The first show was in the Goudvishal in Arnhem with three other bands that I barely watched considering that the weather was very nice and I’d see those bands anyway two days later. Most of it didn’t sound like I would like it anyway.

By the time when Electric Wizard started feedbacking I was pretty much wasted, the best condition to view them in. And as soon as they struck the first tone to “Eko Eko Azarak” my brain was shot into the sky. The Goudvishal is becoming very notorious for their almost absurd live volumes, and this was no exception either. It reminded me of an old doom metal saying, maximum volume yields maximum result. Which is very true.

They played “We Live”, the titletrack to the last album, after that, followed by “Dopethrone”. Then it gets a little blurry, something old came by, I believe “Son Of Nothing” and I can also remember an extremely slow track, which lasted about twenty minutes closing off the set. Very nerve wrecking.

They played their songs very tight, which in my eyes is quite an accomplishment since its fairly slow and most of them were fairly stoned. The vocals weren’t as terrible as last time, but near to perfect is very exaggerated.

 

So here we are, two days later, the 11^th Roadburn Festival, again at the 013 in Tilburg. With again as headliner Electric Wizard! I already missed the first two bands when I entered, but up next was a very promising band also from the UK called Thee Plague Of Gentleman. They played some heavy doom and stoner, sometimes reaching in the depths of High On Fire even. They occasionally had actual metal riffs in their songs too, very refreshing to hear. And everything played very tight and worked out very neat. The only little thing I have to mention is that the vocals don’t really add something to the music. They match the music, there’s just nothing extra to get from them.

Well after that all kinds of bands that could not please me came to rape the stage, to begin with the German band Worship. This was funeral doom, which I almost never like. Playing very very slow (the bassist did have a Sunn 0))) amplifier, hell yeah!) with an extremely annoying and ugly high guitar tone through it. Low grunts that screamed stuff like “I cannot live” quickly made me decide that it was time to do an interview with Electric Wizard.

Then the torch of crappy doom was passed on to Reverend Bizarre, a three piece that tried to do something in the style of Sleep, only without interesting riffs. And most of all, horrible vocals. I heard that on album he’s supposed to have a terrible accent too, to make it even worse. In other words, it was time to go out and get something to eat!

 

When I returned I was exactly in time to see Esoteric, something that I was curious about, but not thrilled. There were three guitarists, from which one was singing and one was really tall, a bassist, a very not interesting drummer and a keyboard/sampler. That all together made a lot of noise. Very slow, spacey noise accompanied by low grunts which stayed like that for almost the entire show. I got really tired of watching it. Literally, like I had to sit on the ground, just waiting for it to end.

 

Then it was time for our headliner. In the interview Jus promised me an even better show than two days before, so I was hoping he’d be right. They started with the same three songs as in Arnhem, only this time with a bit less loud but better mixed sound. After that we got “Another Perfect Day”, something quite fast and to top it all they played “Supercoven”, which also lasts for at least twenty minutes. The bassist borrowed the amplifier from Worship, so again there was a Sunn 0))) amplifier with a bass guitar attached to it on stage.

This time I also had an excellent view on one of the best drummers in the world, Justin Greaves. That man knows how to beat up a drumkit! He used like one crash as an effect cymbal, and three big ass rites for crashes. You guessed it, a lot of noise came from that! Jus himself was singing very well for what I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise.

 

So there you have it, one of the most trampling live bands I’ve ever seen. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself next time and don’t bother to bring any earplugs. Wont do you any good anyway. Invoke the Supercoven!!!