Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Main Stage
Germany’s minimal doomjazz quartet Bohren & Der Club Of Gore was placed as the first band on the second day of the festival, on the main stage of all places. This band produces so little sounds, some might even wonder if there is anything happening at all. I guess they were sort of out of place in such a huge area, yet I found their performance still quite enjoyable. The dry humoristic presentation of the band lightens up the show a bit, which for the rest is depressing as hell. Dark, melodramatic doomjazz tunes with the most minimal play you can imagine, music to listen to on your couch after a hard day of labour. Not to start a festival day with. (DemonDust)

www.myspace.com/derclubofgore
 

Negurã Bunget – Green Room
This Romanian black-metal band had become one of the most talked about new and innovating black-metal bands from last couple of years. Especially the fact that they come out of an unusual metal country raises some eyebrows! I was quite anxious to see what the fuzz was all about. I wasn’t completely satisfied though. Their music is a very good mix out of traditional Romanian music, mixed with black-metal. It gives them an identity of their own; especially the use of ancient instruments has something unique. The music was brought with finesse and loads of dynamic with an amazing singer. He uses his voice in all kind of ways, from deep grunts to a whispering story-telling voice and he does it with so much expression and passion…superb! Unfortunately the band killed their own atmosphere by making way to long pauses in between songs. It felt like they had to think in between songs what to do next and that was the killer for the whole atmosphere and show! (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/negurabunget 
 

Steve Von Till/Harvestman – Green Room
I heard a lot of good stories about Neurosis member Steve Von Till’s singer/songwriter work, which he came to perform in the late afternoon here at Roadburn. Combined with his industrial drone project Harvestman, he delivered tracks from both projects. Steve has a voice that sounds like the person singing has been through a world of pain and suffering, which suits his dark music perfectly. The Harvestman stuff on the other hand is incredibly loud noise, the total opposite of his other work. Kind of a strange combination. It was nice to see for a couple of songs, but it was so intensely hot and damp in the Green Room I almost passed out (literally), so we left. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/heathenpsych

 

Mono – Main Stage
On the main stage Mono from Japan managed to create a really magical, almost surreal atmosphere. At the many beautiful serene parts the audience was absolutely quiet as a mouse, as any lover of music would like. Also because of this you were able to get totally sucked in to the great post-rock of this band. Varying from extremely clean sounds to extremely tight noises. With songs mainly from their latest record Hymn to the Immortal Wind they had the audience entirely in their grasp. (Sledgehammer Messiah)
www.myspace.com/monojp
 

The Atomic Bitchwax – Green Room
This band has been a part of the Roadburn festival before and this time they got a warm welcome from the crowd. This band literally blew the roof off the Green Room! At first it seemed the audience still had to wake up from the day before, but after a couple of songs they probably got the best response from the audience by far! The whole Green Room was shaking, banging and just rocking out on this power-trio and I can assure you, they rocked our socks off! These are the bands that belong on a festival like Roadburn, but why are there so few real stoner bands on Roadburn? Musically this band is straight forward honest farmer/working-class stoner/rock ‘n roll and it seemed that the audience needed that. Great thing about this band is the duo-vocals from the bass and guitar player. Halfway through the set, they kicked out a smoking hot Deep Purple cover. If only Deep Purple sounded that good! Shit, this was one of the best performances of the festival. (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/theatomicbitchwax

 

Roadsaw - Batcave
After the mind melting set from The Atomic Bitchwax, it was straight through to the Batcave to see the Boston rockers of Roadsaw. And what we did not expect was that they pissed all over what we just witnessed with the Atomic Bitchwax! From one highlight to another highlight. With an absolute ear deafening volume, they blew away the packed Batcave totally! They entered the stage with so much energy, that everyone was swept off their feet. It had been a long time, that a band gave me cold shivers down my spine and that I wanted to cry of happiness, but Roadsaw succeeded! Musically this band is up-tempo redneck, Lynyrd Skynyrd stoner rock ‘n ‘ roll, with an awesome energetic front man that walked straight out of a truck-stop. The crowd loved it and literally went crazy. This was a sweaty, loud and energetic show, just as a rock ‘n roll show should be! Although the sound wasn’t all that good, because one of the guitar players had his amp way to loud. Even so loud that sometimes the sound got deformed, but besides that, this was by far the best (together with Solace on Sunday) show of the festival for me. Luckily for me; Roadsaw also played a lot of songs from their debut album Rawk ‘n Roll, but also some songs of their new second album. Amazing show! (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomroadsaw

 

Seven That Spells – V39
In the this year newly added venue V39 a nice surprise awaited us: a more than two hours lasting concert of the Croatian band Seven That Spells, which eventually became three because of blown speakers. At first hearing Seven That Spells immediately makes you think of the Italian band Zu which could be seen the day before. The comparison is mainly founded on a similar playing style of the sax, where most be noted that Seven That Spells plays on a regular sax and not on a huge baritone sax. But where Zu sticks to the same sort of rhythmical low tunes, Seven That Spells explores a wide range of musical styles. Ranging from funk, balkan to noise. Add a guitar player who had a funny chat every once in a while and you get a fucking long show that didn’t got dull. (Sledgehammer Messiah)
www.myspace.com/seventhatspells

 

Cathedral – Main Stage
Oehh yeahh !! After a good dose of rock ‘n roll by two awesome bands it was time to hear some slow tunes again and UK-doomsters Cathedral provided just that sound-track. From the moment they entered the stage, uber-hippie Lee Dorrian got the crowd going with hey, hey and clapping hands. The main venue was rightfully packed for Dorrian and co. Although he isn’t such a good vocalist, he makes that up with sheer passion and enthusiasm. For the first time a band had a good sound in the main venue and that resulted in an excellent atmosphere among the audience. First two songs were up-tempo songs and that got the crowd going. In the background they had amazing visuals, with old 70’s Hammer Studio horror-flicks. These movies totally suit this band and the atmosphere they are trying to create. Their set list contained songs from almost every record they released, including a very promising new song. If this is the new path they take, the new record will be heavy! The vocals were drenched in feedback, but the music was totally up-tempo ultra heavy doom. Awesome song! To my joy they also played one song of their first album Forest Of Equilibrium. In this song he also did a zombie-walk/blood act that totally fits the song. Of course the encore of the band is ‘Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)’, this song is still the best hippie-doom song there is. Very good and enjoyable show. (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/cathedral

 

The Outskirts Of Infinity – Green Room
When you’ve drank too much, you’ve smoked too much and there aren’t any bands playing at the time that you came to the festival for, you tend too walk around and see what’s happening here and there. On my way to another beer, I heard the Cream classic ‘Tales Of Brave Ullysses’ pumping from the green room. I was happy, and was about to be treated to one of the best shows of the festival! The Outskirts Of Infinity rocked hard, seventies style! Great guitar playing, accompanied by a bass player that can play solos just like him! It’s always nice to see people that love to play music....well played music!! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/theoutskirtsofinfinity 

 

Saint Vitus – Main Stage
Who would’ve thought that an influential band like Saint Vitus would honour Roadburn with a headlining performance? For those who never had the chance to see them, this was a perfect opportunity. The band has a cult status for a reason, and that reason is their fucking brilliant stoner/doom riffs, copied by many, many doom bands all over the world. As their show progressed here at Roadburn, it became obvious that this band didn’t become famous for their playing techniques though, as both the guitarist and drummer were far from tight. Especially the drummer appeared to have no idea how to stay in a rhythm, and when he got to play a drum solo the drama was complete. Yet the all the forty year old metalheads in front of the stage didn’t seem to mind as they were cheering along for the whole set. Us youngsters didn’t really know what to make of it, yet it was great to have seen such cult icons at work before one of them dies. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/stvitus

Omega Massif - Batcave
I had no prior knowledge of this German instrumental sludge band, but the rumours that this band should be good made me curious. Entering the Batcave was a task on itself all ready, because it was packed. I was amazed to see such a young band on stage, but they knew what they were doing. Playing totally in the dark with just black and grey visuals in the background, these Germans pummeled out some ultra heavy chunky instrumental sludge/post-metal. They did that with such a precision and eerie, cold atmosphere, I was amazed how good this was! After the show I immediately bought their album Geisterstadt. And from what I can recollect, I think they played the whole album. This album tells an instrumental voyage to a miner’s ghost-town. With the black and grey visuals it made sense what story they try to tell. Musically this band is on the same path as Pelican in their early days, but with a heavier and chunkier sound. Also Isis and Capricorns are references to this band. Go check this band out if you are into those bands, they are just as good and perhaps even better. (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/omegamassif

 

Colour Haze – Main Stage
While waiting for my Japanese friends to commence, I found myself in the main hall flabbergasted by a band I didn’t know yet…Well I do now!! Colour Haze made me decide to leave the Church Of Misery concert halfway in, so I could catch the end of their set. Damn this band is good! Stonering (new word!) like bands did in the old days, Colour Haze completely made my day and erased most of the bad taste that the previous band on the main stage left in my ears! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/colourhaze

 

Saviours - Batcave
I really enjoy Saviours' Into Abaddon album. Their High On Fire meets Iron Maiden-twin-guitar stoner-metal is just a bit different than all the others in the genre, so this was a band I wanted to see. Little did I know that they'd only play new material today which puts a big fat 80s thrash sauce over their music, and boy was it fun. It was the only show I saw with at least 1 crowdsurfer AND Steve Von Till in the pit and a welcome diversion throughout the whole festival. Let's see if the new album hits as hard as this show did. (Ce-El-Wan)
www.myspace.com/saviours666

 

Church Of Misery – Green Room
Definitely the band I came to see today, the Japanese stoner/doom/rock ‘n’ roll outfit Church of Misery took the stage with an ultra mighty loud sound, blowing away everybody in the Green Room. They kicked in with the track ‘El Padrino’, the opening track from their new record Houses Of The Unholy, which immediately set the tone. And the tone was ROCK LIKE HELL!!! The band seemed to be really enthusiastic for this performance, especially their vocalist who was dancing around like a hippie on LSD and dropping himself in the audience a number of times. It is almost insane how loud this band rocks on stage, even though they have but one guitarist it sounds like there are four of them playing on level ten. And when they played the opening track of the Master Of Brutality record ‘Killafornia’, the party was complete for me. Never a disappointing show, always convincing and loud. Hail to the Church Of Misery!! (DemonDust)