I wish I could go back in time to some terrible point in my life and say to myself, “It’s okay, Past Me. Someday you’re gonna go to a Dutch festival and you’re going to see Sleep, The Obsessed and Church of Misery all in the same day.” The latest news from Roadburn proves no less staggering than the realization of that. Sometimes it’s like existence is doing you a personal favor.

Here’s the update from Roadburn off the PR wire:

We’re excited to announce that seminal instru-metal pioneers Pelican have been added to the lineup of Roadburn 2012. Pelican last played Roadburn in the Green Room back in 2007, and will now appear on our main stage as part of their first European tour in several years. Pelican will play on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

Brooklyn’s Tombs bears the mark of total devastation. On the latest album, Path of Totality, Tombs not only evoke the classic sound and feel of black metal in its finest hour they also explore their disparate UK post-punk influences. And keep things incredibly listenable. The band has marched ahead boldly with the sound of impending doom since their inception and Path is endowed with all of the primordial intensity that is a hallmark of the aforementioned genres.
However, Tombs reach far beyond the ritual sounds of the past with an abundance of tonal variation. The gut-wrenching vocals and furious blastbeasts are interwoven with a dark and brooding atmospheric moodiness, making Tombs one of the finest heavy bands in the world. Tombs will appear on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

Making their fourth appearance in five years at the festival, it looks like Japan’s serial-killer-obsessed seekers of the almighty riff Church of Misery are poised to become the official Roadburn house band. All joking aside, Church of Misery were among THE highlights of the previous Roadburn festivals (even the main stage almost proved way to small for them), and Roadburn 2012 will mark their triumphant return, on the main stage again (of course!), together with Sleep and The Obsessed on Saturday, April 14 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

Los Angeles based psychedelic rock quintet Ancestors will be making a highly anticipated return to Roadburn for the 2012 Festival. On their latest EP, Invisible White, Ancestors tamped down their surging stoner rock leanings in favour of a more cinematic approach with long moog/ modular synth workouts very much reminiscent of Pink Floyd circa Meddle and Live at Pompeii. Charting a new course for the band’s progressive, colourful sounds, Ancestors will get the chance to reprise their stunning 2010 Roadburn performance, this time supporting  the release of a new, much anticipated album. Ancestors will play on Thursday, April 12 at the Midi Theatre in Tilburg, Holland.

Dragged Into Sunlight, Christian Mistress, Horisont, La Otracina, Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies and AUN have also been confirmed for Roadburn 2012, set to be held from April 12 to 15 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

As indicated in the review, Pelican‘s new record did a number on the part of my central nervous system geared toward appreciating that which is pretty. I haven’t returned to What We all Come to Need on a daily basis (hey, it was the holidays, I was busy), but as if to serve a reminder of how cool the album was, the band have just released a new video for the vocal-inclusive album closer, “Final Breath.” The clip was directed by Matt Santoro.

Also included with the press release was info about some Scion-sponsored thing (not the fest), but I’m not promoting a car company. If you’re interested enough, Google it. Here’s the video. It, too, is pretty:

Caught in just the right sunlight, the musical sprawl of influential Chicago instrumentalists Pelican is downright beautiful. Fortunately, it seems to be the exact appropriate time of day on their fourth full-length (first for Southern Lord), What We all Come to Need.

Taking cues from their earlier days with Australasia, much of urbane crunch that seemed to typify 2007?s City of Echoes is replaced here by open soundscaping and lush dynamics. That?s not to say Pelican are repeating themselves by any stretch. The growth of the band is evident in the careful structuring of opener ?Glimmer,? and What We all Come to Need only gets more complex from there. But to do a time comparison, both albums have eight tracks, City of Echoes was 42 minutes, What We all Come to Need is 51. There?s clearly been a shift in focus.

A Greg Anderson guitar contribution to second track ?The Creeper? is immediately identifiable, and Anderson is but one of several guests throughout the LP. Isis? Aaron Turner shows up in a similar capacity on the title track, Harkonen?s Ben Verellen donated bass to the opener, and The Life and Times? Allen Epley contributes vocals (!) to closer ?Final Breath.?

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They’ve got one. It’s up on their MySpace, and it comes off their new record and Southern Lord debut, What We all Come to Need, due out Oct. 27. Song is called “Strung up from the Sky.” Go forth and dig it. When you’re done with that, you might want to check their merch page and grab a copy of the limited edition Ephemera CD. Just putting it out there.

There?s no difficulty in seeing commonalities between Chicago collective Chord and this generation?s drone lords, SunnO))), but more than sound, it?s the fact that both bands were formed around concepts that seems to draw them together. With SunnO))), it was grimrobes and walls of amps, and with Chord, who make their Neurot Recordings debut with the full-length Flora, it?s what can happen when four guitarists unite in notes to play a single chord. Hence the name.

It?s kind of like The League of Crafty Guitarists gone drone, and what it mostly rounds out to is waves of feedback and noise that occasionally intertwine gorgeously to create the actual chord itself. The four tracks on Flora, ?Am7,? ?Gmaj (bflat13),? ?E9? and ?Am,? obviously named after the respective chords, aren?t just about achieving that unison, rather exploring the notes themselves, pushing them, distorting them and discovering what textures can be created through and by them. There are no vocals, no drums, no samples or bass, just the guitars of Kyle Benjamin, Trevor de Brauw (whom Chicago post-metal aficionados will recognize from Pelican), Jason Hoffman and Phil Dole. Don?t ask who?s playing which note.

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The PR wire strikes again, this time updating on Pelican‘s progress with their Southern Lord debut, What We all Come to Need. Dig it:

The mighty Pelican are in the studio putting the finishing touches on their fourth studio album, entitled What We all Come to Need. What guitarist Laurent Lebec has dubbed, ?The most perfect synthesis of everything we’ve done to date, sonically,? this new album is a giant step forward within the complex, intricate, beautiful and crushing sound Pelican is famous for. The album features more guests than have ever appeared on a Pelican album before: Greg Anderson of SunnO))), Aaron Turner of Isis, Ben Verellen of Harkonen and Helms Alee and Allen Epley from The Life & Times and Shiner. Content-wise, Lebec says, ?There is a current of inspiration that feels particular to each album’s music and titles. Though we lack a singer, the song names are often conceptual. This new album speaks to a rapidly decaying world, the fulfillment we find in each other, as well as the resolve to move beyond disillusionment.?

If you are lucky enough to be in Seattle or NYC in the coming months, don’t sleep on checking out the new songs live:

8/06/2009 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
9/22/2009 Brooklyn Masonic Temple – Brooklyn, NY
(Both shows with SunnO))), Eagle Twin and Earth)

What We all Come to Need track listing:
1) Glimmer
2) The Creeper
3) Ephemeral
4) Specks of Light
5) Strung up from the Sky
6) An Inch above Sand
7) What We all Come to Need
8) Final Breath