Asphyx

Asphyx ranks among Holland's earliest extreme metal acts, having coalesced in the late 1980s before unleashing a ferocious fusion of death metal and doom metal. Across much of the ensuing decade and afterward, the ensemble ravaged the metal underground while enduring repeated personnel changes, until a measure of continuity arrived with Death...The Brutal Way in 2009. Later works such as Incoming Death (2016) and Necroceros (2021) found the lineup—by then containing zero original members—operating at the height of its uncompromising death-doom style.

Asphyx originated in Overijssel during 1987 when drummer Bob Bagchus and guitarist Tonny Brookhuis joined forces. The pair soon recruited Eric Daniels on second guitar and Chuck Colli on bass and vocals, resulting in the Enter the Domain demo. Colli departed soon after, replaced by Theo Loomans, who performed on the 1989 Crush the Cenotaph demo. Brookhuis then exited, leaving the remaining trio to record the band's debut studio album Embrace the Death, whose release was delayed for several years by label difficulties.

Asphyx, now featuring ex-Pestilence vocalist Martin van Drunen, inked a deal with Century Media Records in 1990 and issued a string of albums and EPs, among them the Mutilating Process EP, 1991's The Rack, and 1993's Last One on Earth. None of these recordings propelled the band beyond the death metal underground, prompting the frustrated members to disband around that period. Van Drunen briefly aligned with England's Bolt Thrower without recording and pursued various other endeavors, yet Daniels opted to cut one final self-titled Asphyx album (featuring vocalist/bassist Ron Van Pol and drummer Sander Van Hoof) before teaming with Bagchus in Soulburn. Curiously, the latter later reciprocated by assembling a new Asphyx configuration (with vocalist/bassist Theo Loomans and guitarist Ronny Vanderwey) that produced 1996's God Cries; that same year Century Media issued the band's 1990 debut Embrace the Death. Asphyx again ceased activity the following year, and tragedy struck in 1998 when Loomans died after a train struck his car. In 2000 Soulburn (comprising Daniels, Bagchus, and vocalist/bassist Wannes Gubbels) decided on a whim to issue its newest album, On the Wings of Inferno, under the Asphyx name, only to disband shortly after the record appeared.

Van Drunen, Gubbels, Paul Baayens, and Bagchus revived Asphyx in 2007 initially as a live unit before returning to the studio. The well-regarded Death...The Brutal Way surfaced in 2009, ushering in an era of greater stability for the veteran group. The similarly praised Deathhammer followed two years later and proved to be the final release for sole original member Bagchus, who exited the following year. New drummer Stefan Hüskens joined for 2016's Incoming Death, and in 2021 Asphyx delivered its tenth studio album, the punishing Necroceros.