The first line up announcement for Roadburn 2022 can be viewed here! Head to https://t.co/EWK1ThQHmt for details on all these special shows incl. @ULVEROFFICIAL, @LITVRGY @Alcestofficial @solstafir @thebandGOLD @backxwash @fulllofhell @PRIMITIVEMANE @russiancircles + more pic.twitter.com/O2DvEqQsxW

— Roadburn Festival (@roadburnfest) October 26, 2021

Festival director Walter Hoeijmakers commented on the occasion: “After two years of not being able to host a physical festival, we’re extremely excited to actually return in 2022. Given the circumstances, everything about this has been a real challenge, but we wanted to make sure that next year’s Roadburn will be a stronghold for the forward-thinking artists we all love so much – whether genre-defining established acts or young, up-and-coming artists“.

“We really want to reconnect them with our international community – artistically, musically and physically – and to see them do what they do best: be on stage. We want to give them a platform in front of a live audience again, as it’s time to celebrate the music they’ve written over the past two years, or the much acclaimed albums that helped us through these strange, unprecedented times” he added.

The Roadburn curators for next year are Milena Eva and Thomas Sciarone of the Dutch band GGGOLDDD. Their music project for ‘Roadburn Redux’ “This Shame Should Not Be Mine” took the band to a whole new level. The GGGOLDDD will perform new, commissioned music that they wrote for this year’s Roadburn Redux.

Ulver will perform a special set to mark the return to live music, focusing on the recent release Flowers of Evil. “Their headlining performance will be a continuation of Ulver’s unpredictable yet thrilling career arc and of the passion for innovative music that fuels Roadburn,” said the press statement.

Avant-garde black metal group Liturgy is also set to perform next year. They will play their albums  H.A.Q.Q. from 2019 and Origin Of The Alimonies from 2020. The set will be accompanied by a chamber orchestra and the newest album will be performed as opera, sync with a film created by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. 

Backxwash, a fusion of rap and metal will make a European debut and will play two special sets. 

Some artists originally planned for 2020 will finally make it to the stage: James Kent (Perturbator) will join forces with Johannes Persson (Cult Of Luna) to perform Final Light. Cellist Jo Quail will perform her commissioned piece, entitled The Cartographer, and Vile Creature and Bismuth will unite to perform A Hymn of Loss and Hope. 

Full Of Hell has been announced as resident artists and will perform four times during the festival, including collaboration with Nothing entitled Full of Nothing. 

On top of that Alcest will perform their album Écailles de Lune and Solstafir their recent release Svartir Sandar.

The majority of tickets to Roadburn has already been sold out, but some extra ones were released yesterday (26th October). Check it out here. More info about the festival, line up and on-site facilities are on the Roadburn page.

The ‘Flowers of Evil’ tour is set to begin in Paris on 28th April, so make sure to buy tickets through TicketMaster. Though the tour doesn’t include a full segment in the US, it will finish with a show in Las Vegas for Psycho Vegas Festival. See the full tour dates below.

28/04/2020 – Alhambra – Paris, FR
30/04 – Doornroosje – Nijmegen, NL
01/05 – Tivoli – Utrecht, NL
02/05 – UT Connewitz – Leipzig, DE
03/05 – Lido – Berlin, DE
04/05 – A2 – Wroclaw, PL
05/05 – Progresja – Warsaw, PL
06/05 – U Bazyla – Poznan, PL
07/05 – Akropolis – Prague, CZ
08/05 – Dürer Kert – Budapest, HU
09/05 – Szene Wien – Vienna, AT
11/05 –  Kavka – Antwerp, BE
12/05 –  SWX – Bristol, UK
13/05 –  Fabric – London, UK
14/05 –  Stylus – Leeds, UK
14-16/05 – Psycho Las Vegas – Las Vegas, NV

Tour! #ulver pic.twitter.com/D6bJ6pO5EU

— ULVER OFFICIAL (@ULVEROFFICIAL) February 20, 2020

‘Russian Doll’ is the first new music we’ve heard from Ulver since their live album ‘Done Activity’, released in 2019. The single has gained almost 1 million streams on Spotify, taking on a dark synth-pop sound – for Ulver, this is as pop as it gets. Lead singer Kristoffer Rygg said “Although this is pop music in our heads, the images and connotations in the lyrics are probably far away from what one usually associated with this genre”. This certainly comes through in the music video, released the same day as the song. It shows dancer Annija Raibekaze wearing an Ulver t-shirt from their 1995 black metal era.

Prior to ‘Drone Activity’, the band released their album ‘The Assassination of Julius Caesar’ in 2017, seeing 2020 as three years later and the perfect time for new studio album. In Ballade, a Norwegian magazine, it was announced that “Ulver is working on a new album, planned to be released in 2020″.

Ulver was founded in 1993, as a black metal band, with three core members (Kristoffer Rygg, Tore Ylwizaker, and Jørn H. Sværen) and six supporting members. The instrumentation is eclectic, including vocals, keyboards, drums, percussion, theremin, guitar, bass and programming, with many of the instruments doubling up to create a bigger sound.

They have 12 studio albums and many live and compilation albums, as well as EPs, currently signed to record label House of Mythology. Receiving two nominations for the Norwegian Grammy Awards and winning Album of the Year at the Oslo Awards, the band are hugely popular in Norway and around the world.