Cobalt

Erik Wunder, an amazing multi-instrumentalist who also leads the darkened folk blues of Man’s Gin and is a part of Jarboe‘s live band, is a man of many talents, and mostly all of them converge on his main band, the explosive Cobalt.

Having appeared near the beginning of the century, the duo’s atypical excursions through black metal captivated the eager ears of the underground from very early on, and the two first records War Metal and Eater Of Birds were already enthusiastically hailed by their intensity, their exceptional approach that twisted black metal into something grittier, far outside the typical boundaries but still recognisable and eerily familiar.

Neurosis-like apocalyptic tribalism, old Americana, a sort of doom-laden, ritualistic atmosphere, all these elements explored from those early beginnings gave Cobalt a distinct and fiery personality – crystallized intensely on what was arguably their breakthrough record, the enormous 2009 masterpiece that was Gin. A bombastic 80-minute tour de force that went from Hemingway to crusty primitivism, from African American chain gang songs to viscous cacophony with savage, gleeful abandon.

Gin was the type of record many lesser bands would never recover from, and it took seven years and a change of vocalist – the post is now tainted with the acid spewing from the throat of Charlie Fell, a Roadburn veteran who has performed at the festival with Nachtmystium and Lord Mantis previously – to finally reach boiling point again, and what a boiling point it was.

The aptly titled Slow Forever (a concept we can identify with!) is one of 2016‘s best albums, a double-album beast that is by far the longest sonic sacrifice Cobalt have ever put us through, and it feels like a record that got inside the head of its illustrious predecessor and blew everything apart with a shotgun blast, and now all the nuances and insidious influences of yore are wide open for everyone to listen to.

An aggressive record, vicious even, yet hook-laden to a maddening extent, full of repeated mantra-like phrases that will ring in your mind for months after and riffs that seem like slithering snakes spinning out of control but kept in check at the last second by Erik‘s expert guitar-wielding skills, it cuts through genres like a warm knife through a cold vein.

On top of everything, Cobalt were not a live band for most of those years of activity. Now, they are headed for Europe for the very first time, so how could we not have them at Roadburn? No fucking way, that’s how. Erik told us: “We are extremely excited to bring Cobalt over for such an amazing festival as Roadburn, and we cannot wait to unleash the live Cobalt show on European soil!”

Cobalt will be poisoning the air at Roadburn 2017 at the 013 venue, on Saturday, April 22 in Tilburg, The Netherlands, and we will take front row spots to witness the carnage.

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