This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..
This is a hand numbered 7” on blue green vinyl from Wino’s new band. It features two tracks and is pressed in 1000 copies. The A side is a track called Switchhouse. This band is a three piece (four piece live with two guitars, Wino plays bass and guitar on this first release) like most of this band projects and this track is a slow heavy but not doomy track with some nice dual guitar stuff. Wino’s voice is potent as ever and he sings this haunting like background chorus. The B side is a longer and high speed instrumental track called Crossthreaded. A lot of cool guitar playing on this track with both Jim and Wino do a lot of trading guitar and some dual really psychedelic stuff. This is a great 7” and I look forward to the full length record.
Gingerpig is a new Dutch band from Gorefest guitar and vocalist Mr. Boudewijn. I was given this 7” record at their invite only debut concert at the Roadburn festival. This single is hand numbered in 500 copies and most were given away when you bought stuff at the Burning World record stand at the festival or the debut gig. Anyway, the Dimlighted Heart is a long track split over the two sides and is like real 70s classic power rock with a lot of cool synthesizer, organ and powerful vocals. The guitar and drive of the track reminds me a lot of later day Spiritual Beggars material. The side B starts with some piano and organ and a slow bluesy guitar and builds up on the Moog playing and then suddenly comes back to the main theme of the song that was started on the A side. Very cool stuff and I really look forward to their full length record due out later in 2011.
It looks like 2011 is going to be a very productive year for the Finnish group Circle. They already released one full length record and Infektio is out anyday now on Conspiracy records and this extremely short EP, which is only for the collectors and has nothing to do with the music, sadly. There are 4 songs and only a little over 5 mins of music total, so it is a bit of waste or a joke. I guess the band thought it would be fun but I would avoid this release unless you are collecting Circle, then you have to have it! It is some very short thrash metal like things. It is funny to hear Mika sing like that but not worth 5-7€ you will pay or more for this 7” record.
I had never heard of this band even though I was a fan of Zen Guerilla. The band plays totally spaced out instrumental psychedelic rock music. I managed to pick up this new record as well as the bands strange split LP with Qumram Orphics and a limited edition 7” record (which is super cool!). This is the bands 2nd full length (missed the first one) and features the side long Country Ways track and three others. Country Ways is a very slow building piece constructed on these spaced out delay guitars with the drums way in the back as the layers of guitar just sort of reverberate in your brain. Very spaced out stuff and they add some synthesizers at the end. I am pretty sure they played this track (jam) at Roadburn. Sometimes it is not that interesting and other times it perks you up, like at the end when the layers become more dense-wow! Best when stoned for sure.
Full Moon Revisited is another very stoney track but features more psychedelic lead guitar, rather than just looped riffs. This track is really psychedelic. Harrington Fair is atrack with a very bluesy guitar while there are some other wordly feedbacks and sounds in the background. It is almost comes across as a warm up to something else that the band just happen to record while they were setting up or something and thought, “hey, this is pretty cool”. Use your Words has a more distinct bass in the bottom end that reverberates a bit more than the Country Ways track but this track is a bit similar but it features a more intense wah guitar and both players play some more lead like guitar. This is a totally spaced out record for stoners for sure.
BONG is back with their follow up effort to the recent Live at Roadburn (which is still not out on vinyl yet). One of the tracks from that live release is also on this excellent CD. If you are not familiar with BONG, they are from Newcastle and played pretty spaced out heavy doom. A lot of it sounds quite a lot but you have to get drawn into the droney nuances of the music. This CD is three tracks in 79 mins and wow…. The nearly 26 min Onward to Perdardaris, which is also on the live at Roadburn, it starts slow and spacey and then the massive riff kicks in just after the spoken word piece from the great author Lord Dunseney. The sitar like instrument is played throughout the next part and it gives it this cool effect as the massive drone wall of doom pummels you. I wish they would mix the lead guitar louder and he would solo even more but it is fucking cool and totally spaced out. The vocal comes back later but in a totally different way and the song is getting more and more intense and the end is massive as they build up. The shati baaja (sitar like instrument) is really mixed high at the end and makes it very far out. One of their most, if not most amazing tracks ever!
This band is totally heading into the right direction with just getting more spacey and spacey. The riffs and wall of sound is quite similar on a lot of their stuff but the spacey details and sounds is what make them special. Massive…. Across the Timestream is starting the next 25 mins of the journey beyond ancient space. It starts quite reverberating at the beginning and slowly fits its feet with some very spacey but also quite melodic stuff. It is very stoney stuff with the reverberating guitar just mixed into the center of the sound. A very melodic but also heavy piece! Almost mainstream for BONG this one!The last 29 min piece, The Shadow of the Towers has a more low fi sound and starts slowly, is heavy and dark, unlike the more happy (if you can call it that) last track. Massive slow doomy wall of sound- that characteristic BONG that you all know and love. About 7 mins into the song, it starts to take off in a slightly different direction but damn it is massive and around 13½ mins he starts to solo a bit in the background of the massive pummelling we are getting here. Very spaced out sound as well and it really picks up in pace as well from the slow beginning. A total mindfuck of a record for sure.
Vibravoid have released quite a few 7” releases and a double live CD but not a new full length record for over a year. This CD only contains 6 tracks including a long take on Pink Floyd’s Set the Control for the Heart of the Sun in 54 mins. Seefeel is a short, pretty standard Vibravoid catchy psych track. Next up is the 12min track that is a long trip with cool repetitive elements and a guitar riff that reminds me a lot of the Sundial song, Mind Train (but not as heavy or fuzzed out as Sundial). Do it allright is another short on before the very repetitive and psyched out You keep in Falling, which is 3 mins longer than the 7” version released on the Greek 7”. I love the sound on this track. Very psyched out. The band perform a pretty cool 23min version of Set the Control. It starts slow and spacey with the main organ theme and takes a long time as the band takes its time spacing out. The mid section is pretty cool and experimental as well. They never reach a very crazy heavy section as Pink Floyd often did. A solid psychedelic effort from Vibravoid.. I look forward to the vinyl? What will they leave off? Probably the You keep on Falling track, which is about 7 mins but also one of the best new songs.
Graveyard, who I consider myself to be good friends with were back in town for their 4th gig in Copenhagen. Not sure when the last time we hung out was but when I showed up it was like a greeting of old friends. I congratulated them on having a number 1 record in Sweden. They were really blown away by this and all 4 release parties in Sweden were all sold out! They were flying at the moment! We talked about a lot of things including set lists, jamming, Axel leaving Spiders, bands they had toured with, them going to open up for Iron Maiden, etc.. We had a few beers and just a real nice time before the show. I completely missed the opening band, which I was told was terrible. Super cool people.
The place was totally packed and they had a really cool banner on the front of the stage and they were in a good mood (but a bit nervous that I was recording the show for my own personal use). They played about 50-50 new and old numbers and the new songs came across great. I especially like this title track, Hisingen Blues and Uncomfortably Numb. I was really surprised that people were so into it. Very unusual in Denmark that a 70s band like this gets this kind of response. The band plays the songs more or less like the records with no real stretching things out or experimenting. Axel was an animal on the drums and so hot, he just played in his underwear, since he forgot his drumming pants (he said!). The sound was not very good as the drums and bass were too loud in the room and the soundman not doing much about it despite complaints. It did improve some at the end of the show but still the drums dominated throughout the concert and it should not be like that. This is rock and the guitars need to be the dominant instruments. Some sound guys just don’t get it.
The encores were short and intense and Axel did a little drum solo in the middle of that song Granny and Davis from the b-side of the Hissing Blues 7”. At the end of the next song, they did a recap of Blue Soul, which was cool and then the show ended. I think they played about 65 mins or so. They did not have a written set list since they play the same set every night with maybe 1-2 different songs so they don’t have to write it down. They promised to change the set for the festivals this summer. We will see… I had a great time. Check out these two videos of the encores. Sadly they had no vinyl records to sell as I know many people wanted these. I should also say that the light projection guy they have along did a really cool job.
Set List: ??, Hisingen Blues, Submarine Blues, Uncomfortably Numb, As the years go By, Satan’s Finest, White Truth, Thin Line, Blue Soul, Granny and Davis, ?, Evil Ways
My friend Juba’s band, Sir Reg was in town for their first date on the first headline tour of Denmark, Germany and France for the next 16 days. I was on the guest list +1 so I invited my friend Finn to join. I had seen him a month ago at Roadburn. We met and had a beer and chatted and Juba was also around. There were no people at all until 5mins before the local Irish rock band, Rovers Ahead started and suddenly there was like 40 people! There was a lot of people outside who were all attending the French Hip Hop concert at Amager Bio…
Anyway, Ravers Ahead have an Irish singer plus a guy who plays mandolin or banjo, guitar, bass, violin, drums and a new accordion player who played on the first two songs and the last two songs but none of the others. They had some good lyrics and played very well but musically did not offer much. None of the members played any instrumental solos the entire concert. I think that is a bit boring when you have such a cool line up of instruments to play. They played like an hour and started 15 mins late so this left not that much time for Sir Reg.
Sadly, when Sir Reg started there were only 10 people left and even the members from the other band were not around at all, which is very sad to see that they don’t even support the visiting band. The Irish singer for the first band was around for 3-4 songs but mostly gone as well. Anyway, Sir Reg is a great band and in a totally different league from the first band. They have a great female violin (fiddle) player, a bazzuku player, bass, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. The drummer also has a laptop with plays some pre-recorded keyboards and stuff on a few of the songs. They play pretty uptempo Irish rock and the lead singer from Ireland, has a great sense of humor and a cool voice. This is very fun music but musically I also feel like a band like this can do more, as there are also almost no solos beyond an occasionally extended fiddle section. Anyway, I had a really nice time.
The Finnish space rock band has a new release of archive jams from the studio sessions that they had in 2004 and 2005. This is some really cool and psychedelic stuff and pressed in only 80 copies on CD-R so hurry. There are 7 jams in 52mins and it all starts off with Set the Master of the Dark Sun Universe, which is a bit of a jam take on Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, in a very loose way. It is really psychedelic and turns into Hawkwind’s Master of the Universe at the end! Electric Sunshine is a laid back and spacey track, after the hard rocking psychedelic track before. It features a really nice guitar solo. Venusian Dream Sequence is very nice track with some really dreamy guitar. A journey through Space brings back some more heavy space guitar as this one slowly builds up and some great dualing psych guitar solos. Return to the Controls brings us back to another part of the Set the Controls jam for another 4 mins. Hope turns into Fear is one of the few tracks with keyboards, which means that Janne and Mikko showed up. Janne does some spontaneous psyched out stuff. Celestial Waves ends this cool CD-R with a laid back spacey instrumental track. It is all instrumental except for the Hope turns to Fear. Great band.
Sula is busy releasing his new bands music on these limited edition CD-rs, which is great for his fans as these are generally quite good recordings and performances as the band is a highly improvised unit and playing well. This double CD set features 4 pieces, two of which are very long (57 and 47 mins each) from a concert from 12/30/10 in Würzburg, Germany. The artwork is really cool on this CD. So what about the music? Sleepwalker starts CD 1 and is 57mins and starts with mostly a heavy repetitive bass in E with Sula making sounds. The real guitar does not come in for many minutes and the drums start around 5 mins. A very heavy intense psyched out wah guitar kicks in at 6½ mins. While Sula is freaking out I get a bit bored with the monotonous bass playing but she does use a few effects now and then. This is a very long journey and you have to be very patient and perhaps stoned. Around 17 mins the jam is almost dying out. Sula does not seem sure in what direction to take the jam at all but starts to come in with a more intense guitar again after some delay riffs at 20 mins. Anyway, this jam is very long and searching with several slow sections where not a lot happens. Not the bands most inspired jam. CD2 starts with Baba Lali’s Monotronic OM and it starts with a repeated bass sound that slowly gets louder and louder and then the band starts to go somewhere. It takes around 8mins before things get going but sadly the sound has changed a bit from the first CD and now the bass and drums really dominate and the guitar that Sula plays is too low in the mix when the drums really kick in. What happened to the sound? At 13-14 mins Sula is playinig some delay guitar stuff and Lulu some bass effects but it sounds like Sula is in the other room compared to the other instruments. Anyway, I did not make it through describing this jam due to the lack of guitar. Manic Farewell ends the show (which it sounds like there were not a lot of people left by this time) and lasts 25mins. 9 mins has gone by and not a lot has happened yet. It is like the band is waiting for Sula to do something and everyone is quite hesitant. Still Sula is too far in the background. 23 minutes in now and Sula has not really played much very interesting that I could hear and has been noodling away in the background and nothing very manic really happened. If you are a fan, check it out, if you are new to the band, don’t buy this one.
Electric Moon- Inferno (Sulatron st cdr 012)
This is a new Electric Moon CD that was recorded at Amöbrnklagraum Mackenzell on January 5th, 2011. It features two tracks and a new drummer named Alex. Dave plays the guitar, organ and loads of effects and Lulu plays the bass and effects to make a spaced out recording. The CD starts with the 14min Mental record which starts with a repetitive bass line and Sula slowly comes in with the guitar. It is a very nice melodic guitar line but then Sula really plays some cool spacey and psychedelic guitar with a nice use of the wah pedal. Inferno is a monster 52 mins long! So how does one go about describing such a track. It is a very long jam with Sula leading the way with a lot of dynamic and variable guitar and interesting use of effects. Sula, although previously a killer bass player, has been really become a great lead guitar player. I am quite impressed. If you like long spaced out jams, for sure you will dig this. About 15mins into the track Sula plays some organ and then the soloing gets really psyched out. Then it slows down a lot and they space out around 30 mins Sula plays some really nice delay guitar as the track builds up again. Later on Sula is more or less torturing his guitar and freaking out totally. I would have liked to have seen him in the studio doing this part! Anyway… you get the idea. If you like Electric Moon, you won’t be disappointed with this either.
The Baltimore based Flying Eyes is back with their new full length record. The album is quite blues based still but a more rock approach and a bit darker, heavier record in general, especially the title track. I just listened to the bands first CD, which combined their first two EPs. This new one has 10 tracks in 39mins. The opening track Death don’t make me Cray is a killer track with heavy riff, haunting vocals and great but short spacey, fuzzy guitar break. Poison the Well is next and pretty aggressive and the vocal has a very special effect on it to make it quite psychedelic as the band really rocks on this one but bring it down at the end with a short bluesy solo that bust out into a furry. Nowhere to Run, is a slower bluesy track with some nice guitar and a great build up but unfortunately they just end the track and never really take it further or jam it out. I get the feeling this band does not jam at all, just plays the songs as they are. Clouded is a very nice and more floating melodic song after some heavy dark psychedelic stuff. Heavy Heart was a short instrumental track. Sundrop is a happier sounding track with a cool tremolo guitar and melodic singing. Overboard is slower as well but kicks in with a more heavy section and has great dynamics and a cool echoy guitar part that is used throughout the song. The title track is next and the only track thatover 4½ mins long and also the heaviest one and only experimental track. The beginning starts off very cool with some delay guitar, spaced out effects before the monster guitar kicks in. There is no singing until nearly 5 mins into the track. Greed is a track that starts with a cool groove but then they go for a more hard attack and lose the groove but then come back to it. Great song. The CD ends with Leave it all Behind, which is an acoustic number with a female vocalist singing some vocals as well.
Overall, the band has made a very cool record and it is for sure heavier than their earlier material, which was more bluesy and this is more rocking stuff. I also really love the cover artwork on this album, very cleaver and cool. One thing I find strange is that the singer and band is compared to the Doors and I don’t get this at all. The singer sings a lot like the way Glenn Danzig does but he has his own cool way.
The UK drone psych rockers are back with a new full length record. The Middlesex split LP was released earlier this year and I reviewed that already but this is something quite different. The A side is one long track called Tony’s First Communion and what ever priest he saw, sure gave him a load of LSD or strong mushrooms or ayawaska! I have never heard a Gnod record with such a clean, clear production either. Anyway, the track has a very straight drum and bass line that hardly changes for a very long time as the Dark Energy synth starts things off but then slowly a lot more sounds and voices float into the landscape as the track slowly builds up. A lot of spaced out sounds get quite loud as some guitar now starts to enter into the sound in a subtle way and the pace is increased slightly and then it ends. A cool trip. Vatican starts with some distorted drums and then a spaced out sample in Italian over a sort of organ like sound. This track has darker feel to it as the spaced out voice slowly fades to the background and the distorted bass and drum gives this one a freaky sound as the synth sounds fly around the soundscape. The theme that started the track comes back to end it again. Yet, another Gnodly mindfuck that sadly only lasting 33mins. This released on 500 copies on white vinyl and as a download option, no CD will be pressed as far as I know (at least right now).
The Italian stoners are back with another improvised jam. This is one long improvised jam that lasts about 35 mins. As it should, this long jam has many different parts and themes from 70’s rock style jamming, to slow doom rock, to just pure stoned rock riffs and spaced out stuff. It starts off with some nice melodic delay guitar as the bass and drums slowly crawl into the jam. The rest of this 1st of 5 parts is mostly just riffing as the drums get more intense. The 2nd part the track gets pretty doomy and then Andrea kicks in with some intense guitar soloing, while Alberto (bass) and Ted (drums), keep the jam moving forward. Alberto switches out of solo to intense wah pedal action as Alberto plays some cool bass lines and the drums really notch it up as well. The drums get a bit of a distorted sounds as the band blasts out of this last section and into part 3, where the more doomy guitar returns and now Ted starts making some funny stuff with the drum pad as Alberto is making some freaked out sounds with his bass pedals and then Andrea joins in as it gets very spaced out. The band then kicks into a very cool wah guitar section now. Now there is a very cool section where they are doing this stop, start with the drums, bass and guitar and they have sampled all these different animal sounds. That is pretty cool. The last section goes back to a more melodic section like the track started. This part is perhaps the weakest and only part I did not like that much but there is some nice wah guitar at the end. Pretty cool stuff.
This was announced some time ago and it has finally arrived. These are the very earliest recordings of Trouble beginning with the first demo tape from 1980, which I had never heard these songs before. I had heard their other demos though. Anyway, these first three songs are pretty cool and really just good NWOBHM like hard rocking tracks. Child of Tomorrow you can hear the start of the use of the dual guitars that would become a signature for the band. Eric’s voice is totally different as well. Then we get the Tempter, Revelation and Assassin and besides being more raw, they are very similar to the final recorded versions on the first record. Flip over the record and you have the last demo from 1982, which is the Wickedness of Man, which was also on the 1st record. The Fall of Lucifer is just fantastic. The last two tracks on the record were recorded on a Chicago cable TV program in 1982 and have decent audio but are both amazing tracks- Psalm 9 and Victim of the Insane. Wow. A very cool record. Only 500 copies made. I managed to get one of the blue-yellow ones which there are only 100 of!
Well, here we are again for the 6th year in a row. This festival has simply become a fixture in my life now and something that I look forward to as if it was Christmas! Last year was a very special event with the massive volcanic explosion in Iceland that forced a number of bands to cancel (and luckily many were able to come and play this year) and my own band, Øresund Space Collective had the honor of playing as the first band in the Bat Cave on the first day. Ironically, just yesterday (Tues April 12th) the day before I was leaving for the festival, the test pressing of the double vinyl, OSC- Live at Roadburn 2010 arrived! Cool.
April 10th- Dr. Space rehearses with Dragontears
14:00The amazing psychedelic rock band, Dragontears will perform their last two concerts for some time at Roadburn and I was invited to play with them at the festival. I had never played with any of these Baby Woodrose, On Trial, Spids Nøgenhat guys, except for Morten Aron, who played with OSC last year. We met up on the Sunday and had a beer in the sun. Anders (bass) overslept so was late but I had to leave to do the Roadburn Radio show at 18, so we had to set up and just try to get things going. There is a lot of gear in this room that On Trial uses and has been in for many years. I found a place in the corner so it was no problem. We had a lot of discussion about what to play and it was decided to just run through the songs from the Loppen set and we will just totally play it by ear at Roadburn and probably play 4-5 songs and the rest will just be jamming. We ran through Gensigtig Man, Time of no Time, My friend, Two Tongue Talk and Neonheaded Demon before I had to leave. IT was great fun and sounded really good. I recorded it as well. I made wind, bubbles, etc.. I think Aron and Guf wanted me to really freak out a lot and really space it out. We will see. I fear it can just be too much..
18:00 I arrived 2mins late and Jens put on Circle to start the show, a track from Alotus, I believe and then I took over for the next 1½ hrs. It was great fun. I played Stone Axe, Count Raven, Quest for Fire (all 7” records), VoiVod, Incredible Hog, Blood Ceremony, The Machine, Beaver and a few other tracks. I have not idea how many people actually listen to this Christianhavns Virus radio show but it is fun.
13/4/11
10:45 Met up with Jens and Martin at the security check and everyone was in a good mood. With in a few minutes we had met up with Ole. Sadly, Magnus will only come for the Saturday and Sunday as his grandmother passed away at 102 years old and they are holding the funeral on Friday. Bummer..
11:10 We are in line to board the plane and Ole realizes that he is on the SAS flight that leaves at 11:20 and not the KLM flight that Jens, Martin and myself are on. Shit… It is unlikely he made this flight. He is staying at the same hostel and me, Sven, Nils and some of the others so we will have to meet up with him later. Bummer. The plan for Amsterdam this afternoon is to check out the record stores, coffee shop, and go see the special Kenji Hanno- Stephen O’Malley show tonight! That will be super far out, I think.
12:15 I am on the plane now and feeling really tired. A cup of tea is cooling off. It will be an great festival again this year.
13:36 Ole was there when we got there. I have no idea how he managed that but that was great. We are all at the Central train station now and all is well. It is a sunny with clouds day but nice out. Just ran into Jussi from Finland as well. We will see him at the Kenji Haino show tonight. We plan to drop our stuff off and check into the hostel and then go out for some food and record stores.
16:10 I had to pay for everyone in order for us to be able to check into the room. It was 212€. I will collect up the money later. Nils put a down payment but I don’t think this was part of it. Anyway, we had a nice meal at some Argentinean place and everyone had ribs except Ole. We saw a couple of record stores when we were walking around trying to find this place.
18:30 Wow.. I found some cool records. The two bassekou kauyote LPs, both double vinyls. I got the new Gregg Allman double vinyl, the double vinyl first Gov’t Mule record, which has never been out on vinyl before, and Mom’s Apple Pie, a classic cover and ok blues rock record from 1972. This is an original it looks like for 20€. We are sitting in a park with one of Martin’s Dutch friends and having a beer and talking about all sorts of stuff. He has been in quite a few crazy punk bands. The Sausage Factory sounded bizarre and their 7” covers sound like they were crazy! Nice people. We will walk over to the club that O’Malley from Sunn O and Kenji Haino will play and find a coffee shop.
20:45 People bought some AK47 and also some Amnesia Haze at a coffee shop. We also grabbed a bite to eat and will now go get in line for the show. Looks like a cue has already started.
22:10 The club is totally packed now but nothing has happened yet except some moving around of some gear, etc.. Nils and Tom are trying to make it. It is going to be loud and Haino has a lot of pedals and 3 of these air synths. We are right up in the very front. We thought that they would play as three guitar players but O’Malley on bass, Haino on guitar and not sure who the guy playing drums is.
23:00 Haino plays like he is possessed by a demon and he is a true guitar torturer! He plays very chaotically and in a not very trained way. Just plain far out. The bass was totally massive and you could not even hear Haino very well and then he turned himself up and it was much better but deadly loud. Over 115db on my sound meter.
23:45 It is over and they played about 65mins of total crazy stuff. No groove at all, just a drummer playing along in his own world, and the bass was a wall of sound and occasionally, they would cross paths and it would sound like they were playing together. Haino at the end of the show was really wild and the layers of feedback guitar were huge and then he added some of air synth screams.. About ¼ of people left but most people were into it and it was wild. Some people would not consider this music at all. Here is a link to some video I shot!
00:45 I went off to bed and Nils, Tom and Ole headed to another coffee shop and bar. I hope I sleep well.
Day 1
08:10 I was up early and felt ok. Had some breakfast with Nils and Ole and then took a shower and everyone was in a good mood and does not seem too tired or anything.
10:38 Martin and Jens were late and Ole had bought their tickets for the train to save time and they missed it. Tom, Nils, Ausi, Sven and myself are on the train to Tilburg. It takes about 75min with the train change and then we have to catch the bus to Hilvarenbeek. I just met some cool American guys from Portland. This is their 3rd Roadburn festival. Very nice guys.
01.15 We just checked into hotel and the staff of course remembers us and they are so friendly. They did not charge me for the night I am not here on Sunday that we booked for the two nights that Magnus booked and is not here due to a funeral. I am in room 6 and the others are in 25,26 and 27 but all on the 2nd floor. Everyone is rolling up for the show. We are all excited to be back again.
2:15 We are all on the bus on the way to the 013 now to get our wristbands in good time and to relax and have a beer. We are talking with some Australian folks that are here again. Cool people.
16:20 I could not get into see Quest for Fire so I ran back to catch the Kilimanjaro dark jazz ensemble in the midi and there was plenty of space and it was very cool spacey psychedelic stuff. They showed some dark films as well. It was violin, French horn, female vocal, bass, guitar and beats. I liked this stuff and had a nice chat with Jack from Toner Low.
17:00 I saw most of the Acid King show and this was massive and the big hall was packed. I would really love this band if Lori were a better guitar player and could play cooler solos. Still, I really liked them a lot and they had these great biker films, which were also the same ones they showed 4-5 years ago as well.
18:00 Ghost was pretty damn Cool. I caught the last few songs including a really good instrumental track. They are a pretty standard 80’s metal sound but then some small more progressive rock sections. They look totally far out in these hoods and the lead singer with a full mask and pope hat with the upside down cross. Pretty fun and cool. The place was totally packed.
18:45 Nils and I met up and got pretty far into the room for Naam. Nanna, Christiana and others were there as well. They played some pretty cool stuff this three piece from BrooklynNY. It was a bit stoner rock, 70’s rock and some pretty cool psych rock guitar. He does not play that many mindblowing solos but still a cool style of guitar. Their songs were pretty long.
19:05 We split to go see Blood Farmers. The CD is great and we hope they can deliver. Not a lot of people yet.
20:00 Wow.. Blood Farmers, the 30mins or so we saw were fucking great. This was my favourite band so far and the guitar player played monster guitar riff, far out solos and the new song 1000 yard stare was really great. As good or better than the new songs.
20:10 Now was time for a classic band from the 70’s Pentagram. I had never heard them live before and was looking forward to this. Nils and I were just to the right for the sound mixer. Victor Griffin was super loud, wow.. He was not really on top at this show. His solos got better and better. He did not know which leg to stand on because he was not on drugs anymore. We need him to do drugs again, to give the music a bit more edge. The first new song they played was really not good at all. The 2nd was pretty cool and the 3rd one so. I saw the entire set and left during the last song and ran over to catch what I could of Circle at the Midi theatre. I ended up near the front with Ole and Tom. Ole said that the band carried the singer onto the stage and everything with the show started in slow motion. They were still in slow motion when I came in and this last for like 10 mins before they really took off and played a very cool show. I only did not recognize one song but it was high energy, intense, madness.
21:45 I was getting tired. Needed a red bull and to sit down. I went up to the top of the 013 and sat down to rest my legs while Godflesh set up and started. The intro was spaced out and they filled the whole hall with smoke but once the crushing volume and dark screaming metallic monotony started, it was not for me I left after like 10 mins and headed over to the midi theatre and spoke with Silvana and Roxanne while we sat in the balcony and waited for Wardruma.
22:30 Wardruma started off the show really cool. I liked the music and the vibe a lot but the visuals were not that cool but when the music started getting to heavy and electronic, then the visuals were looking great but I needed to run off so I could get into the bat cave roomfor Carlton Melton. I bought their record, 7” and split 12” earlier in the day, just thinking this would be cool.
23:15 Nils, Nanna, ole, Christian, Jacob, I saw a lot of the Danes at Carlton Melton. It started off with a two guitar space out and then the 2nd guitar player switched to drums and the drummer switched to bass and then they really played some cool psychedelic rock with some great guitar. The main guitar player he also had a small keyboard set up that he would trigger some sounds now and then to add to the space out. They were really cool. This was probably my favourite show on this day. They had the bass player from Acid King play lead guitar for a monster dual soloing space out at the end of the show and then the main guitar player, he gave his guitar to another guy, who I am not sure who it was. Great show.
Nils and I ran off to catch a few minutes of Count Raven on the balcony and we caught the end of Destruction of the Void but the sound was terrible and his voice, he just can’t really sing the way he does on the record so it was not good, and a major disappointment as I love their records but back to see the end of Carlton Melton.
Solient Green was still playing on the big stage and the room was not that full when we left to go outside for some air. It was a long and intense day and there was no time for food. I did not drink so many beers as I had not eaten hardly anything yesterday. This is a huge problem at Roadburn, no time to eat!
Day 2
We are all sitting out in the garden having some food and beers and chips and everyone is in a great mood and no one seems to be suffering from yesterday’s abuses. The sun has been out and it was great and now it has clouded up but still pretty nice. Not sure when we will go into the town today or when the busses leave. People are not sure whether to go for Kenji Haino or Vampyr soundtrack played by Year of no Light from France.
13:30 We are on the bus back to Tilburg and everyone is in a great mood. I will go and get my train ticket for tomorrow and then meet up with the guys.
15:30 I got my train ticket for 9:14 on Sunday and just had a nice lunch with Sara and Benny and Ralph. Ralph was just sitting in a café having a smoke and coffee when I walked by. Nice people.
16:30 Nils, Martin, Nanna and some others, we are all watching Kenji Haino freakout. He is loud, crazy and very expressive. He is doing very different stuff than he did two nights ago which is good but it is music for the extreme. I am surprised so many people hang in here.
17:00 It was announced by Walter that Earth’s van broke down so they have switched with Circle-Pharaoh Overlord, who will play next on the mainstage and Earth will be later at the midi-theatre. Perfect. We will just hang out here for 15 mins more.
18:45 Wow.. That was very cool and totally different. 5 guitar players in this line up and they had Mr. Duffy over from jesters of Destiny so they could perform some of the Hollywood record (?, Sacrifice, Madman) and also Earthworm. They performed two Jesters of Destiny songs as well and the 2nd one was fantastic and they played a really cool space end to it as well. A huge surprise was the singer from the LA band, Night Horse, he came out and sang two numbers with them, one called Out of the Darkness. This was good rocking stuff but not the hypnotic stuff that people thought they were going to get. This was Finnish NWOFHM version of Circle. I dug it but I know a lot of people could not get into it, it was too 80s metal, some how..
19:15 I saw the beginning of Winter but it was too slow, doomy, depressive stuff. I had enough of that with Cough last week. I went over to check out Beaver. They said this was their first show in 9 years. I hung out with Silvana and later Tom, who was totally digging it. They opened with a really bad song and Jens and Christina split, which is a pity as the rest of the show and songs were really cool. They were not totally tight sometimes but that was ok. The female drummer was really great. She really pounded the drums. Private Stash was a killer track. They seem to play numbers from all their records and the crowd was into it.
20:30 Corrosion of Conformity on the big stage. That was also really fun and it was not just all short fast songs, they really mixed it up well with heavy slower stuff and played damn cool and very tight. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I even had my Technocracy 1987 tour shirt with me. I never did get to see the band live though as the gig in El Paso that we went to was cancelled due to the venue change, collapsing stage, etc.. so we ended up taking the band down to Mexico and we partied with them down there. They were super cool people. They probably would not remember this.
21:45 I caught the end of Earth and it was a great sound and really melodic slow spacey music. I just wish the guitar player would do a bit more. He has a cool band laying down a great sound but he plays pretty unexciting guitar sometimes, I feel like he should push the boundaries a bit more, at least some times. Incredible Hog is next and I am very excited for this one.
23:15 WOW.. what can I say, me, Nils, Martin, Nanna, most of the whole gang was here to see this band from 1973 that only released one record! It will be rereleased on Rise above Records later this year with some unreleased stuff. Anyway, they played a lot of the songs from the record and some stuff that was never released and a great version of the Willie Dixon song, Going Down. The guitar player and the whole band were really into jamming so it was excellent. Lots of cool guitar. They pretty much blew us away. Best band of the day for me.
1:00 Wow.. another killer concert. Voi Vod was really killer today and very powerful and a great set of songs from nearly all the albums and they even tried out a totally new song that they had never played live before. The replacement for Piggy he is just an excellent fit and Piggy was a very unique guitar player so this is really hard stuff to learn to play like this. Crowd was totally into it and they had killer sound. They dedicated Astronomy Dominie to Piggy as their encore song. After the show we talked a lot with the drummer and guitar player from Incredible Hog and I also spoke to Away and the new guitar player a bit. Such nice people. All the bands were just hanging out. What a killer day.
2:00 We are finally back at the hotel and I am really tired. Magnus will show up tomorrow for the last day and the Afterburner. Tom, Jens and Martin were totally blasted and Nils had to make sure they all got back. I went back with Martin, his girlfriend and Ole.
Day 3
9:30 I am up early, nothing to do about that. Today I will perform with Dragontears at the midi theatre. This is going to be really fun. They arrived last night but I did not see any of them. I will also go see this special showcase at the Café Cul De Sac with a brand new band called Gingerpig with the guitar player from Gorefest. It should be some sort of 70s rock.
11:30 I did not see many of them this morning and am on the bus to Tilburg. The showcase starts at 01:30 and I will get something to eat. They will give away a free 7” record as well. I am feeling a little out of it today after a hard day yesterday, not enough sleep and no real good meals.
1:00 I had an excellent meal. A huge salad with fresh mozzarella and chicken. Feel better now. I am off to the venue soon.
1:30 I just had a nice chat with Jussi from Circle and he filled me in on some of the details of Pharaoh Overlord, Circle, etc.. they are very active with releases and stuff. I also met the folks from Earth. Very nice people. They are off to play in Malmo and then Finland today. I will meet the dragontears guys at 15 to get the wristband, etc..
14:30 Gingerpig are an excellent band, wow. That really caught me by surprise. The singer he has a great voice and they write some excellent 70s style songs and the keyboard player who had a Hammond with Leslie, fender Rhodes, and a Moog Prodigy. He played in a really cool spacey style. Anyway, the songs sometimes had a bit of a stoner riff and a great groove. I was very impressed and enjoyed the show a lot. I will for sure want to get their record. I look forward to hearing the 7” record.
15:30 I have my wristband and food and drink tokens and have met up with Nils and the others and am ready for Candlemass. This should be great!
18:30 Candlemass had a great sound and some cool visuals and put on a very solid show. They started with some old songs like Mirror Mirror, Bells of Achelon, Samara thin, and then If I ever Die and Hammer of Doom, the best songs from the latest record. Then the first singer came out and performed the entire 1st record with the band, including the acoustic guitar intro. This was great. He still sounds fantastic and has an amazing voice. I really like the new guy from Solitude Aeternus but I am pretty surprised he has to read the lyrics for every song from a book, even songs he has probably sung 200 times! I left after the classic record and caught the first 3 songs of Lonely Kamel from Norway. I was surprised they were so much like stoner rock. Their latest record was more bluesy. I still enjoyed it.Then I ran into see White Hills. IT was very very packed and super hot. They were really cool and the lady from Aqua Nebula Oscillator was playing with them but you could hardly hear anything she played. They played On and On and Dead and a few others I recognized but they were spacing out as well. I did not see the whole show as I needed to rest a bit for later. Pity as I was really loving this one.
19:15 I met up with the others and saw a few songs of Weedeater. That was really intense stuff, very sludgy, dirty, heavy riff rock. The bass player he was totally crazy but having a good time as well. He even played a bit laying on his back with his feet in the air. He plays in Sourvein and actually stayed at my apartment some years ago and was a very nice person despite coming across as quite mad! Heavy shit and I loved it.
22:15 After Weedeater I headed over to the midi theatre and just rested my mind and legs and listened to Pharaoh Overlord’s set. They started with an old Spaceman 3 song, in a like 10 min version. Very repetitive stuff. Their was a decent crowd but it was not filled up. They played a very special set up extremely repetitive hypnotic stuff with 3 guitar (one who sang all the songs) and Mika standing like a statue playing some drones on a small Roland synth. The crowd was into it. It is pretty far out and totally different than the other two shows the band played.
The Dragontears show was very cool and I had a totally amazing time. We played a long space out jam at the beginning, Time of no Time, My friend, Two Tongue Talk, Neonheaded Demon, Masters of War (Special spaced version) and ended with Gensigntig Mænd. The crowd was loving it and the visuals looked cool but I thought there was too much light on the stage, it should have been darker. I feel like most of the time I played quite well and cool stuff. My stage sound was great and I could hear everyone but Guf seem to not enjoy the show too much, sadly. It was a great crowd response and several people said it was one of the highlights of the festival. Wow…I packed up my gear and am running off to see Stone Axe. There is a lot of videos of Dragontears here is one cool one.
1:00 I managed to catch the last 30 mins of Stone Axe and Martin and Jens were there and we totally rock out. They were really excellent and have cool songs but they do not jam at all. All the songs are like 3-4mins max. They played mostly songs I knew from their records, which I have all of them, even the 7” releases!I left and headed over to see the rest of Ufomammut and I ran into Walter who was also going over there and he was in a great mood and the festival had been running nearly perfect this year so he was satisfied. The venue was packed and we could not even get in for a few mins so I only caught the end of Eve and the rest of the show. Eve was amazing and spacey stuff and my fave record by this band. They played a few ok songs after but the last track was really great. They had a massive sound and this was probably the loudest concert of the festival.
2:00 I was able to catch 2 songs by Gates of Slumber and the end of the Wolf People. I really liked Wolf People from the UK. Very cool rock music. They apparently had a lot of sound issues during their gig but it was great what I was able to catch. I will have to try to hear some more of their music. Roadburn is over for me and Magnus is totally blasted so I help him into a taxi and we head back to the hotel.
Day 4 Going Home
Sadly I had to leave the festival and go home for my daughter’s birthday which always falls on the Roadburn weekend the last 4 years, of which I have missed it two years and yes, I feel guilty. This year I had to go home even though the Afterburner just looks amazing with Blood Farmers, BlackMountain, Black Pyramid, The Machine, Samsara Blues Experiment, Dragontears, etc.. wow….
It was a great festival and if I have to say which bands that I enjoyed the most it would be Incredible Hog, VoiVod, Carlton Melton, White Hills, Weedeater and Ufomammut but nearly ever band was really excellent and only very few were below the standard I had hope they would be (Pentagram, Naam). Thanks Walter and the others for another amazing festival.
