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Saturday
SATURDAY
 
Grails – Main Stage
Bands opening a festivalday have the tough job to get the crowd moving from the start (except for the crapass nihilist that kicked off the friday. Well fuck they didn’t kick off anything, they put me right back to sleep!!) Grails is a band that wants to take you by the hand and travel through music land for a while. It was a good show, reminding me of Floyd in the Syd Barret days, which is one of the best times in music. Psychedelic fun to get the day going! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/grailsongs
 
Amen Ra – Green Room
Belgium’s pride Amen Ra was the first band on the bill to play in the Green Room on Saturday. We, Dutchies, have loads of opportunities to check out this band live, but it was clear the (mostly) foreign crowd took this opportunity to witness an Amen Ra performance. A completely packed room from front to back as result, unlike the main stage where Grails played at the same time. If you have seen this band before you know what to expect; awesome, dark, spacey visuals, a slightly autistic singer (with his back turned to the audience and no interaction at all) and of course the darkest, purest and heaviest sludge music you can find in the Benelux. The hangover from the previous days got blown away for most people after a full hour of intense playtime. Top notch performance! (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/amenra

Grey Daturas - Batcave
Before we planned to see Earth on the main stage, we decided to check out Melbourne’s Grey Daturas in the Batcave, who are on the road now for their second European tour. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but when the band started playing the first tones I knew it wasn’t a bad decision at all. After five minutes of guitar noise, the drums kicked in and I got completely blown away by this three piece. If Sunn O))) had a drummer, it would probably sound something like this. The sound decibels bounced all over the place and a lot of people (mostly without earplugs) left the room early creating a nice atmosphere for the crowd who really wanted to see this. I even decided to miss out on part of the Earth performance and after a 45 minutes set, I left the room completely stunned by this band. I wished I knew about them before… (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/greydaturas
 
Earth – Main Stage
I was happy to have already checked out Earth playing in Paradiso (March 26) on the first day of this 20th anniversary tour, because I missed the start of the set. Even though this was the last day of the tour, the band played an outstanding tight show as always. Mostly tracks from last year’s album The Bees Made Honey In The Lions Skull including tracks such as    ‘Engine of Ruin’, both parts of ‘Omens and Portents’ and ‘Rise to Glory’. They played a brand new yet untitled track as well, featuring piano player Steve Moore on trombone and announced there will be a contest for this to name the track. Besides that they stated the band will get back into the studio as soon as they set foot in the States and come back with a new tour next year when the new album is out. No need to worry for the people who missed them on this tour! (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/earthofficial
 
A Storm of Light – Green Room
I liked the A Storm Of Light album that was released last year, and the fact that one of the people of Neurosis is also involved in this band got me intrigued enough to check this band out. What we got was a decent band that has some good songs that have some nice atmospheric parts in it, and with mind blowing visuals, but somehow it all felt a bit like a light/margarine version of their bigger brother Neurosis. I absolute love their visuals, that totally has the same concept as the lay-out of their album, but music-wise it isn’t something special. A decent band that knows how to some heavy riffs, packed in moody, atmospheric post-metal. Nothing special though! (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/astormoflight

The Young Gods – Main Stage
For me, the party was destroying my body with every breath, due to backache in combination with two days of drinkin’ ‘n’ stuff! And then some guys come around forcing you to stay for another while! The Young Gods kicked the shit out of the 013 main hall, treating the crowd with some Bowie-style industrial party music! This is a great band that made me run to the album shop to get their latest album right away, and they haven’t left my I-pod regular rotation ever since! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/theyounggods
 
Six Organs of Admittance – Green Room
I wasn’t sure if Ben Chasny was going to perform all alone or with guests, but when walking into the Green Room I saw just one guy, sitting on a chair with an acoustic guitar. Even though he seemed pretty wasted and thought he only had a playtime of thirty minutes, the set was outstanding. “When I first started this project, I couldn’t imagine people would actually give a shit about a guy with an acoustic guitar” he said, but people certainly did give a shit at this festival. There was absolute silence during his tracks and after each tune the crowd gave a huge applause. Flying him in for this special performance was definitely worth it. (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/sixorgans
 
Nadja - Batcave
The black/doom metal outfit Nadja impressed me a lot on record, yet as I went to check them out in the Batcave it seemed like they were not able to make it to that level. Especially vocally it didn’t sound as I had hoped, and neither did I get the dark, misanthropic feeling from their drone riffs. After hearing people say that they experienced the same last year, I guess this band is just one of those that can’t copy their album sound to a live environment decently. Too bad. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/nadjaluv
 
Om – Main Stage
I did absolutely no research on this band before the show so it was really weird to see just two guys enter the stage. I never knew there were only two of them! I heard some people being a bit sceptic about the show because of the new drummer that joined early last year, after the departure of Chris Haikus, who had been in the band since the beginning. But there was no need to worry; as soon as the soundcheck started I knew this was right. An hour of the purest doom as result, including a brand new tune from the upcoming album and an encore for the wild going crowd. Al Cisneros proved once again that he is an amazing bass player and vocalist and the addition of the new drummer Emil Amos did the band absolutely no harm. The next album should be outstanding! (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

Neurosis – Main Stage 
Headlining their own Beyond The Pale festival at the Roadburn festival, legends Neurosis kicked in their depressing set with ‘A Sun That Never Sets’ which set the mood. Not as loud as two years ago though, and far from as intense as back then as well. This seemed to be the case with many visitors today, especially the ones who had seen them more often. Tracks like ‘Water Is Not Enough’ and ‘Through Silver And Blood’ didn’t change this fact at all and neither did a whole lot more tracks from their last album Given To The Rising. It just didn’t get to me. People who witnessed them for the first time were blown away completely though. I guess that is sort of the deal with this band, the first time you see them you are completely flabbergasted by these guys, after that it becomes old real fast, even though they started this whole genre. Too bad, because I would love to get that feeling I experienced two years ago again sometime. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/officialneurosis
 
Skullflower – Main Stage
As DemonDust wrote in his review about Neurosis at Roadburn 2007, I was one of the lucky ones to witness a Neurosis gig for the first time and I was absolutely flabbergasted. Watching a Neurosis gig for over 90 minutes is pretty intense and so I was really up for some music that was less hard to get into. Skullflower was one of the many old school bands on this year’s bill. The band, which exists since 1988, is known for being one of the most influential noise and drone bands from the United Kingdom. Even though the crowd was constantly walking in and out of the room, the band gave away a really nice and loud show, giving me and a lot of people some time to sit down on the stairs and enjoy the music. Not a mind blowing performance, but definitely enjoyable. (Brent_)
www.myspace.com/skullflowervibes

Tribes Of Neurot – Main Stage
The very last act of Roadburn 2009, the industrial drone act Tribes Of Neurot came to put those still alive and present in a permanent coma. Dark soundscapes enveloped the audience one last time, draining the remaining souls of their last drops of energy. It is hard for me to recollect memories of this performance, yet I do know that I liked Tribes Of Neurot a whole lot better than what some of their members did with their main band Neurosis a couple of hours earlier. As I spaced out one last hour at this magnificent festival, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed that it was almost over. Well at least for those not in possession of a ticket for the Afterburner. I for one will surely be one of the attendees next year again, Roadburn 2010 here we come! (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/tribesofneurot1138
 

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Details Written on Wednesday May 13th, 2009
Writer @DemonDust

Tags: #Roadburn Festival 2009