A statement of Ivo S. Bijker as an account of his spectral existence and mortality.

I was born on the 31st of march in the year of our fall 1978. What was supposed to be a careless and happy childhood was clouded by a sickness that befell my brother and therefor the entire family. It took years to fully comprehend the magnitude of it all and still I am not convinced we emotionally processed all that happened. It somehow sparked a darkness in both my brother and me. In the early 1990'ies we started our first Black metal band eventually named Arbuscula. We never released any albums, because of the very limited options back then, but we did do a lot of memorable shows, radiating our anger and aversion of hypocrisy, treachery and inferiority.

On the 14th of February of the year 2003 my brother (in arms and blood) died by his own hand, leaving this world dead, cold and worthless!

And yet ... I never felt more alive ... on that exact moment all my senses, my intuition, body, mind and soul were in alignment and at full capacity. The hammer of society that finds dealing with death, especially when by one’s own hand, very hard and confronting, made me fall into the depths. Not in any hell of sorts, but in an all-consuming vegetative emptiness.

It took me years to find my way back to the land of the living. I did so by my own strength, not subsidiary to any system of belief, outside force, god or cult. If anything, my experience has enflamed my disdain and distrust of any form of (semi) organized group entanglement. 

I chose Krijs as my main vehicle to express the raw emotion of this open nerve ... and as such find a way to deal with today's reality. For those familiar with this particular train of thought and curious of its development and evolution, I will write some more elaborate pieces on this subject, and other elements that inspire and/or bother me, in the "Inspiration" section.

Hail the divine nature of the individual!

ISB

Since the early nineties Metal has been the music of choice for my brother and me. Not exclusively … we liked (and still do) to keep an open mind, but we mainly listened to old Metallica, Sepultura, Iron Maiden … that sort of thing. That soon evolved into bands as Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Vader.

And then the second wave of Blackmetal hit … and it hit hard!

That was also the starting point of our first Blackmetalband Arbuscula. Starting in our highschool, we demolished a few music evenings. The music teacher loved it. After highschool we became a bit more serious, but always very much aware of being true, cult and evil … like you do when you’re that age.

The region where we lived was well known for its Christian extremism. It was the perfect ground for us to thrive and gather a cult following. We had some amazing shows where sometimes a complete touringcar full of friends followed us around. The band ended when we all went our separate ways, working, studying. And of course, it all really ended with the death of NAB.

I was in desperate need for a band to release all my aggression. That band came in the form of an old school Blackmetal entity called Dordaedeloth from the Doetinchem region. We played a few shows and after one or two line-up changes, we merged with the guys from Goatlord to form Dimensional Psychiosis. That band fitted my mental condition like a glove at the time. We did some cool shows all over the Netherlands.

By that time, I launched my first solo project Proctor, harsh unpolished Blackmetal. I released a split cd with Wolversveen. Bog and Ebenezer of Wolversveen also joined me to perform live a couple of times. You can find the split called “Zwarte fusie” on Youtube. I am especially proud of the song “Zwarte Furie” that the three of us composed and recorded together. For me this song embodies the furie and aggression, combined with mind bending lyrics/vocals, that Blackmetal is all about. I recorded an exclusive song “Wrok” for the “Enske Metaal II” cd.

Former vocalist of Arbuscala EN asked me to join his Vikingmetal band Skaldgrim. I did for a couple of years. First as guitarist, then as bassplayer.

I left Skaldgrim to form HaaH with drummer Paradox. HaaH was my first expression of dark occultism as a concept. We released an album called Pan Kreas. HaaH disbanded under mysterious circumstances as one could imagine when dealing with such sinister and cloaked subjects. I still have some copies of the cd. Contact me if you want one.

In that same period, I released a spilt cd under the name Helvraet, together with Paradox’s The Co-Creator (also handling vocal duties here). Still some copies left. If you want one, you know what to do.

For a few years I didn’t join any bands or projects until Prickrott asked me as guest vocalist on their album Dust of obscure devastation. A couple of years later their vocalist quit and I joined their ranks. We played several shows throughout the Netherlands. After some reflection we decided to evolve our group into this new entity: We Had It All. We are set to release our debut EP somewhere mid-2025. I also made my first lyric-video for this project. Maybe something I would like to develop. More info on We Had It All you can find on the active projects page.

The rise of Krijs falls in this timeframe.

In 2024, I was a part of Zen Disdain for a while, handling bass duties. While the music was (and is) cool and we hit it off on stage quite well, we somehow didn’t click on other levels.

While rehearsing with Zen Disdain I came across the guys from a new band called Wiltondale. They were looking for a vocalist. We are to release our debut EP mid-2025 and will be storming the stage with our D-Beat Doommetal shortly after that! More info on Wiltondale you can find on the active projects page.

I am working on a Stonermetal project together with Richard Snijder on vocals. We named the project “78 Reasons To Worship Me” which pretty much says it all. More information on the active projects page. Recordings for a first EP have commenced.

I wanted do make a few songs with just my six-string bass and drums. Eventually I added some guitar in support of the general song structure and emphasise the melody but let’s just say this project is really bass-heavy. Lyrical themes are straight forward anarchist. I call this project “Knokkel”.

There are some more projects still in the process of manifesting. Will share that here and more elaborate on the active project page when the time is right.