A real piece of Dutch heavy music history. Founded in Winterswijk in 1987 and known as the first crossover band in the Netherlands: hardcore punk aggression and thrash riffs, long before everybody started mixing the two. Disabuse are at their best on stage, and Patrick still plays bass in the band today.

Empty Fix connection: Patrick van der Beek (Empty Fix bassist), member since 1987.

One of the veterans of the eastern Dutch underground, going since 1989. Suffering, illness and darkness all the way. The band stopped in 2010 and came back in 2013, and shares members with Nobassak, Not Otherwise Specified, Bloodsin and Deifecation.

Empty Fix connection: Bjorn van Toorn (Empty Fix vocalist), joined in 1989.

Arnhem crossover that built a real name around the turn of the millennium by gigging non-stop. They won Aardschok's Metalbash, took the audience prize at the Grote Prijs van Nederland in 1999 and went on tour in Germany with Soulfly in 2001, playing to 600 people in Herford.

Empty Fix connection: Roy van Wisse (Empty Fix drummer), joined in 1997.

Deep-underground extreme metal from around 1997 to 2001, with Bjorn and Bart de Zeeuw. Not much of it survived online, but it is an early link in the same eastern Dutch death metal family as Pulmonary Abscess, Not Otherwise Specified and Bloodsin.

Empty Fix connection: Bjorn van Toorn (Empty Fix vocalist), joined in 1997.

Horror-themed death metal from Twente, founded in 2001 and still going after more than twenty years and several line-ups. A local institution rather than a hype band.

Empty Fix connection: Bjorn van Toorn (Empty Fix vocalist), joined in 2001.

Strike First

HardcoreArnhem2003

Arnhem hardcore from 2003 until the early 2010s, and the biggest crossing in the Empty Fix family tree: Emiel van Bree, Jelle Janssen and Rutger Buitendijk all played in it, and Juriën Buijvoets joined in 2008. Short songs, hard grooves, metallic edges and a lot of shows in small sweaty rooms. Along the way they shared stages with bands like Cro-Mags, Madball, Sick of It All, Merauder and Agnostic Front. Crucial Response called it one of the hardest-working and most aggressive hardcore bands in the Dutch scene. The last show in 2011 was total chaos, with ex-members jumping in on songs.

Empty Fix connection: Emiel van Bree (Empty Fix guitarist), joined in 2003; Jelle Janssen (Empty Fix guitarist), joined in 2003; Rutger Buitendijk (Empty Fix keyboard player), joined in 2003; Juriën Buijvoets (former Empty Fix bassist), joined in 2008.

Crashjaw

Heavy hardcoreEast Netherlands2004

Three-piece hardcore with the weight of hard rock and metal. Jelle has been at it since 2004 and the band still turns up on strong Dutch hardcore bills, like the sold-out Born From Pain night at Willemeen in 2026.

Empty Fix connection: Jelle Janssen (Empty Fix guitarist), member since 2004.

Short-lived death metal from Eindhoven. It ran under other names before becoming Second Dawn in 2004 and ended in 2005: one of Rutger's earliest extreme metal bands.

Empty Fix connection: Rutger Buitendijk (Empty Fix keyboard player), joined in 2004.

Death/thrash from Enschede and Borculo, active from 2006 to 2019. Lyrically all about the human brain going wrong: dysfunction and strange psychological conditions, which gave the band a cold, clinical edge.

Empty Fix connection: Bjorn van Toorn (Empty Fix vocalist), joined in 2006.

Arnhem death/doom since 2012. Blunt old-school death metal with doom weight underneath, built for the neck rather than the brain. Still very much alive: their third album Eros & Thanatos came out in 2026.

Empty Fix connection: Rutger Buitendijk (Empty Fix keyboard player), member since 2012.

Probably the strangest branch in the tree. MANNHEIM, later shortened to MNHM, was an instrumental quartet from Arnhem and Nijmegen that called its sound melodic noise, and earlier noisy spacedoom with a hint of saxophone. The trick: Otto Kokke's baritone sax as a real lead voice on top of heavy, mathematically tight post-metal.

Empty Fix connection: Roy van Wisse (Empty Fix drummer), joined in 2012.

Old-school death metal from Enschede, founded in 2013. Rotten, direct and proudly unpolished: riffs first, everything else second. Good enough to end up on Xtreem Music.

Empty Fix connection: Bjorn van Toorn (Empty Fix vocalist), joined in 2013.

German-Dutch death metal from 2013, back from the grave in 2020 with a line-up full of veterans, including musicians known from Asphyx and Sodom. HM-2 filth for fans of Asphyx and Dismember.

Empty Fix connection: Patrick van der Beek (Empty Fix bassist), joined in 2013.

Lifelong

Stoner / doom / sludgeArnhem2017

Arnhem band started by people from hardcore bands like New Morality, Strike First and Cornered. The idea was the opposite of fast hardcore: slow the riffs down, make them huge and filthy, and keep the hardcore nerve. Riffs thick like smoke. Somebody once summed it up as Black Sabbath meets Cro-Mags, and that stuck. Juriën joined in 2015, Emiel in 2017.

Empty Fix connection: Emiel van Bree (Empty Fix guitarist), joined in 2017; Juriën Buijvoets (former Empty Fix bassist), joined in 2015.

Winterswijk hardcore with a cause, started in 2019 to support the Hardcore Help Foundation, animal rights and Sea Shepherd. Tight, powerful hardcore with metal and punk running through it, with nods to early New York hardcore and Cro-Mags.

Empty Fix connection: Patrick van der Beek (Empty Fix bassist), joined in 2019.

SVAUN

Stoner / desert rockArnhem2022

Arnhem rock band that grew out of Sven Janssen's solo project. Palm Desert dust, downtuned grooves, psychedelic touches and a sensual edge. In their own words: raw, dark and sensual. A wall of sound with filthy riffs.

Empty Fix connection: Roy van Wisse (Empty Fix drummer), member since 2022.

Fast, stripped-down Arnhem hardcore punk by people who have known each other for decades. The idea had been around for years; the band properly got going in 2024 and wrote a pile of short, fast songs straight away. Motto: make hardcore punk again.

Empty Fix connection: Juriën Buijvoets (former Empty Fix bassist), member since 2023.