Band: Thrive
From: Haarlem, Netherlands
Their formation story:
(Jean-Paul, bass): “Bigma [vocalist of Mainstrike] had been toying with the idea of starting a new band for quite some time. During the summer of 2023, while in Berlin for a Mainstrike reunion show, Bigma, Björn, and I went for a run and ended up at Brammibal’s Donuts in Neukölln, where the first ideas for starting a band were born.”
“Bigma already had a good amount of song material recorded on guitar at home and started jamming with Pepijn and JP. They soon came to the conclusion that there was a need to add another guitar player to the lineup.
“Things came together when Rouven recorded some songs at his home studio and asked Björn to add vocals to them. Björn told Rouven about plans to start a band with three Dutch guys and asked Rouven to join. That’s how we had our first band practice on July 10 in Haarlem, Netherlands, and the rest is history.”
Their sound in their own words:
“All of our past bands played a big role in our overall sound. So did ’90s Hardcore and bands like Burn, Gorilla Biscuits, Absolution, Quicksand, and Outspoken. The influences are driven by all members, as we all tend to listen to different bands and have a lot of additional influences from outside of hardcore.”
Latest release info:
“Our first release, Fighting Shadows, just came out: eight songs on 12" vinyl and cassette, which we’ve poured a lot of passion into over the past few months. It’s a record on which we grew and developed as a band in a very natural way and, above all, challenged ourselves.
“We set out to make music that we simply love playing together as a five-piece, without thinking in boxes beforehand. We bring together the music that we commonly love most, shaped by the emotions, experiences, and stories behind our lyrics. It’s fair to say that we mix early ’90s Hardcore with modern grooves and a different kind of riffing.
“The song ‘Fighting Shadows’ was the first impulse and basically the starting point for finding our style for the record. From there, we started to rearrange old songs and focused on flow, groove, lyrics, and singing style as well. What you get is a piece of work created from the hearts of aging souls that expresses who we are, what we’ve experienced, and a bit of a perspective we’d like to offer to other minds.
“As if we weren’t busy enough with our professional lives, families, and athletic/endurance sport goals, our debut record is extra special to us because we also kept the direction of the release in our own hands. Rouven took on the task of recording everything, while Jean-Paul handled the design. Once we had collectively settled on a theme and title as a band, we asked Melinda Beck (Quicksand, Bad Trip) to create a fitting illustration.
“So yes, even in 2026, hardcore is more than just music.”
Future plans:
“We want to play more shows, have our music heard, promote the record, meet up with old friends at shows, and make new ones.
“For 2027, we’re looking into weekend trips, and if our work allows us to get everyone’s schedules aligned, a tour before the summer would be great! We might be a bit older, but we’re still crazy about hardcore, and we give everything for the band.”
What other bands from their region should we check out?
“There are a lot of new and great bands like Megalomaniacs, Beyond Cruelty, Spirit Crusher, Life Beyond, Inclusion, Strength, ClearXCut, Spiral, Maximum Pain, Crime Dawg, Chemical Threat, Zero Mentality, Enfired, In Sin, and Preemptive Strike.
“Pretty much all of the newer bands that release tapes via DITS Records. Kai, who runs DITS Records, is keeping our local scene alive and building bridges between bands with old farts like us and the new breed of bands.”
Fighting Shadows is available on vinyl (Devarshi Records) and cassette (Death in the Streets Records).
Thrive on social media: Instagram
Tagged: mainstrike, thrive
