Tropical Fuck Storm + Maria Iskariot

4th September 2025 • Reflektor

  • Doors • 19:30
  • Tropical Fuck Storm
  • Maria Iskariot

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Tropical Fuck Storm

Genre-bending Tropical Fuck Storm announces their highly anticipated fourth album, ‘Fairyland Codex,’ out June 20th, 2025, on their new label home Fire Records. Recorded with co-producer Michael Beach at the band’s Dodgy Brothers studio in Nagambie, Australia, the songs on ‘Fairyland Codex’ immerse us in the chaos of a fateful landslide, picking out the characters that litter the impending collapse of society.

Tropical Fuck Storm formed when guitarist and vocalist Gareth Liddiard and bassist and vocalist Fiona Kitschin’s previous band, The Drones, went on hiatus in 2016. Joined by guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Erica Dunn and drummer Lauren Hammel, the group has released a string of critically acclaimed albums and gained a reputation for their incendiary live shows.

Acidic, acerbic, anarchic; Tropical Fuck Storm’s command of wordplay, undercut by snarling guitars, pulsing rhythms, and explosive salvos, populates a hinterland between light and dark. The vocal interplay between Liddiard and the soaring harmonies of Kitschin and Dunn creates a teetering balancing act that’s intensified by the frantic narratives that evolve from their collective psyche.

“There’s an Anna Akhmatova poem where she talks about how much life sucks and how the world is just a shithole full of arseholes then she says something like, ‘why then do we not despair?’.” Liddiard pontificates, “Charles Darwin could give her the short answer, but music has the 12-inch metaphysical party mix solution.”

‘Fairyland Codex’ features artwork from long-time collaborator Joe Becker.

Maria Iskariot

Maria Iskariot is the patron saint of debatable behavior. It’s punk rock from Belgium. Hopeful hopelessness in noisy stanza, chorus, stanza. Love for the unloved, too little, too late but primarily a knee-jerk reaction to sinners.

Maria Iskariot attempts to find a shred of hope in an almost all-encompassing hopelessness. “I had forgotten that things could be different,” roar the bold offspring of the capitalist-realist world.

Equal parts panic attack, pseudo-philosophical pamphlet, and flash-in-the-pan explosion, the punk band from Flanders invites anyone teetering on the edge to riot with them—though in a controlled setting, of course. And no breaking stuff, please, because so much is already broken.

Their debut EP EN/EN, released in April 2024 on the Dutch label Burning Fik, is about growing up, being unable to distinguish right from wrong, being confused by the self and the conditions of this time. It’s about wanting different, but not knowing how – and ultimately realizing that we too are all benevolent assholes.

After a live video of “Leugenaar” went viral, they got picked up by Tropical Fuck Storm to support them on their UK and Scandinavian tour, proving that the band’s energy shatters language barriers. UK journalist and Kurt Cobain confidant Everett True perfectly summed up their live energy:

Maria Iskariot killed. Shredded. Ruled. Owned the entire crowd, from the moment the lady in the middle jumped straight into the audience and forced them to sing
along – individually at first, then collectively – with words they couldn’t even pronounce let alone understand, but increasingly, lustily, shouted along with. She ran straight to the back, leapt onto speakers, pulled the same trick again, and beside her bandmates clashed guitars and thundered a mighty thunder: like all the aforementioned but with lashings of humour and fearless youth, and soul. Such a good feeling.

Maria Iskariot has a distinct artistic and social vision, which is reflected in their music and lyrics. The band blends raw Dutch-language punk with themes of self-discovery, growing up, and the moral ambiguity between good and evil.

This last theme is also embedded in their name: a fusion of Maria (the Virgin Mary) and Iskariot (Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus), symbolizing the tension between holiness and betrayal.

They see their music as a medium for storytelling, often unfiltered and confrontational, yet also playful and relatable. Maria Iskariot emphasizes authenticity and expression, refusing to conform to classic pop or rock structures. This aligns with their punk attitude: scream when necessary, whisper when it fits, and always create from a place of raw, honest emotion.

Their music and image also carry a feminist and inclusive undercurrent. Their lyrics are often introspective but also socially critical, never moralizing. They play with contrasts and dualities: tenderness vs. aggression, chaos vs. control, and hope vs. despair.

Maria Iskariot is not just a punk band but an artistic and social statement. They prove that Dutch-language punk doesn’t have to be nostalgic – it can be urgent, fresh, and groundbreaking.