Asphyx
| Asphyx | |
|---|---|
 Asphyx at the Party.San 2015 |
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| General information | |
| origin | Oldenzaal , Netherlands |
| Genre (s) | Death Doom Death Metal |
| founding | 1987, 1994, 1996, 2007 |
| resolution | 1993, 1995, 2001 |
| Website | www.asphyx.nl |
| Current occupation | |
| Paul Baayens (since 2007) | |
| Alwin Zuur (since 2010) | |
| Stefan Hüskens (since 2014) | |
| Martin van Drunen (1990–1992, since 2007) | |
| former members | |
| Ronny Van Der Wey (1996) | |
Vocals, bass |
Ron Van Pol (1992-1994) |
Electric guitar |
Eric Daniels (1989-1995, 1996-2000) |
Drums |
Sander Van Hoof (Roel Sanders) (1994-1995) |
Bass, electric guitar, vocals |
Theo Loomans (1989–1990, 1996–1997, 1998 †) |
Bass, vocals |
Christian Colli (1988-1989) |
Bass, vocals |
Wannes Gubbels (1997-2001, 2007-2010) |
Electric guitar |
Tony Brookhuis (until 1989) |
Drums |
Bob Bagchus (until 1993, 1996-2001, 2007-2014) |
Asphyx (from Gr. Asfixia , lack of pulse 'or English asphyxiation , suffocation') is a death metal band from Oldenzaal ( Netherlands ).
history
Early phase
The band was formed in 1987 by drummer Bob Bagchus and guitarist Tony Brookhuis. The first sign of life was an instrumental rehearsal room tape called Carnage Remains - with a certain Joost as the session bassist. The band's first permanent singer and bassist was Christian Colli, with whom the band recorded their first real demo, Enter the Domain , in 1988 . Colli left the band shortly afterwards and so the formation took up the demo again with Theo Loomans as a new member. In the following year Eric Daniels joined the band as the second guitarist and with him the second demo Crush the Cenotaph was recorded in the summer of 1989 , which increased the band's profile in the scene. A 7 "EP called the Mutilating Process followed in December of the same year. This was the last release with Tony Brookhuis, who wanted to bring more melodic and rocking elements into the music, but encountered headwinds from the rest of the members. The band decided to not to fill the post any more and continued as a trio. In 1990 the band's first album, Embrace the Death , was supposed to be released , but the supervising label CMFT Productions went bankrupt and could no longer pay for the studio stay Theo Loomans left the band for unspecified reasons, so the band needed to finish mixing the completely recorded album, so the album remained on a Maxell XL-II-90 cassette for years to come - and founded a new project called Swazafix , which never got past two demo releases.
The time with Martin van Drunen
After the demo recordings and the EP, Asphyx finally got a record deal with Century Media . Martin van Drunen , who had already made a name for himself in the Pestilence band, joined as a new member . The debut album The Rack appeared in this constellation in April 1991 and should soon establish itself as a classic of Dutch Death Metal. With Vermin , the instrumental Ode to the Nameless Grave , the intro The Quest for Absurdity and the title track, there were four pieces that were rewritten with van Drunen. The remaining five songs were from the time with Theo Loomans, but had not been published. Partly newly modified from the title and text. Since there was also a demand for the old demo songs and these were no longer available everywhere, the band decided in early 1992 to reissue two old pieces, Crush the Cenotaph and Rite of Shades , with two live tracks and a new song, The Krusher , to publish. Because of the concept, the EP was named after the second demo, Crush the Cenotaph , and was released in June 1992. However, this EP was not recorded in Holland, as before, but in the Woodhouse Studio in Dortmund . The band later stated in an interview that they were not completely satisfied with the recording quality of the songs on the EP. And so The Krusher was recorded with the old 7 "song Streams of Ancient Wisdom for the upcoming studio record in Harrow Studio in Holland, just like its predecessor The Rack . Martin van Drunen was still the singer on the recordings for Last One on Earth even though the band kicked him out of the band before it was released without his knowledge, he recorded the vocals without the rest of the band, and when he was finished he received news of his expulsion.
Upheavals
Ron Van Pol, who played the bass on Last One on Earth , also took over the vocals on the third, self-titled album from 1994 and Roel Sanders briefly stepped in on drums for Bob Bagchus. This formation did not last long, however, and a short time later Bob Bagchu's incarnation of Asphyx appeared with the returned Theo Loomans on bass, guitar and vocals - Ronny van der Wey was hired for live concerts. The result was the album God Cries from 1996, which differed from previous releases due to the lack of Eric Daniel's guitar playing. The atmosphere was gloomy, the lyrics from Theo Looman's pen were of a personal nature and dealt with subjects such as depression, fears and the question of a god. However, this line-up soon became history and due to internal band problems, some members of Asphyx founded the band Soulburn together with Wannes Gubbels from Pentacle in 1996 . Their style was less brutal, simpler, less technical and therefore less challenging for the musicians than Asphyx. A demo and an album were released under this name . A short time later, the members of Soulburn were using the old name Asphyx again, which felt more correct to them. The band remained loyal to the label until it was dissolved.
Martin van Drunen was also active with Bolt Thrower and as a session singer for the Sweden Comecon . From 2003 to 2010 Martin worked as a singer with the German Death by Dawn and from 2006 to 2015 he was part of the Dutch supergroup Hail of Bullets , which went in a similar direction to Asphyx, but focused on concept albums.
Start-up
On January 10, 2007 the reunification of the band was officially announced on the website of the Party.San Festival with the following line-up: Martin van Drunen on vocals, Wannes Gubbels (also Pentacle and Bunkur) on bass and vocals, Paul Baayens on guitar ( also Hail of Bullets) and Bob Bagchus on drums. The band performed with this line-up at Party.San 2007.
After the band had several appearances in 2008 (including at the Rock Hard Festival ), they released their seventh studio album Death the Brutal Way in 2009 , which is also the first studio album with Martin van Drunen in 17 years.
At the beginning of 2010, Wannes Gubbles had to leave the band due to disputes about the future musical direction: Gubbles wanted to bring more modern elements into the style of the band, while the rest of the group wanted to keep the classic Asphyx style. He was succeeded by Alwin Zuur. With him, the eighth studio album Deathhammer was released in February 2012 , which was voted album of the month in Rock Hard magazine .
Bob Bagchus left Asphyx again in 2014 to concentrate on his family and the reactivated band Soulburn (they left Bagchus in June 2018 and was replaced by Marc Verhaar). There he released a new album with the former Asphyx member Eric Daniels, Twan van Geel (including Legion of the Damned ) and Remco Kreft (including Grand Supreme Blood Court ) in December 2014, entitled The Suffocating Darkness . The third studio album, Earthless Pagan Spirit , was released in 2016. In contrast to the debut album Feeding On Angels , influences from Black Metal also flowed into the new albums of this group .
For Bagchus, Husky joined the band from the band Desaster . With him, the successor Incoming Death followed in 2016 .
- Asphyx at RockHarz 2017
Martin van Drunen
Martin van Drunen and Paul Baayens
Paul Baayens
Martin van Drunen and Paul Baayens
Discography
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Albums
- 1991: The Rack
- 1992: Last One on Earth
- 1994: Asphyx
- 1996: Embrace the Death
- 1996: God Cries
- 2000: On the Wings of Inferno
- 2009: Death ... the Brutal Way
- 2010: Live Death Doom (Live Double CD)
- 2012: Deathhammer
- 2016: Incoming Death
EPs
- 1990: Mutilating Process
- 1992: Crush the Cenotaph
- 2008: Death the Brutal Way
Others
- 1987: Carnage Remains (Rehearsal)
- 1988: Enter the Domain (Demo)
- 1989: Crush the Cenotaph (Demo)
- 1991: Promo (demo)
Web links
- Official website
- Asphyx at Discogs (English)