Molest

Bio:

The name MOLEST first surfaced on the Belgian metalfront in 1988 when vocalist Koen Bulens, guitarist Koen De Boevé and bassist Patrick Meuris enlisted Bart Reinartz as their drummer. This first functional line-up was shortly afterwards completed with a second guitarist, William Krusche.

In March of 1989 MOLEST recorded their first demo “Let Me Out” at Jam Studio, Kampenhout. The result perhaps best defined as a try-out mixture of thrash metal and hardcore. Shortly after the recordings, William Krusche left the band. In 1990 MOLEST returned to the studio to record a second demo: “Looney Tunes From Insania”. This second effort was a definite improvement and accomplished a furious level of thrash metal.

Afer the release of this second demo, bassist Patrick Meuris quit MOLEST and was replaced by Sigi Verbeeck, while Gert Peeters (from death/thrash metal band CRUXMORTIS) joined their ranks as a second guitarist.

In late 1993 MOLEST got to know André Gielen and in early 1994 the band went into André’s Hautregard Recordings Studio in Verviers to record a 5-song promo tape. Shortly after the recordings, guitarist Koen De Boevé left the band, followed by drummer Bart Reinartz who joined DREAM MACHINE.

Early 1995 the Hautregard Studio staff attended an international label convention and RRS (a subsidiary of Progress Records out of Denmark) showed interest and was willing to release the 1994 promo tape as a mini-CD. About a month later, the news arrived that Progress would pick the band up (instead of RRS). They wanted to release a full cd, ensuring worldwide distribution. After signing with the Danish Progress Records, MOLEST got contacted by the German SPV/Steamhammer label, also interested in picking up the band, but the deal with Progress was already settled by that time.

In the meantime the band had enlisted Gert Verbeeck (younger brother of Sigi Verbeeck) as their temporarily new drummer. But as things worked out so well, Gert soon left his previous band (CRUXMORTIS) and joined MOLEST permanently. With this new line-up, MOLEST finally found its form and at this point the Danish record deal got inked. The band returned to the Hautregard Studio in May of 1995 for the recordings of their debut-cd. The album “Milkfish” was released in early August '95. It showed a fresh band expanding its horizons, drawing various influences from the contemporary 90's metal landscape.

The “Milkfish” album was firmly promoted by Kurt Overbergh & Rough Trade in the Benelux and got well-received. Proper management ensured a lot of concerts inside & outside Belgium. Highlights include the Dour Festival in '96, support act for MUCKY PUP (VK*, Brussels) & RAMMSTEIN (Vooruit, Ghent), and a three-week tour in Denmark, co-headlining with labelmates TREND, sharing stages with GROPE and RED HARVEST, amongst others. The media picked up on the buzz surrounding MOLEST and the band was invited to perform the song “Colours of Hate” live on national television. “Milkfish” went on to sell about 5.000 copies.

In July of 1997 MOLEST went back to Hautregard Recordings Studio to lay down tracks for a second full-length album. Most songs were already written by then, while others took shape spontaneously during pre-production jam sessions [*]. The oddly named album “Tep Zepi” (referring to an ancient Egyptian era that sprang forth legends about alien encounters) was released on the studio's own Urban Records label in late 1997. Musically, “Tep Zepi” was the logical evolution from “Milkfish”, with the band exploring yet again different styles and sounds. As a result, it showed MOLEST as a more matured band, becoming a psychedelic crossbreed of metal and other genres. For live shows, the band enlisted friends Tim & Erwin to perform the didgeridoo & percussion tracks from the album.

Tragedy struck when guitarist Gert Peeters died an unfortunate death just one week after “Tep Zepi” was released. The band hastily found a temporarily replacement in Paulus Ielegems to perform a couple of shows that were already planned in support of “Tep Zepi”. But the loss of their life-long friend and fellow musician backfired shortly after these shows. Plans for an official CD release party were buried and all other concerts were canceled. After struggling with the decision to find a new permanent guitarist, with hopes of performing live again from the summer of 1998 onwards, the band ultimately decided to call it quits and MOLEST was laid to rest around early '98. With regards to Gert Peeters' untimely demise, the band at the time stated: “You could change a guitarist, but you can't change best friends”.

[*] The instrumental track, "Out of Zepi", is a live studio jam recorded during the Zepi-Sessions. As a song, it remained untitled & unfinished. Sourced from roughly mixed tape recordings, untempered with & previously unreleased.

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Member Since:

September 26, 2009

Members:

Koen Bulens (Vocals)
Gert Peeters (Guitar)
Gert Verbeeck (Drums)
Sigi Verbeeck (Bass)

Discography:

The Tapes

The Discs

The Videos

Influences:

From Metal to Nu-Jazz.

Sounds Like:

Ultimately, like four guys in a band.

Record Label:

Progress Records / Urban Records