Mintzkov

Mintzkov came out of Lier, Belgium, in 1996, and spent their early years under a longer name, Mintzkov Luna. That's what they were called when they won Humo's Rock Rally in 2000, and when they put out their debut album, M for Means and L for Love, in 2003. The core was Philip Bosschaerts on guitar and lead vocals, Lies Lorquet on bass and backing vocals, and Min Chul Van Steenkiste on drums, with Pascal Oorts on keyboards until 2018. Bert Van den Roye played guitar through 2003, and Daan Scheltjens took over from then until 2018.

By the time they'd trimmed the name, the sound had tightened too: taut, melodic rock with a nervous edge, Bosschaerts's voice rubbing up against Lorquet's harmonies while the guitars knot and unravel. 360°, in 2007, was the one that got them rolling on the countdowns with "One Equals a Lot", "Ruby Red" and "Return & Smile". Rising Sun, Setting Sun followed in 2010 with "Opening Fire", which also cracked the Belgian national singles chart, and "Author of the Play". A compilation of rare recordings spanning ten years followed in 2011, and they kept going with Sky Hits Ground in 2013 and Oh Paradise in 2020.

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