JOHAN VAN DER LINDEN

JOHAN VAN DER LINDEN (HEAVY VOCALS)
 

Meet our glottal annihilator. Ready to call forth the apocalypse with his deep and heavy voice. Ready to throw his lyrics in your face. Known from Inner Sanctum, Defenders of the Faith, Hellbender and Wrecking Crew. Merely his presence on stage is enough to blow you away! 

 

THE BEGINNING

 

"When I was younger, and I mean a lot younger, like ages ago, I grew up listening to the Beatles, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Thin Lizzy and even Judas Priest. Being exposed to music, made me want to compose myself. In 1974 I started out as a guitarist, you know, acoustic, around campfires and stuff. I never thought about singing, that was until I performed at an A capella contest at the camping. We sang Joe Jackson's "Is she really going out with him". I did it merely for fun, but we won. It made me rethink about trying to become a singer. 

 

MY SHURE SM58
 

An opportunity arose when I was asked to join a metal band called Inner Sanctum as a singer. It was totally unexpected, because I was a guitarist at that time. I had to learn everything from the ground up, even taking lessons about harmony once or twice. It was here where I bought my first mic, wich was a Shure SM58. My first gigs was with this mic and it survived a lot of torture, falls and beer. Eventually I succeeded as a singer and I even started playing guitar and often keys for the band. 
Inner Sanctum was a great success and we had the time of our lives touring around for 17 years, until the band fell apart. Later I joined Hellbender and eventually got asked by a good friend of mine to replace him in Wrecking crew, where I wrote Deception together with Bram Heijs. One of my greatest legacies in the metal scene. 

 

THE END

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It was here when I eventually met Jeremy, who played in an Iron Maiden tribute at that time. He jokingly told me that he would join Wrecking Crew one day. When Wrecking Crew's Bram Heijs left the band, Jeremy joined. We did a few shows together, before the founding members of the crew decided to quit. Later I suggested Jeremy to join Hellbender and later he asked me to record some vocals on his project "Fearwell". Eventually asking me to join the band. After that I wrote the lyrics to "Alone". Before I joined Fearwell, I had lyrics for a song called "Ocean of Anger" and I told this to Jeremy. The fun part was that he also wrote lyrics for a song called "Ocean of Anger" and had some guitar parts as well. At my place, when I wrote and sang the prechorus, he wrote the leads on my acoustic Yamaha guitar. Eventually combining our lyrics to form a tsunami of a song. When Jeremy started singing for Fearwell I gave him my Shure SM58, since I started using a SM58 Beta. You can see it as a family heirloom.
I might be the oldest around here, but being the oldest also makes me the wisest among the six. My pale white hair says so. Joking aside, this might be the final chapter of my legacy, but I am not done with y'all yet. I am eager to unleash my final wrath of creativity and bring forth a cataclysm on stage. I will go on until I stop breathing. You'll see, you'll hear, you'll fear. My final "UGH"!

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UGH!