The experience of discovering an exciting new band only to realise minutes later they already played Roadburn before you knew them is common to most of us. It’s no shame to find out that The Neon Pickle Conspiracy Overload whose new album you’re really enjoying actually played a 45 minute set at the Hall of Fame at 3.45pm on Thursday two years ago when they just had an EP out. To help minimise that very specific pain, here is a little fun guide to what could be the hidden gems of Roadburn 2026, some alternative-to-the-alternative suggestions among the almost hundred performances that will take place:

• Elucid (Next Stage, 16:30)
  Billy Woods’ comrade in Armand Hammer is also visiting Roadburn on his own, showcasing a very unique solo work which arguably occupies an even more abstract and uncompromising space than that of the duo, one that feels perfectly at home within Roadburn’s more exploratory fringes. His music moves in dense, impressionistic layers: fractured beats, uneasy loops, verses that feel almost unearthed. It draws from the most adventurous forms of hip-hop, but pushes things far beyond any comfortable genre categorisation. Elucid is indeed elusive, the kind of artist that ultimately helps expand Roadburn’s reach and inspires us to discover new territories. Come celebrate that with us.

• Fauna (Next Stage, 18:20)
  Our beloved and much missed 2019 curator Tomas Lindberg was one of the main instigators for us to dig a little more into the strange psychedelic underbelly of Gothenburg (we will never forget Uran GBG’s show that year), so we’ve been taking his advice ever since, and Fauna are one of the most fascinating oddities to bubble out of that wonderful factory of weirdness lately. It says on the schedule that their show will physically take place at the Next Stage, but honestly, our minds will be soaring far above it, carried on motorik beats and esoteric vibes.

• Habak (The Engine Room, 17:40)
  There’s an explosion of amazing punk bands in several corners of the underground right now, and obviously Roadburn 2026 reflects that. Habak, from Tijuana, are one of the first to take to the stage, and even a cursory glance at any past video of theirs will show you how their melodic yet furious crust punk goes down in a live setting. Some artists walk off stage holding pieces of your soul, but Habak’s Alejandra Valdez will surely tear chunks of flesh off you with her whirlwind vocal performance alone. If there’s still enough of you left, why not subject yourself to World Peace at the Hall of Fame later to finish the night off?

• All Men Unto Me (performing ‘Requiem’) (Next Stage, 15:00)
  Time to go big, right at the beginning of Roadburn Friday. The central figure of All Men Unto Me, Rylan Gleave, is no stranger to Roadburn, having performed with Ashenspire in 2023, but this is a very different world he will be creating for us this time, performing the entirety of ‘Requiem’, an intriguing and quietly revolutionary highlight of 2025. A theatrical opus situated at the intersection of metal ferocity, industrial weight, and the evocative nature of ambient, choral, and devotional music, it’s at the same time a profoundly personal piece about Rylan’s own transitional journey, but also a mordant look at the patriarchy that will resonate with many.

• Milkweed / Haress (Hall of Fame, 15:50 / 17:40)
  Of course, the intimacy of the Hall of Fame makes it the ideal spot for a lot of these hidden gems, so you can proceed your exploration of the less beaten path with the first acts playing there on Friday. It’s generally not cool to group bands together, but Milkweed and Haress are not just playing back to back, they’re also somewhat connected in the ways they take pastoral English folk and twist it into something quite otherworldly. A more out-there, mindbending approach for Milkweed, and a more psych, hypnotic vibe for Haress, and when taken consecutively, surely a complete consciousness-expanding experience.

• Backengrillen (Next Stage, 20:30)
  We haven’t seen huge riots and thousands of comments on the Roadburn pages after Backengrillen were announced, so allow us to make this clear in big letters for those who haven’t paid proper attention yet: IT’S DENNIS AND MAGNUS AND DAVID FROM REFUSED! WITH MATS GUSTAFSSON PLAYING SAXOPHONE! What else does anyone need, right? Maybe their own description of the racket they play? “The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noise rock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart.” So yeah, see you down the front.

• 137 (Paradox, 21:15)
  Bands named after numbers, they’re always a little mystery, aren’t they? If you don’t know the exact meaning (it’s a physics thing, in this case), it’s hard to imagine what they sound like. On top of it, 137 are part of the Paradox lineup, which is typically a whole hidden gem unto itself. But if you make your way to the cosy club to watch these fine gentlemen (who have played with people like Portishead or Patti Smith, mind you) you’ll enter a brain-frying noise-jazz jam that will have your mind strangely oscillating somewhere around Jupiter’s many moons.

• Bound By Endogamy (Next Stage, 23:40)
  The Next Stage will turn into a wild party on Friday night, and Bound By Endogamy are the perfect gateway from daytime Roadburner to night crawler, pun intended. Based as much on sharp beats and rhythms as on industrial power and a very punk kind of harshness, the Swiss duo are equally at home operating for a sweaty dancefloor or a boozy moshpit, and we suspect this particular set they have prepared for us will feature all the best characteristics of both scenarios. Join us there to find out!

• Aho Ssan & Asia (Next Stage, 15:00)
  Kicking off the Next Stage on Saturday is one of the collaborations we are most looking forward to. It does make sense that Aho Ssan – aka, French electronic musician Niamké Désiré – comes to Roadburn with company. It is precisely that collaborative nature that made us aware of his dense and finely sculpted electronic sounds in the first place, having previously worked with clipping. or Moor Mother for instance. ASIA is far more than just “company”, however – a lauded violinist, the precision and physicality of her instrument will complement Aho Ssan’s digital textures in unpredictable ways. It’s easy to imagine this as a set where the boundaries dissolve entirely – less of a performance to follow, and more like an experience to step inside and feel it as it unfolds.

• Róis (Next Stage, 16:40)
  Considering the recognition this Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has been getting (she won Best Original Folk Track and Best Emerging Artist at the prestigious RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards last year), this might be the very last time we get to speak of her as a “hidden gem”. Her ghostly songs and her keening (a traditional vocal lament for the dead) style of singing are absolutely haunting and we suspect lives will be changed by the end of this show.

• These New Puritans (Main Stage, 17:20)
  Featuring a Main Stage act here might feel counterintuitive, but These New Puritans have always existed slightly out of step. Even by Roadburn’s famously open-minded standards, they remain something of an oddity, an act that seems to have slipped under the radar for many. Difficult to pin down stylistically, their music carries a shadowy elegance, drifting between genres and influences: the art-pop grandeur of David Bowie, the nocturnal textures of Miles Davis, the industrial edge of Einstürzende Neubauten, the introspective depth of Talk Talk, and the cinematic atmospheres of Massive Attack and Sigur Rós – yet they always emerge sounding unmistakably like themselves. All the ingredients are there for something quietly spectacular to unfold on Saturday afternoon.

• Traidora / Ameretat (Hall of Fame, 16:10 / 19:40)
  Again with the pairings, but it makes sense again. Technically back to back on the Hall of Fame Saturday afternoon (though, no spoilers, but a three-hour gap in the schedule might mean something is up during that period, right?), Traidora and Ameretat are substantially different, but they are also two of the most exciting new punk bands to appear in the last couple of years. Both with staggering debut albums put out on the wonderful La Vida Es Un Mus label in 2025, Traidora are a raging transfeminist raw punk band singing about gender, morality, borders and the Mapuche people, while Ameretat channel traditional Iranian influences, mixing them with crusty hardcore punk to traverse war, power, love, despair, kindness, and shared humanity. Both offer different sides of the accurate picture of what it means to resist and to revolt against the many forms of oppression in our modern world.

• Truck Violence (The Engine Room, 23:55)
  If you only know the name, whatever you think Truck Violence sound like is probably way off. A folky, surprisingly sensitive mix of noise rock and hardcore with some country thrown in for good measure, they will disorient, excite and inspire in equal measure anyone with the strength to still make it to the Koepelhal around midnight after three full days.

• Tomo Katsurada & Jonny Nash (Hall of Fame, 16:20)
  Sunday is typically the chillest day, with less bands and a more laidback “if I make it, I make it” sort of approach to catching shows. Nothing more appropriate, then, than the former Kikagaku Moyo lead singer and the gentleman who founded the Melody Is Truth label dreamily jamming it out, lifting your spirits as if the last remnants of the 2018 San Diego takeover are still echoing around in the building.

• Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat (The Engine Room, 18:10)
  Even if there was no music available, we’re sure some would show up out of curiosity for the band name alone. Fortunately, despite a recent hiatus, Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat have plenty of past releases to show for themselves, and to be honest, a lot of their unsettling sombre take on folk is even creepier and more uncomfortable than their, ahem, unique name. With Stef Heeren (also of Use Knife, who tore the Next Stage down two years ago) at the helm, you can expect an immersive and memorable ritual to take place at Roadburn, even if without any literal feline backsides involved. Hopefully.

• Sanam (Next Stage, 18:40)
  Not that Roadburn has explicit headliners as such, but in a just world, Sanam would be one of the most captivating and talked about names. The Beirut-based collective carve out a sound that feels both immediate and disorienting, threading together free improvisation, noise, Egyptian traditional songs, Arabic poetry, and the raw energy of underground rock, all anchored in Sandy Chamoun’s heart-wrenching voice. This will be one of those sets that we know will catch people off guard – the kind you stumble into out of curiosity but leave thinking about long after the weekend is over.

• Orcutt Shelley Miller (Next Stage, 20:20)
  We suspect that if the band name had been Harry Pussy Sonic Youth Howlin Rain Comets On Fire, more people would be making a fuss about the trio’s appearance at Roadburn 2026. Those bands are, after all, the main reason why we are excited that guitarist Bill Orcutt, drummer Steve Shelley and bassist Ethen Miller got together to make music. Still, it would be reductive – what comes out of Orcutt Shelley Miller, the three-headed beast, is far, far more than a mere amalgamation of their past glories – as fearlessly experimental and innovative as they have been before, so they continue to be now, and the colossally psychedelic alternative world they create together will be a perfect escapism for the Roadburn day that needs it the most. Come climb this hazy mountain with us!

• Kollaps (Hall of Fame, 21:40)
  On Sunday, at the tail end of Roadburn, with reality’s ugly mug fast approaching once more, the tendency to drift towards sonic violence might strike you. If it does, come along to Kollaps. Becky used the expression “cathartic purge” on her wonderful text about the band on the Roadburn site, and we really couldn’t describe the mechanical, industrial, apocalyptic harshness these Australians – via Iceland – get up to in a better way. A perfect soundtrack for a Sunday evening, the time when we begin to realise the next Roadburn is an entire year away.