When we arrived on Saturday March 26^th and placed our tents on the grown campsite the festival was already starting up with some bands and we tried to see the show of El Guapo Stunt Team. Because we used the wrong entrance and had to pick up our passes somewhere else we missed this show and we discovered the grounds and slowly moved towards the Masters Of Rock stage where Nile was about to start their show.

The show of this band was brutal, tight and probably the heaviest performance on Paaspop this year. With their new drummer George Kollias they were able to amaze the audience. The new material sounded promising as well. After a one hour lasting set they left the stage, leaving the satisfied audience behind.

After this it was time for some beer and watching Jovink en de Voederbietels from the side stage. Not something to write about at Metalrage but we had to do something right?! Luckily enough it was almost time for the number one metal band from the Netherlands called Textures. After releasing their debut album Polars and changing vocalist the band played many shows. This year they are slowing down on the shows and they are starting to write songs for their next album. Some of these songs were performed at the festival. One of those songs was a more slower, melodic one, with some great vocals. At first is was a bit odd and even weird for us to hear a song like this from Textures, but an other new song was a 100% “metal assault”. The new material definitly made us curious for the new album. Besides the new material, “old” songs were blasted into the tent. Tracks like “Young Man” and “Ostensibly Impregnable” still make for some quality time. We were enjoying the show but the audience exploded when they started Swandive, which also ended their set on this evening.

After this enormous power and extreme energy it was once again time to have a bite and drink some beer. Metalrage was slowly getting more and more drunk and our opinion about di-rect can be written here because it would be to offensive for the band. Sorry dudes but you don’t fit in the Metalrage review. Lucky enough you guys got many other magazines who are interested in your music.

The next show was of the Irish folk band Neck. Because Napalm Lex and Buzzin Hornet were interviewing these guys we were kind of interested if there would be some questions to ask the band about their performance. Luckily enough this would turn out to be a normal show, but the interview was kind of special. More about that soon. If I had to describe the show of this band I have to say it was one big party, after taking some shots of the band Napalm Lex and me were dancing around a drunk guy who was hanging on a barrier. I have to say that we weren’t that sober either but we were still having fun. After the show we had a quick drink and we saw a short piece of the Dutch reggae band Beef, these guys are going sky high and now how to give the audience a great show. But we had to go to interview Neck and we had to go.

And after this awesome conversation we had some time left to see the Dutch Goth band After Forever. Because this band has been involved in many band problems the fanbase is a bit shattered and you can clearly see this in the audience. Besides that the band isn’t progressing in my eyes. 2 years ago I saw the band on Paaspop as well and for what I can remember it was the same kind of show with some new songs. After this show we were so drunk and tired we decided to go back to the tent and miss the Toy Dolls. Maybe one of our readers can tell us something about this show?

This night was going to be one true festival campsite night. With a lot of beer, chips and wine. When I was almost falling a sleep in my chair I decided to go to bed. Besides that the neighbours came back and we also had an interesting evening with them.