CYCLONE

The 80’s produced a ton of “coulda/shoulda” metal bands and Belgium’s CYCLONE was surely one. Their first record “Brutal Destruction”, released in 1986 by Roadrunner Records (remember when they were a REAL metal label?), grabbed a lot of listeners by the short hairs, including me, and scratched that itch for neck-wrecking thrash with an EXODUS feel. Would these guys be Europe’s answer to the Bay Area thrash invasion?

Alas, it was not to be. It was four full years until the follow-up “Inferior To None” was released on an obscure label that would soon be out of business. And that was it for CYCLONE…or so it seemed.

We all know no metal band stays dead forever and this held true for CYCLONE as well. 40 long years after “Brutal Destruction”, the band is back with a new EP “Known To God” and I’m happy to report, it’s a throwback to the greatness of the 80’s. Singer Guido Gevels and guitarist Stefaan Daamen have hooked up with three new guys who likely were not even alive during CYCLONE’s heyday to show they’re not through yet. If they can turn out new material in the vein of “Known To God”, maybe there’s hope that CYCLONE can finish what they started.

I talked to Guido to find out more. Here we go…

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Greetings to you, Guido! Great to hear CYCLONE is back in action. What made you realize that you had to bring the band back to life?

GUIDO GEVELS: Stefaan Daamen and I remained good friends and saw each other on A regular basis….at a certain point after 27 years Stefaan said he had picked up his guitar again and that sparked off a certain vibe...we soon decided to go for a jam to see if we could still pull it off. It took 1 jam to spark the old flame…

WC: How did you go about bringing the new version of the band together? Can you tell us the backgrounds of the newer members?

 GG: We auditioned some youngsters of which I knew they were talented because I had seen them play in my bar in local bands ( at 1st they did not know we were bringing CYCLONE back )  and we almost immediately had a great line-up with motivated people…..there was a click, a friendship…a real band having fun.

WC: A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the 80’s. Do you approach CYCLONE now the same way you did in the early days? 

GG: No, not at all....at a certain point in the past we had the feeling that this band could make it and we will just be doing this....now it is fun in it's purest form......we wanna have a good time, we have nothing to prove...we do  what we want...and hope to play where people want us and give them a good time as well.

 WC:Speaking of the old days, I just heard a new song by ACID today. That was one of the first bands you played with in Belgium. What are your memories of the early days of metal in Belgium? 

GG: Yeah, our very 1st show was with ACID....there was a certain rivalry in those days which we never understood as there was room for everybody.. .of course when new bands arrive and they get more interest, there can be problems. But we got along good with the other Belgian bands, i saw most of them several times live. Fact was that we were something different, we were the 1st band over here to play faster and more aggressive and that's why we almost never played with all those bands who were more traditional metal.

 WC: Your new EP “Known Unto God” really rips like old CYCLONE! Did it take a while to “knock the rust off” or did things click with the new band right away? 

GG: It kinda just happened...once we were rehearsing again ( 2 a week ) we started jamming again the 1st hour of each rehearsal and riffs just popped up from nowhere which resulted in ideas for new songs.

WC: The songs were shorter and more direct than the ones on the last CYCLONE album, “Inferior To None”, which tended to be long and technical. Was this the plan from the start or did it just happen naturally? 

GG: Yah, it also just happened, we didn't especially say we wanna make shorter songs. Once composing we just felt we didn't have to add unnecessary riffs and another break or change...we just made the songs like we felt it. For some songs it turned out to pass 4 minutes and for some barely 3 minutes....but it was how it felt and how it came out: natural.

 WC: Speaking of “Inferior to None”, that was an interesting album that showed a new side to the band, but few in the US are familiar with it. Was it something you were happy with at the time? 

GG: We were for sure happy with the songs. I still think there is outstanding stuff on it that  can compete with some of the better thrash bands of that time. We were also fond of working with producer Erik Greif and engineer Allan Pangelinan ( guitarist from DARKLIN REACH at the time ). If we would have had a budget ,this album could have sounded massive but we did record, produce, mix and master it in just 2 days and nights...but still i think it sounds great. Distribution wise it was a catastrophe. Before the album came out the label went bankrupt as they couldn't pay their bills. The already pressed CD stock remained for a year at the pressing plant...it wasn't until another smaller company took over Justice Records they finally released the album. Being the only metal band on a tiny non metal label wasn't the best thing that could happen, hence the poor distribution, promotion, etc......

 WC: You are now signed to M-Theory Audio. Did they seek you out? How did you hook up with them? 

GG: NO.....we contacted them. If you want a distribution worldwide you can or sign up with a bigger company and they want to hook you up exclusively for 10-15 years....that's what we had with Roadrunner/Roadracer back in the day and we didn't want that again. So I contacted smaller labels in Europe, US, South-America and Asia that were willing to go ahead with us for short-time deals, with a certain loyalty to each other and benefit for both. I had heard about Marco Barbieri as he's been around for a while and before I contacted him I felt he was going to be our guy....and he was.

WC: Have you had a chance to play live much with the newer version of the band?

GG: Oh yes....we did a lot of shows....Alcatraz Metal Fest (3x...2021,2022,2024 ) Graspop Metal Meeting, Keep It True Germany, Headbangers Open Air Germany, Eindhoven Metal Meeting, True Thrash Fest, Osaka, Japan, Metal Experience Metal Fest, Holland and a 28 date European tour in 2024 with MIDNIGHT ( US )  and loads of smaller festivals in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Bulgaria and lots of clubshows, too.

 WC: It looked for a while like CYCLONE was going to play the Blades of Steel fest in Wisconsin, which I attend every year, but that fell through. What caused the problem…Visa issues?

GG: Yep, Visa issues. First we had to wait til the end of the Covid restrictions to see if they were gonna let us in and after that it was a 10 month visa struggle where they finally couldn't give us any certainty if we would get them in time. So we couldn't have Randy the organizer book flights for 6000 dollars for a band that wasn't sure to get a visa in time....it was a huge disappointment for both us and him.

 WC: Have you had to change your approach to singing due to changes over time or is it pretty much business as usual?

GG: No, we try to keep in shape...hence twice a week rehearsal. It's like drinking beer....you have to do it on a regular basis to keep up.

WC: What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your years in the music business?

GG: As said before, don't hook up for 10-15 years exclusively with a record company. The fact is that things would have been totally different if we would have come out of the Bay Area instead of Belgium.

 WC: Can you tell us if you’ve got plans for a new full length and what are they?

GG: We do want to record some old songs from in between our 2 first albums that we never recorded and which we think stood the test of time...4-5 songs and maybe add 2 extra tracks of re-recordings of tracks from the 1st and 2nd album. After that ,we for sure have the plan to record a full length....several ideas are on the shelf for that..

WC: If you could have dinner with any three people from history (or current times), who would they be?

GG: Tough one.......Steve Harris, to convince him to keep Paul D'Ianno in IRON MAIDEN so Bruce Dickinson would have stayed with SAMSON ( a double win ), Rob Weir to convince him to keep Jess Cox in the TYGERS OF PAN TANG....and Fast Eddie Clarke to convince him to never leave MOTORHEAD......hahaha.....

 WC: In the long history of CYCLONE, have you ever had a “Spinal Tap” moment where things went crazy that you could tell us about?

GG: Man......there were so many moments of bad luck in this band! We named it the CYCLONE curse....that alone caused so many spinal tap moments.

 WC: Any last word for all the CYCLO-maniacs out there?

GG: We do hope old and new generation metalheads can appreciate our new musical offering...we do hope we can play in places where we never played and offer longtime and new fans that moment where we can share a great time of uncompromised intense metal....

CYCLONE