This year’s lineup at Roskilde Festival received lots of criticism and generally looking I find it to be one of the weakest in more than 15 years I’ve been coming to the festival. But despite all that I was positive that Roskilde 2012 will bring lots of great concerts, because that’s always the case. And it seems that there are many others who share this point of view, because Roskilde was sold out, again!

Thursday – July 5th

Kellermensch at Orange 6:00 PM
What an unusual bunch Danish Kellermensch are. I have witnessed this band play anything from a local show in front of 50 people, playing at one of Europe’s finest rock festivals Rock Im Park and let’s not forget the odd match it was when they played Tivoli, the biggest theme park in Denmark. Somehow, one way or the other, they managed to pull it off, by basically being themselves.
This year the band had privilege of opening the Orange stage, the biggest stage at Roskilde Festival.  On the paper, the band’s very original and peculiar mixture of music as well as the fact that they are basically unknown in broader circles, seemed like a planned accident.

The boys from Esbjerg took the whole thing further by opening with Neil Young cover "Don't Let It Bring You Down". The 60.000 capacity of Orange Stage was far from filled but there were many people there, far more than 50 solo Kellermensch shows in Denmark could gather together.

The visual atmosphere of Kellermesch stage was none existed at Orange Stage, but fortunately their live performance trademarks were quite present. The big majority of the people have never really herd of them, let alone know their songs, but on the stage the band did their thing and delivered a show, I never thought they would be able to. Funny thing is that they did this by being Kellermesch, and nothing else. They were intense as hell and they sounded good and whatever the reaction, or the lack of the same, from the crowd, they kept on going. The band’s lead singer and guitarist Sebastian was all over the place, in the crowd’s face yet, extremely locked inside out. In the course of the concert he broke 2-3 guitars and same amount of the mike stands and he was down by the crowd several times. No the crowd didn’t know their songs and in many ways the beauty of “The Day That You Walked” and “30 Coins” went over their heads, but the band did manage to create that amazing intense  feel that makes their music even better, when experienced live. Once again Kellermensch did the impossible.
[4/6]

Today Is The Day at Odeon 8:00 PM
Nashville band took the Odeon Stage in front of the fairly big crowd. Extremely bad sound was somewhat fixed few songs into the set. Unfortunately it didn’t help much because the band never managed to bring their music or performance to the audience and not even on the stage did the music, that’s meant to be energetic and bone-crushing, ever deliver. At the times it was almost sad to see the three-piece delivering the heavy grind core music with so little power, engagement and honesty.
As the concert progressed more and more people left until there were no more than 100 people in front of the stage.
All in all it was a poor display of a band that’s been around for couple of decades and should by now know better.
[2/6]

The Cure at Orange 9:00 PM
The main band of the day, The Cure had to fulfil the big expectation, not only because of the being one of the headliners of this year’s Roskilde Festival, but also because the band has lately become quite tour-shy and in the way, here at Roskilde, they had to prove that being one of the older bands, they can still deliver.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s The Cure were a big part of most of music lover’s repertoire. I have never seen the band live and for me they were always a voice of generation, creating music that we all loved and in some way could relate to, but for some reason I’ve never seen them as a live band. Seeing them live for the first time it was clear that this band is a band, and a damn good one.
Each member was fully in control of their instrument and playing with big amount of joy and precision. The Cure sound feels more raw and sincere live and it was pleasure to experience the live-twist on the well-known songs.

Band’s brand new guitarist Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie, Tin Machine) did his job very well and one might have expected more spotlight on his due to his virtuoso guitar playing. However that was not the case, on contrary he did his job fairly anonymously, but extremely professionally. Only during “Wrong Number” did he let things go more and delivered some fine examples of his technical playing abilities.

Bands frontman Robert Smith is an over-all anti rock hero and this suits him well. It was somehow refreshing to take a break from those typical rock-clichés that filled the majority of other rock concerts during a four day festival.

This evening at Roskilde, The Cure played another one of their extremely long shows, with running time of almost three hours. This gave them place to play most of the important songs from their over three decade long career, but there were also long periods where the band would focus on the newer tracks. Three hours felt bit too long for a festival show and towards the end the audience did get somewhat tired, but the professionals that Cure are, they still managed to end concert with a bang, by playing “Friday I'm In Love”, “Why Can't I Be You?” and “Boys Don't Cry”.
[4/6]

THE CURE SETLIST:
01 - Open
02 - High
03 - The End of the World
04 - Lovesong
05 - Push
06 - In Between Days
07 - Just Like Heaven
08 - From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
09 - Trust
10 - Want
11 - Pictures of You
12 - Lullaby
13 - The Walk
14 - Doing the Unstuck
15. - Bananafishbones
16 - Play for Today
17 - A Forest
18 - Primary
19 - Shake Dog Shake
20 - The Hungry Ghost
21 - Wrong Number
22 - One Hundred Years
23 - End
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24 - The Kiss
25 - If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
26 - Fight
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27 - Dressing Up
28 - The Lovecats
29 - The Caterpillar
30 - Close to Me
31 - Just One Kiss
32 - Let's Go to Bed
33 - Sleep When I'm Dead
34 - Friday I'm In Love
35 - Why Can't I Be You?
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36 - Boys Don't Cry

Friday – July 6th

Baroness at Odeon 6:00 PM
With less than a week until the release of their third album, Baroness guested festival’s Odeon stage and they seem like a perfect follow up for the last year’s Kylesa and Mastodon concerts. In the way, musically they fall right between the two. However much like Mastodon, the band has been developing towards the more accessible sound, starting with Blue Record from 2009 and to the even bigger degree on their forthcoming release Yellow & Green.
Band’s bassist Summer Welch who recently left the band after almost ten years has been replaced by Allen Blickle and one of the first impressions of the new bassist is that he is much less noticeable throughout the show. His playing, however doesn’t lack anything.

Focus in the setlist was on Blue Record, an album that got the band jobs of opening for the likes of Metallica and Mastodon. It worked very well and the band created a very good vibe at Odeon. The new songs were welcomed by the crowd, but it was clearly songs from first two records that god most attention. It will be interesting to see the band play their headlining shows after the album comes out and the audience gets familiar with the new material. But also to see how their experimental and more commercial approach will melt into the Baroness show
[4/6]

The Cult at Orange 7:30 PM
Talking about misplaced. Yet another band that felt completely misplaced playing the Orange Stage this year. The Cult might have their following, but typical concert for the band in Denmark was at Vega (capacity of 1300) or their latest gig in the country at Posten in Odense with capacity of 850.

However it’s not the first time that a band seems misplaced at Roskilde Festival, but what’s interesting is that The Cult delivered an extremely good concert with huge amount of energy and perhaps the best sounding concert all the concerts mentioned in this review.  It was clear that this was not one of the hottest names of this year’s festival and there was plenty space in the pit, but as the concert progressed more and more people showed up and there was more and more action in the pit.
The band plays extremely tight and what a great experience is to see Astbury and Duffy with the same band for more than six years now. They sounded extremely well and in the quarter of the century that I have followed a band I have never seeing Billy Duffy smile more.

The majority of the crowd knew only those few songs like “Fire Woman” and “Wild Flower”, but the energy within the crowd was surprisingly good. So much so that, even the songs from their new album Weapon Of Choice, got good response.

Sure Asbury was his ironic self, but even he was caught by the good atmosphere and generally delivered a very good performance.  Mid through the show the band played some crowd-pleasers and then again towards the end of the regular part of the show. The band left the stage after “She Sells Sanctuary”, but Astbury stayed and together with the crowd called the band back on the stage, however planned that might have been.
They played two of the songs from their 1984 debut, that despite their dark, psychedelic feel, worked perfectly as open air festival-songs. The Cult closed their 75 minute gig show with obligatory “Love Removal Machine”. Paradoxically The Cult played a better gig, misplaced at Orange Stage then they did at Posten, which should’ve been a perfect place for them.
[5/6]

THE CULT SETLIST:
01 - Lil' Devil
02 - Honey From a Knife
03 - Rain
04 - Lucifer
05 - Nirvana
06 - Embers
07 - Fire Woman
08 - The Wolf
09 - Rise
10 - The Phoenix
11 - For the Animals
12 - Wild Flower
13 - She Sells Sanctuary
14 - Horse Nation
15 - Spiritwalker
16 - Love Removal Machine

DeviDriver at Arena 9:00 PM
DevilDriver never really did it for me. I’ve seen the band’s leader with his previous band Coal Chamber live, back in 1997 and the only thing worth remembering was Fafara’s stage presence. There was something about him even back then, when he was wearing spider-web shirt and he was covered in make-up.

Nowadays Ferera is a hardcore metal kind of dude and his band DevilDriver has already released five albums and they show no signs of slowing down. With a competent band behind him he has been delivering one solid record after another and none the less number of good live performances.
Their music might not be my cup of tea, none the less because of Fafara’s vocals, but it’s undeniable that the band delivered an extremely potent and uncompromising performance. What he lacks in vocal abilities, he makes up in charisma, stage presence and energy, which he kept throughout the entire 75 minutes long show. Also worth mentioning is John Boecklin behind the drum kit. His playing leaves you both amazed and with smile on your face. His speed and precision are magnificent.
[4/6]

Saturday – July 7th

Refused at Arena 6:00 PM
A month earlier I have seen the newly reunited Swedish post punkers Refused play on the big stage at Rock Im Park festival. Their show felt uninspired, the band misplaced on such a huge stage and audience somewhat unaware of what was going on. Despite number of extremely wrongly placed acts on this year’s Roskilde Festival, this was not one of them. Refused were just perfect for Arena Stage. From the start it was clear that this in not going to be the same kind of show they played just a month before.

The energy on the stage and in the crowd was on whole new level and let’s not forget the synergy between the two. Setlist was basically the same to that band played in Germany, which means that the focus was on band’s chef-d'oeuvre The Shape Of Punk To Come. They played nine out of twelve tracks from the album and accompanied it with few off of Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent and the only real surprise on the setlist, the title track from their 1995 EP Everlasting.

Dennis Lyxzén was energetic, packed with attitude and at times even witty, making fun of the fact that the band got big thanks to their fourteen-year hiatus. This was his recipe for international success. This was a gig worthy of return to the music scene.
[4/6]

Warbringer at Pavilion 9:30 PM
I never really got into Warbringer, but after seeing them play Pavilion at Roskilde I must admit that I can’t wait to see them live again. Their performance was so explosive that it reminded me of a sweaty club gig from golden era of thrash metal.

The American thrash metallers have played one strong tune after another and an energy and charm that were so overwhelming that it was impossible to resist, impossible to just stand there and not join the ceaseless activities in the pit. During "Shoot to Kill" and "At the Crack of Doom" I expected to see people starting to collapse, but fortunately it didn’t happen. The band sounds better live than on their records, where their sound often lacks some character.

The new drummer Carlos Cruz, not only fills the Nic Ritter’s shoes, but he takes the whole live experience on another level. His stripped down kit is in contrast to Ritter’s and his playing is livelier. The band and singer John Kevill sometimes seem too dramatic on the stage, but with the amount of energy they create, this didn’t seem like a big problem.
There were no oscillations in quality and Warbringer played the best gig I have seen at this year’s Roskilde Festival.
[6/6]

Mutiny On The Bounty at Pavilion 11:00 PM
The Luxembourgian Mutiny On The Bounty were up next and I almost felt bad for them heaving to follow Warbringer, but the good thing about these kinds of festivals is that the crowd often changes from one gig to another. By the time the band took the stage the Pavilion was almost empty, but by the time they were finished with the opener they’ve attracted more crowd.
It takes courage to open the festival show with an almost six minute long instrumental, especially when big majority of the crowd never heard of the band. But they pulled it off and by the time they played their third song, “Artifacts”, the first single from the new album Trails, lots of people found their way to the Pavilion the atmosphere was very good.

Somewhat unusual setup at the stage, with drummer Sacha Schmitz right in the front of the stage, might seem a bit odd, but when the lead singer of the band is a drummer, then it makes more sense and it worked fine despite some technical issues he had with microphone. The band played number of instrumentals and it was remarkable to see how much energy and live potential there was in them. Unlike the case is with many other bands, the instrumental didn’t feel like space-fillers and they got the crowd going, at least as much as the “regular” songs. Mutiny On The Bounty came to the unknown ground and they seized this opportunity to conquer the new fans.
[5/6]

Sunday – July 8th

Behemoth at Arena 16:30 PM
It seemed bit odd to see Behemoth play in a broad daylight with sun shining from a clear blue sky. But fortunately for the Polish blackened death metallers, at least, they were placed at the Arena Stage, which is basically a huge tent. This makes it darker than for instance Orange Stage. Behemoth started off theatrically with a slow entrance, smoke and fire. The Opener “Ov Fire and the Void” from their latest album, 2009 Evangelion was very fitting to kick off the show. More than 15 years since its release "Rising Proudly Towards the Sky" stands tall as one of band’s finest tracks including all the ingredients of a heavy metal song.

Band’s leader Adam "Nergal" Darski who has diagnosed with leukemia less than two years ago looked fit and healthy and the short hair made him somewhat more sinister looking. At the times technical issues and it takes some dramatic out of the show when the roadies are running on the stage taking out new visual effects so that could have been done better. However the band displays strength and indemnity and they did deliver a show that is imposing, well-rehearsed and very much Behemoth
[3/6]

Machine Head at Orange 17:30 PM
Californian giants were yet another misplaced band on Orange Scene. This is their third time playing Roskilde festival and their God-knows which concert in Denmark over the past few years. As such they might not be the most spectacular choice for Roskilde bookies, but then again, Machine Head are basically a sure deliver a good show. I have been following this band live from their very start, almost 20 years ago and I still didn’t see them play a bad show. However it seemed rather odd that a month earlier at Rock Im Park, they didn’t play a single song from their first four albums.

The band stepped on the Orang Stage in front of the fairly big audience, to the notes of “I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)” from their latest album Unto The Locust. The followed it with perhaps the perfect second-song “Old” from their 1994 debut and another live-favourite “Imperium”. By the time the last of the three kicked in the problems with sound were fixed and band sounded for the most part quite well.
Phil Demmel has some sound issues on few of his lead and Robb Flynn’s vocals disappeared few times, but all this was far from enough to spoil the energy of the band. The band held the same line-up for ten years and it shows. They play tight and with so much excess and power. They are without the doubt one of the most constantly good live bands in metal scene today.

However the band didn’t hit that magic high level they so often do, partly due to the Orange Stage and partly due to an audience that didn’t get so much into the music and Machine Head’s own audience does at their headlining shows.

Setlist was for the most as expected, with only one song from the band’s first four records and that’s a pity. “Darkness Within” from the new album was epic and live it worked better than most of the other “mellower” songs from the band’s past. “This is Who We Are” is the band’s weakest song the band has ever recorded and live it was almost excruciating. They closed magnificently with “Halo”, a song that perfectly sums up the power and greatness of this band.
[4/6]

MACHINE HEAD SETLIST:
01 - I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)
02 - Old
03 - Imperium
04 - Beautiful Mourning
05 - Locust
06 - Aesthetics of Hate
07 - Darkness Within
08 - This is Who We Are
09 - Halo

Nasum at Odeon 18:30 PM
Swedish grind core band was at Roskilde celebrating their twentieth anniversary. But this celebration is of course overshadowed by the tragic death of bands singer Mieszko Talarczyk who was killed by 2004 Tsunami. But the band reunited for an anniversary tour with Rotten Sound singer Keijo Niinimaa filling in for late Talarczyk.

Their show at Roskilde was very much like we know it from back in the day. Very energetic and well played. The sort furious song was followed by another and Niinimaa did a good job as a frontman. Much like he does in Rotten Sound he was a mixture of communicative frontman and the forntman who keeps lots of energy inside and this created an intense performance. The audience was fairly big, but as the concert progressed some of the crowd left the Odeon stage.
Nasum’s concert was a good encounter with old songs from a band that left too early, but it was never an concert that would otherwise be too memorable.
[3/6]

Suicide Silence at Pavilion 9:00 PM
Californian deathcore band Suicide Silence was the last metal band to play Roskilde Festival 2012. Playing at the Pavilion they drew a fairly big crowd. It would be very wrong to call myself a fan of this band, but it was undeniable that they played powerful show with plenty of communication with the crowd. Nevertheless, often the whole performance would get too banal and at times even preposterous, with the heaviest overuse of clichés I have seen in years.

Band’s singer Mitch Lucker was unable to say even the two word sentence without slipping a “fuck”, “fucker” or “motherfucker” in. And he talks a lot.  He even managed to call Roskilde Festival for a metal festival.
Still the band did get the audience bouncing, running around in circle pit and wall of death and they didn’t give the audience chance to rest throughout the whole show. Among the highlights were “Suffer” and two new songs “O.C.D” and” Fuck Everything”.
[3/6]

Another Roskilde Festival is over. The lineup might have been weak, nonetheless when it comes to metal music, but like always four days at Roskilde are pleasure and an experience worth your time and money. The awful weather that was trademark of this summer in Denmark so far, didn’t pass Roskilde, but generally looking it was a decant weather. Of course real summer conditions would make it even better, like back in 2008, but this is Denmark.
Walking home from four days of extremely diverse impressions there were only two things on my mind: my bed and joy of another Roskilde Festival, next year.

www.roskilde-festival.dk