Paradox programme announced
Paradox programme announced
In recent years Paradox Tilburg has been the spot to experience experimental and avant-garde music in an intimate setting on the Friday and Saturday of Roadburn. For the fourth year running, we’ve teamed up with this special, world-renowned jazz club to bring you:
40 Watt Sun (solo)
Angles 9 – Death of Kalypso
Early Life Forms
Heavy Jazz Jam – hosted by Theo Holsheimer
ILL Considered
Under the Reefs Orchestra
Stay tuned for news on art exhibitions, the side programme – and yes – the time schedules in the coming weeks. Tickets and info can be found over at Roadburn.com
Archiving heaviness - let’s make sense of Roadburn together
Archiving heaviness - let’s make sense of Roadburn together
Imagine this: It’s been a couple of days since Roadburn 2025. You are now back home and as you scroll through your socials you cherish the joy and love you find in the testimonials shared by other attendees – some of who you now might call friends. Do you feel connected? Do you feel supported? What is that feeling about?
More than just re-living performances through photos and reviews, is it the shared love of heaviness that deepens the community? Is it the unique environment brewed by the Roadburn team that make it feel like “home”? Or… something completely different?
This year we want to try to better understand the connections and experiences that make Roadburn what it is. Initiated by a fellow Roadburner with knowledge and experience of participatory heritage research and community archiving.
Share your Roadburn history
As hosts of the Reinwardt Academy-project ‘Archiving Heaviness’, we invite all who relate to Roadburn – in whatever way – to take part in building a living archive together – starting at Roadburn 2025.
Think about your first Roadburn. Think about your last Roadburn. Think about performances, relationships and experiences that stood out for you and consider why that was. Zoom out and think about what attending has meant for you and your friends. Zoom back in and find that one special moment.
Whilst much of the magic of Roadburn may exist in an intangible form, for this project we’d like to assemble a collection of tangible pieces that represent all that is so hard to put in to words about the Roadburn experience. Fabric, paper or otherwise. Have you kept mementos or trinkets that remind you of your Roadburn adventures?
For all four days of Roadburn 2025, we will have a dedicated space at the 013 to:
- Present your stories in a collective way
- Exhibit your Roadburn treasures in a participatory pop-up exhibition
- Collect more stories and objects as they emerge from the festival itself
Are you ready to share a story? Thinking about bringing an object to the pop-up exhibition? Fill in this Archiving Heaviness Intake Form. As the festival approaches, we will get back to you with an update and practical information. Rest assured each object will be handled with care, given a unique ID number, and stored securely whilst away from its owner.
Want to know more?
You might be reading all this and finding yourself wanting to know more about this project, its approach, the research behind it, or just want to satisfy your curiosity. Check out the project website page here
Project leader Jonathan Even-Zohar (Reinwardt Academy and long-term Roadburn-goer) is very happy to answer questions via jonathan.even-zohar@ahk.nl
Archiving Heaviness is a collaboration between Roadburn, the Reinwardt Academy and Podiumkunst.net
Frente Abierto added to the line-up
Frente Abierto added to the line-up
We are extremely honoured to announce a special performance by Frente Abierto at Roadburn 2025. When Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter, saw the Spanish group at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht last November and also later had the opportunity of hearing their forthcoming debut album in advance, he knew their fiery mix between heavy rock and flamenco was perfect for Roadburn.
Frente Abierto are a collective of Andalusian musicians, led by Marco Serrato (Orthodox, Altair) and featuring ambient musician David Cordero and lauded guitarist Raúl Cantizano. Accompanying them for their incandescent live shows is a varying cast of the most inspiring voices of contemporary flamenco – at Roadburn, we will have the pleasure of hosting Sebastián Cruz and Lela Soto. Together, they become living proof that even today there are still unexplored connections between musical worlds, just waiting for someone with the right talent and courage to brave those unknown territories.
Though flamenco and the metal and heavy rock that have been the backbone of Roadburn might seem to be completely separate universes, they can merge seamlessly. Marco previously performed at Roadburn back in 2007 with Orthodox; Walter comments:
“I have always kept Marco Serrato and his music on my radar. The moment I realized he was involved in Frente Abierto and it became clear that the project and Roadburn had so much in common, artistically and creatively – it was a no brainer to invite them to play the festival.”
Marco adds:
“It is a privilege to be able to return to Roadburn after 18 years, with this new project where we have been able to take some of the essential elements of Orthodox to a level that at that time we had not even been able to conceive.”
Flamenco has always been an artistic expression of the underprivileged and oppressed. Its origins lie within the Gitano subculture of the Spanish region of Andalusia, itself a place with a unique identity influenced by Moorish and Jewish communities. Its themes have historically manifested the difficulties of lives led in poverty, typically associated with the Gitanos, becoming a crucial tool of cultural dissent for many outcasts and misfits for over two centuries. Traditionally, lyrics showcase not only the common themes of love and death but also the hardships of life led as an outcast. The roots of such struggles are well documented in music across many genres but within Frente Abierto’s work they’re presented in a unique way.
At its core, Frente Abierto embodies everything we imagine when we use the phrase “redefining heaviness”. They’ve found a way to capture the emotional weight we’ve always known and loved in our established genres and embellish it with something that is distinctively theirs. We are looking forward to welcoming Frente Abierto as a decisive centrepiece of this year’s festival.
Midwife will perform No Depression In Heaven with Thou as backing band
Midwife will perform No Depression In Heaven with Thou as backing band
As part of her residency at Roadburn 2025, Madeline Johnston AKA Midwife will perform her latest full-length, No Depression In Heaven with a backing band. The backing band in question will be familiar to Roadburners: Thou. With rehearsals already underway, and Roadburn just two short months away, we’re delighted to share this news with you.
Madeline comments: “Performing No Depression In Heaven with a heavier band behind me presents a new experience of the album. It’s a treat to collaborate in this capacity. Thou helps bring this set to life while remaining true to their sound, and expanding upon on my own. I’m greatly looking forward to playing with the full band at Roadburn.”
Roadburn 2025 Artist In Residence: Midwife
Friday 18 April – performing Orbweaving in full w/Vyva Melinkolya
Saturday 19 April – performing No Depression In Heaven w/ Thou
Sunday 20 April – Collected Works 2017-2020x
Video premiere: ‘Drug Burn’ by Buñuel
Video premiere: ‘Drug Burn’ by Buñuel
Buñuel have revealed an explosive new video for their equally intense track ‘Drug Burn’, off their latest album ‘Mansuetude’ released a few months ago. We are proud to premiere it for you now as a vigorous reminder that their forthcoming Roadburn appearance will be absolutely unmissable!
Bo Ningen, Penelope Trappes, Throwing Bricks & Ontaard and more added to the line-up
Bo Ningen, Penelope Trappes, Throwing Bricks & Ontaard and more added to the line-up
It’s getting close! With less than 80 days to go until Roadburn 2025 kicks off, we can sense the anticipation all around us and we love seeing everyone getting really excited. We have added the last inspirational and essential artists that have made the bill feel complete, and now with almost all of the puzzle pieces in place, we are extremely happy to see our hard work coming to fruition. We hope that you will have a lot of fun discovering all the gems in the lineup and start getting those pre-Roadburn butterflies in your stomach already.
P.S. Fear not! Paradox, the renowned jazz club, will once again be a part of Roadburn. The lineup for Friday and Saturday will be announced a few weeks from now.
The latest additions to Roadburn 2025 are as follows:
- Alora Crucible will perform a set of their classical-meets-new age sonic explorations
- Bo Ningen return to Roadburn for a main stage performance of their 2012 album Line The Wall
- Bacht’n de Vulle Moane bring their raw black metal and analog synths to Roadburn
- Genital Shame will make their maiden voyage to Europe for their Roadburn debut
- Grey Aura return to present their new album Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk, in full.
- Kuunatic introduce Japanese tribal psych to Tilburg
- Mong Tong weave together sounds from South-East Asia with more traditional psych motifs from the 60s and 70s creating something fresh and otherworldly
- Morvigor combine the cinematic possibilities of prog and post-metal with expressive black metal.
- Penelope Trappes delivers atmospheric soundscapes and evocative poetry
- Silver Knife are a mysterious entity delivering full-force underground black metal
- Throwing Bricks and Ontaard join forces for a commissioned project that showcases the best of the Dutch underground.
- Toby Driver will perform his lush and voluminous solo material.
Collaborative performance Sumac and Moor Mother announced for Roadburn 2025
Collaborative performance Sumac and Moor Mother announced for Roadburn 2025
We’re over the moon to announce a collaborative performance between Sumac and Moor Mother at Roadburn 2025. Today they announced the album, ‘The Film’, which will land on April 25 via Thrill Jockey, and we already know it’s going to have a huge – and deserved – impact in the Roadburn world.
To say that it sounds like what you might expect if you put one of the most intense current heavy bands in a studio with one of the most captivating modern orators, simply doesn’t do it justice. Whilst the two elements both retain their own distinctive hallmarks, there is a new frisson of electricity present where the two paths cross. We’re counting down the days until we can witness this union on stage at Roadburn.
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.