Abaddon

I

n 1994 Sander Bevers (guitar), Bas de Kruyff (vocals/bass) and Gijs van de Kerkhof (drums) decided to start a death metal band in the vein of Obituary. The band was originally named Simply Death. But the band made little initial progress and Bevers left the band, but after a couple of months he re-joined and the name was changed to Contra Malice and black metal was the new style to play. A couple of months later, the band found Frank de Groot to join the band as the second guitarist. With de Groot, the band also got a place to rehearse.

In 1997, Van de Kerkhof left the band because he wanted to play a different style of music. Danielle Claassen (vocals) soon after appeared, with Dirk Verspaget also later joining to fill the drum stool. The band was complete and they changed their name for the last time to Abaddon, still playing black metal. After some time, Claassen decided to quit singing and play keyboards.

In 1998, Abaddon recorded their first demo CD, Into The Twilight Kingdom.

In the summer of 1999 Claassen and Verspaget left the band. Fortunately, a new drummer in the form of Maurits van Sambeek would arrive. A couple of months later, Verspaget was back, this time as a keyboard player. The band was complete again and Abaddon recorded a new demo called Death in Magenta (2000).