À L'Est de l'enfer

Directed by Aluk Todolo’s bass player Matthieu Canaguier, the documentary À L’Est de L’Enfer portrays the black metal scene in the city of Surabaya in Indonesia – a country immersed in a much different culture from the Europe that gave birth to black metal. Following the lives of three musicians of this movement, À L’Est de L’Enfer documents the prejudice and marginalization this counterculture is subjected to in Indonesia; but in the end it is the is the definitive proof that black metal is and will forever be an universal language of spiritual freedom and personal catharsis.

Black Bombaim & La La La Ressonance

Black Bombaim and la la la resonance stand, each in their own way and within their own genres, for the best instrumental music being written in Europe right now. The first ones build some of the most humongous and groovie riffs, colouring them in psychedelic guitar trips; the second ones, in the other hand, take an approach to visuals through music, exploring the most cinematic side of post-rock with jazz tendencies. In common they have not only a hometown, but a uncontrollable will to always try different things. And now they have each other in common, in an effort to make stoner and post rock to act as a one very well oiled machine. We advise you to take some sips of what they’ve been doing, because in Amplifest it will all come to a dive in some of the most richest tunes you’ll listen to all year.

Black Mass Rising

Black Mass Rising is more than a movie. Really, it is: it’s a label and a platform to promoting new music artists and to establish the ones we already know to be great. That’s why, for 22 scenes, eleven in colour and another eleven in black and white, the occult, the darkness, the religious and the apocalypse will have music of artists such as the mysterious Yoga, the hypnotic Master Musicians of Bukkake, the out of this world Acid Mothers Temple, and so on! Catch the film in Amplifest 2013.

David D’Andrea

A perfect and unearthly balance between the sacred and the secular and an ability to use the profane as heavenly. This is David V. D’Andrea in a nutshell, a renown artist whose portfolio speaks for itself, not only through its hauntingly beautiful imagery but through all the artist he’s been working with. The north-american designer is an artists artist, collaborating with OM, Wovenhand, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Earth and even the film director Lars Von Trier. Hard Club’s mainfloor will be in his hands.

Don The Tiger

It’s not easy to picture a set of bolero- inspired ballads built over a drum machine stuffed with beatbox samples that puts out rhythms that range all the way from subtle beats to full blown Swans-like industrial marches, but that’s a way of putting what Don The Tiger does in his first record ‘Varadero’. With these sonic experimentations, along with an emotional crooning that makes a hypothetical hispanic version of Tom Waits spring to mind, the Barcelona-based musician Adrián de Alfonso has achieved a challenging yet undeniably interesting sound with this solo project of his; and that’s something we’ll all confirm at Amplifest.

HHY & the Macumbas

HHY is the moniker used by experimental dub wizard Jonathan Saldanha, who’s had his previous work on John Zorn’s own label Tzadik regarded by Zorn himself as a “21st century cult classic”. Also a part of many other unique projects such as Fujako or Mécanosphére, Saldanha is here joined by The Macumbas, a bizarre collective in masks and black suits that delivers a boiling stream of bass frequencies, haunted brass melodies and frantic tribal percussions. HHY & the Macumbas will release their first full length later this year but the Amplifest audience will have the privilege to be firsthand witnesses of this mysterious voodoo ceremony.

Putan Club

We’ve been working with François Cambuzat for years now, and that’s not something likely to change in the meantime. And here’s why: the French guitarist excels in expression, more than technique. The guitar and François’s ability to manipulate its sound is a medium to achieve a true artistic action. Putan Club, a solo moniker of the L’Enfance Rouge’s guitarists, is a free music concept, which often embraces other languages — thence the regular collaborations with Lydia Lunch, and the video projections during its performances. In the beautiful Mercedes, by Douro river, François is due to start a fire inside of us.

Utopium

Grind is usually about exceeding, both in pace, noise and decadence. It is punk hardcore in its most extreme form, tearing our guts with frequencies so violent you actually feel them with your skin. Utopium add to the most aggressive of sounds their one of a kind philosophic and metaphysic approach to human condition, taking grindcore to a whole new conceptual level. We can say the Lisbon outfit is not only about breaking your spine and ripping your skin, because that’s the least to be expected. But take notice: Utopium shall make you think about each and every bone they’ll break during their performance at Amplifest.

Walter Hoeijmakers

Roadburn is as important for music lovers as Meca is to muslims, Rome to Christians and the Pyramids to the ancient alien coconut crazy people. And there's a reason why it works like this: the festival is the avant-garde of riff oriented music, and a home to frontier and genre bending artists, presenting an amazing line-up every year. There's a bunch of people we should be thankful to for Roadburn, and one of them is Walter Hoeijmakers, artistic director and promoter of the festival. He'll be spinning some records and showing off his wits on Iommi's heirs music on Amplifest 2013. Also, Walter will be our guest in the saturday's Amplitalk. We'll be so glad to have him among us!

In this age we’re living, where we are constantly updated with information by our laptops and smartphones and our facebooks and twitters, the element of surprise has mostly been erased from our lives. Amplifest will give back to you a bit of that long lost thrill of expectation as a part of this “experience” thing we keep talking about. How? By adding to the lineup a band that you won’t know you’ll be seeing until the very moment they set foot on stage. That said, let the guessing begin.

In the previous editions of Amplifest we have always encouraged the musicians to leave the comfort of the backstage in their spare time and go blend themselves with the public, have a drink with their fans and enjoy the shows; it adds to the sense of community and to that special atmosphere Amplifest has always had. It has worked so beautifully well that this year we’re taking it a step further: we’re going to host an informal talk with several of the musicians playing the festival where they’ll going to discuss with you face to face what’s it like to be a musician on the road. This is going to be a really easy-going conversation between everyone so don’t be shy and feel free to ask any questions you might have.

KATABATIC

Much more than just a promising band, KATABATIC have long established themselves as one of the most relevant Portuguese post-rock outfits. Following the release of ‘Vago’EP and a long string of shows that that included an Iberian tour with Caspian and opening slots for Russian Circles and A Storm of Light, the first full length ‘Heavy Water’ showed the world how special this band can be. Breaking away from the genre’s clichés, KATABATIC’s songs have an unpredictable feel and feature sparse dreamy vocals which, along with the Isis-esque sludge elements the band adds to their heavier parts, makes up for the unique and distinctive sound that has gathered them praise. With a powerful new record in the works, KATABATIC’s awaited debut at Amplifest will be one of the most memorable moments of the event.