Part One Here
Day two of Roadburn is set to be a mixed bag of genres, collaborations, debuts and commissioned pieces with a lot of synth at the forefront and a very sexy finale…
Friday – Day Two
Kicking off the next day in The Terminal is the one off collaboration of The Flenser label mates from Portland, Drowse and Ragana, dream pop/slowcore, and visceral sludge respectively. They perform a disappointingly short twenty minute set of their piece The Ashes of Mount Saint Helens but in that time the Ragana duo switch places, showcasing both their skills in both drums, guitars, and vocals. The result of the merging of two polar opposites is a captivating mesh of dreamy and sonic sludge that has room to breathe, and interlaced textures, in an ebb and flow of wallowing and soaring, formidable and fragile.
The second Hexvessel set, this time at the Main Stage, is a much grander affair, specially commissioned by Roadburn – with an expanded line up which completes the vampiric looking Hexvessel Folk Assembly. Eerily engulfed in smoke and magically bathed in the stunning shifting spectrum of lights created by Anna Weckström of lara lighting which adds to the magnificent atmosphere.
This time, the sound is perfect and the atmosphere is suitably gloomy, yet majestic, with a slower, more doomy pace, the moving addition of violin, piano, and ascending, harmonising vocals from Sarra Samane. It is in places, reminiscent of goth doom legends My Dying Bride – Despite being on the main stage the whole performance has an intimate and ritualistic, ceremonial feel – with an otherworldly driving force that makes it quite the ethereal experience, and suddenly through the hazy fog appears Vicotnik- formidable and imitable Vicotnik, current vocalist of Dodheimsgard, who adds his eccentric and endearing operatic vocals to the mix, towering over the audience, and indeed, the whole assembly. We did not get Dodeimsgard doing a secret but this, this will do.
Miaux is a synth specialist and plays a set reminiscent of Twin Peaks, with a retro vibe and calming eccentric atmosphere dubbed ‘a mistress of elaborate keyboard shenanigans’ there are waves of melancholic yet playful layered and minimal electronic with subtle ripples and and swells of synth mastery that is mysterious, otherworldly, and intriguing – with stunning lighting effects. An Unexpected joy to behold from the balcony of the Next stage at the 013.
Back on the main stage and continuing on with the synth theme, and indeed unexpectedness – are spacey death metal stalwarts Blood Incantation, who perform a European debut of the experimental Time Wave Zero. The enabling of this involved a lot of behind the scenes resourcefulness and collaboration such as the accrual of a range of synths – from the 70’s to 2000’s -which each member is placed behind, in an alien landscape, bathed in purple light and adorned with glowing salt lamps representative of alien eggs. More swathes of smoke adds to the eerie mystery and the set is a toned down display of more synth worship – with some occasional guitar and the appearance of a sitar. It is a wonderful and (mostly) immersive set but becomes a little samey for those with a somewhat short attention span and I really wish I had not dipped out towards the end when I lost focus and gave up waiting for a shift in dynamic, that very shift OF COURSE occurred when Attila from Mayhem joined on stage to add haunting and atmospheric vocals alongside a trombone player just to add a bit more weirdness and mystery to the cosmic voyage.
Forest Swords conclude the trio of electronic acts with a more upbeat and frantic take with a captivating backdrop of trippy visuals mixing lurching and pulsing dub into a cacophonic soundscape of distortion and discombobulation alongside melancholic saxophone.
To my delight (although I had my suspicions) I hear there is a secret Inter Arma set over at the intimate Hall of Fame. They play a range of killer tracks from their beloved discography and once again own the much smaller stage with beloved tracks such as opener ‘The Long Road Home’ then merge into the brutal Citadel, once again weaving a web of multiple genres, ascending psychedelic heights and crashing down into the depths. The crowd, of course, goes absolutely nuts and the atmosphere is absolutely electric. Why they have been so criminally under rated I will never know, but it seems those are days over and they could not deserve it more.
It is a REALLY tough decision to decide between HEALTH ( who included branded butt plugs in their merch) up against Couch Slut (they probably should too) doing a secret set at the skatepark and YES I probably regret my decision in going with the former BUT they were still on absolute fire, and an ecstatic joy to photograph, and then mindlessly dance to with dear Roadburn friends. Unsurprising then that they are deliciously sexy, brooding, and powerful as all fuck with industrial beats juxtaposed against the syrupy crooning- Brian Molko meets The Pet Shop Boys – voice of Jake. The lights are once again simply spectacular and the sonic boom sound is all encompassing, punishingly but exhilaratingly loud and daringly heavy.
Patriarchy are a fantastic follow up to and it is a quick race over to The Engine Hall to grab a beer from the bar before the start. For an industrial electronic metal band there are some surprisingly doomy elements especially in the brilliantly, tongue firmly in cheek named ‘Don’t Fuck the Drummer’ – which ends in a swarm of experimental looping feedback. Occassionally taking up guitar (such as for aforementioned track) Actually Huizenga vocals are fierce and brutal but also loaded with banshee sex squeals and howls. Teasing each other as much as the crowd, they unfortunately experience sound issues but continue to entertain with on stage antics such as punishing and antagonising her husband ‘Drummer boy’ by hiding his drum stick and generally winding him up. Actually jokingly incites violence and throws a long sleeve shirt into the crowd and screams fight for it before throwing each other around the stage and putting on a rather spicy show. For those who hadn’t swatted up and spent hours watching and dancing around to their videos they are probably a bit of a wtf moment – the on stage antics are something like a domestic between husband and wife / a switching dynamic (iykyk). All of this is of course safe consensual entertainment and it is a killer time – the varied crowd (mostly similarly to Health) goes nuts, grinding, grooving, and head banging to the bizarre clamorous mix of industrial and metallic beats. Seriously, go check them out.
Thus concludes Day Two, well, hours later at The Little Devil Bar of course 😉
Words and images: Abi Coulson // Darktones Photography
Part three here
