Doomed Confessionary: Blev, Joel, Ivar & Kareem (Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World)

Dutch neo-psychedelic doom outfit Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World emerged from occlusion in 2025 to bring their distinctive take on low ‘n’ slow fuzz to the cobbled streets of Amsterdam and beyond. Rumbling and chaotic but usually also tuneful despite their efforts, in addition to the traditional instrumentation and [mostly] clean vocals, this 4-piece features electric violin and enough FX, loopers, and feedback to simulate a small orchestra.

Stylistically they veer from early Sabbath to spaced-out noise, funeral doom, and ham-fisted sludge. Their first 2 singles, »Man Of Stated Age« and »Bad Winter«,’ reached Bandcamp and streaming services in October of that year, followed in November by a live cover of The Cure’s »The Hanging Garden« that makes the original sound positively chipper.

They have a collection of remixes/collaborations in progress with Megaton Leviathan, Buzzard, Prophets Of Thwaites, and more due in April 2026; with plans to record a full-length album in the Spring.

Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World are Blev Lavoux (vocals, violin), Ivar van der Heijden (bass), Joel Bordeaux (guitar, electronics) and Kareem de Vries (drums).

Can you please say a few words about your band?
Ivar: We’re a psychedelic doom band, with some experimental tendencies, from Amsterdam, two Americans and two Dutchies.

Joel: Blev and I started the band in late 2024 with the idea of taking ‘doomgaze’ back to first principles. Where are the actual commonalities between doom metal and the noisier end of shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine? Volume, feedback, odd guitar tunings, focus on texture and effects, simplicity and repetition, playing ‘out of tune’ or out of key… the fundamental sonic difference, we figured, was shoegaze bands usually avoided blues and politics. But obviously we live in a time of blues and politics, so here we are.

Kareem: We’re all from radically different musical backgrounds. I’d say we are developing our own sound…trying to create music that is meant to be actively listened to.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Joel: We’re still pretty new and also relatively broad in genre terms, so balancing what kind of thing to release at which stage has been tricky. How much of the spacey psychedelic stuff vs the heavier ‘despair, violence, and doom’ kind of material. So at any given point people can get a balanced sense of what we’re about.

What can you be most proud of so far?
Ivar: Recording our singles and all the remixes people made of those songs. Incredible!

Joel: Yeah, self recording. We did those singles for just about €500 total – well, and a lot of time. And as there were so many layers, I’m especially glad that so many cool people agreed to participate in »Acts And Bones«, the remixes record we’re bringing out in April. If you’ve heard the singles by Buzzard and Megaton Leviathan, you’ll understand well enough that we have some wildly different versions of those songs coming, from industrial and dub to borderline ambient… Some of these mixes also showcase what’s under the hood of the singles: the stacks of vocals and synths and so on that listeners have mostly only been able to ‘feel’ so far, and a few are so thoroughly reworked that basically only the drums from the original recordings are there in recognizable form! It’s going to surprise a lot of people, we think.

Kareem: I think that we’ve been able to knock out and hone in on somewhat complex arrangements, and get them in a spot ready for performance and recordings in a relatively short amount of time.

Also, we were able to cover a lot of bases for our first gig, from awesome custom visual projections, to merch, to managing custom backing tracks setup.

What was your biggest regret?
Ivar: Personally, I got caught up in serious Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I needed a few things for my sound, but I went a bit too far. At least I won’t be needing new gear for a while.

Joel: Not getting 35 minutes of material stage ready as a first priority. We wrote an hour of original material before we even started booking shows, when we could have got out there with half that + a cover and started playing out sooner. We had to turn down some gigs back in November and that definitely stung a bit.

Blev: Not using my megaphone sooner.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Blev: We just played in a repurposed fallout shelter in our hometown, known as Vondelbunker, which is a cultural center that operates in the autonomous tradition. Aside from the historic place and the great people running it, we adore the Amsterdam crowd. Everyone’s openness and active participation made it an almost conspiratorial, special night. What makes it the best has everything to do with it being a collective affair.

Ivar: An old cold-war bunker, a squat, in the middle of the city, a really great experience, literally True Underground.

Joel: Also we were shooting for a video (coming soon!), so it was extra sweet to do that in such a hardcore DIY environment with such an engaged crowd.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Ivar: The number of people willing to do remixes for us, and wanting to share a stage. So cool.

Joel: Compared to the US, Dutch metal shows are very genteel, very polite affairs. The pit, when there is one, is well contained and people are very contentious with crowd surfers. Most clubs serve Belgian-style ales in glass glasses! And they feed the bands. Quite civilized.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Ivar: The latest Converge album really blew me away.

Blev: Prophets Of Twaites, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Divide And Dissolve, Cwfen (their track »Penance« is fantastic).

Joel: I tend to listen to stuff to get hyped for upcoming shows, so at the moment I’m also on Divide And Dissolve as well as Blood Incantation, Acid King; Teardrinker and Ontaard from our local scene. Old standbys Eyehategod and Sunn O))) though those are the same night so that’s really cutting the baby in two! Pumping a lot of Full Of Hell and The Body as well, even though I’ll probably miss them live since we have shows the day before and day after… Finally, they’re not playing around here any time soon as far as I know, but I’ve really been getting into Year Of The Cobra, which is Amy Barrysmith’s stateside thing when she’s not doing Amenra or Slower.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Kareem: Regardless of what you’re supposed to play, if you play it; it’s ‘your sound.’

Ivar: My old bass teacher told me, back in the day: ‘If you want to go offroad, feel free.’

Joel: I was actually pretty serious about trumpet as a young teenager – would practice 4 hours a day and had a tutor for a while. I used to come into lessons and play through whatever pieces I’d prepared. Sometimes I thought I aced it, and then this guy would say ‘ok, now play it again at half speed. If you can’t play it at half speed, you can’t actually play it.’ Often that was so much harder. You had to really know exactly where every piece fit and be very deliberate. So that’s my doom-appropriate musical advice.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Kareem: Nu-metal 😀

Ivar: Singing along to Modern Talking while doing the dishes.

Blev: We’re working on a track now where I can’t help but notice some vocal parts that have an almost subliminal influence of late ‘90s Sunny Day Real Estate, which shares some of our post-punk inclinations but is also among my musical security objects.

Joel: Well, I don’t feel guilty about my musical tastes because they’re impeccable. But I will bring the vibe down now with some Global North self-flagellation: flying, cheap electronics, long hot showers, dairy, and leather.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in the Netherlands?
Ivar: There is a scene, but it’s smaller than in decades past when there were so many small venues.

Joel: There’s a lot that could be said about the history of Dutch metal, especially in the symphonic-leaning side of things. Some of that higher concept, prog-adjacent ethos seems to linger in the DNA of a lot of even the death and black metal bands around here. Often you can also still see the influence of the famous early 90s Belgian hardcore punk scene as well. Of course if I –especially as a newcomer – look around and say ‘the local metal scene has these kind of arty and political tendencies,’ that’s doubtless got a lot to do with what I’m also looking for. Selection bias, you know. There’s an increasingly coherent stoner/psych scene here in Amsterdam itself spearheaded by this organization called Wormhole Cult that keeps a steady stream of good shows going, but the Dutch scene we identify with the most I’d say is actually kind of loosely oriented around this informal national network called Duister Collectief: just like-minded bands, visual artists, technical crew etc. all working together to make dark and heavy music events happen. So there are very cool people to work with at multiple levels.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Joel: Here in Amsterdam and around the Netherlands in the near term: Utrecht, Heerenveen, Leiden… But we have some shows coming together either late this year or early 2027 in France and Germany. We’re certainly keen to venture further abroad if venues can offset our travel expenses!

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Joel: Well, we have this remix album »Acts And Bones« coming out in April and along with that a video for one of our collaborations with Megaton Leviathan: »Bad Winter (The Great Thaw RMX)«. Then we start recording for our own full-length the same month. That’s tentatively titled »The Hour« and should be ready by September. We’ll have some live recordings including video trickling out over the next few months too, and we’re already working on songs for a second record.

Ivar: Hopefully we can release a limited amount of the new album on vinyl, but that’s all a matter of budget.

Joel: Fingers crossed. Beyond that, play out as much as we can manage, refining our live set with synced lights and eventually some situationist fuckery. We’re actively developing 3 distinct versions of the set so we can calibrate for our mood, the venue, and whoever we’re playing with. Different combinations of songs or ways of playing ‘the same’ songs, so depending on the night you might get more aggressive sludge, psychedelic drone, or mournful doom as the overall vibe.

How can people best support your band?
Kareem: Other than purchasing our music through Bandcamp, simply sharing and interacting with us on social media really helps us out!

Joel: First, just listen to the music. That is, after all, the whole point and we love to see it. Beyond that, play it for your friends. Post about it wherever you post about music. Use it as background in your livestreams or cat videos or whatever (and tag us).

Ivar: Come to a show, buy a shirt and wear it proud…

Blev: Go to shows in general! Operational venues are crucial to keeping a metal scene going (if it weren’t for functional backlines, we wouldn’t be able to make such a racket, for example). So, keep showing up to local venues and enjoy the company of people there, both in your town and when you travel, or get organized and create your own space for loud performance.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Ivar: We hope you enjoy listening to our music as much as we do creating it, and hopefully we can discover new musical areas together. Although we’re rooted in doom metal, that doesn’t mean we’re strictly limited to that area exclusively. We’ll see what the future might bring.

Blev: Bones are the essential material, the strange deposits.

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Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well