The Netherlands-based festival comes out of the gate with its first announcements for Roadburn 2017 and immediately proves why it’s like nothing else happening on this poor pitiful planet we happen to occupy. To bring Coven back to the stage for the first time in untold decades and for their first European show ever? Come on. I don’t care where you live, that’s worth getting on a plane for.
Coven will play their first show in decades, and for the first time ever on European soil. Devil Horns, the Left Hand Path, Satanic Rituals, Black Magick, Sexuality, and a seminal debut-album that has had a lasting appeal since 1969. Coven’s Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls was not only ahead of its time, the iconoclastic troupe – helmed by high priestess, and the original wicked woman, Jinx Dawson – heavily influenced future generations of musicians, from Ghost to The Devil’s Blood, from Witchcraft to In Solitude, from Blood Ceremony to Lucifer, and even our festival.
We are equal measures excited, proud and overwhelmed to be able to announce that Coven will thrill Roadburn Festival to it’s darkened core on Thursday, April 20 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Jinx Dawson, and her unholy union will take their cult-ritual to the stage for the first time in decades – and for the first time ever on European soil.
Jinx Dawson commented: “Roadburn Festival’s intrepid ring master, Walter, hath stirred us from our Coven lair. We shall be performing a musickal ritual for the first time in many ages. We are wickedly delighted to travel to the Netherlands for this very special festival concert, and to bring our musickal form of Witchcraft once again to the live stage.”
Known by many classic rock fans for Jinx Dawson’s early seventies hit, ‘One Tin Soldier’, from the counter culture flick Billy Jack, the song was an anthem for hypocrisy and added more mystery to Coven’s occult imagery and aesthetics that laid the groundwork for hard rock and heavy metal.
The band’s diabolical mix of proto-metal paired with dark psychedelica and prog was dabbed in deeply occult lyrics, and has always been a celebration of all things Left Hand Path. Whether it’s the much sought after and talked about Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls, or the band’s third album Blood on the Snow, Coven’s output has terrified peers and audiences, as well as the moral-elite since their incarnation. Their extreme dark and shocking rites, thriving on a strong woman’s sexuality, was unheard of at the time.
Though Coven went clandestine not long after the release of Blood on the Snow, Jinx Dawson, and the band always remained a landmark within the metal community, and hailed as one of the 10 greatest heavy metal front women. Having battled with record companies, management, opposing religious organisations and law officials has only added to Jinx’s legacy to stay genuinely true to her own firm beliefs, based upon a very long lineage of Occult Adepts and Practitioners of the Ancient Arts.
With the release of 2003’s Goth Queen: Out of the Vault, and 2013’s album, Jinx, Dawson rightfully regained her throne as ‘the originator’ of the burgeoning occult rock scene – a movement that we have wholeheartedly embraced at Roadburn over the years, while offering a platform to her children of the damned.
Having the mysterious Jinx Dawson / Coven at Roadburn isn’t only a thrilling once in a lifetime event, it is also our way of paying a humble tribute to a woman that has been such an integral influence on the festival since its incarnation in 1999, and an inspirational heroine to many bands that graced our stages over the years. We couldn’t think of a more fitting ceremony, and welcome all of you to Jinx’s lair on Thursday, April 20 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands – don’t break the circle, and join us.
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