Author & Punisher

Here at Roadburn, we value creativity, innovation and outside-the-box thinking, and we’re constantly on the lookout for artists who employ these characteristics in the approach to their expression.

So, naturally, Mr. Tristan Shone, the man behind Author & Punisher , has been on our radar for quite some time, and it is finally possible for us to welcome him at Roadburn 2017.

Of course we are excited for every band we have announced, or we wouldn’t have booked them in the first place, but there is something particularly fascinating about imagining Tristan going about his business on a Roadburn stage. His is a particularly impressive set up, as we’re sure you’re aware by now, after six amazing records released under the Author & Punisher name – all the machinery used in the performance has been custom built by Tristan himself, who is also a mechanical engineer, and they are all playable as extensions of his own physical and vocal movement.

It is a frightening and intimidating sight to see him as a terrifying cyborg of doom up there, often using voice-modulating masks, pulling on a piston-like machine that triggers drum sounds with one hand and unleashing hellish noise with the throttles on his other hand.

We didn’t use the expression “cyborg of doom” just to be funny, either. Tristan could well be a damn Transformer up there, that in the end it would amount to very little if the music wasn’t up to the whole set up, but it is. Oh boy, yes it is.

As much as it seems like a paradox, his very special (read: face-melting) version of industrial doom metal doesn’t come across as machinal. Darkly industrial, yes, coming from a future where the machines have taken over and humanity is but a slave to their cold brutality, double-yes, but there is an organic, slithering pull to it all as well, the way the absurdly heavy rhythms are dealt makes you feel like there are little goblins inside those machines, toiling away like Uruk-hai underneath Isengard, doing the evil bidding of their Tristan master.

On top of everything, it is an experienced Author & Punisher we are going to receive at Roadburn. 2015‘s Melk En Honing, from which we’re still reeling (hell, we’re still reeling from that unbelievable Terrorbird opener on 2012‘s Ursus Americanus…) was, as we mentioned above, already the sixth record on a frighteningly productive career that has spanned just over a decade since 2004, and seen him tour just about everywhere. We’re up against a seriously battle worn soldier, so expect the beating to be merciless.

Tristan comments: “To perform at Roadburn 2017 is really a watershed moment for me and to do it alongside so many genre benders and bands I love makes this year very special.”

The rise of the machines will take place at Roadburn 2017 at the 013 venue, on Sunday, April 23 in Tilburg, The Netherlands. It will probably herald the dawn of a new mechanical age, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Roadburn Festival 2017 will take place April 20-23 at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Tickets are now on sale!

José Carlos Santos, December 2016