Roadburn 2011

[frobbert]

Day 1:
Alcest's blackgaze was a pretty mellow opener. Pentagram and Count Raven were great and The Atomic Bitchwax was quite enjoyable too, even though I haven't heard their latest record yet (which they played in its entirety). Also enjoyed the bits and pieces I saw of Acid King, Wovenhand, Blood Farmers and Godflesh. The only band I saw and really didn't like were Winterfylleth. To each his/her own, but black metal and singalong choruses don't work for me.

Day 2:
Keiji Haino: Now that's how you open a festival, with the bastard son of Einstürzende Neubauten and John Zorn, played at 10 RPM. Or something. Pretty intense stuff. Mamiffer were beautiful, the old hard rock vibe of Circle/Pharaoh Overlord a nice surprise. I fuckin' loved Sabbath Assembly's weird hippie music. C.O.C. were disappointing, so on to Jesse Sykes, who was great. The vegetarian wraps in the venue didn't really agree with me this year so off into town to get some decent food, just in time to see the ever brilliant Voivod.

Day 3:
I would have loved to see Candlemass, but Liturgy played the batcave at the same time and I'm totally crazy about their last album so I went to see them instead. Brilliant band. Then on to the Midi theatre where Rwake were playing, a band who I enjoy on CD but I don't know...maybe I wasn't in the mood or something. So back to the main hall for Weedeater. Great band, too bad their last CD was sold out in the merchandise stand. Saw a bit of Evoken after that but unfortunately the sound wasn't all that great. I would have loved to see a bit of Imaad Wasif (I like his album The Voidist quite a bit) but the Bat Cave was packed by then so instead it was another serving of Voivod (great again) followed by Ramesses (good) and Shrinebuilder (great band, but the sound wasn't all that imo). The absolute high point of the festival were Swans. Damn, talk about fuckin' intense!

Day 4:
Spindrift's psychedelic spaghetti western music was a nice surprise. I would have loved to see the whole Dragontears show but the heat in the packed green room combined with the pain in my legs from three days of mostly walking and/or standing up finally got to me so I decided to take a relaxing stroll to the main hall. Good thing I did because Coffins totally destroyed! The best thing about Dead Meadow was Sasquatch strolling around on stage. I would have loved to see Black Pyramid but they played at the same time as Black Mountain so I preferred to see the last one instead. Never was too crazy about this band, but their latest CD is pretty good and after three days were I saw mostly gloom 'n' doom I guess their mellow hippie sound was a kind of relief.

What can I say? This was the best edition ever! In hindsight I regret not having seen Ghost, Blood Ceremony, In Solitude, Place Of Skulls, Sunn0))), Candlemass, White Hills, Imaad Wasif, Wolf People and Black Pyramid but you just can't have em all on a festival like this. Cheers and hi to Walter, Bidi, Shaytan, Chest, Jemdoom, Billsbrother and also all the new people I met. See y'all next year.

The guy from Sourvein summed it up best at the end of their set: "Peace and Doom" \m/

[Lumpy]

Thanks for the review!