Oranssi Pazuzu

By the time April rolls around, it will have been thirteen years since Oranssi Pazuzu made their Roadburn debut. When they return, it will be to perform their latest album, Muuntautuja, in full – marking a triumphant moment in their fascinating and exciting evolution as a band. We are beyond excited to welcome Oranssi Pazuzu back to Roadburn for this special album show. 

‘Experimental’ has always been marked down on the Oranssi Pazuzu report card, but on Muuntautuja, the experimental flourishes arguably overwhelm the black metal foundation that their sound has typically been built upon. Have they crossed over from being a black metal band with experimental flourishes into something entirely different? Or have they simply succeeded in permanently bending the boundaries of what constitutes black metal, cementing a new era for the genre? As always, Oranssi Pazuzu raises more questions than they answer, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Our long history with the band includes glorious diversions such as The Waste of Space Orchestra – one of our very first commissioned projects back in 2018, which saw them collaborate with Dark Buddha Rising. So, we already knew that they were the types that wouldn’t rest on their laurels, that whatever they magicked up next would be significant, genre-shattering and expectation-defying. But even we didn’t anticipate the full impact of the nightmarish concoction of sinister synths and raw, roiling metal contained within Muuntautuja.

The band comments:

“Our journey as a band has a tight connection to Roadburn Festival. We have performed there several times and experienced many amazing shows there by a vast amount of artists. We are psyched to make our return to the festival to perform our latest album Muuntautuja in its entirety. Couldn’t imagine a surrounding more suitable for the ritual of transforming the album into its live shapes.”

What a treat to be so pleasantly surprised, even whilst this album’s sneaky tendrils were wrapping themselves around our internal organs and starting to squeeze. Oranssi Pazuzu have crafted an album that – right here, right now – feels career defining; it sums them up better than anything else could. And yet the joy of this band is that we have little doubt that whatever comes next will make us feel the exact same way all over again. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Right here, right now is a great place to be if this album is our soundtrack. This April we celebrate Muuntautuja as it comes to life on the Roadburn stage.

– Becky Laverty