22.05.2025 Lindemann

Graspop Metal Meeting

Dessel (Belgium)

The Graspop Metal Meeting 2025 was on the home stretch. Only one act remained, and for me personally, it was the most controversial of them all. None other than Till Lindemann and his band were set to close out the fourth day and thus this year’s festival. Surprisingly, the area in front of the stage was still extremely full. I couldn’t see the South Stage very well, but even there, many people had stayed after Judas Priest.
At exactly 23:45, the time had come, and the first notes of “Zunge” echoed across the field. While the video screens showed Lindemann’s mouth being slowly sewn shut during the song, many other parts of the video show were covered with a large “Censored” overlay. This was the compromise the organizers had required. Normally, his shows are 18+, which couldn’t be guaranteed at Graspop. Still, there was plenty of other interaction between the band and the audience — and the crowd had to be quite tough to endure it. Lindemann worked his way through every imaginable human abyss, accompanied by all sorts of visual and physical theatrics. During “Golden Shower,” the front rows received a “refreshing” spray (let’s hope it was just water). Anyone who was hungry got their chance during “Allesfresser,” when Lindemann and his bandmates cheerfully hurled cake after cake into the audience. There was barely a moment to breathe, not for the musicians, not for the crowd, and not for Lindemann’s stagehands. He constantly threw water bottles into the audience or tossed his microphone across the stage, forcing a crew member dressed entirely in black, wearing a skull mask and a black steel helmet, to retrieve everything. I almost felt sorry for him as he truly had a busy night.
Despite the controversies surrounding Lindemann and the “Row Zero” girls, he didn’t miss the chance during the ironic track “Platz Eins” to walk down the center aisle and interact directly with the security staff and the mostly female fans at the barricades. Afterwards, Lindemann apparently decided the crowd still looked hungry. First, he threw fish by hand into the front rows, and during the second half of “Fish On,” he switched to a cannon to reach the people further back. Naturally, the fish continued to fly around the audience for quite some time. From that point on, things calmed down a little.
The set consisted of songs from Lindemann’s solo album Zunge, supplemented by tracks from his former collaboration with Peter Tägtgren, which has since ended. Musically, the songs hovered somewhere around Rammstein territor, though more comparable to Rammstein’s oddball tracks, with an additional hint of Tägtgren’s Pain influence. Overall, though, it was a fairly monotonous blend without much variation, and the lyrics were definitely not meant to be taken seriously. With “Ich Hasse Kinder,” he delivered one last provocative statement before the final fireworks were set off to the sound of “Home Sweet Home,” officially closing the 2025 edition of Graspop Metal Meeting.
Throughout the show, I kept asking myself what exactly this was supposed to be. The censorship overlays on the video screens probably made many people even more curious to see the uncensored version, perhaps an unintentionally clever move by the organizers. Lyrically, the whole thing was scraping the bottom of the barrel. No line was too embarrassing for the next song to undercut it even further. Musically, as mentioned, it was a rather bland mix without real highlights, so the hype around the show relied almost entirely on constant, very obvious provocation. Shortly before the end, I caught myself wondering whether Lindemann sometimes sits at home laughing at his audience. After all, it always takes two: someone who stages all of this, and someone who shows up and even participates. For me, the decision is clear: once is enough. Rammstein may not be the most sophisticated band either, but their stage shows are legendary and impressive. Lindemann solo, by contrast, feels like an 18+ parody of that, relying on the cheapest and most disgusting tricks purely for shock value.
Be that as it may. Even though the festival ended on an unfortunate low point, my overall impression is still very positive. Across four days, there were plenty of highlights: Iron Maiden, Opeth, and many others. The heat made things exhausting at times, and after Lindemann I was honestly relieved that it was over. But the joy and satisfaction of having been part of a huge, relaxed metal party outweigh everything, just as I’ve always experienced at festivals in the Benelux countries, and why I enjoy going there so much.Next year, however, I won’t be returning, as I want to focus on smaller and new festivals again. Still, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Graspop Metal Meeting to anyone. Great bands, excellent organization, stages that are easy and quick to switch between, and all at a fair price (even if the food and drinks are quite expensive by German standards).