Defender biography

The story of Defender begins in the autumn of 1984, when Bart decided to leave Hammerhawk, the band he was part of at the time. Together with Jack (Defender's roadie and unofficial sixth member), he began making plans to form a new band. The first challenge was finding new members, which proved difficult at the time, as pop cover bands were far more popular than metal bands.

Bart and Remco met for the first time at a Dio and Queensrÿche concert in Amsterdam and began rehearsing their first songs shortly after. Not long after their initial meeting, Simon and Harm joined the band. Within a few months, this lineup recorded the Tales of the Unexpected demo at Oktopus Studio in early 1985.

Immediately after recording the demo, the band welcomed a second guitarist, Jozzy, and serious live performances began. Throughout 1985 and 1986, Defender played numerous gigs across the Netherlands, both as a headliner and alongside bands like Martyr, Allied Forces, Hammerhawk, Cyclone, and Agent Steel. Meanwhile, the demo was spreading worldwide, generating a wave of positive reactions.

Thanks to all the attention, several labels expressed strong interest, ultimately leading to a contract with the newly established metal label 'Metalloid.' In the winter of 1985, test recordings were made at Silvox Studio, but bad luck struck. After releasing Martyr's new album, Metalloid ran out of funds to produce Defender's debut album and ceased all operations.

Despite this setback, Defender remained optimistic about the future, encouraged by the overwhelming mail they received from fans worldwide. Unfortunately, the collapse of Metalloid marked a turning point in the band's history. Due to musical and personal differences, the band decided to part ways with Jozzy in the summer of 1986. Shortly after his departure, Jozzy was replaced by Stef, who was just 15 years old at the time but already showed exceptional talent.

In September of that year, Bart played his final gig with the band, as he could no longer balance his work with the band's activities. With only one guitarist and no record deal, Defender had to reconsider their plans and took a break from live performances for over a year. Finding a suitable replacement for Bart became a top priority so the search for a record deal could resume.

In the autumn of 1986, a band called 'Angantyr' performed live at a club in Alkmaar. Several members of Defender attended the show and were impressed by the skills and personality of Henk, one of the guitarists. They invited him to join the band, and from that moment on, Defender had a new, young, and talented guitar duo. With this fresh lineup, the band began writing songs in their signature style: melodic, up-tempo tracks.

With only one demo tape released in the past two years, securing a record deal was a challenge. Determined to move forward, the band financed studio time (thanks to Harm!) to record five songs, enlisted a friend to design the record sleeve, and began reaching out to record labels. They didn’t have to wait long: CBS Records expressed interest and agreed to release City ad Mortis. After a year of rehearsing and recording, Defender made their comeback with a live performance on Dutch National Radio, sharing the stage with Jewel and Hammerhawk.

By Dutch metal standards at the time, the record sold remarkably well, and City ad Mortis remained in the top ten of best-selling albums in Noord-Holland (one of the provinces of the Netherlands) for almost a year. The band performed live nearly every week and enjoyed plenty of media attention. However, as every musician knows, success requires more than just writing good songs and performing them well—you need the right people behind you to truly advance in the music world. This lesson became clear to the band after touring the Netherlands extensively for over a year.

Touring was a lot of fun, especially with some good friends who always supported the band (Frank, José, Huib, Andre, and Lennert). However, after a few years of playing in the Netherlands, it would have been great to take the music elsewhere and perform in new places.

At that time, the band believed that by playing more professionally, the right people would eventually come along. Many agencies were contacted, and bassist Harm was told that he needed to improve his consistency within six months, or the band would have to look for a new bassist.

In the following months, Harm put a lot of effort into improving his bass playing, but in the eyes of the band, it wasn’t enough to reach the expected level, so he had to leave. Arwin, a friend of the band, replaced him, and Harm even helped him practice all the songs.

Well, what can we say... another fresh start, but now with a new bassist and a completely different feel within the band. After every lineup change, it always felt different, like breaking up with your old girlfriend and starting a new life—both good and bad emotions combined!

During Harm’s final months, the band was once again writing new songs. The musical style shifted in 1988 from bombastic tracks to melodic speed metal. Defender wasn’t a band that produced 10 songs a month; they would write songs and keep refining them over and over again until they felt it was truly finished.

Sometimes it took 6 months to fully complete a song, and older songs were adjusted every year. After completing the songs The Journey and Tales of the Unexpected, Defender began recording at Silvox Studios for the promotional single Journey to the Unexpected. Once again, it was a lot of fun in the studio, and after 3 days, the two songs were recorded and mixed.

At the same time, 'Catch Agency' was handling all of the band's bookings, and the first thing the band did with the agency was the Hardrock Can’t Tolerate Fascism tour in the Netherlands. Alongside Jewel and many other bands, Defender played at the famous Dynamo club. Throughout 1989, the band performed many gigs with Jewel. At the end of 1989, 'Catch Agency', along with people from Aardschok Magazine, arranged a tour with U.S. speed metal band Toxik.

Yeaaaah!! This was a band that played the same style as Defender and was very popular at the time. The tour began in January 1990 at the Scum Club in Katwijk (the same place Defender had played with Agent Steel a couple of years earlier). This venue was notoriously tough for Dutch bands, as the audience was spoiled with foreign bands every week, but Defender managed to connect with the crowd and performed very well.

This was also the case at all the other gigs with Toxik. American musicians who came to watch their friends in Belgium couldn’t believe that Defender didn’t have a record deal!
It really was a lot of fun for almost two weeks.

After this tour, the band still didn’t have a deal, and the metal scene in the Netherlands started to change very quickly. Death metal and grunge were becoming major players, and the majority of these bands were willing to play for just a couple of beers. This was something Defender didn’t want, and after a few more gigs, the band came together to make a tough decision: keep playing with the risk of becoming a frustrated band, or quit and hold on to the great memories of the last six years.

Defender chose the second option!

In 2007, Defender reunited for special performances, including a spot at the Keep It True festival in Germany and headlining Up the Hammers festival in Athens. That same year, the band also toured the Netherlands alongside Diamond Head, marking a brief return to the live stage.

The band's most recent achievement is the 2025 re-release of City ad Mortis through Hammerheart Records. In addition to the five original tracks, the reissue includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks from the City ad Mortis era, recorded by the original lineup.