The Dutch metal band Carach Angren released ‘Ik Kom Uit Het Graf’ (“I Emerge From The Grave”), a song marking a significant turn in its two-decade career. For the first time, the group, known for its elaborate, narrative-driven albums, has performed entirely in its native Dutch. The decision is a pointed artistic statement for a band that has built an international following largely through English, though it has previously incorporated French and German.

This return to their linguistic roots, however, appears to be less a retreat into the local than an act of creative consolidation, grounding the band’s complex horror narratives in a distinct and specific cultural history.

‘The Cult of Kariba’ and the Ghost of Schinveld

The new song is the first single from ‘The Cult of Kariba,’ an extended-play recording scheduled for release on October 17 by the French label Season of Mist. The EP is a direct sequel to the band’s 2008 debut album, ‘Lammendam,’ which was based on a local legend from the southern Netherlands about the ghost of a seventeenth-century woman.

‘The Cult of Kariba’ expands upon that story by introducing a new antagonist, a purported sorceress named Kariba. The recording’s five tracks are said to follow a modern cult’s attempt to resurrect her, with a story that moves from a ritual gathering to a human sacrifice and, finally, to the spirit’s rebirth.

The name Kariba, however, points to a wider geographical and mythological influence. It is not a Dutch name, but one with origins in the folklore of the Tonga people of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Lake Kariba, on the Zambezi River, is named from a Tonga word meaning “trap” and is considered the home of a river deity, Nyami Nyami. According to the legend, the construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s angered the god by separating him from his wife, and his wrath is said to cause floods and tremors.

Carach Angren engages in an act of narrative synthesis by grafting this African legend onto a Dutch ghost story. The local tale of the “White Lady of Schinveld” is fused with a more universal myth of nature’s vengeance, creating a broader commentary on the disruption of ancient forces.

From the Zambezi Valley: The Legend of Kariba

The name Kariba signals a mythological influence from far beyond Europe, originating with the BaTonga people of the Zambezi Valley. The name is derived from the word Kariwa, meaning “the trap,” which referred to a rock in the Kariba Gorge that was believed to be the home of the Zambezi River God, Nyami Nyami, a serpent-bodied, fish-headed deity who was traditionally seen as a benevolent protector.

This relationship between the deity and his people was fractured in the mid-1950s by the construction of the Kariba Dam, a massive hydroelectric project. The Tonga elders warned that building the dam would anger the god by separating him from his wife, who resided downstream. When their warnings were ignored, the construction was beset by a series of catastrophic floods—including a once-in-a-thousand-years event in 1958—that killed more than 80 workers and washed away equipment.

These events were interpreted as Nyami Nyami’s wrath. To this day, the Tonga people attribute local tremors and misfortunes to the river god’s eternal struggle to destroy the dam and reunite with his beloved. This synthesis of an African legend and a Dutch ghost story elevates the local tale into a universal myth of nature’s vengeance.

A Discography of Horror

This narrative approach is the result of a career dedicated to the concept album. Since its formation in Landgraaf in 2003, Carach Angren has focused almost exclusively on creating full-length narrative works. The band’s early recordings, the EPs ‘The Chase Vault Tragedy’ (2004) and ‘Ethereal Veiled Existence’ (2005), were based on specific paranormal tales, from moving coffins in Barbados to an English ghost story.

Their full-length albums expanded this method: ‘Lammendam’ (2008) explored the Schinveld legend, and ‘Death Came Through a Phantom Ship’ (2010) took on the myth of the Flying Dutchman. A shift came with ‘Where the Corpses Sink Forever’ (2012), which moved from the supernatural to the historical horrors of war.

The band’s exploration of real-world atrocity continued with the controversial 2015 album ‘This Is No Fairytale,’ a version of “Hansel and Gretel” that dealt with domestic violence and sexual abuse. Later albums have combined these supernatural and historical themes. ‘Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten’ (2017) was a story of demonic possession, while ‘Franckensteina Strataemontanus’ (2020) was a historical narrative based on the life of Johann Konrad Dippel, a seventeenth-century alchemist often cited as an inspiration for Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’

A Niche in the Dutch Metal Scene

In the Dutch music scene, Carach Angren has established a unique position. The Netherlands is known in international metal circles for two main styles: commercially successful symphonic metal bands, often with female vocalists, such as Within Temptation and Epica, and a more traditionalist black metal underground.

Carach Angren operates outside of both categories. The band combines the orchestral keyboards common in symphonic metal with the aggressive vocals and fast tempos of black metal. By defining its music as “horror metal,” the group has avoided the stylistic and ideological confines of either subgenre. This has allowed the band to focus on storytelling, with its musical style serving the needs of the narrative.

Visual Storytelling on Stage and Screen

The band’s focus on narrative extends to its live performances, which are theatrical productions. The vocalist, Dennis Droomers, who also designs and sells horror masks, often acts as a master of ceremonies.

That visual approach is also apparent in the music video for the new single, ‘Ik Kom Uit Het Graf.’ The video was directed by Zoran Bihac, a filmmaker known for his work with the German industrial band Rammstein. The collaboration with a director of Mr. Bihac’s profile suggests a strategy to align the band’s visual presentation with the detailed scope of its music.

The Art of Terror: The Masks of Seregor

Beyond his role as frontman, Dennis “Seregor” Droomers is a visual artist who handcrafts the grotesque masks that have become a signature of the band’s aesthetic. Sold under his own brand, these creations are not mere stage props but intricate works of horror art.

Working primarily with latex and silicone, Droomers sculpts and paints each mask to achieve a visceral, hyper-realistic quality. The designs often feature deep wounds, decaying flesh, and demonic expressions, reflecting a style grounded in body horror and the grotesque.

Artistically, the masks serve as a physical manifestation of the characters and entities from Carach Angren’s albums. A mask might represent a tormented spirit from one of their ghost stories or a creature from a darker folkloric tale. This practice deepens the band’s narrative world, allowing the abstract horrors of the music to take on a tangible, visual form. In this way, Droomers’s artistic work is inextricably linked to the band’s musical output, blurring the lines between performance, storytelling, and visual art, and creating a more immersive and multi-layered experience for the audience.

Conclusion

The work of Carach Angren can be seen as a modernization of the ghost story, one of the oldest forms of narrative. The band has consistently taken folkloric tales—from the local legend of a Dutch “White Lady” to the synthesis of global myths in ‘The Cult of Kariba’—and retold them through the visceral medium of extreme metal. In doing so, Carach Angren has become less a conventional band than a group of modern-day storytellers, ensuring that old ghosts are not merely remembered, but given new and amplified voices.