Friday, April 16th

DREAM OF AN OPIUM EATER is a special collaboration between ace-metal musicians like Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson, Reuben Gotto (Johnny Truant), Ben Calvert (ex-Killing Joke) and Julia Ruzicka from Million Dead.

Dream of an Opium Eater

Like in the old days, when a pianist would accompany silent movies, Dream of An Opium Eater create an epic and unsettling soundtrack — composed by Reuben Gotto & Ivar Bjørnson - to a collection of mind-bending horror short-films, projected on a huge screen behind them. Expect some dark, intense, but also swirling takes on psychedelic metal reminiscent of Tool, VoiVod and even Joy Division, as icy horror and fright oozes from both the screen and the speakers.

Dream of an Opium Eater will appear at the Mainstage (midnight show) on Friday, April 16th 2010 as part of the Roadburn Festival.

Roadburn Festival is very proud to present the first performance by acid folk legends COMUS in the Netherlands in over 35 years. The highly influential band last visited these shores in late 1971 to give four concerts. Now we are proud to announce their return. Comus will appear at the Midi Theatre on Friday, April 16th 2010 as part of the Roadburn Festival. Tom Gabriel Warrior’s curated event “Only Death is Real” will be held on the same day at the 013 venue.

Comus

The inspiration for Opeth and countless others in the contemporary dark psychedelica, drone and even avant-garde metal scenes, Comus will present their seminal album First Utterance (released in 1971) in its entirety with the original six-piece line up. You can expect some new material, too. The band reformed for Sweden’s Mellotronen Festival in 2008 and their performance at this year’s Equinox Festival in the UK was received ecstatically. It’s a huge understatement to say that we’re looking forward to welcome Comus to Roadburn 2010.

Making their third appearance in row at the festival, it looks like Japan’s serial-killer-obsessed seekers of the almighty riff CHURCH OF MISERY are poised to become the latest Roadburn house band. All joking aside, Church of Misery were among THE highlights of the previous Roadburn festivals (both the Bat Cave and Green Room proved way to small for them), and Roadburn 2010 will mark their triumphant return, this time on stage in the 600-capacity Midi Theatre.

Church of Misery

“Friends!
We are incredibly excited to announce that we’ll be bothering you once again at the beloved Roadburn festival.  It’s three years running for us now, and believe us, we know how lucky we are to have been asked back again.  It’s not only one of the greatest bunches of people in the world to play for, but also one of the best places in the world see the bands we want to see, and to meet our friends from around the world.  Both times we’ve played before have been incredibly special for us, and we’ll be laying down our souls for rock ‘n’ roll again for you in 2010. LET THERE BE DOOM!!!” – Tom – Church Of Misery

Master Musicians of Bukkake

MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE excels at acoustic ethnic drones, outerwordly chants, and ventures into uncharted Hawkwind, Gong and Magma waters by pairing spacey guitar leanings, Tibetan bells, chimes and gamelan percussion with electronic FX. Totem One could easily be the soundtrack to a fucked-up underground movie as weird and compelling as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain or El Topo. Crazy!

Karma To Burn

The recently reformed KARMA TO BURN are recommended to anyone who’s a fan of the Almighty Riff.  Devoid of song titles or even choruses, Karma To Burn’s instrumental rock never gets boring and grooves even if you don’t want to.

Roadburn is very pleased to report that seminal doom-legends DEATH ROW will be part of the festival line-up on Friday, 16 April 2010. Death Row, along with Comus, Karma To Burn, Church of Misery and Master Musicians of Bukkakke will appear at the Midi Theatre as part of the Roadburn Festival. Tom Gabriel Warrior’s curated event “Only Death is Real” will be held on the same day at the 013 venue.

Death Row - Victor Griffin

Out of the tumultuous past of their careers together… Victor Griffin, Joe Hasselvander, and Marty Swaney are bringing Death Row back heavier than ever.  But this time they’re leaving the elements of deception behind… the darker images, which to some degree blinded them, and tore them apart time and again from the inside out.

Unfortunately, this reformation of Death Row will be without Bobby Liebling. “Parts of the past have certainly left scars on some of us that have yet to heal. Until then, we move forward with best wishes & prayers for Bobby’s success in Pentagram, and in his personal life”.

What you get from this Death Row will be the same true-to-heart heaviness you expect. Songs written during the formative years by Griffin will comprise most of the set list…along with songs penned by Joe, Victor, and co-written with Bobby…such as ‘The Ghoul’ and ‘All Your Sins’ …which feature lyrics by Liebling. The fans have really been the main catalyst for this reunion, as they bring the 3-piece* Death Row machine back across the sea.

* The band thanks Eric Wagner for his special guest vocal appearance at the Hammer of Doom Festival this past October in Wurzburg.