They always say “better late than never”, which seems particularly apt for this obnoxiously late review of the recent Roadburn Festival. I could come up with plenty of excuses: work being draining, needing time to properly reflect on the festival, or spending far too much time catching pixelated creatures in a certain mobile game. But no excuse really holds up here, and a festival of this calibre absolutely deserves some afterthoughts and discussion of its highlights.
This year’s edition continued the festival’s ongoing mission to “redefine heaviness”, but it also looked to the past. This was evident both in the return of genres and bands that have not been as prominently represented in recent years, and in the deep dives into the back catalogues of several artists. Two bands in particular were invited to play three shows at the festival as part of their festival residencies, with each performance focusing on the past, present and future: Krallice and Acid Mothers Temple.
Krallice began their three-set tenure with their future set. While it was an amazing opportunity to see the band live, given that their overseas performances are relatively infrequent, it was perhaps the most challenging of the three shows for them, as they were performing brand-new material live for the first time. During their second set, which focused on past material, the band seemed more in their element, clearly more familiar with the setlist. This was also reflected in the audience, with some diehard Krallice fans seemingly knowing every riff and drum hit by heart. Their present set was on a similar level to the past set, although it took place at my least favourite of the three venues. The Terminal is by no means a bad venue, but it is no match for the 013 Main Stage.
Krallice (Photo by Paul Verhagen)
Acid Mothers Temple, on the other hand, kicked off their residency with their past set, followed by their present set and then their future set. But whichever set you happened to be watching, the specific material almost seemed beside the point. Each performance by these Japanese psychedelic legends began slowly, perhaps initially a little unsure of where things might go, before eventually developing into a full-blown psychedelic dance party. Their present set at the Green Room was particularly mouth-watering. Seeing all three Acid Mothers Temple sets did sadly mean missing the long-awaited return of Oathbreaker to the live stage, delivering a set that was nothing short of excellent according to many people I spoke to.
Another massive highlight was seeing Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs flatten the 013 Main Stage. I’ve known the band for a long time now, and anyone who remembers the old Weirdo Canyon Dispatch might be able to confirm my numerous requests in the wishlists they published at the time to see Pigs×7 play Roadburn. The Main Stage couldn’t have been better suited to them, providing the perfect setting for one of the loudest sets of the festival and leaving a lasting impression of what the band can deliver on a stage of this size and at a festival of this status.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (Photo by Niels Vinck)
Some of my favourite Roadburn editions took place before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the festival line-ups featured a lot of psych, doom, sludge and experimental music. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of Roadburn’s newer musical direction, which began to take shape around the time of the pandemic. But having the opportunity to see bands such as Ufomammut, Cult of Luna, Boris, Inter Arma, Warning and Slift on the same festival bill is something few festivals offer these days, at least not in the way Roadburn does it, with many of these artists delivering career-defining sets.
Boris played two full-album sets, PINK Days on the Saturday followed by flood on the Sunday, and both performances were outstanding. This writer hasn’t had many opportunities to see Boris perform live, so seeing them play two of their classic albums was a fantastic opportunity. Cult of Luna similarly played two long sets, one focused on their older material and one on their newer material. I only caught the set focusing on their older material, which was excellent and included several early-career highlights, including ‘The Sacrifice’ from their first, self-titled release, a song the band had never previously played live.
Boris (Photo by Niels Vinck)
Ufomammut are an excellent live band. There is no other psychedelic doom metal band quite like them, taking you on the kind of journey they do, and their Roadburn set, ‘Aion – The Eternal Coil’, was no different. They “only” played six songs, but the set covered pretty much their entire career, beginning with a track from Godlike Snake and gradually working its way through several of their career-defining releases. Oddly, nothing was played from Snailking, which is a personal favourite album of mine. All-in-all, they were absolutely magnificent.
Warning also returned to Roadburn, nicely timed ahead of the release of their latest album, Rituals of Shame. They played two tracks from the new record, with the rest of their set drawn from their classic doom metal release Watching from a Distance. Admittedly, I am a relative newcomer to Warning’s music, and the last time they played Roadburn I remember opting to see something else instead, something I more than made up for this year. This is emotional doom metal at its best: slow, beautiful and deeply affecting.
Inter Arma seem to have an annual presence at Roadburn these days, with the band returning pretty much every year to deliver yet another part of their back catalogue to the Roadburn crowd. In doing so, they have become firm festival favourites. Their skate park secret sets, although they are not particularly secret anymore, have certainly helped cement their status, and this year they played their classic album Sky Burial at the skate park, followed by the slightly later release The Cavern on the Main Stage. As an ex-drummer, it is always a delight to see main man T.J. Childers at work. The man is a phenomenal beast behind the kit.
Inter Arma at the Skate Park (Photo by Paul Verhagen)
The one Roadburn edition I missed in recent years was the first in-person edition after the COVID-19 pandemic, which had Slift booked as the festival’s artist-in-residence. This year, they returned to close the Main Stage on the Saturday. The band had impressed me hugely with their recorded releases and had been on my wishlist to see live for a long time, so I was delighted when I found out they had been booked to return. They certainly lived up to expectations. Their set focused heavily on their latest release, Fantasia, and while the band had set up in a relatively confined area on the Main Stage, they, and especially their bass player, certainly made use of the vast space around them. The result was a high-energy psychedelic rock set that proved exactly why Slift remain such an exciting live act.
Slift (Photo by Niels Vinck)
During the more recent Roadburn editions, The Flenser has become something of a resident label, and this year was no different. Already during the Spark on Wednesday evening, Roadburn’s free pre-show, label newcomers Crippling Alcoholism made their much-anticipated European debut. Having also seen their main festival show, which essentially meant watching the same setlist twice, it was clear that the band were slightly nervous on the Wednesday night. They played with considerably more confidence on the Terminal Stage on Thursday, even though this meant opening the actual festival as its first band. Their addictive brand of danceable post-punk tunes nevertheless got things off to a very good start.
Another new label signing, Truck Violence, delivered a great set of raw noise rock, sounding somewhat reminiscent of labelmates Chat Pile, but with the added bonus of banjo interludes. Seeing them play a second time at the Skate Park was fantastic, and I have little doubt that this band will be back in Tilburg at some point.
Truck Violence at the Skate Park (Photo by Niels Vinck)
Agriculture have followed a similar trajectory to that of several other Roadburn favourites, starting out on a small stage during a previous edition before returning this year to grace the Main Stage. The room was so packed that it was difficult to move, leave or even enter. This was one of the sets I heard people talking about most throughout the Roadburn weekend, and it felt like a genuine breakthrough moment for the band.
Agriculture (Photo by Paul Verhagen)
Sadly, I had to miss both of Planning for Burial’s sets. I was particularly disappointed to miss his first “regular” set, which focused mainly on material from his full-length albums, but it unfortunately clashed with All Men Unto Me’s Roadburn debut. I had interviewed Rylan Gleave in the run-up to the festival, as we are both based in Edinburgh, so I had to be there for All Men Unto Me’s live performance of their latest album, Requiem.
This was not Rylan’s first time on the Roadburn stage, having previously performed with the avant-garde metal band Ashenspire, and most of this year’s All Men Unto Me line-up consisted of Ashenspire members as well. The live rendition of Requiem was an absolute pleasure to witness, complemented by a fantastic video backdrop created specifically for the show. Rylan was visibly overwhelmed by the room full of highly appreciative festivalgoers, making the performance all the more affecting.
All Men Unto Me (Photo by Niels Vinck)
One of the things I learned this year was just how danceable shoegaze can be. This was particularly evident during Nothing’s Friday-night Main Stage-closing set, where they played songs from their new release, A Short History of Decay. While the room was not packed, pretty much everyone who was there seemed to have a smile on their face, dancing for more than an hour to the band’s lush shoegaze sounds and slightly upbeat rhythms. For me, this was an outstanding performance and one of the main highlights of the festival.
Also present this year were returning fellow shoegazers Slow Crush, who performed twice, although I only caught their Main Stage set on Sunday, where they presented their latest album, Thirst. Perhaps not quite as danceable as Nothing’s set, having a shoegaze band open the Main Stage on the final day of the festival (for the older Roadburners among you, remember the Afterburner?) was nevertheless nothing short of lush (no pun intended!).
Slow Crush (Photo by Niels Vinck)
The Roadburn line-up has always included some good old-fashioned, straight-in-your-face noise rock, and this year, alongside the already mentioned Truck Violence, the festival managed to book the all-time classic fathers of noise rock, Unsane. I’m going to show my age here, as I was already very tired by the time Unsane took to the Next Stage to close out Thursday’s line-up. The fact that the room was packed like sardines in a tin ultimately convinced me to leave after about a third of their set, a decision I heavily regretted the following day.
I did get to make up for it, however, by watching Kowloon Walled City’s entire set, a band that has been on my want list for years. Finally getting to see them was immense, and they were probably the best-sounding band on the Terminal Stage this year. Their performance brought back memories of KEN mode’s excellent set on the same stage a few years ago.
I could keep going and talk about every band I saw this year, as Roadburn is pretty much one massive highlight in itself. But, in the interest of keeping this review at least somewhat concise, I would strongly recommend checking out the following bands if you have not already: Bad Breeding, Yellow Eyes, The Machine, Heaven in Her Arms, Blackwater Holylight and Prostitute. They were all fantastic.
I often bump into my friend Dan at Roadburn, and it is a rare occasion when we have seen many of the same bands during the festival, as our tastes differ somewhat. There is therefore a pretty decent chance that your own highlights are very different from mine. And that is actually what makes Roadburn such a great festival. Its diverse line-up, combined with multiple stages running in parallel, allows you to cherry-pick the bands you want to see, meaning that most people end up having a very personal journey through the weekend.
I’m sure next year’s line-up will be nothing short of excellent, and you can already buy your tickets for the next edition through this link.
