my ROADBURN 2012...

That's my report : no long descriptions, no setlists... just my shit !

***** THE TOP 3 :

ORCHID : the equivalent of CANDLEMASS special "epicus..." show last year = MEMORABLE... a bit more than an hour of HITS (from the ep and album) with a fantastic sound, and two new songs that ripped... The guys are very impressive of fluency and should blow everything away with their new album.  I've very rarely felt such a communion between a band and its fans, pure moments of shared happiness !

YOB :  Mike and his buddies did something I hardly could have expected with playing the cultish "the unreal never lived" in its entirety (and the song "adrift in the ocean" as unexpected bonus)... The sound was HUGE, just perfect for a 1hour and 15 minutes LESSON of epic and crushing heaviness; particularly at ease in his killer growls, this gig confirms my opinion that Mike S. became definitely the most complete vocalist of the Doom scene.

 

NECROS CHRISTOS : ten times heavier than on album, imagine the carnage ! one of my fave DM gigs ever, certainly the best DM vocal performance I've seen Live; they definitely have created their own style... impatient to see them again in June at the Hellfest !

+ bonus gigaplus : the DIAMOND QUEEN from The Grass Company

**** Other significant HIGHLIGHTS

SIGIRIYA : excellent performance from the welsh band; Stuart is incredible on stage : very incisive and groovy, funny to see how he's always smiling during his awesome solos ! great vocal performance here too

LORD VICAR : due to some little problems with the sound, particularly on Chritus vocals, they needed a bit of time to be at their usual high level, but the set was globally memorable with obviously a good part of songs from their brilliant sophomore album

OM : no photos, definitely too dark to take good photos (at least in my position with my camera) but a perfect ambiance though... massive heavy sounds with refinement, tightness and dark emotions

 + bonus superplus : our own cocktails with RHUM and grapefruit, plus the excellent general ambience reigning during the festival

*** GREAT

VOIVOD : playing "dimension hatröss" in its entirety, that says it all !

CHURCH OF MISERY : too bad about the Bass problems but the new singer is very competitive and this australian guitarist is always a fucking master !

THE WOUNDED KINGS : I liked very much the few moments I've seen, but too short ... I'm ashamed towards such a great band and so nice people : in March I already missed a great part of their gig in Rennes cause I had been too longly talking with the singer of TBDLB and now I just see the 1st song of their set, feeling very bad at that moment I need to go outside during a little hour... victim of a serious technical problem of proportions in what I was smoking :(

THE OBSESSED : good set but I was expecting better, with let's say ... more taste ! Wino did the job, nothing more special.

DOPETHRONE : I expected something a bit wilder from Montreal's trio, they seemed a bit stressed and tired, certainly the consequences of  Vincent's guitar that had been stolen during the travel ! but their filthy Sludge ripped and to see Carl hammering is drums so heavily was amazing.

DANAVA : no photos as I was too much in the back of the small Stage 01, but the set was good with if I'm not wrong all the songs from "hemisphere of shadows" except one, adding two great songs of the sophomore album for maybe the bluesiest gig of my week-end.

HUATA : the french band was very awaited by their recent and old fans and attracted quite many curious too I guess... thinking something like "who are these druids playing fuzzy occult Stoner/Doom with a bottle of chouchen in hands ?" A bit stressed, having to face again some sound problem capacities, but soon in their set, the french band presents finally to the world "the Atavist  of Mann" and it makes no doubt that new fans have been conquered by their extreme heaviness, accentuated by very tight and serious performances from the guitarist and Ronan on vocals.

MARS RED SKY : would deserve a better mention certainly, but I saw only about 10 minutes of this french band that really  needs more attention (including from me first !).

SAVIOURS : sweat, hair and Metal... that's the 3 words that come in mind when thinking about their performance, very catchy brand of metallic Stoner n' roll !

CELESTIAL SEASON : very good moment with those dutch death/doomsters playing their "solar lovers" album 17 years later; didn't remember that the Stoner overtones were so nicely present there, great !

BONGRIPPER : too bad I was really tired for one of Saturday's last gigs, but they were immensely brutal which along with my last joint (before leaving back to France) definitely finished me !!!

+  the listening session of the new ST VITUS : great idea and thanx for this special rolling paper !

+ the enormous breakfasts I took at the hotel

*AVERAGE

40 WATT SUN : should be seen in another context, to play on the biggest scene wasn't appropriated at all

WITCH : a few good moments/riffs but their repertory is definitely too unequal.

- DISAPPOINTING  :

SLEEP - how can this get so much praise ? too fucking noisy, most of the songs were so hardly recognizable ! he, look at the photo ... seriously, does a band who originally play some Sabbathian stuff need so many amps ???

- the TRAVEL to arrive at Tilburg, late after various successive problems that led me to miss D.USK !

- Too many people at some point this year, that's a serious problem for the smaller rooms... it was impossible to see CONAN for example unless you arrived at least 15 minutes before; that has been the only band I personally missed for that reason but that was the same problem for most gigs in Stage 01 and the Green Room. I saw LORD VICAR, DOPETHRONE, NECROS CHRISTOS, HUATA and a few others, in rather great conditions, just because I was there about 20 minutes before the gig started ! Otherwise, if luckily there's still one or two places in the hall you have to pray not being behind 2 or 3 giant dutch or vikings !!!

Nothing dramatical and hard to live at all, this is just to say that this is a waste of time for discovering bands like I used to do last year or at the Hellfest for example...

All in all this was pretty memorable, a little bit under2011 for myself but not so surprising as last year  included more DOOM bands I think... But I'm a bit afraid about next year, considering that E.W. will be curators, I fear this will bring many more people pretending for a ticket to the festival, including certainly mainstream people... the price of success !

THANX to the organisation and bands for all those great moments :)

ROADBURN 2011

Here are my photos and report of the cultish festival which took place last week in Tilburg (Holland), I'll put more photos on line when I got those of my friend (especially Count Raven, Blood Ceremony and Voivod).

CANDLEMASS

                                                                THE GATES OF SLUMBER

                                                                 
                                                                   PLACE OF SKULLS

                                                             BLOOD FARMERS

                                                               HOODED MENACE

                                                                       WINTER

PENTAGRAM

IN SOLITUDE

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

WEEDEATER

WARDRUNA

SHRINEBUILDER

As everybody expected, the biggest event was the CANDLEMASS show. It was divided in 4 parts :

1st part with Robert Lowe (about 30 minutes)

2nd part with Johan Lanquist playing “epicus….” in its entirety (about 45 minutes), the best and more memorable moments !

Lanquist is very very charismatic, his voice still rules hard even if he can’t do anymore real highpitched vox

3rd part with Robert Lowe again (15 minutes)

and the final part with both singers covering “don’t fear the reaper” from BÖC and playing a song from “ancient dreams”

the audience has been very enthusiastic, including the singer of Dark Tranquillity who was just closed to me during the whole gig, happy like a child at Christmas !!!

Other highlights of the 3 days :

- BLOOD CEREMONY : the singer impressed me, nothing artificial, she’s at 200% in the trip, really credible. They played mostly songs from the new album (which needs time to really assimilate the many rich 70’s nuances) but also 1 song from “living with..” and the mighty “children of the future”… Very good show

- COUNT RAVEN : just like me, all people present were apparently very impatient to see them and there’s been no deception… they mixed their show with songs from “mammons war” and “high on infinity” (particularly a fantastic version from “children of the holocaust”), they also played the songs “destruction of the void”… Playing live so rarely, especially in front of a large crowd, the guys were a bit stressed at the beginning but little by little the show gained in intensity and ended in an “overwhelming” ambiance, everybody had the right impression to have lived a very special moment !

- PLACE OF SKULLS : Victor Griffin is much more well-adjusted than in Pentagram, normal that’s his own band, his baby; but this is very obvious. The show is topless with mostly songs from “as a dog returns” but also from the just re-issued ep “love through blood” and the godly cover from “don’t let be misunderstood”…

- THE GATES OF SLUMBER : I ended with them… and honestly I couldn’t expect something better to close the fest ! the new songs played were outstanding, especially “coven of cain” and “the wretch”…great presence of Karl Simon, not speaking too much but still more than many others, the guy is very impressive … total DOOM at its best ! the new album is an absolute masterpiece !!!

-WINTER : no real surprise as they played “eternal frost” in its entirety, the surprise was more when the organization announced their incredible return ! one could have thought it would be long and boring after 2 or 3 songs… not at all, the intensity and heaviness are so catchy that it seemed very short in fact ! hope there’ll be a 2nd album…

- BLOOD FARMERS : shit I missed the first part of the show but Blood Ceremony were so fuckin good that I couldn’t leave their show before the end… anyway to see about 30 minutes of B.F. was still an incredible dream that came true !!! they played an excellent new song and ended by the cultish “bullet in my head”

Great shows :

-HOODED MENACE : despite the fact that the singer is just average (at least on stage), I liked it very much, Lasse knows how to deliver massive and catchy riffs and it was perfect time for listening more brutal stuff (after just doom during the whole first day)

- GRAVE MIASMA : I had to leave H.M. (2 songs before the end) to go watch the English evil metallers of G.M. and I didn’t regret it at all ! such a fucking blast, those guys were incredibly evil and brutal ; I hope they’ll soon finally get soon the great deal they deserve for a while.

- CORROSION OF CONFORMITY : cool to see them after such a long time, they play mostly old song during a very energic set; good response for them…

- WEEDEATER : sick, insane, brutal, full of dirty hate… just like at the Hellfest, the singer has surprised many people by his arrogant and provocative attitude, I like a lot this kind of “skinned alive” guy , but this is mostly their incredible intensity which impressed me again.

- WARDRUNA : I didn’t know them but it’s been a very very good surprise… this is the band founded by an ex-Gorgoroth guy, they play some kind of ambient stuff, with folk/black metal/pagan elements; no harsh guitars or evil vocals, just flutes, natural sound (water, storm…), percussions and clear (sometimes whispered) vocals (from one to five different vocals sung simultaneously with a catchy harmony).

- IN SOLITUDE : ouah the guys seem and are certainly very very young ! but what a performance, full of hundreds heavy yet always melodic riffs… their talent is rather impressive, the new album should be a killer.

-VOIVOD : I could have included them in the highlights too, but it was the 12 ou 13th times I saw them, maybe I'm a bit "tired" with that, so that was just two great moments !!! (I saw the 1st show in its entirety and a half of the second)…the coming of Daniel Mongrain gave them a new energy I think; this was globally very thrashy performances. Cool to have old songs like “ripping headaches” or “voivod” and a new song too !

- EVOKEN : don’t know why but I’ve not listened much to this band during the few past years but I really enjoyed their set…slow, deep, extremely dark, depressive; I thought that would be more funeral, more monolithic but all in all it was very agreeable. I’ll have to check out their recent stuff to confirm that…

- PENTAGRAM : not much to say about them, still worth to see but not memorable…

Deception :

SHRINEBUILDER : all the conditions for a memorable gig, but there’s absolutely no unite, everyone plays for himself and as a result the sound was awful, incredibly too loud… the fault of Al Cisneros (acting like THE boss here) which killed Wino’s performance with his mamooth-bass, indeed both guitar and vocally wise, he was almost unlistenable and seemed particularly irritated by that….Scott Kelly was a bit more preserved from that and it was cool to see him playing heavy and aggressive stuff, something Neurosis forgot for a long time ! A big deception anyway…

I also saw a few moments from other bands like GODFLESH, SUNN O))) just by curiosity cause I definitely don’t like their style, also ACID KING (15 short minutes… excellent ! hopefully I saw their whole gig 10 days before in Rennes).

The organization of the fest is almost perfect; all bands I saw started in time and had generally a very correct sound; I also enjoyed the quality of the lights (in good quantities and often well adapted to dark atmospheres) and the visual animations on back screens. The price of alcohol and food are ok (25% cheaper than at the hellfest for drinks) and the fact that the audience is limited is extremely cool to live, wherever you go and whatever you want , you never have to wait !!!

Sure it depends of the future bills, but I’m seriously thinking about making the Roadburn a necessary yearly pilgrimage… hope to meet some of you there next year !