Roadburn 2024 by David Fitt
Roadburn 2024 by David Fitt
At last years festival, Roadburn 2024’s visual artist David Fitt set up shop to capture this year’s artists in striking detail. Previously, we shared a selection of his stunning photography, but now the full series is online via roadburn.com
23 new names added to the line-up including The Body, Dis Fig, Uniform, The Bug, Xiu Xiu and more
23 new names added to the 2025 line-up including The Body, Dis Fig, Uniform, The Bug, Xiu Xiu and more
With this announcement, the lineup for Roadburn 2025 is almost complete. Looking at it as a whole, we have achieved a genuine reflection of the current underground. We have reached the crossroads where 2024 and 2025 come together, whether it’s with album performances, released or unreleased, Roadburn luminaries or younger up-and-coming bands, we are giving a platform to a wide spectrum of artists, redefining heaviness, showcasing growth and the future of our beloved underground.
The artists added to Roadburn 2025 are as follows:
- Buffalo Nichols brings the blues from America all the way to Tilburg
- Dame Area’s double trouble is signaled with chaotic energy and rhythmic percussion
- Dis Fig feat. Spooky J – Dis Fig will be joined by a live drummer for this stand alone performance in addition to her set with The Body
- Doodseskader merge hip hop, hardcore, metal, electronics and more
- Endon return to Europe for the first time in five years, on the back of their latest album, Fall of Spring.
- Foudre! Blend post-punk, world music and psych- this will be their Roadburn debut
- Gott were forced to cancel their Roadburn performance in 2022; now they’re back and raring to go
- Greet present harmonium-heavy, pastoral folk from the North of England
- Insect Ark are now a three piece when they play live, enabling them to do full justice to the nuances of their ominous sounds.
- Kaukolampi fuse the headiness of kosmische with the visceral impact of techno, the intensity of metal and the churning power of dark ambient.
- LustSickPuppy is an unholy mashup of digital hardcore, rap, acid electronica and noise with an eye for art and a brain full of big ideas.
- Maquina is a Portuguese trio who specialise in driving beats and hypnotic Krautrock
- Haunted Plasma play their first live set outside of Finland
- Silver Godling hails from New Orleans, and creates beautiful songs utilising voice, piano and looping.
- Supplicate is the project of Andy Gibbs from Thou; he will make his European debut at Roadburn
- The Body return to Roadburn, this time on the main stage
- The Body & Dis Fig unite on the Roadburn main stage for their electrifying collaborative performance.
- The Bug will draw heavily from his Machine release for this special show.
- The Ex will highlight exactly why they’re so iconic after 45 years in the game
- Uniform expand to a six piece for a full performance of American Standard in its entirety.
- Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan is a commissioned artist for 2025 and will present new work titled Industrial Growth.
- Xiu Xiu will make a triumphant return to Roadburn off the back of their new album
- Youniss is a Belgian-based artist that blends a mix of hip hop, experimental noise and post-punk with his poetic commentary
Walter, Becky and Daan reflect on this year’s musical offerings
Dear Roadburners,
We have one more announcement to squeeze in before we take a break for Christmas. And as much as we’re looking forward – to all the great music to come our way in 2025, as well as Roadburn in April of course – it’s a wonderful thing to reflect on the year we’ve just had.
This isn’t a chart or a ranking, it’s just a few releases that we (your humble Roadburn booking team) have enjoyed listening to this year as we have worked on booking the festival. It’s not even close to an exhaustive list of the music that has inspired and motivated us over the last twelve months.
Some of the albums we enjoyed you may be familiar with already because they were performed at Roadburn this year (such as Inter Arma’s New Heaven) or will be performed at Roadburn next year (such as Thou’s Umbilical, Sumac’s The Healer or Oranssi Pazuzu’s Muuntautuja). In many ways, the Roadburn line up itself is our ‘best of’ list.
So, without further ado, dive in! Let us know if you discover something new here. If you’re not already there, you could join the Roadburners Facebook group, or the Roadburn discord server.
- Walter, Becky & Daan
Walter’s pick: Uncle Acid - Nell’ Ora Blu
“Due to my eye condition, it’s now very hard for me to do some things that others may take for granted, like putting an album on the turntable, or simply watching a movie.
“However, when Uncle Acid’s Nell’ Ora Blu came out, I ordered a vinyl copy of it straight away. I completely fell in love with the band’s venture into a more cinematic approach, creating a soundtrack to an imaginary Italian crime noir. The album allows me to conjure up and piece together the entire film in my head, experiencing it as if it was real.
“It is my album of the year, as it completely fueled my inspiration and my senses in different ways through its narrative, both sonically and visually, becoming a perfect escapism from my own reality.
“It’s also a redefinition of the band’s style, as the scope and feel really set it apart from everything they’ve done before. Nell’ Ora Blu is a must-have both for Uncle Acid aficionados and for anyone who admires the famous soundtracks by Goblin or any of the other iconic Italian prog masters of the early 70s.”
Becky’s pick: Couch Slut - You Could Do It Tonight
“It’s been over a year since I first heard Couch Slut’s You Could Do It Tonight and it continues to haunt me to this day. Their unsettling ability to shine a light on the darkest crevices of the human psyche, coupled with their acerbic noise rock chops means that this album is right up my street.
“It was an absolute joy to have them at Roadburn; both their secret set and their Terminal stage set were incredible – each showing different facets to the band, but both highlighting why they’re an essential part of the underground right now. Croissants and all.
“Long may Couch Slut reign, in all their filthy glory.”
DAAN’S PICK: SIERRA FERRELL - TRAIL OF FLOWERS
I witnessed Sierra Ferrell perform during the Americana Honors & Awards Show in Ryman Auditorium last year and nobody will take that away from me. What a voice and what a persona. Absolutely amazing album with old timey country!
Other notable releases
Hawkwind – Stories From Time and Space
Even in his eighties and sounding more vulnerable than ever, Hawkwind’s Dave Brock is still the quintessential traveller of time and space. Stories from Time and Space may end up being an exploration of the final frontier, but Dave is still pushing the band and his own imagination into new directions. It’s still Hawkwind, it’s still exciting, and it still feels like a spaceship with its doors wide open, inviting you to take part of the expedition.
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
As evidenced across their dual Roadburn performances, Blood Incantation are the reigning champions of combining crushing death metal with transcendental ambient soundscapes. Absolute Elsewhere is the pinnacle of this genre-fusion; an exquisite listen from start to finish. We’re aware that this album is getting high praise from e very direction – it’s hard to miss, but we couldn’t resist including it here as it’s sure to be an album that in the future will be a defining part of the sound of 2024.
Greet – Harmonium II
Whilst Greet is a new proposition – the very first release came earlier in 2024 – many a contented hour has been passed in the company of Matthew Broadley and his harmonium. Pastoral folk for the righteously incandescent. Well worth your time.
The Jesus Lizard – Rack
Good things come to those who wait, and what’s twenty four years between friends anyway? The new Jesus Lizard album was worth the wait, humming with all that glorious noise rock fury that made them such an important band in the first place. In the years of their absence no doubt an army of new fans have discovered their back catalogue but with Rack, they have something brand new to savour too.
Genital Shame – Chronic Illness Wish
Genital Shame is the project of Erin Dawson who has given her particular thread of black metal its own subgenre: TWBM, standing for Trans Woman Black Metal. Hailing from Pittsburgh, she gets the bedroom black metal balance just right between abrasive rawness and majestic transcendence.
Sunrise Patriot Motion – My Father Took Me Hunting In The Snow
Okay, yes, it’s an EP rather than an album, but it still deserves its place in this list. The follow up to 2022’s Black Fellflower Stream (which if you haven’t yet got stuck into, we suggest you do that too!), this EP dropped shortly before the band made their live debut at Roadburn. Combining soaring synths, black metal and post punk, it’s a glorious nugget to tide us over until another album comes our way.
Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood
We promise that this is not in the list only because Julie wrote a song inspired by her first Roadburn experience, although that was of course extremely flattering. After a prolonged absence, Julie has returned to our sound systems, not only ridiculous and full of blood, but fueled with an unmatched passion and backed by a stellar line up of musicians to round out her vision. Fusing elements of post-metal, noise rock and post-hardcore, Julie’s distinctive voice remains the brightest, most distinctive element. Julie Christmas is a whirlwind; that will never change.
The best of the rest:
Lane Shi (Otay:Onii) announced as the first Triennium Artist In Residence
Lane Shi (Otay:Onii) announced as the first Triennium Artist In Residence
For many years now Roadburn has offered artists an opportunity to showcase the multi-faceted nature of their work when we invite them to be our artists in residence. In these instances, the artists will perform multiple times over the course of a Roadburn edition – sometimes with collaborators, sometimes performing full album sets, always pushing the boundaries of their creativity. For the 2025 edition – and beyond – we are adding a new kind of residency to Roadburn, one that stretches over three editions of the festival.
Our very first triennium residency will commence in 2025 and run through until the 2027 edition. Each year of this elongated showcase will highlight different elements, different possibilities within a particular artist’s skillset. Within this structure, we hope to be able to support and nourish the development of a particular artist, enjoy watching them flourish in new ways and of course, as always, provide them with a stage to do their best work.
The artist that we are collaborating with for our very first three-year residency is Lane Shi. She performs most often under the moniker Otay:Onii, but she is a frequent collaborator, and an artist in the truest sense of the word. Her imagination knows no limits and her dedication to creativity is inspiring.
Lane’s first performance at Roadburn, in 2023, was with her former band, Elizabeth Colour Wheel, who also participated in a collaborative commissioned project with Ethan Lee McCarthy. That same year she performed a spell-binding solo set of her Otay:Onii material that left the audience enraptured, and us as her biggest fans. Having moved to Europe in early 2024, Lane has already made her presence felt working with musicians across multiple genres and performing in the headline-grabbing opera by Florentina Holzinger, Sancta.
For the first installment of her residency, Lane will perform her latest album, True Faith Ain’t Blind, in its entirety. With the spotlight trained on her piano playing and her distinctive voice, this is an opportunity for us to immerse ourselves in Lane’s work in its rawest, most vulnerable form.
Of her invitation to be Roadburn’s very first triennium artist in residence, Lane said:
“Roadburn is my favorite festival on earth, I am honored and grateful. Now I put my excitement for the engine of passion: 2025! Allow me to unleash fingers to dance on the piano keys like tiptoe steps on pebble stones of a lifetime – and there’s a throat to sing for love, a hymn for joy, to mourn in grief, to weep for the wounds of an opening portal to a brave new world. For the next three years I would like to introduce you to the multimedia performance pieces that I always wanted to bring to light. From the never-ending ouroboros we diverge to a new moon, and tell a tale that was never told.”
We always want to take Roadburn attendees on a journey; every edition is different. But this time around we’re inviting you to join us to witness a special, one-of-a-kind artist develop in real time, a wholehearted journey of discovery that we’ll embark upon together.
Cave In will return to Roadburn to perform this iconic album Jupiter in full for the very first time
Cave In will return to Roadburn to perform this iconic album Jupiter in full for the very first time
In 2025, Jupiter will reach its 25th anniversary – and Cave In will return to Roadburn to perform this iconic album in full for the very first time. A show that many have longed to witness, we’re thrilled to host Cave In for this very special performance.
(Re)discover Heath Up Close
When we heard Heath’s debut album, Isaak’s Marble, we knew that this newcomer five-piece from The Hague needed to be on our stage of Roadburn 2024. And boy, we’re we right! At Roadburn 2024 Heath brought their combination of psych, prog, and steamy blues rock with a hefty dose of youthful energy to the stage.
The band just released a beautiful mini documentary “Up Close”, where they dive into the thoughts and experiences of the various band members. You can watch the documentary below or at roadburn.com
29 new names to the 2025 lineup including envy, Oranssi Pazuzu, Thou, Gilla Band, Midwife, Steve Von Till and more
29 new names to the 2025 lineup including envy, Oranssi Pazuzu, Thou, Gilla Band, Midwife, Steve Von Till and more
This announcement shows the broad scope of heaviness at Roadburn 2025. There are artistic, musical and emotional boundaries being pushed, and we are hosting both up-and-coming acts making their festival debuts alongside longstanding luminaries. We are looking to the future, to our roots, and in all directions in the present to find those artists defying the perceived limits of genre in the underground. We know there are no limits.
For the first time we are commissioning our artists in residence; in the past these have been two separate features of the festival. Whilst there will still be stand alone commissioned projects for 2025, we’re looking forward to presenting very special, exclusive sets from our artists in residence this coming April. We’re bringing more depth to the idea of what a Roadburn ‘residency’ means and trusting these performers to explore their respective bodies of work in new ways.
With all of this, and in the depth and diversity of our lineup, we are experimenting and growing. We do this with the intention of bringing people together, disregarding boundaries and misconceptions that divide us. We want Roadburn 2025 to cement the underground as an entirety; not a scattered thing, but many voices rising together in a celebration, uniting art and community.
The new names added to Roadburn 2025 are as follows:
Bambara
Big Brave performing A Chaos of Flowers
Blind Girls
Buñuel
CHVE
Coilguns performing Odd Love
Curses (Live)
Dødheimsgard performing Black Medium Current
Envy performing A Dead Sinking Story and a modern era/Eunoia set
Gilla Band – The Early Years
Gillian Carter
Glassing
Gnod Drop Out With White Hills
Great Falls
Messa performing The Spin
Michael Gira & Kristof Hahn (SWANS)
Artist In Residence: Midwife
Oranssi Pazuzu performing Muuntautuja
Pothamus performing Abur
Pygmy Lush
Smote performing A Grand Stream
Artist In Residence: Steve Von Till
Thou performing Umbilical
Tristwch Y Fenywod
Violent Magic Orchestra
Vuur & Zijde performing Boezem
Vyva Melinkolya
Witch Club Satan
Zombie Zombie
Lux Tenera - A Rite to Joy,” the new album by Die Wilde Jagd set for release on January 27, 2025.
Lux Tenera - A Rite to Joy,” the new album by Die Wilde Jagd set for release on January 27, 2025.
When Die Wilde Jagd teamed up with Metropole Orkest for our most ambitious commissioned project to date, we never imagined the scope of the work that would result from them together. The progressive psych of Die Wilde Jagd and the Metropole’s majestic orchestration we’re united on that Sunday to a landmark and beautiful offering. Thinking about this piece still brings us to tears.
“Lux Tenera – A Rite to Joy,” the new album by Die Wilde Jagd in collaboration with Metropole Orkest (conducted by Simon Dobson), was commissioned by Roadburn Festival for its 2024 edition and is set for release on January 27, 2025. Relive this magical commissioned project.
Sumac, ØXN, De Mannen Broeders, Faetooth, Pageninetynine and more added to the line-up
Roadburn 2025 announces Sumac, ØXN, De Mannen Broeders, Faetooth, Pageninetynine and more
With Roadburn 2025, we want to galvanize our community. To be a force for unity across subcultures, and as a collective, to look at the horizon of the current and future underground, to keep in mind the past, as well as to examine where we’ve come from and why we’re here. If our ‘why’ at Roadburn is to redefine heaviness, we want to say outright that the underground has no limits.
Part of what we celebrate each year at Roadburn are those artists and bands who are pushing the envelope – both for themselves and others who’ll follow. In 2025, we’ll extend our hand as ever to those whose passion speaks to our own, and our lineup will navigate a fragmented underground in the name of trying to piece together something whole and new from it.
With this announcement, you can see some of the kinds of voices we want to amplify and hopefully you will get a sense of the spirit in which Roadburn 2025 is being made behind the scenes. Whether you’re coming for the first time, you’re here every year, you’re playing or attending or just reading a quote on the internet, we want to inspire and to bring people together, to celebrate and renew our beloved underground.
In alphabetical order the new additions to the Roadburn 2025 line up are as follows:
Black Curse: The Colorado-based blackened death metal troupe are set to deliver diabolical evil to Tilburg
Choke Chain: Chicago-based contemporary industrial and dark electro
Cinder Well: Melodic and enchanting folk from an artist with her roots in the DIY punk scene
Concrete Winds: Pure audio annihilation from Helsinki
De Mannen Broeders: Tonnie Dieleman and Colin van Eeckhout join forces as De Mannen Broeders
Denisa: Melancholic melodies from Indonesia-based singer-songwriter
Faetooth: Self described as “fairy doom” hailing from Los Angeles
FIRE!: Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin unite to play avant-garde, experimental jazz
Human Impact: Hook-laden industrial rock featuring members of Unsane and Cop Shoot Cop
LKVGT: Filthy death metal from the Dutch underground
New Age Doom & Tuvaband: The Canadian duo will collaborate with the Norwegian musician, performing cuts from their album, There Is No End.
One Leg One Eye: Raw, experimental noise and folk from Ireland
Ora Cogan: Sweetly psychedelic folk and Americana beautifully fused together.
ØXN: Experimental folk featuring the distinctive vocals of Radie Peat and Katie Kim
Pageninetynine: Iconic hardcore punk from Sterling, Virginia
Ponte Del Diavolo: Turin-based occult metallers, performing their debut album, Fire Blades From The Tomb, in full
Stress Positions: Chicago’s electrifying hardcore four-piece will make their Roadburn debut
Sumac: The trio will return to Roadburn to perform their contemplative masterpiece, The Healer, in its entirety
The HIRS Collective: Punk rock fury delivered by way of a shapeshifting cast of collaborators.
Nona Limmen - the official Roadburn 2025 visual artist
NONA LIMMENThe official Roadburn 2025 visual artist
We are very excited and honoured to present Nona Limmen as our official artist for Roadburn 2025. If you attended the 2024 edition, you may have noticed her captivating exhibition, with her ominous work hanging throughout the frames of the 013 venue.
Nona is an independent, acclaimed photographer, and her main body of work comprises striking, thought-provoking photography standing on its own as towering “homages to the twilight hour,” as she has described them before. However, she has also provided work for other pivotal artists such as Chelsea Wolfe, Dool and Phoebe Bridgers.
Her art explores mythology, symbolism and psychology – essentially, the hidden elements of human nature. We all carry unconscious parts of our personality with us, but we try to actively keep them in check. The result is always an imposing force of nature, as the work she has made for Roadburn 2025 clearly shows. It was a case of immediate bonding – “the worlds of Nona Limmen and Roadburn absolutely belong together,” says Roadburn’s artistic director Walter, “intertwined as they are in their depictions of imagination and connection.”
Nona also told us “The world we currently live in oftentimes feels like a big storm; that feeling of heaviness that often looms over us as it plays out on both personal and collective stages. A storm is like an elusive and indefinable realm. One of the abysmal depths, raging winds and bending shadows, seemingly only existing in order to dismantle and destroy. It is a perilous place where uncertainty and disruptive forces prevail. Yet, it is not necessarily something to be feared.
“Beyond the swirling chaos, there is stillness, and within that stillness, you come face to face with powerful archetypal energies, impalpable as shadows. Like liminal beings, they reside on the delicate borders between worlds, darkened around the edges as if by smoke. They possess many forms and carry a tenacity in their bones that is ever-present. They don’t fear the chaos. Instead, they embrace it and stare into the swirling darkness with a firm gaze. Centred, like the eye of the storm, they become one with the ancient elements. From the inside out, from the below to the above.
“It symbolises a glimpse into my own journey in embracing the tempest of the unknown, one that ultimately became the inspiration and driving force behind the artwork. In a time of chaos and storms, I hope it can be a doorway to that world of stillness for others too.”
Models: Björg Halldórsdóttir & Svala Jóhannsdóttir
