ENSLAVED – To Play Roadburn Festival 2010

“ENSLAVED have been groundbreaking metal pioneers for almost 20 years. Since their Viking-metal inception, the band has been forging a connection between black metal and prog, arriving at an incredible melange of heavy psych and modern metal. ENSLAVED embodies the experimental, dark and psychedelic aspect of Roadburn, and we have invited them as our artists in residence – a premiere for Roadburn – for our 2010 festival.”

ENSLAVED, and various band members, will be doing several special shows during the festival. First off, ENSLAVED will be playing the Thursday Roadburn date, April 15th.

Ivar Bjørnson comments: “This show will pan towards the latter day ENSLAVED and will consist of a set list specially put together for Roadburn; emphasizing the heavy, the psychedelic and not but least – the visual aspect of what ENSLAVED is today. Be prepared for a surprise or two!”

Trinacria has been invited personally by Tom Gabriel Warrior to play his Roadburn curated event, Only Death Is Real, on Friday, April 16th.

Originally a composition by Ivar Bjørnson (ENSLAVED), Maja S. K. Ratkje and Hild Sofie Tafjord (both from Fe-mail), Trinacria combines the hard hitting sounds of cutting edge, Norwegian extreme metal with contemporary Norwegian noise, originally commissioned by Rikskonsertene for a concert series. This composition turned into a vital and creative project, completed by Grutle Kjellson, Ice Dale (both from ENSLAVED), Iver Sandøy (Emmerhoff & T.M.B.) and Espen Lien (Slut Machine).

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.

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 is a powerful outlet for my doom sides”, says Ivar Bjørnson. “I was stunned when we got together to do our first show at the Roskilde Festival in 2007; we sounded heavier together than I had dared hope for. For me music is energy, and getting to express the lower, heavier energies through Dream of An Opium Eater is amazing – every single time we perform. Playing to these very unique Norwegian short horror movies adds an extra dimension that creates a bubble of weirdness at our show. Not having a vocalist also makes life easy when we get together, he he!”

After playing Roskilde Festival (2007), Carling Leeds Festival (2007) and Wacken Open Air (2008), this will be the 4th ever performance from Dream of An Opium Eater, set for April 16th, as part of the Roadburn Festival.

ENSLAVED / Shining (NO) will be the main headliner of Roadburn Festival 2010, playing their 90 minute Armageddon Concerto on Saturday, April 17th.

Both ENSLAVED and Shining (NO) are indisputably two of Norway’s most hard-hitting and progressive bands, constantly pushing musical boundaries on their own. Now both bands will be joining forces again, and impress and shock Roadburn Festival 2010 with a rare performance of the Armageddon Concerto –for the first time ever outside of Scandinavia.

The Armageddon Concerto will lead Roadburn Festival 2010 on a journey from our present state to the inevitable downfall of this world – through Ragnarok and a following period of vacuum and nothingness, a brief and painful post-apocalyptic era; and finally through the rise from the ashes to a new beginning in a distant time and space.

Composed by ENSLAVED’s Ivar Bjørnson and Shining’s Jørgen Munkeby and arranged together with the band members, Bjørnson describes the Armageddon Concerto as “an experience of a life time. Prog, doom, jazz, extreme metal, northern mythology, science fiction – this is going to be massive.”

For more info, please check www.enslaved.no and www.roadburn.com.