Bodine

Bodine was a Dutch Heavy metal band from The Hague, The Netherlands, active from 1978 to 1984. It consisted of Iron Anthony (Arjen Lucassen) (guitar), Jay van Feggelen (vocals, later replaced by Axel Jozef Langemeijer), Rheno Xeros (guitar), Armand van der Hoff (bass), and Gerard Haitsma (drums). Bodine was the first professional band in which Arjen Lucassen worked full-time as a guitarist.

The band released three albums: Bodine (1981), Bold as Brass (1982) and Three Times Running (1983). Bodine debuted with Jay van Feggelen as the vocalist, who performed as the Barbarian in the album Into the Electric Castle by Ayreon. The creator of Ayreon, Arjen Anthony Lucassen, tried becoming the lead singer of Bodine, but was added as a guitarist instead. The band is currently inactive. In 2012, Jay van Feggelen joined The Southside Blues Revue as lead singer under the alias Jay Bodean, a clear reference to his Bodine past. Arjen stayed in Bodine from 1980 to 1984 and did two albums with them: "Bold as Brass" and "Three Time Running". This was Arjen´s debute. He joint Vengeance in 1984, and the rest is history.

Around 1974, drummer Gerard Haitsma left the hard rock band Lava. For two years, he trained his drumming at a ballet school. After that, he met guitarist Rene Rijsdijk (Rheno Xeros). The two jammed together and found a permanent bassist in Armand van der Hoff. After some time in the rehearsal room, they began looking for a singer and met Jan van Feggelen, who came from Amsterdam. Van Feggelen had already gained experience in various rock and blues bands. The first songs were written. From 1978 onwards, they began playing live, first under the name Dorreen, then as Bodine.

The band's original line-up consisted of singer Jan Van Feggelen, guitarist Rheno Xeros, bassist Armand van der Hoff, and drummer Gerard Haitsma. After a brief interlude with Richard Cornelisse as second guitarist, a tape of recordings was given to Alfred Lagarde, a radio presenter friend. After listening to it, he secured the band a recording contract with Rhinoceros Records (distributed by WEA International). The recording contract marked the beginning of the promotional phase. Bodine's music was played by several radio stations. Gerard Du Prie supported the campaign. The self-titled debut album was presented to the radio stations in the shape of a concrete block to represent how "heavy" the music was. The album was finally released in 1981 and was well received by the Dutch press.

It sold approximately 12,000 copies.

Bold as Brass followed in 1982 with new singer Axel Jozef Langemeijer, and second guitarist Arjen Lucassen, nicknamed "Iron Anthony." The album sold approximately 20,000 copies across Europe. Three Times Running was released in 1983 without Armand van der Hoff. Jeroen "Jeronimo" Bos was listed as the new bassist, but he was not heard on this album. Instead, the bass was played by the two guitarists. This album also sold quite well, selling around 22,000 copies worldwide.

After the Earthquake Festival in 1984, the band broke up in August. Arjen Lucassen left to join Vengeance. They were replaced by Henry van Manen (ex-Picture) and Herman Frank (ex-Accept). The band ultimately disbanded.

Around 1992, a new attempt was made. Erik van der Ven, Gerard Haitsma, Jeroen Bos, and Oscar Holleman worked on new material. Initially, Robert Soeterboek (ex-Vulture) was supposed to take over vocals, but then Jan van Feggelen returned.

The 1981 debut album Bodine was mainly Blues rock in the style of Bad Company, Status Quo and Whitesnake. From the second album onwards the style changed to the then popular Heavy metal, which was strongly influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver also wrote in The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal that the band is often compared to Whitesnake, but that Bodine has more power. They described the music as bluesy metal.

Martin Popoff also described the band's debut album in his book, The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties as blues metal, although the band turned more towards metal in its later stages. The band sounds like the best of Whitesnake on the album, as good as Bad Company has ever been and as good as ZZ Top could have been. He compared the guitar work to that of Accept. However, he felt that the album was released ten years too early, before retro bands The Four Horsemen and The Black Crowes became popular.

"Bold as Brass" is significantly more metal-oriented, although the band still retains a bluesy element. Martin Popoff again drew a comparison to Accept. The band continues its path of leaning more towards metal on "Three Times Running". The group is also still comparable to Accept. However, the drumming hardly varies across the eight songs on the album. In his review of the re-release of "Three Times Running", Andreas Schöwe of Metal Hammer wrote that the electric guitars are reminiscent of the sound of bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Bodine

Music style

Albums

Former Members