The Encyclopedia of Dutch Black Metal

Performing with Israthoum December 2003

My name is Vincent Meelhuysen. I was born in October 1974 and grew up, most of my life, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Most likely, it was there my fascination with metal started after seeing the four painted faces of Kiss on television in the late 1970s and early 1980s (never remembered any of their music though, except for I Was Made for Loving You), and the hardrock of Status Quo (Whatever You Want), Queen (Live Killers), and Deep Purple (In Rock). It was in 1986, that my older nephew Arthur got me hooked on real metal, starting with Venom's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Slayer's Reign in Blood, followed by albums like Carnivore's Retaliation, Kreator's Terrible Certainty, and Onslaught's Power from Hell. I actually skipped the section of heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden, Manowar, and Black Sabbath, which I discovered later on... From all those fine thrash metal albums, my attraction to and interest in extreme music grew rapidly. It was boosted even further with the discovery of the death metal of Death's Scream Bloody Gore, Obituary's Slowly We Rot, Autopsy's Severed Survival, Pestilence's Malleus Maleficarum, Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Panic's Rotten Church, and the musical extremes of Napalm Death's Scum and Carcass's Reek of Putrefaction, which brought metal music to an even more brutal level. Still, they were a relatively long step away from black metal...

Ever since legendary albums such as Samael's Worship Him, Blasphemy's Fallen Angel of Doom, Beherit's The Oath of Black Blood, Deicide's Deicide (yes, that one deserves to be here!) and Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky were released around 1990/1991, the new wave of black metal immediately caught my main interest, and I started investigating the music, ideology, and history of that particular segment. This lead to a renewed exploration in metal releases of the past, where I discovered musical gems such as Sarcófago's Inri, Possessed's Seven Churches, Mayhem's Deathcrush, and The Great Kat's Worship Me or Die!, and that of the Dutch underground, with dark acts like Funeral Winds, Apator, Countess, and Bestial Summoning. Black metal evolved into an ever-present passion since then. In 1995, after experimenting with several metal subgenres for about three years myself, my fascination led to joining the Dutch band Liar Of Golgotha, in which I played guitar for almost four years. From there on, I moved to more extreme and obscure things with four years of old school black metal in Funeral Winds, four years of more contemporary black metal in Israthoum, and finally laying low with the Coldeemstorft and Veghe projects (which are still part of my life).

Because of this musical involvement in black metal, I communicated with a lot of persons active in the scene. I became aware that Dutch black metal was slowly rearing its ugly head. Before that time only a few bands seemed to be part of, what could be descibed as a Dutch black metal scene. This awareness grew in my inquisitive mind into what turned out to become The Encyclopedia of Dutch Black Metal in 2004. With skills I had picked up in the section Cultural Sciences of the Rotterdam University, where I had graduated early 2003, I began exploring the internet, interviewing people around me, purposefully expanding my social network, and combining heaps of research material, with the hopes of creating the ultimate book for all those interested in the face of Dutch black metal. This took about five years of work, before I took a chance and walked into a printing factory. Even though I can tell you lots of things I would do differently now, it turned out quite satisfying, though of course never really finished.

Performing with Liar Of Golgotha 1995

About a year after the release of the book, I reckoned it was time for a first update, and prepared for the release of a photocopied addition, sold with every new order of the catalogue. By now, the first small update has grown into a second, third, fourth, and fifth official update, and has to be charged for because of its size (to compensate I dropped the price of the book)! The black metal scene is an ever expanding entity, that deserves more attention with every change it undertakes. I still see it as my duty to inform the public!

Apart from writing the encyclopedia, I have been part of a lot of projects and bands, contributed lyrics to bands, and even recorded music of others at my primitive home "studio". I will list the releases I have collaborated on here - some will not appear by name because of an oath of secrecy I have sworn to the band or myself... ( * means I was part of the band at that time.)