Words by: Jenna Flood
Pictures by: Jenna Flood
70000Tons of Metal – the world’s biggest heavy metal cruise – set off on her annual voyage from Port Miami, Florida on January 30, 2025. Travelling to a different destination each year, this year we are off to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and metalheads representing 81 countries have made the pilgrimage to be onboard.
Pre-cruise festivities kicked off in Miami Beach with the Heavy Metal Beach Party events beginning on Monday, January 27. The brainchild of Doro Morrighan, Heavy Metal Beach Party was established in 2015. With a sense of community in mind, and the desire to bring the volume of migrating metalheads together before the cruise, Doro approached venues and organised events, and subsequently Heavy Metal Beach Party (HMBP) was born. Not just exclusive to sailors, every year metalheads can attend and participate in these staple events across a few locations in South Beach – namely the Clevelander Hotel – and at the Hollywood Brewery, closer to Ft Lauderdale.
And with that, the metal takeover of The Clevelander Hotel began as usual on the Monday before sailing with drink specials and exclusively heavy metal playing. Tonight also saw the premiere of the Survivor Documentary at a small intimate cinema close by. While the film still needs a little fine tuning before release, the initial intention was to see if the 70000Tons of Metal (70K) community was actually what everyone talks about online.
A lot of time is dedicated to talking with Andy Pillar, the skipper and mastermind behind 70000Tons of Metal, and what goes into putting such an enormous event together – both structurally and schedule-wise. Produced by Fourth Media, the film will be available on streaming services and DVD upon release.
Tuesday’s HMBP event is the Live Concert Event at The Clevelander which hosts Survivor Artists – these are the bands of people who have been on the boat, as sailors. Six bands played until the wee hours while mini beach balls bounced over the crowd and conga lines appeared out of nowhere.
Wednesday begins early for some ambitious metalheads with Metal Beach Yoga and later that afternoon, it’s back over to the beach for the Annual Photo. It certainly is a beautiful sight to see, 1,000 odd black clad metalheads gathered on the beach with so many countries’ flags ready to fly proudly for the photo. We returned to The Clevelander again tonight for Heavy Metal Karaoke, with the sounds of well-known classics resonating up and down Ocean Drive.
It was suddenly Thursday, January 30, the day we board. Shuttle buses take sailors from The Clevelander to the port and there’s cheers all round as we see our boat, Independence of the Seas docked and waiting. The check-in process is easy and the pool boys and girls greet everyone excitedly and hand out program booklets as we board. I find my room, dump my stuff and head to the Press Office. It’s great to see some familiar faces here, these guys are super organised and helpful.
A few of the bands I requested to interview are not doing interviews and others have limited time, but I have secured Trollfest and Samael. You can read these interviews further on.
17:00 came around rather quickly and it’s time for the bands to start playing!
DAY 1
THY ANTICHRIST
The first band I see is Thy Antichrist in the Star Lounge. The Star Lounge is the smallest stage but that doesn’t stop some of the most energetic mosh pits I’ve ever seen. Thy Antichrist are brutal, raw, thrashy Black Metal originally from Colombia and they have had a huge impact on the Latin American metal scene.
HAMMERFALL
Swedish Power Metal founded in 1993, Hammerfall have performed all around the world with their heavy riffs and thunderous rhythms. The melodic powerhouse played tracks from their extensive catalogue of 13 studio albums to date.
EMPEROR
Anyone that knows me will know that Emperor is the ultimate highlight of the cruise for me. The Norwegian Black Metal pioneers treated sailors to two epic shows – one set dedicated to their masterpiece debut album In The Nightside Eclipse (1994), and the second set on the pool deck focused on iconic album Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997).
Unfortunately, Samoth was unable to be on board but Ihsahn covered his guitar parts as well as his own seamlessly.
DAY 2
TROLLFEST
Without a doubt, the most entertaining band on the boat, Trollfest fired sailors up early for a big day of metal ahead. Both of their sets were scheduled for around 10.00am on Day 2 and Day 4. There’s nothing better than joining a Trollfest conga line with coffee in hand.
The Norwegian Folk Metal band had the crowd in their hands, obeying every instruction to sit down then jump up and the conga line included about a dozen punters in inflatable pink flamingo floaties, in reference to the band’s Eurovision entry Dance Like a Pink Flamingo from 2022.
I had the pleasure of chatting to five of the band members after their first show. You can read the full interview below my review.
IHSAHN
As an added bonus to Emperor playing, Ihsahn also performed with his solo project. Having released his 8 th full-length album in 2024, Ihsahn played two different sets taking tracks from his albums Arktis(2016), Amr (2018), Telemark (2020) and Ihsahn (2024).
Progressive and orchestral melodies build tension in Ihsahn’s music that is reflected in the lyrics and accompanied by the contrast of Ihsahn’s amiable clean singing and intense raspy voice. A pleasure to watch such talent.
THE KOVENANT
Founded in Norway in 1992, The Kovenant are the perfect fusion of Electronic and Industrial elements with Black Metal, and an Operatic touch. They are a band I can dance to, and it was very hard not to while trying to take photos!
Sarah Jezebel Deva accompanies the snarly vocals of Nagash with her beautiful soprano, and the catchy riffs and keyboards produce a melodic groove that just leave you wanting more. The Kovenant played a Best Of set on Day 2 and treated us to the brilliance of Nexus Polaris (2000) in its entirety on the pool deck on Day 3.
SEPULTURA
Sepultura are embarking on a Farewell Tour, to celebrate their 40th anniversary. As the most successful Brazilian Death Metal band of all time, they have experimented with combining multiple metal genres across their 16 studio albums and have an enormous fan base worldwide.
Sepultura sounded fantastic in both sets on Day 2 and Day 4 playing favourites such as Arise, Refuse/Resist, Territory and Inner Self. Both sets ended with Roots Bloody Roots and I’m pretty sure the whole Caribbean heard us. These were Sepultura’s official Farewell At Sea shows.
SUFFOCATION
Founded in 1988, Suffocation’s brutal Death Metal sound is uniquely their own. Guttural vocals and incredibly complex, fast tempos demand your full attention and the circle pit was certainly alive and well here. The band played tracks from their 2024 Hymns From The Apocrypha tour with absolute precision.
UNLEASH THE ARCHERS
Canadian Power Metallers, Unleash The Archers merge traditional Heavy Metal with more aggressive elements resulting in a high energy show that leaves the crowd wanting more. Brittney Slayes (vocals) currently takes the prize for the widest vocal range of a female heavy metal singer and makes it seem effortless to produce such beautiful notes while bouncing around, stopping only to throw in some windmills.
The band have a hell of a lot of fun on stage and interact with the crowd a lot, who respond by sending crowd surfers forward, one after the other.
SAMAEL
Samael began with brothers, Vorph and Xy, who founded the band in Switzerland in 1987. Now a quartet, Samael have evolved their sound from old school Black Metal into Electronic/Industrial Metal.
While still having a hardcore sound, this is more metal you can dance to…and just try not to despite the band’s first set being at 3:45am. Samael played their latest album Passage – Live (2024) in its’ entirety for this set and their ground-breaking 3rd album Ceremony of Opposites (1994) for their second set.
I had the pleasure of having a quick chat to Vorph, founder, vocalist and lead guitarist for Samael, before their early set. This is their fourth time on this cruise but haven’t played here for some time. The band have an album in the works and plan on releasing a song later this year. Please see the full interview after my review.
DAY 3
Day 3 is Shore Day and bands don’t start playing until 17:00. Sailors can hop off the boat and take part in one of the Shore Activities which are accompanied by band members, or hop off and find Margaritaville…or not hop off at all and catch up on some ZZZ’s.
Shore Activities this year included:
- Horse Riding with members of Unleash The Archers
- Bob Marley Nine Mile Excursion with members of Tankard
- Bamboo Rafting with members of Finntroll
- River Tubing with members of Twilight Force, Kalmah, Majestica or Tankard
- Dolphin Swim with members of In Extremo
- Sail, Snorkel and Jerk Tasting with members of Delain or Flotsam & Jetsam
- ATV Adventure with members of Beyond Creation
- Zipline with members of Onslaught or Stratovarius
I chose the Horse Riding and was joined by Grant and Nick from Unleash The Archers. We had a fairly large group and rode from the ranch to the beach, along the beach and chest deep into the water. It’s great being able to interact with some of the band members on such a different level by taking part in one of the shore activities on 70K. It really becomes quite an intimate festival.
A bus ride back to the boat and sailors were onboard ready for bands to kick off at 17:00.
TROUBLE
Doom Metal pioneers Trouble take their inspiration from bands such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to create their own sound with big riffs and a thrashy element. The crowd was headbanging along to a Best Of set on Day 2 and then treated to the band’s highest acclaimed album in its entirety, The Skull, for today’s show.
SYMPHONY X
Symphony X are a mixture of Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock and Neo-classical sounds. Despite not releasing an album since 2015’s Underworld, the band had a large and dedicated fan base onboard, ready to rock out to the older tunes and eager to hear some new ones. Symphony X is currently working on their 10th studio album.
DECAPITATED
Founded in 1996, Polish Death Metal band Decapitated have toured and entertained fans all over the world. I caught their packed out, impressive set on the pool deck where the band played their latest release Cancer Culture (2022) in its entirety.
The energy from the crowd matched the band and was off the scale with crowd surfer after crowd surfer being passed to the front. Decapitated played 2002’s album Nihility in its entirety for their first set on Day 1.
INCANTATION
Considered pioneers of the New York City Death Metal scene, Incantation are a fusion of styles including Death Metal, Thrash Metal and even Grindcore.
The 3:00am set in the Royal Theatre was a better option than Day 2 in the Star Lounge as I wouldn’t have seen a thing with the crowd that turned out for them. Incantation are tight, fast and heavy, and despite it being three in the morning, the circle pits fired right up.
DAY 4
KISSIN’ DYNAMITE
These super entertaining, high-energy guys from Germany sure know how to put on a show. With a heavy 80’s influence, Kissin’ Dynamite deliver epic Heavy Metal and Arena-style Rock, engaging with the crowd through their whole set. The pool deck was a great stage for the band who played tracks from some of their early albums as well as from 2024’s Back with a Bang.
STORMRULER
Stormruler are my greatest discovery for this year’s cruise. Having circled the band on my schedule for Day 1 they clashed with Sepultura, but I caught their second set in the Ice Rink and they did not disappoint.
The Melodic Black Metal band from Missouri take their fans on a journey through a fantasy world inspired by the game Dark Souls. Stormruler has released two full-length albums to date, their latest being Sacred Rites and Black Magick (2022).
THE ZENITH PASSAGE
Founded in 2012, The Zenith Passage are a Technical Death Metal outfit from California who really bring the energy. Heavy drums and bass incorporating grooves and electronic elements, a mix of clean and growled vocals, and a range of tempos guarantee the crowd’s attention throughout their set.
ARCTURUS
Arcturus are a Norwegian Avant-garde Metal band who have experimented with a lot of different styles, and this is quite obvious as each song feels like it has its own soul if you will. Animated singer, ICS Vortex, appears in a black straight jacket with goggles and the show is extreme, heavy, a bit bizarre but really entertaining.
Hellhammer, a busy bee on this cruise with his engagements in The Kovenant also, is one of the founding members of Arcturus and still the current drummer.
MORK
I was curious to see Mork as I really didn’t know much about the band – only that originally, it began in 2004 as a one-man Black Metal project. In 2014, Mork gathered enough members to tour as a live act and then fast forward to 70000Tons of Metal 2025.
On an intimate level (literally) in the Star Lounge, the tone was pleasantly close to how I had imagined, an underlying raw old-school sound but stepped up, so to speak. Labelled as Primitive Black Metal, Mork’s sound is atmospheric but has elements of groove and melody.
FINNTROLL
Without a doubt the hardest band to photograph on the boat! Between the strobe lights and smoke machine, I’m kicking myself that I missed their pool deck set. Finntroll are however, an epic Folk Metal band, which aren’t actually too Folky.
The band combines Black Metal with traditional Finnish melodies which works brilliantly but remains fast and heavy. Their costumes are rad, the 7 band members dress as trolls with makeup, big noses and pointy ears while the singer’s microphone stand bears a Ram’s skull with curly horns. Despite the lighting for photos, Finntroll are a fantastic live band.
SWALLOW THE SUN featuring BALLET FINLAND
Swallow The Sun are a Swedish Death-Doom Metal band and are performing their musical piece, Plague of Butterflies, with Ballet Finland. Originally composed in 2008, Plague of Butterflies is a story about loneliness in a world damaged by a plague – who knew that would actually come true??
The band stands in the shadows towards the back of the stage and begin to play. A man in a blanket awakens alone and a short while later is joined by a girl. Things don’t seem to be going well as they repeatedly come together and are thrown to the ground. Five other girls appear, also only to be thrown to the ground but then seem to restrain the man. He struggles to get free but there is a lot of turmoil. At last, he is able to hold her, presumably the one he was being restrained from, but I’m not convinced it has all ended happily ever after.
The half hour performance was beautiful though and truly engaged a theatre of metalheads way more than any of us expected it to. Clips of the show can be found on YouTube.
MAJESTICA
Swedish Symphonic Power Metal band Majestica closed out the bands for 70K 2025. The singer has one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard and although I am not a huge Power Metal fan, credit where credit’s due and Tommy Johansson is in a league of his own. Majestica last released an album in 2020 but for this final show of the cruise, they performed a world premiere of their upcoming release Power Train.
With epic choruses and instrumentals, the new album was received well by the crowd who will learn the words in no time.
70000TONS OF KARAOKE then continued throughout the night until the boat docked back at Port Miami in the early hours of February 3, 2025.
70000TONS OF METAL is such an epic cruise that is so well organised. Of course, with a festival, you’re not going to please everybody, but Andy does a stellar job of covering the many genres of metal and scheduling to avoid clashes.
I can’t recommend this festival enough. From the well organised Heavy Metal Beach Party events to the cruise itself. The boat holds a small crowd in comparison to European land festivals but still presents world class artists, who dine where you dine, have coffee where you have coffee, drink at the bar you’re at, and could be next to you in the crowd watching their mates play a show.
All artists do a meet and greet onboard for no extra VIP Ticket charge and The All Star Jam mixes it up where you can see top musicians jam together on iconic metal songs. Best of all, it’s not back to your tent after a big day of metal, it’s back to your cabin where your bed has been made and your pyjamas are folded.
70000Tons of Metal – The World’s biggest and best Heavy Metal cruise experience!
INTERVIEWS
Interview – Trollfest
Jenna: After watching your first set from the balcony level above the pool deck, it was clear to see you guys had the crowd in your hands. Dividing the pit down the middle and then instructing each side to sit down and/or jump up at your command. That must feel great to have that kind of interaction with your audience?
Trollfest: “Well, people need more exercise these days, and we kind of feel it’s our calling to get everyone up and jumping about. I’ve been needing exercise for quite some time now and I try to be close to exercise as much as I can but it doesn’t seem to help. It’s not just standing next to people exercising”.
“You have to do the exercise???”
“I think it does help”.
“Maybe I’ll exercise my right to decline that offer”.
Insert laughter…and continue to insert laughter for this whole wonderful interview!
So guys, have you ever been to Australia?
“Yes, yeah we actually did, believe it or not we did a headline tour in 2018 together with Troldhaugen and Valhalore, and Beast Impaler were part of 2 or 3 shows as well. We did 4 shows, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cabnerra. Cabnerra?? No, Canberra”.
Canberra, that’s my home town. Did you play at the Basement?
“That was so fucking cool to play there, and we got to eat kangaroo”.
That’s good, there’s too many of them, do you want some more?
“Absolutely! It was delicious!”.
Now, I want to ask about Trollspeak, how did that come about? Do you all speak various languages and just mix them all up?
“It’s the only way we communicate”.
So you all understand Trollspeak?
“Ahaha to a certain extent. Fabian understands it better than any of us, he Speaks German and Norwegian and the rest of us, we speak Norwegian with a rudimentary knowledge of kindergarten German, and that’s basically the language. It’s a very interchangeable language so you just pick the word that serves the purpose you need, either meaning wise or rhythmically, all depending on what you need it to do.”
That sounds like it works very well!
“So far, it’s done all of the things we hoped it would do. And it’s also got you 25 years this year hasn’t it? That’s rock stars, 25 years imagine that”.
That’s an anniversary.
“We’ve just had an anniversary but 25 years, let’s do that too!”.
It doesn’t look like there’s any signs of slowing down for you guys, you look like you have an absolute ball on stage, you really do, you’re all grinning, it’s infectious, it makes everybody else grin.
“It’s just what we love doing, playing music, and seeing people coming to our shows and having fun. You say contagious, you see people smiling and really, what else is there to do but just have fun. That’s our mantra, Just Have Fun.”
It must be good, it must be fun, a lot of bands will say “Do such and such” and a few people will but when you say ok this side is going to sit down and this side is going to jump, and they do it, the connection and the crowd participation must be really great for you guys.
“It’s good fun for sure.”
“It’s important that we on stage are willing to do the work as well, so and then we ask people to do the same thing. It’s easier to get people involved with stuff you’re already doing than ‘ok now do this’.”
“It becomes a snowball effect, like we energise and it gives us more energy”.
“It becomes a positive energy, you bring energy to the people and they give you energy back. You amplify that and give it back and it keeps going back and forth like that. At least when it really works, that becomes an upward spiral which is very, very fun”.
I’ve seen you guys 3 times so far, there’s 1 show to go. The first time was 2020 on the boat and I will never forget the conga line, the dresses, and your guitarist crowd surfing while playing, it was such a fun, memorable experience to see you guys.
“Again, you know, it’s all about having fun, and we’re really happy that people actually have fun at our shows. We’re kind of far out there, the costumes and everything but people seem to dig it”
Well, look how many flamingos turned up today.
“Fair dinkum… I know my Australian”.
You sure do and you said it right in the right context too!
“Barbie”.
We’ll have one of those later…when we’ve got a kangaroo to cook.
A lot of laughter ensues…
Do you have just as much fun writing the songs?
“It’s part of the process, like every time when we’re done with an album we sit down and we come up with crazy ideas to do next. The idea that has most of us laughing, that’s usually the idea that ends up on the album. It’s been like that since the beginning. Come on, look at our covers and the stuff that we’re doing, we have never been scared of putting ourselves out there you know, fuck that. Let’s just jump in with both feet and see what happens. If people like it, they like it, if people don’t then they can go to a different show. And also, as long as we’ve had fun doing it, and for our sake I mean honestly, it’s a very nice thing when it hits home with other people, but then we’ve had fun doing it. If it were to go the other way around, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal because at least we’ve had fun with it”.
So, it wouldn’t be a complete failure.
“Exactly, exactly. And one of the most fun things is seeing people that do not understand what is going on and they just stand there like a big question mark. They don’t know if they wanna laugh or if they’re gonna hate it, they’re just in a limbo and ‘how’s my reaction gonna be to this?”.
Do you see some of the same people then evolve to Trollfest?
“Ohhh yeah, often like sometimes during a show. We’ve had quite a few shows like where people come in and you see, like when we come out on stage they’re standing in the back, arms folded, their frowny lip, and you know, just a grim expression, looking around at people having fun and then you know being…well we call it the Black Metal Police. They’re just standing in the back ‘ugh my band’s better than this’ and or like ‘this is just too silly, it should be serious’ so you’ll see them like that towards the beginning of the show and then towards the end of the show they’re right there with everybody else in the pit dancing”.
“Dancing and barking like dogs”.
Obeying commands.
”Or like doing a conga line or like whatever you know, so that’s actually for me that’s one of the most enjoyable things when you see people that come purely expecting to hate it with every fibre of their being then within 25 minutes or whatever they completely turn around and maybe they’re doing it post-modernistically but…”
That’s a difficult word, what does it mean?
”Ironically…in a way. Can you spell it? P-O-S-T…”
Continued laughter…
With Dance Like A Pink Flamingo, how was the experience with Eurovision? Were there a lot of serious people there or not so many?
“Australia had a Eurovision contestant?”.
Yes, Voyager, They’re great guys and said it was a great experience.
“That was a great experience for us as well. Some of us went into it like ‘we’re not doing this, its too silly, this is not our arena, but it turned out one of the coolest things we’ve ever done. To be in such a big production, when everyone around you is super professional. And all the crazy ideas that we threw at them, they tried their best to fulfil them all. And there’s also something utterly satisfying with having something as silly as flamingos and then having a crew of maybe 50 professionals being very, very serious about how we’re going to present. Taking notes and being like ‘Ya ok, ok, so you’re going to turn around there, let me write that down’, and putting up forums and schematics like ‘Ok can everybody look over there at that point, and over there at that point bla bla bla bla bla. 50 people being very serious about something as silly as our song…or us haha”.
“Nobody looked at the right camera hahaha”.
“But we hope to be back to Australia at some point”.
Awesome! Come back to the Baso!
“Hell yeah, that was such a cool experience. We hit the mood in that country, everyone is so mellow and cool”.
That’s us.
Interview – Samael, Vorph
I mentioned my seeing Samael often announced for European festivals, and I asked Vorph if Australia is on the list of places to tour in the near future.
“Absolutely, absolutely. Our manager is trying to fix this and he has already sent Emperor there and Ihsahn. He has contacts and he said the next thing is going to be Australia, so we’re waiting”.
Samael have recently toured their album Passage in Europe and received a great response to their 18-odd shows, Vorph mentioned it was the longest tour they have done for a few years.
“Before Covid, the band had a strong full-time lineup and was ready to go for it, but then everyone had to stay home. But it gave us the opportunity to come together and check the material because most of the stuff was composed at that time. It just took forever to record it, to finish it, the backbone was not there during Covid”.
Well, that gives us something to look forward to, with a possible Australian tour.
“Yes, we would love to come”.
Wonderful! What do you have planned for the audiences here on the cruise?
“On this cruise, we are doing albums that we released over 20 years ago, we can even do shows without a new album, but as such, as we’ve done it, we’re excited, and we want to play the album. And I think that it will be important for us to present that, to play this material. It’s not like some territory that we never explored before, but it kind of joins links with things we’ve tried before, you know, we put them into perspective and it seems to really work”.
That sounds intriguing and I can’t wait to see your show. I’m going to do my best to make it to your 3:45am show! Even though Vorph said he understands if I don’t make it to their first performance, I did and I was so
glad I did. After the show, I saw Vorph and congratulated him on an awesome show to which he said:
“Ah great, you made it!”.
Stay tuned for announcements of Samael gracing our shores because their show is fantastic! It’s got energy, it’s got grooves and a mysterious darkness…you won’t be disappointed!
