"What's a GNOADT?" • a Rocket Recordings double review

It was supposed to arrive in one package together with Causa Sui's "From the Source" and a reissue of Brainticket's 1972 classic "Psychonaut", but after several delays a certain German distributor canceled my pre-order  of the new Gnod album, just when it already started to become rare and/or expensive. Luckily it was still available at the source - Rocket Recordings. With international shipping there was no way around paying more, so I chose another album to accompany it, so it would at least feel a little more economically reasonable- and as a little gift of good karma I also got a new slipmat on top.

Since I also chose a very complimenting pairing of albums I think I'm quite happy with the whole outcome now.

GOAT - The Gallows Pole: Original Score (Molten Metal Colour vinyl LP + 7") (2024)

I didn't review "Medicine", last year's most recent studio album by the Swedish Psych collective Goat here - not because it was bad (which it isn't at all), but just because I came too late to the party. Resisting the temptation to sneak in another review here, let's just say it was a noticeable deviation from what the group has established as their signature sound.
Or so you would have thought at the time, because this one here also strays into different directions, maybe even further, while still keeping the original Goat path in sight.

"The Gallows Pole - This Valley Will Rise" is a (probably historic) TV series about... something. I'd actually like to watch it without knowing what exactly to expect, that's why I'm not looking it up. I just hope it will appear outside of the BBC on a streaming service I'm using in the foreseeable future.

This is the score to the series, in a very nice Record Store Day special edition, which comes with two bonus tracks on an additional 7" record. If we're being pedantic only five of the overall eight tracks are actually from the soundtrack, while the rest is material from the same sessions, which just hasn't been used on the show.

The album is completely instrumental, so especially the characteristic harmonies of the two female singers is missing. You also won't find much of the Funk and Jazz Fusion spirit, which was so prevalent on "Oh Death" two years ago. Except in the misleading track title "Jazzman" of course, which rather seems to be based on an Archive style Trip Hop beat.

And "The Gallows Pole" takes a lot of time to even get to that point of a full Rock band instrumentation. Most of the A side is instead dominated by synth and guitar drones, airy flutes and acoustic guitar, all exuding a tastefully mystical, not overdone Folk flair.
The B side opener "The Gate Is Open (The Temple Lies Within)" finally shows us Goat in their typical, more maximalist form with loads of tribal percussions, primal energy and free spirit, before "Vallåt" slows the album down again with minimal percussive Ambient sounds, which are continued in "Goat Witch", where it works as a backdrop to an atmospheric guitar build-up.

We're switching to the bonus single now and "Timeless Awareness" surprises us with full-on Space Rock including multiple layered lead guitars and some reverb-drenched vocals, which don't really count, when it comes to determining whether this really is an instrumental album or not.
Last but not least "Kampsång" returns combines tribal drumming, Krautrock guitars, Folk flute and - oh, look we found some after all! - a Spiritual Jazz bass line to a wholesome jam, which ends way too soon.

While most Goat albums feel like a rather loose collection of rad tunes with a similar vibe, "The Gallows Pole" with its set of individually very different tracks may lack the same consistency of style, but actually builds a nice suspense curve. I'm really enjoying this beautiful thing.

GNOD - Spot Land (Violet vinyl LP) (2024)

Political, harsh, rebellious, agitative, loud... and a lot more adjectives in a similar direction come to mind when you look at most of Gnod's work since I got to know them, which was in 2017 with the iconically to the point "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine".

But of course there's one trait you always have to keep in mind with this English collective, and that's their unpredictability. Their new album is a dreamy, enraptured, sometimes downright escapist experience. While there are sprinkles like the Kraturock rhythm of "Dream On", which remind us of the roots of the band, a lot of it feels soothing and Ambient with emphases on synths, samples, lap steel guitar, piano and kalimba, while the longer pieces increase to legit Psychedelic Rock jams.

There's no lyrical message, as most of it is purely instrumental, only the opener "Peace At Home" and the final longtrack "Pilgrim's Progress" feature sampled Gregorian chants.

Wherever you can find your "Spot Land", it is an intentionally solitary retreat from the gnawing unrest of the world. And while the whole idea is so totally different, ironically an absolutely fitting alternative album title would be... "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine". Because if you immerse yourself into this freeing splash of colours (I love the vivid cover artwork!) - aren't you doing just that?

My only complaint is that I woud have loved a little more than forty minutes. Other than that, yeah, this introspective dream state version of Gnod is a very welcome departure!

2021 physical latecomers (feat. ALMEIDA | LOPES | ERNSTING, COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS, GNOD & ST. VINCENT)

It's still January, so I think it's also still ok to cover releases from last year, right? Here's a bunch of stuff, which I just bought too late to review it in 2021:

COALTAR OF THE DEEPERS - Revenge Of The Visitors (gold, red and blue swirl vinyl Earth Ride edition LP) (2021)

Somehow this album got my attention, while I was browsing for tapes, but ultimately the vinyl version landed on my wantlist and sat there for a while until I finally got my hands on it. Lucky me, because the unique mix of post punk, shoegaze, (death) metal/core (or whatever?) and a dozen more or less likely ingredients is just as captivating as it is strange. And I guess the naturalness with which the silly, catchy sweetness and the heaviness find together in this music, is kind of a typical Japanese thing. Or at least it presents itself in a way that makes me think that? I hear some elements which remind me of Envy's "The Fallen Crimson" or Boris' pop album "Attention Please!".
But then what I think is not always right. So I still thought that "Revenge Of The Visitors" was the reissue of a classic, when it was already spinning on my turntable, while in truth in the style of artists like Sodom and Taylor Swift it's actually a present-day re-recording of the 1994 debut CD "The Visitors From Deepspace"! It still looks super 90s though: the cover artwork with its good idea being almost ruined by layout and typo choices is totally of that time. Interestingly the coloured vinyl really kind of legitimizes and saves the rest. Yeah, this looks cool now. Still weird, but that's exactly what this album requires.

The songs are the same as on the original, the only difference being that the opener - a cover song from The Cure - has been renamed from "Killing An Arab" to "Killing Another" by the original artist in the years between the releases. From what I have compared, the music of the original must have been a completely mind-blowing experience back then, but the production really didn't stand the test of time. This new version sounds superior in every way and is also performed better. So yes, if you want to transfer your own old music into new times and keep it relevant - this is how you do it.

GNOD - La Mort Du Sens (CD) (2021)

Gnod are known to be quiet fluid in form and style, so this new album being the blatant reprise of "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" that it is, comes as a little surprise. However it's a good one. The throwback to the sound of the 2017 angry psych classic with the even more iconic cover artwork is actually very welcome. This is in no way a one to one copy, but the politically charged, punkish English working class spirit, embedded in a huge, smashing and hypno-tantalizing machine of industrial noise frenzy, perfectly hits the same nerve - brutally, repeatedly and merciless. "La Mort Du Sens" sits halfway between the "Filth" of Swans and Ministry's ""Filth Pig", adds some heavy psych overtones and doesn't shy away from throwing either some dirty fucking La Muerte rock'n'roll or a wild saxophone on top of it. The just anger and pulverizing bass of this album might fuck you up or call you to action - in the best case both. I almost feel like I want to blow right-wing light-brain anti-vaxers from the streets with this. They don't deserve to hear this great shit though. Clearly a hot AOTY list candidate, if I had only gotten it earlier! Just like the LP the CD comes in a gatefold with a cutout cover, so you can change the colour of whatever this is supposed to be from blue to red.

ST. VINCENT - Daddy's Home (LP) (2021)

Yeah, this is another one which would have really messed my 2021 favorites list up, especially the category of huge pop music releases. Which almost sounds like an insult when you speak about the work of singer and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark aka St. Vincent. The dry electronic funk of "Masseduction" still lies at the foundation of some tracks on "Daddy's Home", but she so skillfully and confidently adds so many more exciting facets to her music - something new on each and every song - it's a pure joy to travel with her. There's Americana, lots of 70s rock, even pinches of Motown. And so much awesome and beautiful guitar and vintage synthesizer goodness. And damn, no matter what this woman does, her songwriting and arrangements are just world-class.

If you don't fall in love with this album at the latest after its fourth track "Live In The Dream" - a six-and-a-half-minute psychedelic Beatles worship ballad for the gods - you probaly have no soul. Or maybe it's just not your thing. Anyway, you won't get this masterpiece of a record. It's not a double album, so the scope can't match the reference, but in terms of addiction potential and sheer quality this is pop close to Janelle Monáe's "The ArchAndroid" level for me! St. Vincent just got the vibes. "You can't hide from me." she sings. You're right Daddy, we can't.

ALMEIDA | LOPES | ERNSTING - Misanthrope (CD) (2021)

But now back from the popular limelight to the world of the obscure! Fittingly (at least if you interpret the cover as a very abstract Christmas tree) released on December 25th, "Misanthrope" is a quite dark and gloomy, but also super busy and exciting live improvisation by Albatre bandmates Gonçalo Almeida and Phillipp Ernsting with guitarist Luís Lopes. In six tracks with a total playing time over 55 minutes the trio hits a whole bundle of nerve fibres between Pulled By Magnets and Dead Neanderthals, Sumac and Naked City in me.
 
THAT'S WHY I'VE ALREADY WRITTEN A WHOLE DETAILED REVIEW ABOUT THIS MASTERCLASS IN FREE DOOM JAZZCORE OVER ON VEILOFSOUND.COM!

The physical release on CD (limited to 50 copies) on the Indian label Subcontinental Records is a rather unspectaculary package coming in a slim tray, but it looks fine - and undoubtly has amazing  inner values.

GNOD - Chapel Perilous

Es ist noch nicht allzu lange her, dass das produktive Gnod-Kollektiv sein letztes Roadburn-Livealbum veröffentlicht hat, da kommt ein Jahr nach "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" auch schon der knapper betitelte Nachfolger jenes letzten Studioalbums raus.

GNOD - Chapel Perilous (download) (2018)

Die Heaviness des Openers "Donovan's Daughters", sowie die düstere Stimmung der folgenden Tracks werfen mich aber eher zu Gnods Kooperation mit den Radar Men From The Moon, Temple Ov BBV zurück.

"Donovan's Daughters" ist eine viertelstündige Industrial/Noise/Psych-Dampfwalze, die einen in verschiedenen Bewegungen gnadenlos überrollt. Schwergewichtiger geht es kaum.

Die folgenden vier Stücke fallen mit maximal knapp sieben Minuten alle deutlich kompakter aus, sind deswegen aber keineswegs magerere Kost.

Der gesamte Albumkern aus "Europa", "Voice From Nowhere" und "A Body" bedient sich weniger gewaltiger Gitarrenkrachwände, sondern baut eher auf brutal trostlose Drone/Industrial-Landschaften, z.T. unterlegt mit Samples und Spoken Words. Nein, dieses Album ist zwar auch wieder politisch und existentiell, jedoch deutlich weniger Punk als "Just No No". Stattdessen setzt es hier marternde Postapokalypse.

Nur für den Rausschmeißer gilt dies nicht so sehr. "Unkle Frank Says Turn It Down" schließt den Kreis, indem es die Gitarrenamps wieder auf elf stellt und uns ohne Gute-Nacht-Geschichte mit brachialem instrumentalen Crust / Post Metal zu Bett schickt.

Fuck yeah, was für eine großflächig wütende Zerstörungsmaschine.

Highglights: Donovan's Daughters, A Body, Europa

GNOD - Be Aware Of Your Limitations Live At Roadburn 2017)

Ok, heute ist also Bandcamp-Empfehlungstag. Und endlich mal wieder ein Post mit direktem Bezug zum Roadburn Festival, haha.

Auf ein vorhandenes Livereview verweisen kann ich in Falle dieses Albums allerdings nicht, da ich die ersten beiden Shows von Gnod leider nicht gesehen habe.

GNOD - Be Aware Of Your Limitations Live At Roadburn 2017) (Download) (2018)

Gleich zu Anfang muss ich einschränken, dass dies kein hundertprozentiges Livealbum ist. Dem experimentellen Liveset sind nämlich im Studio noch einige zusätzliche Sounds hinzugefügt worden, vergleichbar also vielleicht mit dem auf Livejams basierenden Album "ATGCLVLSSCAP" von Ulver. In welchem Umfang dies geschehen ist, kann ich natürlich nicht beurteilen.

Auf jeden Fall lässt sich diese Performance in zwei Longtracks ganz klar in die Kategorien Experimental, Noise und Industrial einordnen. Gnod verzichten hier ganz auf Rockinstrumentierung, es bleiben also Loops, Sampler, Effekte, Synths und womit auch immer die Briten ihre Elektrogeräuschkaskade füttern. Darüber gibt es eine Menge, teils im Stile von Current 93 ziemlich anstrengende spoken words zu auf einem lärmorientierten Musikfestival wahrscheinlich maximal provokanten Themen: Arztbesuch eines Musikers und Tinnitus.

Da ist es ziemlich naheliegend, das komplette Set als Hommage an Coils "...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms" zu verstehen. Und auch die Swans, die sogar gesampelt werden (allerdings nicht mit dem naheliegendsten Vergleich "Soundtracks For The Blind"), stehen hier Pate.

Es ist anstrengend, es ist intensiv, es ist großartig gemacht. Und es ist natürlich Minderheitenmusik, in der die meisten Menschen nur zufälligen Lärm erkennen würden. Die meisten Menschen - da muss man nur auf Charts oder Wahlergebnisse kucken - sind allerdings Idioten.

Im Mai soll "Be Aware Of Your Limitations" auch auf Vinyl erscheinen.

Highlight: Protect Yourself Now Or Suffer Later

TEMPLE OV BBV - Temple Ov BBV

In order to create something really large, loud and massive it's inevitable that small bands sometimes have to team up with other musicians to achieve their goals. In this spirit the british noise kraut punks of Gnod (only seven members) joined forces with the dutch instrumental psych quartet Radar Men From The Moon for a project which doesn't hide its roots, yet is clearly bigger than the sum of its parts.

TEMPLE OV BBV - Temple Ov BBV (Diecut Hole In Your Head Version, clear/black dual vinyl) (2017)

"In 1965 the Dutch scientist and psychedelic pioneer Bart Huges embarked on a personal journey by taking an electric dentist’s drill and using it to open a hole in his skull, theorising that this measure - known as trepanation and chronicled in this book ‘The Mechanics Of Brain Blood Volume (BBV) - would result in enhanced mental power, and in effect a permanent high for the owner of the skull in question."

I seldom quote whole paragraphs directly from the band I'm reviewing, but as this perfectly describes the inspiration for the project name as well es the brilliant artwork of the Temple Ov BBV debut including the diecut hole on the front cover, why waste time with paraphrasing?

Officially released on June 9th (yet I grabbed it in April at the Roadburn Festival after their show) there are now only a few copies of this beautiful first pressing left.
 

I basically already reviewed this work in its live version, but luckily there's still enough to be said without parroting myself.

As this record came out only shortly after Gnod's "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" and is overall very close in scope, I perceive them als kind of siblings and I guess it's pretty save to assume that anyone who loves one of these albums can smoothly dive into the other one without risk of getting disappointed.
Having bought both at the same time it even took me a few listens to assign every bit which stuck in my head to the right record.

I'm not too keen on the "Just Say No..." opener "Bodies For Money", so the Gnod album has a slight disadvantage in the direct comparison from the start. But even if said track was better I'd probably prefer "Temple Ov BBV" as a whole.
Be it the heavy riffs, the noises and soundscapes, the rhythmic repetitions or the angst and anger in the vocals - a lot of all that obviously is akin to Gnod. Yet there is even more of almost everything. A wider range of moods and instrumentation. With extra bass and extra drums the album has a broader and deeper base. Of course the unyielding groove of Radar Men From The Moon also sets its clear mark in the sound.

Temple Ov BBV live in Tilburg

But to bring other names into play; if one influence can impossibly be denied than it is the mighty Swans. There's no shame in it for anybody to call this possibly the most colossal Swans performance  Michael Gira and co. didn't play themselves. The theme of "What Happens To Memories When You Die" is Swans through and through.
More classics that come to mind are Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle and other early industrial artists, and also the relatively few bands who mixed the genre with metal elements in a successful way like post-"Twitch" Ministry, early Treponem Pal or above all Skin Chamber.

There are also strong connections to drone, ambient (especially in the thirteen minutes digital only bonus track "Taurus") and even bits of advantgarde jazz. And those are not exclusively evoked by the occasional saxophone, even though I must admit, that it definitely helps creating a John Zorn / Painkiller vibe.

Not diminishing the dutch origin of the Radar Men, but Temple Ov BBV are streaked with Britishness. I could be wrong in terms of the lyrics which I won't dare to interpret without a sheet, but there is at least this strong feeling of an angry english working class quality to this album. If you time-travelled back to the early 80s and took this with you, Crass Records would probably kill you to release this shit.

It might be crucial for its energy that it was conceived and recorded within a very short timespan. In this it is very much like my personal holy grail of pushing punk to its most epic and extreme, Saw Throat's masterpiece for the ages "Inde$troy".

And whenever I draw any comparison to that one you can be sure that I bloody love what I'm talking about!

So to go back to the sibling release: You have to own Gnod's "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" for the sake of its genius title alone. There's no question about it. And it is indeed a fantastic album!

But that being said... Temple Ov BBV notches it up to twelve!

Huge!

Highlights: The Other Side Of The Night, Butcher's Tears, Taurus

GNOD - Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine

What? Fuck you, asshole!

You really came here expecting a review of the new Gnod album? How thick are you, mate?

Haven't you read its title? It's written there on the cover! IN CAPITALS. There's literally nothing else on there. Yeah, those black things on the red background.

Got it now? This is the fucking best album title of the year. Period. This is some straight to the point zeitgeist scheiß!

With this title you have to own this album anyway. So why write a bloody review about it?

GNOD - Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine (red/black splatter vinyl) (2017)

Yeah, of course. I could write a few words about the five songs on "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine".

Psych. Punk. Brutal. Noise. Anger. Motorik beats. Fuck you! Come on, just assume that the music lives up to the title and you know what's going on here!
And if you don't know... well, you have to have this anyway, so you'll hear it soon enough no matter what I say here.





Still there?

Ok, the vinyl also looks ace with the splatter thing, the Swastidollar and the NONONONONONONO.

Here, I took some pictures for you:

Happy now?


Come on, what are you still doing here?
Take your blood-stained capitalist money and buy this shit!

What are you waiting for? Now!

STOP REA

Highlights: Stick In The Wheel, Real Man

ROADBURN Festival 2017 • DAY FOUR: Sunday, April 23rd

- The silence of the wolves -

Emma Ruth Rundle

Sunday began with sunshine and my feet wondrously not hurting.

At least it felt this way in comparison to the agonies of the night before. So I packed my camera bag and went on a walk through the nearby natural reserve Kampina. I tried to cover a part of it I didn't know from previous visits, which for temporal reasons alone wasn't that easy.
When I was already so deep in the landscape that a march of several kilometers to get back was unavoidable the sky grew darker and I feared to get soaked any minute.

But apart from a few lonely drops I was spared and the weather provided some interesting light for photographs like these medium format pictures with my Holga:

Kampina

Kampina

Soon I had another reason to be pissed anyway.

Come on, you're boring us with pre-Roadburn camera talk again? - Yep.

As mentioned in my Saturday report, for my concert pictures I had two toy cameras called Digital Harinezumi with me. The Harinezumi 3.0 works with regular batteries, while the advanced Harinezumi 4.0 is rechargable via USB.
I assume that the manufacturer didn't believe that anyone would shoot with this deliberately trashy cam so often that the inner battery couldn't be recharged any more. Well, here's the one guy in the world who regularly used it to shoot concerts. I had just turned it off and reconnected it with the power bank, when after a short flash it went dead. For good.

Won't buy a new one, because despite this flaw of a built-in expiration date they are really worth something now, starting at ca. 666 Euro, which is multiple times of what I paid, or in other words: just pure insanity.

I still had the older cam for the festival though. Only needed a new battery for this one now, because I had lost one yesterday, probably by accidentally digging it out of my pocket with my wallet or something like that.

 

the last picture of my Harinezumi 4.0

By now I should know how holy or not Sundays are in the Netherlands. But of course I wasn't. Turned out that many stores including Media Markt were open in Tilburg. But since I was uninformed, I took a useless extra walk to the station in hope to find my battery there.

So while it couldn't diminish my overall motivation for the final round of Roadburn 2017, I unquestionably had some frustration and returned bodily pain in me, when I was one of the first visitors to enter the 013 and find my place in front of the main stage.

If only there could be a band now, which was able to channel my inner aggression into something positive...

Enter Temple Ov BBV!

Temple Ov BBV

Temple Ov BBV

Since the drone masterstroke that was Gnod's joined Saturday set with Kuro had me deeply impressed, there was no question that I had to start Sunday with the last and largest performance of the "Artist in Residence", this time under the moniker Temple Ov BBV, merged with the dutch psych rock band Radar Men From The Moon, resulting in the main stage being crowed by a fuckzillion musicians including two bass players, two drummers and two angry shouters.

And damn, this show was something. Naturally performing material from their fantastic self-titled album, Temple Ov BBV demonstrated a meditation on aggression, as contradictory as this may read. It was pissed, it had the noise, the drone, the punk attitude, the heaviness, yet it was also hypnotic and majestic in its bleak industrial grandiosity. Fuck, this was good. Elaborate and primal at the the same time. The Temple Ov BBV smashed on all levels! Once again one ov those daily openers that makes you think (and my neighbour in the first row say) that you could go home now.

The next circle on my running order was around Oxbow, but squeezing myself into Het Patronaat in the middle of their set seemed too stressfull now.
The Green Room wasn't an option either, as it was already totally overcrowded by those who wanted to see the living industrial noise cyborg Author & Punisher with his self-build drone and stomp machines. Fortunately I had already seen him the week before at the Droneburg Festival, so I was content to fetch my last dose of daylight before I returned to the main stage.

Pallbearer

Pallbearer were the closest thing to traditional Sabbath and Candlemass doom metal I saw on this weekend. Yet as doom afficionados or anyone who has heard their new album "Heartless" knows, there is much more to them, as they are clearly incorporating other modern (sludgy tone) and classic (Floyd anyone?) elements in their songwriting.

But at their hearts Pallbearer first and foremost worship grand melodic epicness - and they have the guitarists and singers to deliver it first class.

I hope the band didn't take it personal that there were some almost awkward silences after the applause between the songs. That's just the normal afternoon on festival day four and part of the "Afterburner", even if the Sunday isn't officially called so any longer and is indeed a full regular day now, with only the Extase stage already closed.

However, Pallbearer delivered - how could they possibly not with these great songs? - and the audience loved it.

For convenience I had decided to stay in front the main stage and now reserved the best possible spot in the front row again, even though I didn't have too much recollection of what the next band was about. One guy who - unlike 99 percent of the audience - was vitally alive and jumping like a superball, when he secured his place beside me. Obviously a fan.
He told me that he had come all the way from Australia only for Sunday to see his favorite band right here. Wow! I said something like "Isn't the only country even further away New Zealand?" To which he responded that this was where he originally came from. That put tomorrow's impending car drive - no matter how exhausted and dragged out it would be - a little bit into perspective.

Les Discrets

Other than the happy bloke from down under I have slightly mixed feelings about Les Discrects, though the band overwhelmingly left a good impression.

The easiest way to describe their music is to extract the clean parts from Alcest (who are also singing in French),  but of course there is more to Les Discrets, albeit I can't fully put my finger on it. I loved their calm and dreamy basic mood, which fit just perfect at this point of the weekend, when the melancholy of having to part from Roadburn soon slowly sets in. So for the most part this was just beautiful.

There were only some songs where I just kept asking myself why they had to roll over the beauty with such cold robotic metal drum arrangements. In other songs I explicitly liked the rhythms, but the few stinkers really annoyed me.

Even though the classic prog rock madness of  Gong in Het Patronaat was tempting, there was no way I would throw my first class ticket for the next main stage show away, and so I stayed until Ulver were ready to totally blow everyone's mind.

Ulver

Ulver

Ulver may be one of the music world's greatest institutions of unpredictability. The "Wolves" from Norway, who once started as a black metal band, have seemingly cultivated the art of picking a new genre for each album and then creating a masterpiece of that style.

When I had seen them on this stage in 2012 they were honouring psychedelic tunes from the late Sixties, after that they released a.o. a collaboration with an orchestra as well as one with Sunn O))), an ambient soundtrack and a double album based on live improvisations. Quite a range only since then.

Their newest work "The Assassination Of Julius Caesar", which was presented in full here, is a heavily 80s-inspired synth pop / art rock album.

And even more than the grandiosity of the album suggests, this show was nothing but spectacular. Or in one word: LASERS! Lasers galore, while the band members where mostly present as black silhouettes, providing the elevating soundtrack to the impressive effect show.

There was no direct communication with the crowd except that one dry humorous moment when one guy used a moment of Sunday silence to shout "Play some black metal!" and got the most unimpressed "no" imaginable as an answer.

The show went on longer than the album, so there were spaces for extended jams the band used to make the happening even more unforgetable.

For many fans this performance was the highlight of Roadburn 2017, and while I don't even want to settle on one band, I cannot seriously disagree.


It was with a heavy heart that I left before the end of the show, but the call of the Green Room, where Emma Ruth Rundle was almost ready to begin, was just too strong.

Emma Ruth Rundle

Technically silence is just the absence of noise. But still one silence is not like the other, there are differences you can clearly feel. So while I have mentioned the typical "Afterburner" silence a few times now, the silence during the solo performance of Emma Ruth Rundle was of a different kind, firstly because it wasn't a phenomenon of the pauses between the songs, but a room packed with over sixhundred people being spellbound by one singer / songwriter and her guitar.

Ulver in the next room where still overrunning their final trance jam, when she had to start, so everyone was relieved when the disturbing boom boom stopped after a few minutes. And then the magic fully set in.

Her voice as well as her instrument (which had a couple of effect layers on it), played on a big range of dynamics, all following the deep, raw and dark emotions of the songs.

I won't say you could hear a needle drop, when she went quieter, yet only because to my knowledge no needle had been dropped to prove that assumption. But this was definitively the only show I've seen where it already annoyed me when a cup was dropped or even the shutter of a camera clicked.

Despite obviously being a little shy and overwhelmed by the experience, Emma Ruth Rundle had the whole room in her hand. With all the people hanging silently on her lips it became so quiet that during the last song "Real Big Sky" she could step way beside her microphone and still enchant everybody without problems. 

Had there been a lack of stunning female singers until now? With Esben And The Witch, Chelsea Wolfe, Subrosa, Oathbreaker... Certainly not.

But even in this company; to watch Emma Ruth Rundle was a true revelation and will surely be talked about by the attendees for years to come. I imagine that maybe seeing Tori Amos at the very beginning of her career must have felt similar.

Come To Grief

The contrast to the next band playing in Het Patronaat could hardly have been bigger.

Come To Grief, the band formerly known only as Grief punished my ears with some of  the meanest brutal noise I've heard the whole festival. It was a good punishment though, a relentless doom/death/sludge torture, with painfully shrieking guitars.

Due to its super professional production Roadburn manages it to present the most extremes drone and noise orgies in a somehow bearable way, but when a guitar player decides that he really wants to fucking physically hurt you, what can the sound guy do? 

So in conclusion Come To Grief are basically fucking assholes - in the way you would say that to your best buddys. They killed it!

I surely would have enjoyed the whole show, but I hadn't yet been in the Cul de Sac today and a band with the strange name MNHM (which pronounces "Mannheim", but doesn't have anything to do with the german city) was about to play there.

Well, I know this now, but right there the only things I remembered from my running order preparation weeks ago was that they played some kind of instrumental music and that I really didn't want to miss them, even though I couldn't remember why.  

MNHM

As soon as I got to the stage and saw the saxophone there, I had a first clue. Doesn't this look like the one that guy from the Dead Neanderthals played last year? Their two men free jazz inferno was one of the greatest craziest things I've ever seen here.

And indeed MNHM turned out to be a quartet which included both the Dead Neanderthals drummer and saxophone player, plus bass and guitar. 

MNHM's sound was not jazz, but an equally mental mixture of post rock, mathcore and advantgarde (and doom and psych and nothing of all these).
Brutally in your face but then with weird sidesteps and loopings through your brain.
One trick they played a few times was to build up to what you would expect to become a grand elegiac post rock hymn, only to clusterfuck it over Zorn/Patton style. Very weird and challenging stuff, but kicking butt big time.

After the show I sacked their debut album and then quickly went back to the 013. It was almost midnight now and Radar Men From The Moon were already deep in their psych jam.

Having witnessed the stellar Temple Ov Bvv performance in which they were involved in the afternoon this just had to be my Roadburn finale for this year.

Radar Men From the Moon

And yeah! This was some heavily pushing und pumping hypnotic space shit. Nothing better than a total interstellar freak-out to end these four days of sensory overload on the highest note!

The only downside to the Radar Men From The Moon show was that of course the merch tent with their stuff was already closed afterwards.

On the way to my car and hotel, with their beat still in my head, came the realization:

Wow. This might have been the strongest Roadburn sunday ever!

But who am I to compare?

And why should I even try?

So, here I am again. At the end of my review, yet still somehow still process all the impressions...

I could try to sum up the whole experience now, pick my favorites of all four days (as if it was about that...), write my wishlist for next year or just bore you with exciting details about my trip home on Monday.

But honestly, I'm just happy that I finally wrapped Roadburn 2017 up now.

What an experience!

reviews of the other festival days:

ROADBURN Festival 2017 • DAY ONE: Thursday, April 20th
Roadburn destroys minds and will not play Stonehenge again

 

ROADBURN Festival 2017 • DAY TWO: Friday, April 21st
The riverbed will run red with the blood of the saints and Magma of the holy

 

ROADBURN Festival 2017 • DAY THREE: Saturday, April 22nd
She's a droniac, droniac on the floor  / And she's droning like she's never droned before

 

Temple Ov BBV:

 

Pallbearer:

Les Discrets:

Ulver:

Emma Ruth Rundle:

 

Come To Grief:

MNHM:

Radar Men From The Moon: