So I'm planning a 6 month tour of Europe next year sometime between July and February of 2014 (I'm an Aussie). I have been thinking about doing this for years, and I want metal to be a decent portion of what I do and see while I'm travelling. So much of my favourite death metal comes from all around Europe, so I'm really keen to see some shows in France (Benighted, Gorod, Gojira, Ataraxie and many more), Italy (Hour of Penance, Fleshgod Apocalypse), Sweden (Swedish death metal in general), Norway/Poland (I'd love to see some awesome black metal shows) and any/everywhere else. I'll be keeping an eye out for who is travelling through Europe when I will be, but I was hoping you guys could give me some recommendations for large and small scale metal festivals/events that would be worth checking out. Wacken I know about, but I'm completely clueless about what else is on offer. I'm mainly a death metal fan but all recommendations are welcome!

You've got the huge festivals like Wacken, Sonisphere, Hellfest, Donwload, Graspop etc. which you could include in your plan, but regarding smaller events like gigs in bars or small theaters you'd be better off searching the internet and finding out what's going on at the place where you will be at that moment rather than having specific events in mind. For that you could check out venues/metal pubs located at your destinations and have them in mind when you are there. What you are planning on doing is great and I'm sure you'll have fun. I've done something similar but on a much smaller scale. Good luck!

Depending on which countries you hit, Inferno in Norway and Brutal Assault would be worth your time. Have fun amigo, I'm planning on doing a festival trip either next summer or the one after!

If in Denmark, make sure to check out Kill-Town Death Fest - http://www.killtowndeathfest.dk/

there are a lot of dutch metal festivals/events.
keep an eye on lordsofmetal.nl as they keep track of everything happening.
Quite notable ones are:
Dutch doom days Which is prob the biggest fairly pure doom metal festival around
Aurora infernalis is a newish BM fest and is the only proper bm fest in this country id say
Roadburn is a festival with all kinds of music from folk, to stoner doom to crust to black metal to ambient.
Neurotic deathfest is a big death metal festival
bloodshed fest has various death/grind, hardcore punk bands
Eindhoven metal meeting is a good indoor festival with a large varied lineup.
into the grave is prob the best outdoor festival the country has right now

There arent many outdoor festivals after waldrock,elsrock and dynamo folded
There are ofcourse a bunch more things but these were just the most notable. there are usually a couple interesting festivals a month across the country.

If you're a death metal fan, Party.San is an absolute must:

http://www.party-san.de/

I went in 2008 and it was absolutely great. None of the bullshit waiting times of the larger festivals, the campground (at least in 2008) is right next to the festival area so you're literally 5min walk at most from the stage, and the atmosphere is really cool.

I've also heard good things about Brutal Assault - it's a smaller festival, mostly heavier bands (ie. none of the "beauty and the beast" or metalcore acts you get at Wacken or Hellfest) and beer prices were fixed at 1 euro last time i heard.

http://brutalassault.cz/en/

Also just as a note - as a non-EU citizen, you can't just backpack around for 6 months inside what they call the "Schengen Area", which exists inside Europe and most countries are part of it. The longest you can legally stay in Schengen Europe without a visa is 3 months, and crossing country borders doesn't change a thing. Barely anyone knows about it, so many aussies get caught, and they fine you if you overstay. Here's the wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

(I'm fairly sure the idea behind it is to curb illegal immigration from africa/middle east, but a side effect is the fucking over of aussies, kiwis, canadians and 'murrcans who just want to travel.)

Wow, I'm absolutely blown away by the quality and variation here. I'll definitely check out local shows as I head from country to country, but some of these festivals are worth organising a trip around, especially Neurotic Deathfest, Brutal Assault, Party.San etc. I've paid the same price to see 4 bands in Australia as it costs for the entire Brutal Assault festival.



I had heard about this, we're going to have to plan our trip carefully to take it into account but my friend has done some travelling around Europe before so I'm just leaving it to him haha

http://metalcamp.com/

You should visit this one ... beautiful nature, mountains, river, good beer, kind people (cca 14 000 people every year). It's not so expensive (at least for people from Australia). I'm satisfied with line up this year, but next it will be even better.

Cheers mate.

Don't forget Metal Mean in Belgium. Two years ago Rotting Christ and Mayhem were headlining. This year it's Gorguts, Immolation, Taake and Nile. The lineups never disappoint.

http://www.metalmean.be/2012/en/

Definitely go to Hellfest if you can, it's absolutely fantastic in regards to line-up and atmosphere and this year they had a stage just dedicated to death metal. (I also met my girlfriend there last year, which resulted in me moving from Vienna to Melbourne ).

I'm not sure whether it's happening again next year because I think the organisers are taking a break this year, but Way of Darkness in Germany has a great old-schooly line-up with heaps of great DM bands, check out the 2011 line-up to see what I mean.

festivals in Belgium that usually have international metal bands in their line-up:

-Durbuy Rock; around april http://www.durbuyrock.be/
-Power, Prog & Metal Fest; around April http://www.ppmfest.com/
-Puntpop; beginning of may http://www.puntpop.be/2012/
-Graspop Metal Meeting: last weekend of june (Belgium's biggest metal festival btw) http://www.graspop.be
-Vlamrock: usually mid/end of july http://www.vlamrock.be/
-Ieper Hardcore Fest: mid august usually http://www.ieperfest.com/
-Metal Mean: mid august http://www.metalmean.be/
-Alcatraz Metal Festival: mid august http://www.alcatrazfestival.be/
-Masters@Rock; end august/beginning September; http://www.mastersatrock.be/
-Velorock: around September http://www.velorock.be/
-Mass Deathruction: usually end of the year in the period of september til december (unsure for the moment, but keep an eye out) http://www.mass-deathtruction.com/
-Metal Female Voices; in october http://www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be/

and there are also some very big alternative festivals that like to put some metal in their line-ups:
Rock Werchter: beginning of July http://www.rockwerchter.be ('mainstream metal' only, stuff like Maiden, Metallica, Mastodon, Slayer etc)
Pukkelpop; mid august http://www.pukkelpop.be/ (same as Rock Werchter but some times less known metal could be thrown into the line-up)
Rock Zottegem: beginning of July (this year they had Soulfly and Sepultura for example) http://www.rock-zottegem.be/
Dour: mid july http://www.dourfestival.be/ (usually less known metal bands get booked here)
Lokerse Feesten; beginning til mid august http://www.lokersefeesten.be/ (this year there's a metal day with Machine Head, Saxon, In Flames, Ministry, that explains it i guess)

well that sums it up