A road-burning story

Roadburn Festival for over 10 years has been an interesting looking festival that started off as something towards doom/stoner that has now evolved into a diverse mix of genres that ranges from extreme metal to shoegaze. Located in Tilberg, Netherlands, it has been the festival that displays some of the dynamic/out there areas of the underground. I’ve thankfully got to finally do this festival for the first time this year after seeing several bands on the lineup that caught my attention. I thought it would be cool to talk about my experience of the festival as a first-timer on here, talking about the bands I saw and the whole atmosphere I got from this.

Preshow

Starting off my time in the Netherlands, I went to Roadburn’s preshow event known as “The Spark,” which was like a good taster for what’s to come for the next 4 days in Tilburg. Starting off the preshow were Temple Fang who I hadn’t really heard of, but it was a nice chilled out time listening to their heavy psychedelic passages. Following this was Rattenburcht who were probably my favorite band of that night, as they were a complete onslaught live playing their bouncy raw black/punk tunes that got the venue moving. Their guitarist looked like a jester, but he played hard, and their bassist was having the time of her life on stage while delivering sick basslines. This is also a good excuse to recommend their debut album that came out in March. Finishing off the night comes Thou for one of the three times I’ll see them in some capacity during the festival. This was the first time I’d seen Thou live; they just crushed it with their consuming take on sludge/dDoom which made for a great teaser for when I watch them again on Friday.

Day 1

Now onto the full festival schedule and getting to know the surroundings—I got used to the venue very easily once I knew where I was going for certain bands, merchandise areas, info points and the nightbus stop back to Eindhoven. As I was solo and a first-timer, I went to the first timers’ meetup the festival organized and I like how with Roadburn, there’s a cool, diverse & global audience that travels to attend. It was cool talking to fellow first-timers/solo attendees as well as listening to the organizer (Walter) make a speech about people experiencing the festival for the first time.

Now onto the bands: the first band of the festival for me was Oranssi Pazuzu performing their latest album, Muuntautujia entirely. I wasn’t personally blown away by this album as others were but will say seeing it performed live was really good and made my perspective on the album more positive than when I heard it last year. Next up were Kylesa performing live for the first time in 10 years and they were a blast. I loved the set consisting of mostly tracks from Static Tensions as well as a neat Nausea cover thrown into the set. I also loved the vocal deliveries from both Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope too which made for a fantastic performance and welcoming comeback.

Following that performance, I went to check out Faetooth who I had a fun time listening to with their chilled doom/shoegaze blend which was nice after a chaotic Kylesa show. The additional harsh vocals in Faetooth also added a heavy vibe to the performance. After this, I went over to check out Curses, a post-punk/darkwave outlet based in Berlin which also displayed the vast amount of genres Roadburn shows off in their lineup, making for a nice variety and balanced taste on various styles. Curses delivered a fun, big ’80s vibe post-punk experience that made me have a fun boogie throughout. Back to the main stage after this where I went to check out Japanese screamo band envy perform A Dead Sinking Story. As someone not so familiar with the band, this brilliantly emotional and hard-hitting performance started making me more of a fan of the band, and I had to check them out again tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I failed to get into the Hall of Fame venue for Black Curse which was disappointing so decided to go back to 013 and get ready to finish off the day with Concrete Winds from Finland. This is my third time seeing this band and once again they absolutely crushed it in style with their ferocious take on death metal in the Vorum and Necrovore style. They got the crowd going with their music and made for a fantastic ending to my first day of the festival.

Day 2

After a well needed lie-down, I went back to Tilburg for round two of the festival. I started the day with a chilled and dreamy trip through Orbweaving, performed by Midwife & Vyva Melinkolya which was a very nice vibe into the atmosphere that they both delivered; the screen showing footage of them both added to the ethereal trip through this slowcore/shoegaze journey. Next up were Italian doomers, Messa performing their latest album The Spin entirely. As someone that really enjoyed their latest effort, this was fantastic to see a great album performed live and made for one of my favorite performances of the day. They even got the saxophone out for “The Dress.”

From doom, I drifted to queer-tinted powerviolence from The HIRS Collective who delivered a fantastic and very fun performance. I absolutely loved the transitioning between their savage powerviolence to pop samples from the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Shania Twain which really added to their show—such a fantastic time watching this band. Once again, I went to watch envy doing a more modern set based on their latest album Eunoia which blew me away again like their set yesterday; you could feel the emotion being delivered from frontman Tetsuya Fukagawa. This converted me into a fan of the band and I went to buy a t-shirt from them as a result.

I needed a break after a performance like that, so afterwards I went to check out Maquina who brought their fun catchy and dancey take on krautrock. They were proper jamming like crazy throughout. This was a fun and different experience to what I usually see. Following this at the same venue were Genital Shame who sounded good live with their interesting take on black metal fronted by Erin Dawson, very cool performance there. Finishing off the night with a huge bang were Thou who played Umbilical live entirely. Umbilical was the album that really clicked for me with Thou and seeing this belter live was a brilliant experience. Guest appearances from Lane Shi and the vocalist for Uniform (who for the latter was unfortunate that he had technical issues with his mic) added to the performance.

Day 3

This day was probably the busiest one for me and more tiring walking around stages but it was worth it. Starting the day in style were Witch Club Satan from Norway who went through the crowd like druids to enter the stage. From then on, they were a force to be reckoned with, delivering their angry feminist spin on the more traditional black metal style which made for a brilliant performance. The additional theatrics on stage really added to their show; they even at the latter end of their set played naked which was very ballsy and I respect their rebellious attitude.

More black metal continued with Dødheimsgard performing their latest album, Black Medium Current. This was the modern Dødheimsgard album that really clicked well for me, so it was a fantastic experience to see them do this live. Vicotnik is a fantastic showman on stage with a cracking, sparkly suit and spacey looking robe he wore over himself throughout the set. The day continued with even more black metal from Grey Aura who performed their latest album that came out a week ago, Zwart Vierkant: Slotsuk. This album really converted well live as the band did a great job in delivering their own take on the avant-garde black metal sound.

Finishing off the streak of black metal bands I’ve seen at the start of the day were Silver Knife and man, they were probably one of my favorite performances of the festival in that they just crushed the stage with their atmospheric black metal in the vein of something like Fluisteraars. This was a perfect show as their new release came out on that very same day too. After this I moved onto something more different and relaxed with Midwife performing No Depression in Heaven. Once again, another nice and chilled performance for Midwife who this time had backing musicians from Thou playing alongside her; that’s another Thou appearance seen (and probably the last for me).

Another new experience after this was checking out emoviolence outlet from Virginia, pageninetynine. They had 6 members on stage which was crazy for a band of that genre. However, they were a really good time overall as the two vocalists both showed their different takes on aggression that blended well together, and the rest of the band were having a hell of a time. To finish off a busy day was Chat Pile performing Cool World. As this album was the one that clicked me with the band, this made for a really good time despite feeling exhausted from the whole day. One of the best spots on 013’s main stage is getting to sit at the back steps but still see the show on stage. Watching their vocalist in shorts walking side to side during the whole show showed Chat Pile’s humorous side as well. Also, it was fun listening to the banter about films such as Starship Troopers from their vocalist.

Day 4

The last day, while not as busy as yesterday, was still a good way to end my experience at the festival. I started the last day off with Dutch blackened post-punk act, Vuur & Zijde performing their latest album, Boezum entirely. This was a fantastic way to start the day as the performance from this band was brilliant, chilled out and just a fun time listening to what was a very good release from last year. After another failed attempt to get into Hall of Fame for Bacht’n de Vule Moane, I took an extended break and decided to check out two secret shows at the Skatepark venue. Watching bands at a skatepark was certainly a very different experience to anything I’ve done at other festivals.

The first band I checked out there was Dutch punk band Oust who were a fun band to hear live and watching their vocalist literally run around the skatepark for most of the set while having people dodge the long mic cord was really entertaining. Even then, it was still a cool performance. The next band I went to check out at the same venue were Bombstrap whose sound of “Terror Punk” delivered a ferocious and fun performance to watch. Their vocalist’s getup was pretty insane too but fit perfectly with the band’s aggression. It was nice to check out two new bands perform in such a unique venue.

After two punk bands, I went to watch a more relaxed act in the name of Greet, a harmonium-driven folk act by Matthew Broadley, former Dawn Ray’d drummer. Hearing this live was a brilliant time; the atmosphere it brings to the stage made it one to remember as the audience were mostly silent as Matthew sung the folk songs with passion and the harmonium’s droning sound added to it perfectly well too.

Following this was one of the most insane and probably best performance of the festival overall for me with Violent Magic Orchestra from Japan. This was one hell of an extreme metal rave party that the band took to the table here. The performances from the members added to this with the use of torches, their keyboardist jumping off their equipment at one moment and watching the trippy screen show of 3D images/animations they had mixed with the strobe lighting. This band just stole the damn show for me. The last band I went to see to finish off my time at Roadburn was Haunted Plasma whose mix of Psychedelic/Krautrock made for a cool finish for the festival even if it had to follow such a chaotic performance that VMO did beforehand.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, my first time at Roadburn was a unique and enjoyable experience as I never got to take on a festival like this before. The diverse range of underground acts was nice and did a great job in mixing up the heaviness and more ambient/chilled out acts, and it was very cool to discover the range. The structure of the festival was also welcome as there was cool spots I’ve never seen at other festivals such as a fireplace in the middle of a bench circle which looks brilliant when it gets dark. Finally doing this festival felt like it broadened my horizons, and I would certainly like to do it again for sure, probably next year.