Happy 2023 from Roadburn. The renowned Dutch festival has a slew of new additions for its lineup this April 20-23, including a collaboration between Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Ethan McCarthy of Primitive Man, a label showcase from the delightful weirdos of Rocket Recordings, DeWolff jamming as they did turning so many heads during Roadburn Redux, Birth, Iron Jinn doing a release show for their debut, Body Void, Portrayal of Guilt, and so on and so forth. It’s a big one, and as the poster grows increasingly crowded (see it below), you’ll note that as ever, Roadburn remains a fest of all things and an opportunity to choose your own adventure across a weekend that, if you’ve never been, will change your life for the better no matter whose sets you actually decide to stand there and watch. I mean that.

This is the modus operandi of Roadburn. As Creative Director Walter Hoeijmakers says below, it’s about giving these artists a platform and building a community. Those two words, platform and community, are at the heart of what this thing has become. It’s not the stoner rock and psych fest it used to be, no. But Roadburn‘s commitment to the underground is unflinching, ever inspiring, and broadens the conversation about what ‘heavy’ means in ways that are only to that definition’s benefit.

That’s my two cents. I don’t anticipate being there this year, but a piece of my heart always lives at Roadburn Festival. I mean that too.

From the PR wire:

Roadburn adds 29 new names – including two commissioned projects, a second artist in residence, and a label showcase

Roadburn has today announced a further 29 names to the 2023 line up of the festival which will take place between April 20-23. Among them is a residency from Oiseaux-Tempête, a label showcase from the UK’s Rocket Recordings, and two commissioned collaborations – the first between Duma and Deafkids, the second between Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Ethan Lee McCarthy.

Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments:

“We are beyond happy to bring you the final commissioned music projects for Roadburn 2023 as well as our second artist-in-residence among others. With this announcement, it becomes clear that Roadburn 2023 is focusing on forward-thinking bands and those who’ve made waves in the last couple years, as we want Roadburn to reflect the underground – now and in the future. We are elated and honoured to give a platform for these incredible artists, and we are sure this year’s Roadburn will be something to remember for music, art, and community.”

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NEW LINE UP ADDITIONS:

COMMISSIONED: DUMA & DEAFKIDS

After whipping up a storm at Roadburn 2022, Duma will return to the festival – this time in collaboration with Deafkids. With one band in Kenya and the other in Brazil, this is a collaboration that transcends boundaries – both geographical and genre. Additionally, Deafkids will perform their own stand alone set at the festival.

COMMISSIONED: ELIZABETH COLOUR WHEEL & ETHAN LEE MCCARTHY

A union forged on mutual respect and a penchant for experimentation will see these two entities join forces at Roadburn 2023. In addition to the collaborative commissioned piece, Roadburn will host performances by Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Spiritual Poison, and Otay:onii.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Oiseaux-Tempête will perform three sets across the Roadburn weekend as the festival’s second Artist In Residence; spanning the breadth of their back catalogue and joined by a variety of musicians to embellish their live performances.

ROCKET RECORDINGS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWCASE

Roadburn is celebrating this milestone with one of the most adventurous and forward thinking labels out there – appropriate given that this showcase highlights the best of the future of Rocket Recordings!

Teeth of the Sea will return to Roadburn after a decade-long absence to deliver their eerie sci-fi psychedelia.

Del Aire – the 2022 album by J. Zunz – was in heavy rotation at Roadburn HQ, and she will now make her Roadburn debut in 2023.

Holy Scum is the ungodly merging of members of Gnod, Dälek and Action Beat – creating a (very) noisy cacophony of delirium.

Alison Cotton will perform a solo show of her ethereal, experimental folk, and later combine forces with Dawn Terry (of Bong) for a collaborative set that’s heavy on the drone.

Utilising field recordings and electronics alongside her beautiful voice, Marlene Ribeiro will perform as part of this special showcase.

The Shits are a brand new signing to Rocket – and they’ll be making their presence felt at the Wednesday night pre-festival party.

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DeWolff will reprise their Roadburn Redux set with another performance promising grit and swagger in equal measure.

Bo Ningen will be celebrating all that is weird and heavy about their sound with a special set titled Far East Electric Psychedelic.

Birth are heading to Tilburg to soak us in their psychedelic sounds and take Roadburn to another interplanetary plane.

Iron Jinn can trace their roots back to Roadburn – the 2018 edition to be precise – and they’ll be throwing a release party for their debut album at Roadburn this April, bringing things full circle.

Carefully balancing elements of black metal, ambient, post-rock, noise and drone, Yrre crafted an alternate soundtrack to the 2015 film The Witch by Robert Eggers, which will form the bedrock of their Roadburn performance.

High Vis are riding high off the back of their 2022 album Blending, and they’ll make their way to Tilburg for their Roadburn debut this coming April.

Portrayal of Guilt were another casualty of the 2020 edition, but will bring their hardcore/punk/fighting spirit to Roadburn 2023.

Right off the back of recording a new album, Body Void will head to Europe and deliver their distinctively crushing doom to the Roadburn community.

Featuring members of Amenra, Oathbreaker, Aborted, Cross Bringer and more, Predatory Void have Roadburn written all over them – and they’ll present their debut album in full at the 2023 edition of the festival.

Third time’s a charm for Bad Breeding as they’ll finally darken the doors of Roadburn with their visceral punk sound.

Lukas Frank’s Storefront Church will make their Roadburn debut with a performance of blissful, brooding songs, perfectly suited for after dark.

Antichrist Siege Machine are the musical equivalent to a sledgehammer, making their points with aggressive, anti-Christian songs that exude the joys of violent ritual butchery.

Portland’s Spirit Possession play an authentic form of black metal that is as refreshing in its erratic nature as it is triumphant in its old-school roots.

Poison Ruïn’s anarchic take on post-punk is infused with eerie dungeon synth style elements; an unlikely pairing perhaps but one that is perfectly suited to Roadburn.

OvO’s sludgy drone overlaid with eerie vocals and imbued with seriously haunting vibes will descend upon Roadburn this April.

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More information on these artists can be found HERE. They join previously announced artists including Deafheaven, Boy Harsher, Cave In, Julie Christmas, Wolves In The Throne Room, Giles Corey, Chat Pile and more.

Tickets for Roadburn 2023 are already on sale; Saturday tickets are sold out, but weekend tickets, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday tickets remain. 4-day tickets will be priced at €244, 3-day tickets at €214, and single day tickets at €79 (all costs inclusive of fees and service charges). Accommodation options are also available to purchase. All information can be found on Roadburn.com

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Oh whatever, Roadburn. You had me at the poster.

Maybe there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, but if so, nobody tell Roadburn 2020 that, because I wanna ride out the rest of this lineup and see where the hell it goes. Frankly though, if this was it and they were like, “Okay, we just gave you two Dungen sets including Ta Det Lugnt in full, that’s all you get,” you’d be hard-pressed to argue it wasn’t already pretty incredible. I don’t know how much more lineup is or isn’t coming, but the fifth announcement goes right for the heartstrings, and my understanding is there are less than 30 full-weekend tickets on sale now, as individual-day tickets also hit the market. Will it sell out? Yeah, it will. It’s Roadburn. That’s what it does.

The link for day tickets and splits are below. Click the posters to enlarge them (then click again to make them go back). The latest announcement follows:

Roadburn 2020: new names confirmed ahead of day ticket launch

Single day tickets will be on sale tonight, December 10 (at 18:00 CET) and priced €67 for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday tickets, and €60.50 for Sunday tickets. There’s still 4-day tickets on sale, but be warned, they’re running low now with 99% tickets sold already. More information about tickets and accommodation options can be found HERE.

DUNGEN

For almost two decades, Dungen, the brainchild of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes, has been liquefying the known boundaries of psychedelia by incorporating ‘60s pastoral folk, psych-pop, prog, free-jazz, instrumentalist ambience and soaring atmospheres. They have become one of the most revered psychedelic bands of their generation, and to honor their pushing the limits of art and genre, we have invited Dungen to play Roadburn 2020, not once, but twice.

One show will take in Dungen’s legendary Ta Det Lugnt (Sunday, 19 April), and the other will focus on Häxan, the band’s highly entrancing score for the 1926 animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, on Saturday, 18 April. Dungen is synonymous for our very being, and Häxan, and especially Ta Det Lugnt, fuel our late-night, psychedelic jams and unite the likeminded psych heads at the festival.

JAMES KENT’S CURATION:

ULTHA

A couple of months ago Ultha informed their followers that the band was taking a break in 2020, an unexpected turn which seems to cast an even darker shadow of melancholy and sorrow to their already bleak take on black metal. Roadburn and its co-curator James Kent have pulled Ultha back from the void where they were planning to hibernate in for a very special appearance at Roadburn 2020.

As the band tells us: “A ‘regular’ invitation would’ve already been a no-brainer, but receiving such a heartfelt message, by a prolific and passionate artist we all respect, telling us how much he admires our work, really made it that more special. So, we are more than thrilled to be part of James’ curation for Roadburn 2020, playing our Belong EP in full plus selected cuts from our other releases.”

ALSO ANNOUNCED…

CULT LEADER

We’ve admired Cult Leader from afar for some time now, but the stars have never quite aligned before. However, with the release of A Patient Man this time last year our eagerness increased, then earlier this year witnessing some live shows tipped us over the edge and we knew it was a done deal. Fortunately they felt the same way, and with that, we’re honoured to be bringing you a special Cult Leader treat for Roadburn – the band will play 2018’s A Patient Man in full for us.

JEROMES DREAM

A two decades long absence did little to dull the jagged edges of Jeromes Dream. They came hurtling back into our lives earlier this year with their newest album, titled LP, reminding us what we’d been missing. That angular anguish and skin scraping abrasion is still there, but there is admittedly more nuance and a few notable junctures of what could be described as atmospheric, almost shoegaze-esque passages. So, it’s with much joy that we welcome Jeromes Dream to Roadburn 2020.

PORTRAYAL OF GUILT

Portrayal of Guilt have been positively prolific over the past few years – and our lives are all the better for it. Two singles, two EPs, two splits, and one mighty album in the form of Let Pain Be Your Guide have cemented Portrayal Of Guilt as an essential band in the modern metal / hardcore lexicon. So it’s with huge pleasure that we’re announcing Portrayal of Guilt will be joining us at Roadburn 2020.

PIJN & CONJURER PLAY: CURSE THESE METAL HANDS

The underground metal scene in the UK is in rude health – and we demonstrated this at Roadburn 2019 by showcasing the best of what Holy Roar Records had to offer. Among the bands that played were Conjurer and Pijn – two bands that embody so much of what is innovative and exciting about British music at the moment. In 2018 the two bands united under the Curse These Metal Hands banner to create new, original music that was released via Holy Roar this year.

EARLY GRAVES

After an already massive initial greeting card by the name of We: The Guillotine, in 2008, the Californian quintet dropped their masterpiece in 2010. Goner was everything a moshpit junkie could ever ask for. Unfortunately, tragedy then struck Early Graves. Only a couple of months after the release of Goner, the band suffered a van accident traveling from Oregon to Nevada, which took the life of their firebrand vocalist Makh Daniels.

Though the band soldiered on for a while activity has dwindled during the last few years, and 2020 is set to be the last chapter for Early Graves. A celebration of their existence, which will naturally consist of their ten-year-old super classic album Goner played in its entirety, will therefor take place at Roadburn.

Already announced for Roadburn 2020 is: Emma Ruth Rundle and James Kent as curators, commissioned projects from James Kent & Johannes Persson, Jo Quail, and Vile Creature & Bismuth, the return of Julie Christmas, Red Sparowes, Russian Circles, Inter Arma, Alcest, Torche, Brutus, Bada (ft. Anna Von Hausswolff), David Eugene Edwards, Health, Boy Harsher, Lankum, She Past Away, and two Artists In Residence: Full of Hell and Lingua Ignota.

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Roadburn 2020 Fifth Announcement