miss bands anyway when performances unfortunately overlap.
At the start of Day 2, a black sheep causes a stir on the festival grounds. It appears to have strayed during the night and ended up on the site. However, it was successfully captured and taken to the nearest animal shelter. Stories like this are also part of ROCKHARZ and underscore the idyllic location of the event. In addition, the weather has cooled down noticeably compared to the previous days. A real blessing for everyone involved. The musical kick-off is provided by German Melodic Death Metal band Asenblut. By the start time of 12:25 p.m., the infield is already very well filled and the audience is showing absolutely no signs of fatigue from the heat of the last days. Asenblut’s performance really gets the crowd going, and the band describes itself as “the German Amon Amarth” during the show. The Swedish Modern Metal band Mister Misery then delivers a very positive surprise. With a dynamic mix of 2000‘s Metalcore, Gothic Rock, and a very fitting horror aesthetic, they know how to win over the audience. Their explosive performance does the rest. The German “Fun Metal Band” J.B.O. brings a healthy dose of variety later on. This band is known for its humorous show with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, and that’s exactly what they bring to the stage – solid entertainment that goes down well with large sections of the audience.
Another special performance follows, because even though it wasn’t made a big deal of in advance, this is Sodom’s last show before their announced band break. Band leader Tom Angelripper leaves it completely open as to how long this break will last. However, this does not distract from the performance, as the Thrash legends from the Ruhr region fire on all cylinders for a good hour, as usual. After sunset, it is not only the bright moon that creates a dark atmosphere, but above all King Diamond with what is probably the best stage design of the day. The usual macabre staging, paired with a good dose of theatricality and horror, results in a fascinating show in which the King showcases his outstanding vocal qualities. A lot of applause and loud “King, King” chants are the well-deserved reward for a flawless performance. Then the German Metalcore veterans Heaven Shall Burn deliver what is probably the most thrilling performance of the entire festival. At first, things don’t look good, as frontman and singer Marcus “Molle” Bischoff had to pull out a couple of days before the festival due to a reemerging vocal cord infection. However, the Thuringians have found a more than worthy replacement in Britta Görtz. With energetic screams and remarkable stage presence, Britta has the audience completely on her side from the very first song. And what Heaven Shall Burn brings to the stage in terms of energy with this new lineup for over 70 minutes is truly unbelievable and fully worthy of a headliner. The energy mentioned above is transferred one-to-one to the raging crowd – the results are massive circle pits and a lot of crowd surfers, who must have pushed the friendly security staff to their limits.
Day 3 begins cloudy and with mild temperatures, while Seasons In Black provide an invigorating start to this day with brutal Death Metal. Even those who haven’t had their coffee yet should be wide awake after this show. When it comes to brutal Death Metal, the Polish extreme metal outfit Vader takes it up a notch in the afternoon. While what feels like half of the festival-goers are queuing up for Powerwolf’s “lycanthropic council” signing session, the Poles completely roll over the other half in front of the stage. Probably the best Death Metal show at ROCKHARZ this year. The Swedish Gothic Doom band Draconian then delivers a stark change of mood. After the band had already been booked three times for the festival and had to cancel their scheduled performances for various reasons, this time it finally worked out. Singer Lisa Johansson in particular ensured a great show with her outstanding vocal performance. The German Metalcore band Any Given Day cause dusty mosh pits and a very well-filled infield during the late afternoon. The fun continues in the bright evening sun with American Thrash legends Overkill. In high spirits and with their usual enthusiasm, Bobby Blitz and his bandmates show themselves at their best.
Later in the evening, British Gothic Black Metal outfit Cradle Of Filth are also noticeably up for it. With a surprisingly old-school-heavy setlist, Dani Filth and his band deliver the perfect musical backdrop for the setting sun and the onset of darkness. Now that the sunlight has completely given way to moonlight, Powerwolf put on a brilliant performance that fully lives up to their status as headliners. With an impressive stage show and one Power Metal sing-along anthem after another, they visibly thrill the audience in the packed infield. The Icelandic Post-Black Metallers Sólstafir bring an atmospheric conclusion to ROCKHARZ’s third day. With fog rolling in to the appropriate live music, the remaining visitors can completely surrender to the melancholy of the penultimate evening.
In bright sunshine, Classic Rockers Velvet Rush provide a lively start to the last day of the festival. Compared to previous days, the infield fills up a little slower on Day 4. However, when Visions Of Atlantis take to the stage in the early afternoon, even the more tired Metalheads have found their way to the infield. With an animating performance, the pirate-themed Symphonic Metal band manages to get the audience moving again. A prime example of the great diversity of the ROCKHARZ line-up is the Norwegian-American EBM band Combichrist. Although the booming EBM beats are supported by additional drums and a few electric guitars, this music is a lot more danceable than what you usually hear at ROCKHARZ. It is also very well received, as a large part of the audience dances across the dusty infield.
Frog Leap puts everyone in a good mood with their entertaining Metal cover versions of well-known Pop hits, before Dragonforce fires off a rousing display of guitar acrobatics. Musically, things will turn pitch black one last time, as Norwegian Black Metal icon Abbath takes the stage. With a complete Immortal set, he and his well-rehearsed solo band thrill the die-hard part of the ROCKHARZ audience. The moon, which has now risen, is then greeted by German Gothic Rock band ASP, who provides the perfect soundtrack for the melancholic mood of the final festival evening. Before Berlin’s Medieval Rock flagship In Extremo delivers the grand finale to this year’s ROCKHARZ festival, there is a very emotional moment during the organizer’s speech. In front of a packed infield and the entire ROCKHARZ team on stage, festival founder Buddy asks his long-time partner Dani to marry him. Together, they have been instrumental in making ROCKHARZ what it is today – one of the best Metal festivals in Germany!
Review: Lukas Kranz
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