CYCLONE …….. In the grip of evil since 1981

It all started way back at the end of 1980 in Vilvoorde when Guido met Pascal Van Lint, he introduced Guido to Johnny Kerbush and soon they were hanging out every weekend. Guido heard that Johnny and Pascal were playing guitar so he proposed to start a band. First rehearsals ( where Guido sang in a headphone as he didn't have a proper mike ) were in Johnny's room at his parents house. They quickly got into trouble with the neighbourhood and so moved on to a rehearsalroom and tried out several bassplayers and drummers. It took until 1982 to find a great drummer ( they still didnt have a bassplayer ), after 8 months the drummer left again so the band started from scratch again, placed some adverts and posters in musicshops and a few moths later finally found Nicolas Lairin who joined in. Allmost emediately a bassplayer was found, Michel De Rijdt who was in fact a friend living across the street of Johnny's ( believe it or not ). So around april 83 this line-up started rehearsing the tracks they had written in the meantime and did a demo with 1st generation tracks that never made the 1st album, but it resulted in the 1st gig at the Lido, Leuven on June 2nd 1984 as support for Acid. From there on it did spread like a rapidfire, they recorded the " In the grip of evil " demo and were offered several gigs, Michel De Rijdt left and guitarroadie Stefaan Daamen took over on bass a week before the 1st gig at the Metalrace competition and the 1st major festival with Destruction in Aalst where the band sold the 200 first copies of the demo ( 2nd print of another 200, so 400 in total ). Suddenly it was all hell let loose, everybody talked about Cyclone and wanted to see what the fuzz was all about. It caught the attention of several record companies, the band went to Germany to lay down some tracks in a session for Shark records, but turned them down and went for Roadrunner instead. 2 tracks were done for the Metal Race compilation lp and the band soon started recording the 1st lp. The release of Brutal Destruction took the band a level higher and soon they were playing with bands like Anthrax, Overkill, Agent Steel, Kreator and a couple months later Metallica, Metal Church, Slayer. In the meantime Johnny Kerbush left the band and also Nicolas Lairin decided to leave. Replacement was found in drummer Giancarlo Langhendries and rythmguitarist Pablos Alvarez and the band moved on to a European tour with US thrashers Blessed Death. After the tour Pascal Van Lint and Pablos Alvarez left, leaving the band as a 3-piece without guitarists, thats where Stefaan Daamen picked up his guitarplaying again and traded the bass for guitar for good. The band quiet emediately found a bassplayer by the name of Gert Van Overloop. They started writing new stuff and found a new leadguitarist by the name of Xavier Carion, they recorded another demo with new stuff, but didn't have the click with Xavier who left after 3 months and went on to form his own band Channel Zero. A few months later Guido encountered Didier Capelle ( ex - Warhead ) who was an old friend, gave him a listen to the demo and 3 days later he rehearsed for the 1st time with the band. The band finished writing all the new stuff got a deal with Justice records, recorded the "Inferior to none" lp with Eric Greiff and did it’s 1st show in more than a year as support for Sepultura and off it all went again. But when shit goes wrong your never done, the label went bankrupt it took more than a year before another label took over and finally released the " Inferior to none" cd. Refusing to throw in the towel the band did some extended playing and toured Europe again with Sadus and later with The Accused and The Obsessed. On that tour Stefaan and Guido decided that they had had it, the band played another festival with Kreator, Biohazard,etc... and played the last show at a place called Pede, Sint-Lievens-Houtem march 1993, and that was it.

SInce mid 2018 Stefaan Daamen and Guido Gevels started jamming again and were joined by Matthias Debaets ( ex-Indemnity ) on drums. Several months later to be joined by Kevin Verleysen on lead guitar, after a couple months a new Cyclone line-up was completed by Vincent Heyman on bass. After a full year of rehearsing they did a first try-out on december 14th 2019.....due to the COVID pandemic the band was put on non-active again during 2020 and a big part of 2021….on the 13th of august 2021 Cyclone played their 1st official show at the Alcatraz Metalfest…followed by appearances at the “ Oilsjt Omploft fest, Aalst , “Metal Experience Fest in Leiden, Holland, the “Oktober Metalfest” in Eindhoven, Holland and “ Blast from the past Metalfest”, Kuurne, Belgium… Early 2022 drummer Matthias was replaced by Gabriel Deschamps, Cyclone did another appearance at the Alcatraz 2022 Metalfest and played the Keep It True Festival April 2023 in Germany and Graspop Metalmeeting, Belgium in June 2023. In September 2023 Cyclone played 2 shows in Osaka, Japan at the True Thrash Fest and a show at Metal Experience Fest in Leiden, Holland again. In December 2023 there’s a show at Eindhoven Metal Meeting in Holland and in March 2024 Cyclone will play Oilsjt Omploft fest, Aalst again. In April 2024 a European tour of 24 shows is scheduled with US metallers MIDNIGHT. In August 2024 Cyclone has been confirmed for the Alcatraz Metal Meeting again where recordings will be done for a live release.
Cyclone lives.

"High Command set out on the warpath to create their debut full length and the heaviest work they have produced yet. Beyond The Wall Of Desolation, incoming via Southern Lord on 27th September is in the band’s own words, “five friends coming together to create the sonic equivalent of a barbarian horde.”

High Command’s lyrical world, created by vocalist Kevin Fitzgerald, is steeped in lore and savagery, heavily inspired by fantasy based warfare, and in the band’s own words “boundless quests frozen in the aeons of time and space hacked out of ice and transcribed in lightning. Beyond the thin vail of sanity lies the forgotten age of mysticism and heroes”.

Their studio choice for such proceedings was the legendary Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, constantly challenging the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of recorded media. From hearing previous projects recorded there (Daughters, The Body, LINGUA IGNOTA, Churchburn to name a few) it was apparent to the band that this was a studio that had a focus on the unique and the organic. Seth Manchester, the head engineer, worked tirelessly for the week High Command were there, sculpting a record with a healthy respect to the Old Gods of Metal they admire while at the same time, sonically speaking, also carving a realm of its own.

The eight bludgeoning tracks on Beyond The Wall Of Desolation cleave the tender cranium of the listener asunder across their 43 minute running time. Bringing forth the undeniable heft in their self proclaimed New Wave of Worcester Heavy Metal, the heaviest of armament is advised against the flail."