Saturday, April 11^th

 

My impression of Acid Witch is that Heavy Metal has found an answer to drugs, and that answer is “Hell Yes!” This band is majestic mayhem on a stage, and their horror film inspired songs are a true pleasure to behold. Referencing Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (set in their hometown of Detroit) for Metal Movie Marijuhana Massacre Meltdown, the bass player cheerfully yells out all of the song titles and their meanings. He also dedicates ‘Rabid Werewitch’ to all the ugly ladies. Besides the heavy grunting, the vocalist also has the best manic cackle I have ever heard. Despite having some technical difficulties leaving them occasionally unable to hear each other play, they really rocked their set and seemed to enjoy every moment of their performance. The audience sure enjoyed it, as the Patronaat was filled to the brim with head banging and swaying people.

Saturday saw the return of Fields of the Nephilim to the main stage of the 013, and the hall was almost as crowded as it was at their first set on Friday. With charismatic frontman Carl McCoy, this band is possibly the purest embodiment of Goth in existence. With a career of an astounding thirty years, they had no problem filling out two long sets with their soothing tones and hard edges.

 

Taking the slot of a band who regretfully had to cancel their performance at Roadburn this year, Urfaust were perfectly suitable for Roadburn. Having performed at this festival before, it was no wonder they had the audience trying to cram themselves into the Green Room to witness their spectacular music. Comprised of only a drummer and guitarist/vocalist, Urfaust manage to make a spectacular amount of noise. As usual, you only miss the absence of a bass for about half a song, until you find the bass sound in the guitar. I have heard the vocals described as the cries of a baby seal in the process of being clubbed, and I must admit that this seems, at times, an apt description of the exclamations heard. It was such a shame that the show was cut just a little short by the unfortunate breaking of a guitar string. Since they were close to time anyway, there was no chance to restring the bugger and finish the show in style, and as much as the audience regretted it, the musicians themselves seemed devastated to have to leave us in such a way. Alas, such things do happen, and even the mighty Roadburn is not impervious to technical issues. The upside of the problems is that we have seen truly passionate people work their way around every obstacle, both from the bands dealing with the hurdles as the amazing crew bending over backwards to solve every problem as quickly and effectively as possible.

Sunday, April 12^th, the Afterburner.

The afterburner is the final day of Roadburn, and it always has a unique atmosphere due to the composition of the audience, which is either completely mellowed out by the onslaught of the previous three days, or fresh-faced and new looking for a taste of the festival. It is a great day for people who have never been to the festival and want to sample the atmosphere before committing to the entire thing. The only open venues are the Main Stage, Green Room, and Cul de Sac.

While White Hills heated up the Main Stage, I headed over to the Green Room to get my socks rocked thoroughly off by Argus. They play Heavy Power Metal with a touch of Doom, and this blend has a very smooth sound. Their bass player has stunning stage presence, and plays superfast fingered bass that was almost as impressive to watch as it was to hear. The music is heavy and catchy as hell, and is performed with enough power to illuminate a small country. There were a lot of fans and enthusiasts in the audience, happily banging away.

Possibly the most anticipated show of the Afterburner was the one performed by Anathema, who performed the “Resonance” set that they are currently touring. Resonance is a show that spans their entire oeuvre, named after the compilation albums that appeared in 2001 and 2002. With their ten albums, their music embodies a diverse reach of genres, and has had a number of changes in band composition. Two of the former band members, Darren White and Duncan Patterson, join the current iteration of Anathema on stage tonight in their respective eras.

The show is divided into three sections, and the songs are played in reverse chronological order. This means that it started off with the atmospheric and melodious style that we know today, and ended with the Doom that they started with, fronted by Darren White. In between sets there were a few minutes break to give the band the chance to prepare and make the necessary line-up changes.

It was great to hear so many of their heavier songs performed live, and I really do hope they will play a few of them on their regular shows from now on, as they have an amazing amount of energy.

There is so much to see and discover at Roadburn, that there are likely to have been people at the festival who have seen none of the bands I saw or described here. You have to make hard choices between awesome bands, but no matter what you choose, in the end it is always going to have been worth it, because Roadburn is a festival that gets into your blood.

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WORDS BY LORRAINE LYSEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS