Demichron

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For the people that have never heard of you before, can you please introduce yourselves a little bit? Who are you? What do you do?

We are Demichron, a progressive metal band based in Amsterdam. While we rehearse at Q-Factory in Amsterdam and consider ourselves part of the local scene, our members actually come from all over. Charles is from France, Nikhil is from India, Maurizio is from Italy, and the rest of the band is Dutch. Everyone currently lives in Amsterdam or nearby cities like Almere.

The project started out of frustration with a previous band that moved incredibly slowly, managing to produce only one song in ten years. The search began to find anyone in Amsterdam interested in playing this specific style of music. Jeoffrey, Remon and Nikhil initially met through another drummer, and although that lineup didn't work out, it brought the core members together. After a long search filled with some audition horror stories, Maurizio was brought on as the new drummer. Finding a suitable second guitarist for such a technical genre also took a significant amount of time. Finally, in August 2024, a year into the process, Charles auditioned and immediately proved he had the chops needed for the band.

Technically, the majority of the band is not Dutch, but because everyone lives here, the band is firmly based in the Netherlands and rooted in the local scene. Amusingly, some promotional Instagram ads have even labeled the music as "Dutch prog-core".

There is a well-known stereotype about Dutch people being brutally honest, but the international members actually find that to be a refreshing and beneficial trait for the band's dynamic. From a Dutch perspective, the most prominent cultural quirk is that it is always either lunchtime or dinnertime. No matter what time a rehearsal or meeting is scheduled—whether it is two, three, five, seven, or nine o'clock—someone will inevitably be late because they are eating a meal, which is often roast chicken.

Yes, the initial writing process usually begins by shutting out the world for hours, closing the curtains, and writing a massive pile of guitar riffs. As much material as possible is recorded and presented to the rest of the band. From there, the members pick out the best ideas and it becomes a highly collaborative process. The song structures are adjusted around the vocals, the drums and bass are completely rewritten, and Charles contributes solos and changes to the underlying riffs.

Periphery is easily the biggest all-time favorite and a daily listen, alongside Meshuggah, Monuments, and Textures. There are also deep foundational roots in older acts like Iron Maiden, Rush, and Tool. Tool is a massive drumming influence, particularly when calibrating the drumming style to fit odd time signatures and polymeters, along with some Dream Theater and Symphony X elements. Furthermore, a lot of inspiration is drawn from technical death metal and progressive bands like Beyond Creation, The Faceless, and Black Crown Initiate.

It is fantastic to hear that the album sounds coherent, because internally, it still feels like the band is actively searching for its overall direction. There are highly diverse moments across the tracks, which makes sense given the timeline of their creation. Songs like "Resolve" and "Bleed" are close to three years old, while others were finished just six months ago, meaning everyone has had significant time to evolve as musicians. There is certainly no lack of inspiration; all the new ideas and recordings are synced to a shared Google Drive so the members can constantly browse the Ableton files, experiment with the material, and incorporate cool elements into new songs.

A large part of that momentum comes from acting as dedicated hype men, talking to as many people locally and throughout the country as possible. By attending shows and connecting with other small bands in similar situations, it becomes easier to set up gigs together and organically get the name out there. For a long time, the band had to survive by pushing the same couple of tracks, which eventually grew a bit tedious despite still loving the music. Now that the latest single and the full album are out, having a diverse catalog of material makes the promotion process much more exciting.

The track was largely remixed rather than fully re-recorded. During the mixing stage, a few small sections were quickly re-tracked, but the majority of the original guitar performances remained the same. They were simply run through different amp simulators to slightly adjust the tones so they would match the sonic profile of the rest of the album.

Yes, the entire album was self-produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered in a home studio. A tremendous amount of time was spent learning the craft and taking mixing courses to achieve a high-quality sound. It was an intense passion project that often involved 12-hour Saturday sessions of listening to and tweaking the exact same sections. Some tracks went through up to eight different mix iterations before everyone was fully satisfied. While reviewing the same songs repeatedly could be tiring, the band developed a highly efficient workflow by leaving targeted comments, which allowed everyone to clearly communicate what they wanted and shape the final product.

Around September or October of 2025, the band realized they had a strong repertoire of songs and decided to commit to recording a full album instead of just an EP. Everyone aggressively switched gears, putting immense effort into tracking, mixing, and working on promotional hype. This focused push resulted in the massive achievement of booking seven gigs in just three months, between April and June. The culmination of eight months of recording and mixing meant the band could launch the album and immediately hit the stage to perform it.

Yes, that was a deliberate choice driven by the fact that several tracks were already public. With "Bleed" and "Resolve" released previously, and "Taken by the Tide" dropping in February, releasing yet another single would have given away too much of the record. The band decided to hold back so listeners would still have fresh material to discover, aiming to create a substantial "big bang" moment when the full album dropped.

The lyrics are written individually by the vocalist, usually after the song structure and melodies are mostly complete. Waiting for the instrumental to be finished makes it much easier to write lyrics that naturally fit the music, rather than struggling to retrofit pre-written words into a completed track. The rest of the band occasionally comments or suggests minor changes. Thematically, some songs are deeply personal and deal with internal emotions, while others take a more outward perspective on society and the world. The goal is to keep the exact meanings somewhat of a mystery so listeners can read the lyrics and relate to them in their own unique ways.

Absolutely; inspiration is drawn from every gig attended. Watching massive bands with large-scale productions is highly aspirational, while smaller shows frequently provide clever ideas for stage presence or setups. Mental notes are constantly taken to see how those ideas can be incorporated and transformed into the band's own style. A recent live highlight was playing a gig in Delft, where it was incredibly cool to watch the entire crowd link shoulders and headbang together to one of the tracks.

The immediate plan is to heavily promote the new album, play as many live shows as possible, and ride out this release cycle. It is incredibly exciting to finally have a full album's worth of material to perform and to slowly add new songs to the setlist. Because everyone in the band has a day job, they are focused on pushing themselves as far as possible with the time and energy they possess. While there are always new riffs being teased on Instagram and fresh ideas being written in the background, the band intends to take their time crafting the next batch of songs to ensure they are truly reflective of their evolving sound.

If you could open for a band, what band would that be?

Shooting for the stars, opening for Meshuggah or Periphery would be an absolute dream. On a more achievable level within the local scene, opening for Textures would be incredible, as they are a massive vocal and musical influence that fits perfectly with Demichron's style. Additionally, playing a major stage like AFAS Live is a huge aspiration; supporting a band like Spiritbox at a venue of that size would be an amazing opportunity.