Invictus Unleashed: Inside the New Album ‘Despair’
Invictus is a Belgian straight-edge melodic death metal/metalcore band. They released their third album, ‘Despair,’ on Genet Records in 2024.
Invictus is a tight Belgian straight-edge band mixing melodic death metal with punk DIY vibes. These five longtime friends have been grinding for years, constantly evolving from metalcore roots to a heavier, darker sound. Their latest album, ‘Despair,’ digs deep into the mess of today’s world with honest lyrics. If you’re around, don’t miss them this Friday at Ieper Fest!
“We all carry our punk roots”
What does the name Invictus refer to?
Jo Vissers: Invictus consists of five sober souls who have all been playing in bands for quite some time. We’ve known each other for a long time, and several of us have played together in other bands. We play melodic death metal with a lot of meloblack influences, but we all carry our punk roots, very DIY in approach and with both feet on the ground.
Our first show dates back to 2018, but this was delayed due to Covid. For us, the release of the demo at the end of 2022 is the real starting point. In 2023, there was the split with Risale (TR), and at the end of 2024, our first full-length Despair went out into the world.
Do you have a clear plan or direction as a band?
At the start, the edge metal sound from the ’90s, bands like Congress and Liar (their second album is called Invictus), was the engine for our sound and the band. This is what we grew up with, and we missed it. But we quickly grew as a band, and also in style.
A number of us had already played in death metal bands, and we quickly evolved in that direction. In the meantime, those old influences can hardly be heard in our music, but we still carry the name. This means that many people expect something different when they see us play (although the reactions are rarely negative).
Do you play in any other bands besides Invictus?
We don’t have a plan. Work hard, write a lot, and gradually get better and (hopefully) bigger. Step by step.
Play a lot, wherever… it doesn’t matter to us which scene we play in, souls can be won everywhere. And we often put on shows ourselves too, because you build a scene yourself.
Do you have a background in other bands?
Currently, only Kurt is still playing in Head Of The Baptist and Inclusion, but a few other bands have recently disbanded.
What should listeners expect when they listen to Despair?
When people hear the record, they usually refer to bands like Dissection, Death, Darkthrone, Unleashed, At The Gates, The Haunted, Bolt Thrower, and the old Amon Amarth. I think those are good references for what we do. But we also notice that everyone notices different things in our songs and style.
What is Despair about?
I do the lyrics, and that mainly means writing down frustrations. While writing ‘Despair,’ this was mostly about looking at the world and the behavior of people and groups. And that world itself doesn’t seem very positive to me. Hence the title.
It’s not a concept album, but the various songs can be traced back to all the excesses and rot created by people, or the consequences thereof. The songs are about the extreme right, hypocrisy, suicides, dehumanization, oppression, etc.
Who are the people around you who support your music and vision?
Everyone from the Limburg Straight Edge scene, Tim BBMA, Bruno Genet, Alberto IMHE, Nico x24xedgewear, Nikolay Ugly and Proud, Thomas from Cactus Neon Studio, Cynthia who provides our shows with amazing vegan food, Stijn who provides our shows in Hal P with the venue, backline, and so much more, Yenthe who films our shows and fills in on drums when Alex can’t, De Rik and Niko from Lonercult/Travölta, Isaac Kissaak, Dennie Grondelaers, the ladies from No Pressure Bookings, Dirk from Moker, Dean and The Infernal Sea, Röt Stewart, Max Laisina, Diederik and Benny from Radio Scorpio, Maurice from De Muziekgieterij, Iwein from Humanity Defiled, the guys from SkullxCock — and I’m probably forgetting a lot more.
‘Despair’ is being released on Genet Records. Is Genet the highest platform you can reach in Belgium for the kind of music you make?
I think there are other labels, but then you immediately go to bigger players. And the deal we have with Genet, Bound By Modern Age, and In My Heart Empire (because ‘Despair’ was also released simultaneously in Germany and Spain) is a perfect deal for the DIY band that we are. We divided half of the records among the three labels, and the other half we bring to the people ourselves.
That gives us a lot of room to move merch as a band, and that quickly generates income again—as long as you want to work for it, of course. With the help of the labels, those records are distributed even further, which provides more opportunities for shows.
This is your third album. How does it compare to the previous two?
Albums 1 and 2 were actually recorded back to back. The finishing touches were done in different stages. Certainly, the songs from that first demo date back to the very beginning and were much more in the metalcore vein. With the full-length, we had gone through a complete transition to a melodic death and melodic black metal band. Our approach and behavior are often still very DIY and punk, but the music is metal. This is the evolution that we always wanted. Now we bring a nice mix in which many different people and styles can be found. We write what we like and try to gradually aim a step further, better, and higher.
At the moment, there are already four new songs ready, and there are still two or three in the finishing touches. There are plans for a split in 2026, but nothing concrete enough to reveal yet. Afterwards, we would like to start on the next full-length.
What are your memories of the recording process for ‘Despair’?
We are a DIY band, so we recorded guitars and bass ourselves again. For the vocals and drums, we went to Thomas Vangelooven from Neon Cactus Studio again. Thomas is a good friend who always helps us with the recordings, the mix, and the mastering, and makes small suggestions during the process that really finish it off. In the meantime, we consider him a bit like a sixth band member.
‘Despair’ is beautifully released on colored and transparent vinyl. Is that important to you — having a physical format in an age dominated by digital releases?
Yes, we do attach importance to this. We were all raised staring at covers and digging through record and CD bins for hours before spending our saved money on an album … albums that people had been tinkering with and thinking about for a long time. This is how music is meant to be: on a physical carrier that you can work on and play. But it can also be forgotten in a record cabinet, only to be suddenly brought back from under the dust and rediscovered.
We think it’s important that this looks good and decent, so that people are happy with both the music and the carrier. I also design and screen-print a number of extra special edition sleeves myself. For the ‘Despair’ release, there were 66 records in three different colors.
We also released ‘Despair’ on CD — a medium that has been declared dead by the mainstream, but actually still sells quite well, certainly among the metal audience.
You grew up in Hoeselt. What was it like there in the ’90s?
Hoeselt was and still is a dead municipality full of uniformity, from which I fortunately escaped. Going to college (still 1000x thanks to my parents) was an eye-opener because I did not fit in at all in Hoeselt. It was all rather generic, tame, and boring. I did meet a few people who sent me in the right direction musically, but most of them also left.
Was there a local punk and/or metal scene there and then? Did you have friends who listened to this kind of music? Were there concerts? Were there places where you could perform as a starting band? Were there record stores you could go to?
There was one CD store where I once picked up ‘Chaos AD’ by Sepultura (my first metal record), but other than that, the selection was sad.
There was one metal band, Death’s Bride, but they were a lot older than us, so I mainly heard all sorts of things about them. There was no scene. In ’99, we started an HC-metal zine with three of us, which later grew into three successful editions of Green Smarties Fest, an indoor festival full of metal and HC bands. So the little that was in Hoeselt, we did ourselves and was often looked down upon.
How did you get into heavy music? What drew you to the hard work it demands?
I once heard ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath, and that intrigued me. Through the grapevine, I then got ‘Dehumanizer’ by Sabbath (of course copied onto cassette). Via Therapy? and Rage, I quickly went louder and faster. The discovery, as a 15-year-old, of a whole hardcore scene in West Flanders and Limburg was essential. Suddenly, there were shows everywhere around us with bands full of guests who were only a little older than us and lived a few villages away. However, for me, that was limited to bedroom screaming for a long time. But when your best mate suddenly buys a bass, plans become more concrete and you try — not always with the same success — to set something up. Perseverance and growth brought relief.
I see fewer younger people starting bands, but I hope that they will continue to take those steps. Young bands are not always full of musicality and professionalism, but they are full of energy and the right spirit. All those old farts in the scene (that’s us) have to support them and give them opportunities. Our first bands didn’t hang out much either.
There’s an Invictus T-shirt featuring a drawing made by your son. Does everything in this genre always have to be serious?
Well, it certainly doesn’t always have to be serious … we are a fun bunch. Musically, we have been trying to take a more serious path the last two years. We have something to say and bring, and we want to be taken seriously in this.
Now, the design in question is from about 5–6 years ago. I do some amateur screen printing myself, and I thought it would be cool to make a few children’s shirts with his drawing and our logo above it. This has never been official merch, but something for some children of friends.
After you left Limburg, you moved to Leuven. Is that when you started your radio program?
No, that was much later, in a period when I was also very much in the stoner and psych rock scene in Leuven, that’s how I got into Radio Scorpio, which resulted in 19 years of making weekly radio. We closed this chapter at the end of September last year, but the penultimate episode was one in which myself and our guitarist Kurt were interviewed in the context of the record that was released a few weeks later.
Joeri Bruyninckx
Invictus Instagram
Genet Records Website / Facebook / Instagram
Ieper Hardcore Fest Website
