Badlands

Under the influence of rock ‘n’ roll, hardcore, punk and oi!, singer/songwriter Victor Nefkens began to write his first songs. The first rehearsals began in 1999 together with Wouter Davids (Razorblade, Rebellion Records) on drums and Victor on guitar and vocals. They made a few demo tapes and used different bandnames such as ‘The Hammers’, ‘After the Fire’ and ‘The Lynch Boys’. It never became serious though, and after a while they called it a day.
In the meanwhile Victor had written enough material to fill a whole album. Wouter, who believed in the quality of the songs, already had plans to start an indie record label. So he saved some cash to invest in the whole idea. Together with a few session musicians, Victor went into the studio to record the ‘False Gestures’ album. It was the beginning for both ‘Badlands’ and ‘Rebellion Records’.
The album was an instant success. It received rave reviews and sold well. However, the band couldn’t play live because there was no stable line up. But soon enough Victor came in touch with Niels Venrooy, the bassplayer from the Dutch skinhead band ‘Offside’. They decided to work together. After a while Eef Hendriks (also from Offside) and Sander v/d Hoogen (Cave Head Violence) joined in, and the original Badlands line up was complete.
With this line up they played shows in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and England. They also made two more albums. After the release of their final album ‘The Killing Kind’, the band was invited by GMM (who licensed the cd’s for USA distribution) to play on the Beer Olympics. But Badlands never made it overseas. They played their last show in June 2004.
In 2005 Victor went back into the studio to record 4 acoustic tracks for the ‘Flame still Burning’ album, which also contains a re-mastered version of ‘False Gestures’ and 11 live tracks. With this album the story of Badlands is completed. Or is it? As of March 28th, 2008 Rebellion Records released "When Angeles Are Crucified. Badlands is back after 3 years of radio silence and present you their hardest and most raw rocking album ever, and hopefully more will come from this talented band. Cheers!
This page is currently operated by ShawnHain with permission from Viktor Nefkens and Rebellion Records. If you want to talk to Viktor, contact him at the Soultamer Myspace,
Cheers.