Dissidents concerts Tour 2024-2025

Biography

Dissidents can refer to: 1)Leeds based Rock and roll band or 2)Netherlands based progressive metal band. Usually bands have a track record of EPs and gigs before they manage to record a full-length album. DISSIDENTS, a Netherlands based progressive metal act formed in 2012, took a different approach and recorded their album ‘Sleight of Hand’ with few people knowing of their existence. “We all played in bands before and we wanted to do things differently. So we decided that with DISSIDENTS, we would to start with a bang”, explains bassist Willem Elbers. DISSIDENTS was formed in 2012 and draws inspiration from a mix of modern acts such as Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me. While feeling related to the contemporary metal scene, Dissidents doesn’t follow well-worn paths. “We realised we had something fresh to offer when we found out that we couldn’t find bands with a similar style to play with”, says drummer Matthieu Boer. While ‘Sleight of Hand’ was largely written in the rehearsal room, the fine-tuning of the songs took place in the band’s home recording setup. Guitarist Raymon van Vught: “Our bassist Willem has a small recording setup and that has definitely helped the song writing process a lot. We started with just me on guitars, so songs were limited to only one guitar part before we started recording. The home setup enabled us to take time to experiment with different guitar harmonies, as well as vocal lines, without wasting costly studio time”. ‘Sleight of Hand’ was finally recorded and mixed by Erwin Hermsen (Toneshed Recording Studio) and mastered by Tesseract’s Acle Kahney (4D Sounds). Both left their mark on the end result. Bassist Willem Elbers comments: “It’s always good to bring in a pair of fresh ears during the recording process. Erwin acted like a creative mirror which we used to test our ideas and get feedback. With regard to mastering, we knew we wanted Acle. We are a big fan of Tesseract as well as his studio work. The title ‘Sleight of Hand’, an expression used to describe magicians’ quick fingers technique, refers to one of the album’s lyrical themes. “We are living in a society where creating illusions, by media, politicians and religious authorities alike, has become more commonplace than portraying reality as it really is. I find that duality between reality and fiction fascinating”, says vocalist Joris Bod who wrote all the lyrics. The enigmatic artwork of ‘Sleight of Hand’ was designed by guitarist Raymon which reflects the DIY mentality that the band adopted during the album’s writing process. DISSIDENTS is: Raymon van Vught (guitar), Joep Joosten (guitar), Willem Elbers (bass), Matthieu Boer (drums) and Joris Bod (vocals). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.