Diablo Blvd

Diablo Blvd was the unlikely heavy metal project of Alex Agnew, better known across the Benelux as a successful stand-up comedian, who founded the band in 2005 with guitarist Dave Hubrechts. The rest of the lineup was drafted from other bands: Andries Beckers of Born from Pain came in on guitar and took up songwriting duties, Tim Bekaert of A Brand handled the bass, and Kris Martens of Tangled Horns sat behind the kit.

A cassette demo, Scarred and Undefeated, arrived in 2006 and got them signed to Play It Again Sam. They spent two years on the debut, The Greater God, produced by Ace Zec, which reached number 33 on the Belgian album chart in 2009 and put them on the bills at Graspop Metal Meeting and Pukkelpop.

Builders of Empires, in 2011, was mixed by the Swedish producer Jens Bogren and entered the Belgian chart at number 21. It's chest-out, riff-first heavy rock with plenty of hard rock swagger, and "Black Heart Bleed" swells into something close to an anthem whenever they play it live. "Saint of Killers", built around a fictional character, became their first music video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.