Hexvessel, Dodecahedron, Grails and more confirmed for Roadburn 2019

Roadburn’s final announcement of 2018 is here and there is plenty to talk about, from bands added to Tomas Lindberg’s curated event to two more commissioned musical pieces and everything in between. So let’s start right at the beginning. Four more bands have been added to the aforementioned Tomas Lindberg’s The Burning Darkness curated event and they are Grails, Fontän, The Exorcist GBG and Uran. The first, Grails, are an instrumental post-rock band from Portland, Oregon that is continuously challenging the preconceptions of music. They last played Roadburn exactly ten years ago, where they were a part of Neurosis’ own curated event in 2009, so naturally we are pretty excited to see them come back to the festival. Fontän, The Exorcist GBG and Uran, on the other hand, are three singular Gothenburg projects that are sure to hypnotize some minds when they all perform at the festival.

Moving up to the commissioned part of the announcement, we have two distinct pieces. First we have Molasses, a project born from the desire to carry on Selim Lemouchi’s legacy. Borrowing its name from the last track of Earth Air Spirit Water Fire, the last album Selim put out before his heartbreaking departure from this world, Molasses is formed by Farida Lemouchi, Oeds Beydals, Job van de Zande and Ron van Herpen – all former members of Selim’s most famous porject, The Devil’s Blood -, who are joined by Marcel van de Vondervoort of Astroniq, Bob Hogenelst of Birth of Joy and Matthijs Stronks of Donnerwetter. We can only imagine the extraordinary music and show the entire group will put out.

The second commisioned piece of this announcement – which is also the third and final overall -, is entitled Maalstroom and is a collaboration between a seething mass of up and coming Dutch black metal bands, uniting over a dozen musicians on stage from Laster, Verwoed, Witte Wieven, Turia, Fluisteraars, Grey Aura, Terzij de Horde, Folteraar, Nefast and more. Exclusively for Roadburn, Maalstroom will compose and perform a piece that spans five movements, with an evolving lineup of performers embellishing an ambient backdrop. Not merely a show, nor a ritual, it will be a current to be dragged along by. And if you are visiting the festival in its entirety be sure to check out the individual performances of Laster, Turia, Terzij de Horde and Witte Wieven, as well as Dodecahedron and Nusquama. A true force of Dutch extreme music.

For the last part of the announcement, Roadburn reserves a few more surprises. The Finnish psychedelic forest folk rock collective known as Hexvessel will be performing their upcoming record, All Tree, in its entirety and Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom and Sumac), Will Brooks (Dälek) and Dennis Tyfus will join forces for a special collaboration called DOOLHOF. Also confirmed and by no means less important are Pharmakon, Twin Temple, Crowhurst – who will also be playing a special set with Gnaw Their Tongues -, Fauna, Coilguns, Bismuth, Wrong, Fotocrime, Lucy in Blue and Thor & Friends, a project formed by Thor Harris, the former percussionist of Swans.

Roadburn 2019 takes place at 013, in Tilburg, on April 11th-14th. Four-day tickets are now sold out, but three-day tickets are still available for 185,50 euros. Daily tickets for Thursday, Friday and Saturday are now available for 66,50 euros each and daily tickets for Sunday are available for 59,50 euros. All can be purchased online via Ticketmaster.