Roadburn Festival 2008

HOLLAND’S ROADBURN FESTIVAL RETURNS
WITH CELTIC FROST, JESU, BORIS AND MANY MORE

Fans of heavy, adventurous music rejoice! Roadburn Festival 2008 will take place April 17th – 20th in Tilburg, Holland. Swiss avant-metal forefathers Celtic Frost are this installment’s main headliner (Saturday, April 19th) but the sonically charged lineup also includes J Mascis side project Witch, Japan’s hard psych warriors Boris, the pairing of Acid Mothers Templers Kawabata Makato [guitar] and Tsuyama Atsushi [bass] with Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumeier in Acid Mothers Guru, Jesu, Electric Wizard, ’70s thick music legends Tony McPhee’s Groundhogs, post-metal standard bearers Isis, Grails, an acoustic solo set from Neurosis‘ Scott Kelly and considerably more.

There’s a pre-festival event on April 17th celebrating Rise Above Records 20th anniversary featuring hard blasting UK space rockers Litmus, Capricorn, Grand Magus plus more. There’s also a special day-long event curated by Current 93‘s David Tibet on April 20th featuring Om, Sunn 0))) spin-off ÆTHENOR and Baby Dee.

Taken together this is one of the most joyously experimental festivals in the world, and the festival organizer’s mission statement sums up the general philosophy and vibe of this emerging music gathering:

This is a gathering of like minded bands and fans from around the world, joined together by a love of music. This is a celebration of tube-driven distortion and crackling electric guitars, a raising of musical consciousness and brotherly and sisterly love, a communion with THEE MIGHTY RIFF, a time and place to get high en mass and bask in the heaviness.