Traveling blues & motorpsychodelic trips
The day had finally come; we were off to Roadburn. After having looked forward to this magnificent festival since we bought the festival passes late last year (and having seen it getting sold out in 7 minutes), it was finally time to experience the awesome music and the unique vibe at this small heavy music festival.
I left Oslo by train at noon on Wednesday and enjoyed a trainride through the countryside listening to some of the bands that would be playing the festival this year; Christian Mistress’ classic heavy metal, Solstafir’s primal post rock and Ancestors’ doom rock. My friend TB met me at the railway station in the small town of Tønsberg and after a short trip by car to the Torp airport we were soon 30.000 feet above the Skagerak sea, talking about what was to come and drinking a few cans of Heineken beer.
As soon as we landed at Schiphol airport outside Amsterdam, we were all business and bought railway tickets, XXL burger meals at Burger King and a sixpack of beer before bordering the intercity train to Eindhoven. It was quickly apparent that we were not alone; we could spy a lot of heavy music t-shirts during our two-hour train trip. But alas, as soon as we hit Eindhoven we had no time to meet and greet as TB had gotten us onto the guest list for Motorpsycho’s gig at the club Effenaar that same evening. We checked into the hotel, dropped off our bags and headed on over to the club where the Norwegian rock band had silenced the kleine zaal with their run through their recent rock opera The Death Defying Unicorn. It seemed the band was eager to rock as this was the first night on their European tour; the improvised parts of the set felt more doom than during their gig in Oslo a few weeks earlier. The 250+ strong audience were clearly pleased with the band’s performance and they ended the concert with strong renditions of their classic epic “Mountain” and the beautiful “Taifun” (4.5/5).
As we sauntered back to the hotel, we agreed that the evening had been a perfect introduction for what was yet to come. We looked forward to seeing the venues 013 and Het Patronaat and browsing the vinyl bins at the merchandising store V39. But especially we looked forward in seeing Agalloch, Ulver, Red Fang and more live in concert at the mighty Roadburn!
Dutch smiles & black metal
We were up at the crack of dawn on friday to get some of the hotel breakfast - eggs, bacon and orange juice - before we took the 25 minute railway trip to Tilburg. The picturesque dutch countryside is a soothing landscape to be travelling through and the dutch are also quite good at keeping their streets and cities clean. This is all well and good, but what really is the icing on the cake is the dutch hospitality. Everyone seems eager to help a stranger and they all speak English. The Roadburn staff almost seem to regard the festival attendees as friends instead of customers and this pays itself forward as the customers never seem to act bothersome or unfriendly; it’s all good karma.
We found a table outside the pub Polly Magoo and ordered us some pints of the beer Jupiler as the sun peeked through the clouds. And this sudden sunshine and blue skies must have made some impact as we soon found ourselves befriending Nik from Amsterdam; a smiling student who was returning to Roadburn for the fourth time. During the next few hours we talked about language barriers, philosophy, education and history. Who said heavy metal fans were dumb slackers?
I couldn’t have been more wrong; The Icarus Line had been reduced to being a poor man’s version of The Stooges with a front man who looked like a young Anthony Kiedis and behaved like Iggy Pop with no self-esteem. The rest of the band was almost invisible; their studied stage behavior seemed almost rehearsed. When the tunes also felt lacking at best, I can truly confirm that this was an utter disappointment (2.5/5). We also escaped the necromantic roar of dISEMBOWELMENT at the main stage, feeling that the festival really hadn’t found its step.
But luckily this was only to be the beginning of a four-day trek through heavy metal music. The next band we got to see improved our belief in rock music. Horisont is a young, Swedish band who seems content on running through seventies rock music; both their music and their stage behavior felt like a homage to bands like Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Thin Lizzy et al. They didn't seem want to reinvent the music, but that didn’t bother me as I truly enjoyed their set with beer in hand and a smile on my face. If you’re already a fan of their fellow Swedes Graveyard and Witchcraft, you should check them out (4/5).
A short while later we found ourselves getting ready for the mighty Agalloch's concert at the main stage. This was probably one of the most important reasons for us to go to this year’s Roadburn and we were not to be disappointed. A huge screen behind the band showed mesmerizing pictures of the American northwest; clouded hills, darkened waters and spooky forests. This was the perfect backdrop to the band’s shoegazing black metal. They pulled out all the stops; running through songs like the magnificent "Limbs" (5/5).
After this monumental statement we went outside to check out the converted church annex Het Patronaat to see the sludge of Red Fang. The ground floor was a lounge area with a bar and a separate merchandise booth. The floor upstairs was a beautiful venue with the building’s church windows intact which helped cast a particular atmosphere over the band’s set. They ran through more or less the same set they had when they supported Mastodon earlier this year, and went down a storm with the audience. I felt the venue lacked a good ventilation system since the air felt both stale and warm halfway into the concert. But, the crowd cheered the band on nonetheless (4/5).
After a brief stay in front of the vinyl bins at the V39, we returned to Het Patronaat to see the progressive doom of Ancestors. It took a while for us to warm up to the band’s music, but soon I felt more at home listening to them. They seemed happy to be playing to a full house at Roadburn and gave the audience a good look into what they're about; fusing the seventies heritage of King Crimson with modern heavy music. I felt that their sound is a fresh look on traditional progressive rock and enjoyed songs like "Bounty of Age" (4/5).
The set is beautiful and typical Ulver; dark and powerful. But it is also only 45 minute long, so after a brief pause, they return to the stage to do an improvised jam. The encore soon turn into an almost transcendental heavy music spectacle and is the best kind of ending we could have hoped for (5/5).
We return to our hotel in Eindhoven in silence; letting the train take us through the pitch-black night. Friday will give us even more sonic explosions as we’ll see Wino and Conny Ochs’ acoustic set, Nachtmystium’s return to Instinct: Decay, Solstafir, Yob, AUN and the massive Celeste.
Yob’s Heavy Kingdom
The Friday was to be even more exhausting than we’d suspected on beforehand. After the short railway trip from Eindhoven to Tilburg, we entered the Het Patronaat as the venue opened to accommodate the festival attendees most eager to see what Wino and Conny Ochs had in store. We were not to be disappointed as the duo immediately launched into a spirited acoustic set with twin vocals and beautiful guitars. The songs focused primarily on songs from the duo’s album Heavy Kingdom, but they found time to do some older tracks like the bluesy “Hellbound Train” and ended the set on a high note in front of the cheering doom crowd (5/5).
The setlist:
Somewhere Nowhere
Labour of Love
Dust
Vultures by the Vines
Heavy Kingdom
Hellbound Train
Angels and Demons
Old and Alone
After a short trip to the merchandise stands – again – we ventured to the galleries of the main stage at 013 to see Nachtmystium do their album Instinct: Decay in full. The band was clearly stoked to be invited to Roadburn by Voivod, who was this year’s curators, and did their best to satisfy the audience. The sound was great and Blake Judd lead the band into a frenzied set confirming the band’s status as pioneers of American black metal. However, I felt that they didn’t get the response they deserved from the crowd and it might be that a black metal classic was a bit too much early in the afternoon (4/5).
At Roadburn one’s almost completely sure to miss out on great music due to the massive amount of great bands and a tight time schedule, and soon we experienced it ourselves as we had to see the psychedelic sounds of Farflung from the far end of the Green Room. After having seen the band start their set with a couple of their trademark tracks, we catched the tail end of Hexvessel’s set at Het Patronaat. The band sounded like a medieval band discovering electric guitars and electronics. It was a pleasant set, but seemed a bit pretentious and aloof (3/5).
But, it didn’t really matter as we soon after, with a kleine bier in hand, were demolished by a angry Solstafir at Het Patronaat. The Icelandic band felt like the beautiful wreckage of a prize fight between a muscular Sigur Ros and an angry Primordial. They seemed to have some technical problems with singer Adalbjorn’s guitar at the beginning of the set, but soon after the band steamrolled its primal post rock over their audience demanding a cheering response. However, they missed out on some magic as they didn’t seem to sync their sounds with their visual backdrops and had some minute long silences in their set (4/5).
To prepare for the mighty Yob we got a tasty burger at the Studio café and some important rest in comfortable chairs as we’d come to understand the importance of pacing oneself during these long days of rock. But, soon enough we’d found a decent place in front of the main stage at 013 and waited for Yob to make their entrance.
How can one follow such a monumental effort? We decided to go for the drone masters AUN at Stage 01 at 013. Their music was almost diametrically different from Yob’s tundering doom, focusing on static doom drones. The threepiece have released several records and master drone doom in the vein of Nadja and Sunn 0))), and on Friday night they played a set that felt like a soothing and buzzing headache, creating a darkened soundscape perfect for daydreams. But, I think they lost a little bit of momentum playing close to midnight when the audience were buzzed on beer. If they’d played earlier in the day, I definitely would have been mesmerized by their music (4/5).
We’d planned to see Celeste at the Green Room, but we were exhausted after a long day of rock music. So, to conserve our strength for a potential fantastic Saturday, we decided to skip the amazing French band and get some sleep. On Saturday we looked forward seeing an acoustic set by Mike Scheidt, the doom masters Church of Misery and Sleep, the instrumental of Pelican and the amazing Bongripper.
Wordless milestones & unions of doom
As we woke up to yet a day of blue skies and sunshine, we knew that this would be the day of days at the Roadburn festival and prepared ourselves yet again to be transported to the Roadburn dimension. Once you enter the bar strip close to the 013 it’s almost as you’re teleported out of the Netherlands and into a heavy metal kingdom. The streets and bars are brimful of black-clad rockers and from the bars’ speakers diverse heavy metal streams out at their unsuspecting audience.
After this quiet start we went into explorer mode and searched out a few acts unbeknown to us. Sadly, all of these acts felt lacking in some way. 40 Watt Sun felt almost like a uninspired rehearsal from a local band, Celestial Season were a surprisingly sexless rock band sounding like a fusion of Danzig with generic stoner rock and Dark Buddha Rising felt a bit overwhelming with their focus on blood(!) and mystical drones.
Luckily, the rest of the day was to be a scorching atack on the senses. Church Of Misery went straight at our throats and opened their set with a electrifying version of "El Padrino" from Houses of the Unholy. Their bassist had some problems with his amplifiers, but as soon as this error had been corrected, they crushed their audience with a strong set. It’s quite obvious why they’re a repeat offender at the festival; throughout their set they humored the crowd with some stage antics and showing off their considerable technical prowess (4.5/5).
We ventured into the sunshine after this monumental experience to get a burger and a beer and cool off, but nevertheless we soon found ourselves at the gallery at the main stage looking down on Obsessed reunited to satisfy the audience’s need for classic doom rock. They played through a seemingly hits-oriented set, dedicated songs to two long-time fans and seemed pleased to play at the festival (4/5).
But we was busy gearing up towards the definite highlight of the festival; Sleep’s mighty set at the main stage. There’s no doubt that Roadburn essentially is a doom/stoner festival and nowhere is that more evident than before the band’s set. The hall was quickly full of fans with Sleep shirts and hoodies and you could formerly smell the anticipation. When a topless, tattooed and beer-bellied Matt Pike popped up on stage for the sole electric guitar intro to the gig, the crowd exploded in cheering adoration. When he was joined by Al Cisneros and they fell into their hypnotic doom, one could see joints being lit all over the venue. And in a matter of minutes the crowd moved as one; headbanging to the slow and brooding sound of Sleep.
1. Dopesmoker
2. Dragonaut
3. Antarcticus Thawed
4. From Beyond
5. Sonic Titan
6. Holy Mountain
The backdrop film to the band’s massive soundscape was made by Josh Graham of A Storm Of Light and it’s a fitting partnership. Solar flares, the cosmos, icy mountain ranges, sharks and nightmares were only some of the images that helped the audience be lulled into a transcendental state of mind during the band’s 90 minute set. A sense of this concert being a monumental occasion was obvious as the band’s members seemingly felt confident throughout the set, good-humored comments from Cisneros, “this intermission was brought to you by The Grass Company” and seeing the sides of the stage be full of other bands be in awe of the spectacle taking place on stage (5/5).
After this amazing set had left what seemed to be the entire Roadburn breathless, I almost felt like going home. The day’s amazing concerts had taken its toll, but I reminded myself that the next gig was one of the main reasons for our trek to the festival this year. So, after a can of Sprite and a short walk in the fresh air, we were back at the Het Patronaat for the last time during this year’s festival to see the amazing Bongripper live in concert. The band also has a doom aspect in their sound, but focused instead on a tight and raging rage which felt like a perfect fusion of a young, angry Mogwai and a breathless Helmet.
The band had a blistering light show which perfectly complimented their muscular riffs, explosive stage behavior and intense music. As during Sleep’s set, the crowd almost fell into a trance headbanging to the band’s repetitive rhythms and thundering doom. As they ended their set with a magnificent and 25 minute long version of their classic “Reefer Sutherland” I felt almost powerless; the band’s set had been physically exhausting (5/5).
It felt impossible for us to do anything else than travel back to the hotel and get some rest for the festival epilog on Sunday; the weird world of Mount Fuji Darkjazz Corporation, the unimaginable duel between Bongripper and Yob, a look at Coroner’s thrash metal and finally Black Cobra’s sludge Shangri-la.
The final call
As Roadburn ended with the one-day event Afterburner, we sensed a change in the festival atmosphere. It no longer felt like a communal and laidback vibe, but more of an ordinary festival. Nevertheless, some of the most interesting concerts still lay ahead.
Sadly, we first had to see the undoubtedly worst band at this year's festival - Internal Void. We'd never heard of this band, which is a american doom metal band founded in the late eighties, but that didn't rectify the horrendous set they did on this sunday. They had none of the charisma, songs or power that one would expect of a band appearing at Roadburn and we almost thought we'd stumbled in on a Spinal Tap tribute band (1/5).
Yob were on next and i was so excited to see them two days after they'd impressed us as one of the major purveyours of contemporary doom metal. This evening they'd do their second album Catharsis in its entirety. We had never heard the album before, but were sure that Yob would prove their supreme abilities yet again.
We were not wrong; as the band progressed throughout the set they turned the audience at the main stage into one single entity, headbanging to the brutal, yet multi-dimensional, roar of Yob (5/5).
We still had planned to see more bands at the festival, but after four days of loud heavy metal, beers and burgers we were tired to the point of exhaustion. So, after having been a part of the Roadburn experience for the second time we left for home without having seen the reunited thrash metal of Coroner and the blistering knockout attack of Black Cobra.
Roadburn '12 has been even better than my first experience with the festival four years ago. It's an incredible festival experience which celebrates the state of an underground heavy music environment. The friendship, openess and joy stands as a stark contrast to the media description of heavy metal. Roadburn is truly a unique experience for every fan of heavy music and should be considered as a holy grail for all rock fans. I'm already planning for my return to the festival next year when Jus Oborn from Electric Wizard will be curator and Godflesh will play Pure in its entirety.
Will we see you there?
