Maria Iskariot

If their Biblical name doesn’t already give it away, Ghent-based punk band Maria Iskariot are unlike most punk bands. They draw their lyrical inspiration from malleable questions rather than cast-iron answers. 

The group’s vulnerable open-mindedness and radical second-guessing is fully expressed in debut EP ‘EN/EN’ (translation: ‘AND/AND’), bolstering the notion that many things can be true at the same time, no matter how contradictory they initially appear. Singer/guitarist Helena Cazaerck has an interesting background outside of music – she was also a philosophy student and journalist who covered the Russian drug epidemic for Belgian newspaper De Standaard. Not to mention she built her own treehouse (!) in the middle of the forest. 

You can never accuse Maria Iskariot of not seeing the forest through the trees however. They rally against feelings of complacency and apathy, penning spry songs about wanting to be different, yet not knowing how. And ultimately realising that you yourself are also a benevolent traitor.