The annual Roadburn music festival in Tilburg, Netherlands has revealed its two curators Emma Ruth Rundle and James Kent of Perturbator, who will be programming the event with their unique creative tastes. This festival will take place from April 16 to April 19, in 2020, and currently has Julie Christmas announced as the very first performer for the event. Tickets will go on sale September 24th.

This year the fest will also hold three special commissioned music pieces, which include: Kent teaming up with Cult of Luna’s guitarist Johannes Persson, cellist Jo Quail collaborating with Rotterdam’s New Trombone Collective and the bands Bismuth and Vile Creatures together on the same stage as well.

This festival marks Emma Ruth Rundle’s return to the festival, last year she attended as a performer, along with a line-up that featured Have A Nice Life, Sleep Myrkur and SUMAC.

Kent and Persson are going to focus on experimental soundscapes, blending both of their diverse style with Persson tapping into his post-metal style, and Kent bringing in his own blend of synths and metal. This performance is set to be the festival’s centerpiece.

“I remember seeing Cult of Luna twice during their Vertikal tour, and was both fascinated and inspired by the way they build mood and atmosphere during the actual performance,” Kent explained in a press release. “The different variations on the same melodies and the way they added layers upon layers of sound made for a very unique and memorable concert experience.”

Quail and the city of Rotterdam’s New Trombone Collective, will blend classical elements of music with post-metal, to display the juxtaposition between both forms of music. Their piece will be entitled The Cartographer. “Arguably heaviness is an emotional concept, reaching far beyond the confines of volume, speed and instrumentation,” Quail stated in a press release.

Vile Creatures is a two-piece doom metal duo from Canada, while Bismuth is a similarly styled drone and doom metal outfit from Nottingham UK. Both bands are set to combine a visceral experience with their blend of sludge, doom and many other metal genres for their commissioned performance.

“I know I can speak for not only Vile Creature but also Bismuth in saying that playing Roadburn 2019 was one of the highlights of our lives. When Walter approached us about combining forces both Tanya and myself were already hours deep into discussions about playing music together, so it was truly kismet,” band member KW explained in a press release. “A Hymn of Loss and Hope is well underway and we are excited to blend the emotion, heaviness, and raw visceral rage that both of our creative outlets contain and combine them into a one time only experience. We don’t take this honour lightly, Fuck yeah Roadburn 2020!”

UPDATE (9/4): Roadburn has announced another wave of artists that will be performing at the festival. For the first time ever, the festival will have two artists in residence – grindcore band Full of Hell and experimental noise artist Lingua Ignota. Each artist in residence will put on three performances along and one collaborative set together. For Lingua Ignota’s other three sets, she’ll perform songs from her album ALL BITCHES DIE, a special top-secret covers set and a reimagining of her excellent new album Caligula. Full of Hell will perform Weeping Choir and Trumpeting Ecstasy in full, one set for each of the albums, plus a set performing songs from Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home, early 7” releases and covers.

One of Emma Ruth Rundle’s acts as part of her curation efforts is the band HIDE while three of James Kent’s acts – She Past Away, HEALTH and Boy Harsher – have been announced. Other acts joining Roadburn 2020 include Dool, Bada and Acid Rooster.

UPDATE (9/23): Roadburn has added more acts to its 2020 lineup, many of them as a part of Emma Ruth Rundle’s curated event The Gilded Cage. Included in that curated event are post-rock band Red Sparowes, sludge-pop band Torche, Kristina Esfandiari’s projects Miserable and NGHTCRWLR and grindcore trio Cloud Rat.

In other additions, instrumental metal titans Russian Circles, Belgian band Brutus, a 20th anniversary reunion for the band Warhorse (whose lead singer died in 2018), Hante., Rorcal, Alber Jupiter, Die Wild Jagd and Dead Neanderthals. Tickets for the festival go on sale this Thursday, September 24 at 11 AM PST / 7 PM BST.

UPDATE (10/18): Roadburn 2020 is back with another exciting addition to next year’s festival. First up is the additions to James Kent’s curated event, with Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Powers’ side-project turned impressive solo work Blanck Mass, psychedelic black metal band Oranssi Pazuzu and doom/post-punk band Hangman’s Chair performing their album Banlieue Triste in full.

Also added to the lineup for 2020 are a few artists that will take part in Emma Ruth Rundle’s curated event called The Gilded Cage. New additions include Mizmor, a second show for Cloud Rat, synth act SRSQ – who had her musical partner tragically pass away in Oakland’s Ghost Ship tragedy and Fvnerals.

Finally, the other additions this round include female-fronted doom band Big Brave performing a rare live set with their frequent collaborator, Jessica Moss. Moss will also have her own set at Roadburn 2020. Rounding out the new additions are Crypt Sermon, Lana Del Rabies and Red Kite.

UPDATE (12/10): Roadburn has announced yet another major update to their schedule. Additionally, the festival has released full daily flyers, which can be viewed below.

First up is the addition of Alcest to the lineup, added by both curators James Kent and Emma Ruth Rundle. They’ll perform a set called Visions du futu that will focus on their most recent albums, Kodama and Spiritual Instinct.

Kent also added genre-smashers Okkultokrati while Rundle added Inter Arma and 40 Watt Sun & Patrick Walker, Helms Alee and Facs. Other artists that will be playing include mmodern troubadour Richard Dawson, Algiers, Dynfari, Bad Breeding, White Ward, Dommengang, Kungens Man, Darsombra and Tau and the Drones of Praise.

Additional artists that will be playing the festival include psych-rock mainstays Dungen, playing two nights at the festival. The first night will see them focus on Ta Det Lugnt while the second night will be all about Häxan, their score for the 1926 film The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

Kent’s curation added black metal band Ultha and Rundle’s added crusty hardcore band Cult Leader, reformed powerviolence band Jeromes Dream, another Deathwise hardcore band in Portrayal of Guilt, Pijn and Conjurer playing music as Curse These Metal Hands and Early Graves.

In mid-November, the festival also added David Eugene Edwards to Rundle’s The Guilded Cage and Regarde Les Hommes Tomber performing alone and with Hangman’s Chair as part of Kent’s curation. Others added by Kent include Plebian Grandstand and True Body. Others added to Kent’s curated lineup during this update include a The Flensler Showcase that will show off one of the best experimental/extreme music labels in the business, plus Giles Corey, Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Drowse, Mamaleek, and Midwife. Lastly, others added to the general Roadburn lineup in November included Primitive Man, Lankum, Hilary Woods, Follakzoid and Atom TM, Torpor, Son of R, PH, Many Blessings and Eye Flys.

Finally, the festival has announced that tickets can be purchased now on their website. Here are the festival flyers organized by day:

UPDATE (2/20): Roadburn has added the final names for its 2020 edition. These artists include Earth frontman Dylan Carlson, False and Sylvaine, plus a celebration of Thirty Years of Earth, which will look back at the landmark drone metal band’s illustrious span. These performances will all be part of Emma Ruth Rundle’s The Gilded Cage. Other artists added to the festival include Body Void, Sólveig Matthildur, a second set for Dynfari and The Ballet Bombs.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat