Orange Sunshine
The Dutch opening band on the main stage on friday brought a grooving mash-up of classic 60's en 70's riffing. While it isn't exactly my cup of tea, it was well played and the Vietnam visuals which accompanied the show set the right tone and mood. (Ce-El-Wan)

Pharaoh Overlord

Next up on the second stage is Pharaoh Overlord who seem to be very involved in writing songs consisting of one riff and few variations on it. Their goal obviously is to create a hypnotizing experience and well, they manage for the most part. After maybe 3 or 4 songs, it can grow a bit boring but in a way it reminds me of some classic Motorpsycho live experience, so that's always a good thing. 3/4 of this band will be present in Circle the next day by the way. (Ce-El-Wan)

Clutch

Yes, Clutch is here to bring their rockin' bluesin' boogie stuff and boy is it awesome. A lot of songs from the new record, a guest appearance from Wino, a bunch of classic tracks and a band in tip top shape. Mission accomplished, but I like to see them in a smaller venue some time. (Ce-El-Wan)

Blue Cheer

'Summertime Blues'!!!!! Yeah, well that's about it. I think most of us came to see this band to hear that song live. Not being disrespectful or anything. They played a decent show, but I can't remember anything from the rest of their material, and their vocalist didn't have his best day. (Ce-El-Wan)

Melvins

What can I say. Buzzo and Crover have managed to create some sort of uber-Melvins with the help of Big Business, now having no more than 2 drummers. Cool. Big Business begins the show as a two piece band, later joined by Dale Crover (on bass!) and after about 30 minutes, Buzzo runs on stage and the Melvins show starts. Again, a lot of songs from the new record (a lot of bands seemed to have records which were just out, or coming out in the next few weeks) but the new album kills, so who cares. And in the end ‘The Bit’ was played, so that made the whole festival for me. Great show and great headliner, and did I mention that the 2 drummers were as tight as a very, very young girl? Amazing stuff.

 

After that I saw some bands on the second stage and in the batcave, but I was too riff-tired to remember and maybe a bit drunk as well. (Ce-El-Wan)

 

Acid King

Wow, a good start of the mainstage on saturday, Acid King bring a decent slab of sludge doom. The only female fronted band on the festival, Acid King aren't exactly less heavy than their male counterparts. Heavy riffing (duh), powerful vocals and a collection of decent songs make this an enjoyable show. (Ce-El-Wan)

The Hidden Hand

Then it's time for doom legend Scott Wino. Being clean, and (I think) sober has helped this man a lot, because his latest record is one of his best to date, and it also shows on stage. Delivering a set of tight grooving 70's doom sporting cool rhythmic interplay and an actual audible bass, The Hidden Hand doesn't disappoint at all. (Ce-El-Wan)

 

Neurosis stated that Circle was the best band on the festival, so I thought it might be a good idea to take a peek at this band. I ended up watching the entire set they played, it was simply amazing! I don’t even know where to begin explaining what was going on, first of all they all had some kind of spike accessory on them, and the main vocalist looked incredibly weird in his shiny shirt, wearing sunglasses and a police cap. But the music man, it went from everything to nothing in a second, smacking you in the face with heavy ass-fuck doom, to a punkstoner riff. There were minimalistic parts, parts that sounded like eighties rock with an awesome clean vocal display, I mean too much too mention. Besides that, the stage presentation was very entertaining. The vocalist proved to be a true weirdo and I have never seen a vocalist and bassist arm wrestling during a show before. A brilliant band that might be way ahead of this time and definitely the best show for me this day. Check it out if you want something weird but heavy nonetheless. (DemonDust)

 

Om is what the other two guys of the legendary doom band Sleep felt like doing when Matt Pike decided to form High On Fire. I watched most of their show from the balcony, because I wasn’t really expecting much interaction on stage. I love the idea of a two-man band with only grooving drums and a heavily distorted bass guitar, and some hypnotizing vocals of course. Their sound was quite good, rumbling through the venue perfectly. They played a lovely laidback set, in a heavy way of course, but there was room for a track without a distortion pedal as well. Very cool to witness, but as I said there wasn’t much happening on stage, so I didn’t watch the entire show. (DemonDust)

 

I became curious about Red Sparowes when I discovered Made Out Of Babies and Battle Of Mice, together with these two bands they released a three-way split CD entitled Triad. The two tracks on that disc exist of spacey postcore/triprock music, which was exactly what they came to play. Even though the sound was quite heavy compared to what I heard on that disc, it still was a very relaxing show to witness. Very nice to smoke a joint and drink a beer to, but on the other hand, which band on this festival wasn’t? (DemonDust)

Pelican

I saw these guys before supporting Cave In, so I knew what to expect. Pelican play instrumental metal, with a lot of interesting guitar harmonies and a lot of pounding riffs. I always thought their drummer to be their weak point (not being very tight in breaks even on their latest album, but I once heard he had Pfeiffer so that figures..) but today he totally delivers. So actually a better show than the last one. The new material sounds great, and the sound is pummelling. (Ce-El-Wan)

 

A friend of mine is really enthusiastic about this Spanish band, but I never really caught the buzz from listening to their music. So I thought that perhaps live they could convince me. As their site says, they play a cocktail of The Melvins, Sleep, Trouble, Earth, Sunn0))) and Thrones, which ends up in a sort of arty-farty doom metal band that I just don’t quite understand I think. Dressed in the suits of hangmen they throw out nasty and weird sounding music, going from fast to slow in instants as well. I was not impressed. And it looked a bit stupid to see them pull on their masks from time to time, not being able to see their guitars otherwise. Maybe next time. (DemonDust)

Neurosis

Yes, the moment I've been waiting for. Neurosis playing live is an exclusivity, so finally seeing them do it is somewhat of a dream come true. Sporting their own visuals guy and having a sober lighting scheme, the mood is set immediately. And well, it's overpowering really. The first thing is: it's LOUD. Very loud. Not distorted or bad sound, but just loud. Neurosis just plow over everything and anyone and demand your attention. The set seems to be focussed on the last two records (which I personally consider to be their best) so I have nothing to complain song wise. The visuals really add up to the whole experience, and the 1 hour and 45 minutes they play are an amazing experience. One of the best shows I've ever seen.(Ce-El-Wan)

 

After being pummeled like that I checked out Colour Haze on the second stage which sounded a bit like Kyuss but it was way too crowded to see anything or stand somewhere comfortable, so I left quickly again. I saw a bit of Black Cobra as well after that, which was probably the heaviest consisting of only 2 people I've  ever seen. But again, it was too crowded to actually give some sort of an honest opinion, and with that Roadburn ended for me. Two days of great people, great music and lots of beer. I'll probably be there again next year. Demondust will review the Afterburner day which took place on Sunday.(Ce-El-Wan)

 

Well what a nice way to start this show; minimal jazz from Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. A drummer (that was tight, but did practically nothing), a bass player, a keyboardist and a saxophone was all the crowd needed to calm all the way down and prepare for some even slower music. These Germans are the kings of relaxation! Between the songs the person announcing them appeared to be a little bit of a comedian, telling us that the next song was for the people who like to drive 30 kilometres per hour on the speedway. A great warm-up for what was yet to come. (DemonDust)

 

Because the show was right during dinner time, we went out to get some food. Unfortunately I practically didn’t see anything of Fear Falls Burning due to this. (DemonDust)

 

Of course I forgot my earplugs again, as I did the day before. But Sunn 0))) didn’t appear to be as loud as usual, might have something to do with the fact that a final for a school-bandcontest was in the room next to theirs. Also there wasn’t nearly as much smoke on the stage as their usually is, but this enabled the crowd to actually see more of what was happening exactly. They had brought Attila Csihar from Mayhem on vocals again and Tos Nieuwehuizen was working the electronics. This truly is the best way to end a festival filled with stoner and doom bands if you ask me. Eight amplifiers giving you a massage through sound while Attila’s vocals go from high to low, giving it all a kind of creepy feel just like with The Burial Chamber Trio. The man told me afterwards he had taken some MDMA, could be the reason why he was lying on the ground most of the time. It was definitely not the best show I’ve seen from them, mostly due to the lower volume and the absence of a whole lot of smoke, but Roadburn couldn’t have ended better than with the slowest music on earth; Sunn 0))). (DemonDust)