BIMFEST XXIII – 2026

Full Line-Up Announced!

St-Niklaas, Belgium — BodyBeats Productions proudly presents the complete line-up for BIMFEST 2026, taking place on 19 & 20 December 2026 at De Casino, St-Niklaas.

Since its start, BIMFEST has been a unique meeting ground for lovers of EBM, industrial, wave and dark electronics. The 2026 edition brings together international pioneers, cult favorites, and fresh underground talent for two nights of uncompromising beats and atmospheric soundscapes.

The BIMFEST 2026 line-up (alphabetical order):

• AKALOTZ (DE) – Crushing old-school EBM fused with modern dark electro, known for their raw live intensity and powerful albums like Angry Body Machine (2024).

• CAT RAPES DOG (SE) – Swedish electro-punk/industrial provocateurs, legends of KK Records, returning with chaotic, energetic live shows.

• CRYPTOCHROMA (BE) – Atmospheric Belgian wave/electro project blending analogue synth textures with dark moods; acclaimed release Ominous Clouds (2023). Selected 2025 Demo(n)!

• EMPATHY TEST (UK) – London’s cinematic synth-pop duo, praised for emotional, filmic soundscapes and worldwide fan devotion.

• EUFORIC EXISTENCE (BE) – Antwerp’s hard-hitting EBM/industrial powerhouse, chosen by the audience at Dark Demo(n)s 2025 for their ferocious live energy.

• FRETT (PL) – Experimental industrial from Maciej Frett (Job Karma), mixing IDM, tribal rhythms, noise, and retro synth atmospheres.

• HAUJOBB (DE) – Genre-defining pioneers of electro-industrial and IDM, celebrating three decades of innovation, including their acclaimed 2024 release The Machine in the Ghost.

• MAJESTOLUXE (SE) – Stockholm’s minimal EBM/industrial pop act, delivering stripped-down but intense retro-futurist soundscapes.

• NORDAR (DE) – Raw and analogue German EBM act, channeling rebellion and pure old-school body music energy.

• PROJECT-X (SE) – Cult electro/EBM band from Stockholm, notorious for their pounding beats and biting, ironic social commentary.

• THEY FEEL NOTHING (BE) – Dark analogue synth-wave project from Bruges, praised for brooding atmospheres and visceral stage presence. Selected by by the Dark Demo(n)s 2025 audience!

• ZWEITE JUGEND (DE) – Analogue-driven EBM duo from Osnabrück, Germany, known for their emotionally charged trilogy of albums.

Organizer Statement:

“With this year’s program, we proudly present a mix of underground legends and exciting newcomers. BIMFEST is not only about music — it’s about passion, energy, and the unique spirit of the scene. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to St-Niklaas in December for an edition that will be both uncompromising and unforgettable.”

• Tickets, Line-Up & Festival Info: bodybeats.be

Join us at BIMFEST 2026 for two nights of pounding beats, dark atmospheres, and pure underground spirit!

www.bodybeats.be/en/bimfest

The Dutch-language night orchestra De Delvers firmly established themselves with their second album Hart in Neonlicht.
Now they bring hopeful news: a third LP is expected in the course of 2026. It will be released on the idiosyncratic Ghent-based label Wagonmaniac Music.

As a preview, the first single will be released in November. With a short teaser, De Delvers already offer a small taste of the sound you can expect.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjErDsfgqkQ

Negative Gain Productions recording artist, CURSE MACKEY has just unveiled his highly-anticipated new album, Imaginary Enemies.

Curse's most intense and intimate album to date, Imaginary Enemies is a bleak, beautiful meditation on paranoia, grief, and the ghosts we conjure from within. Imaginary Enemies explores the liminal space between identity and illusion. A darkwave exorcism for the fractured self, it resonates with fans of Clan of Xymox, HEALTH, Skinny Puppy, Gary Numan, Twin Tribes & Cold.

CURSE MACKEY channels the ghosts of self-destruction, martyrdom, and revelation across tracks like "Doomed for Monday", "Time Comes Clean", and "The Kindness of Serpents". His voice drips with urgency, steeped in internal collapse and spiritual trespass. The grief-stricken ache of "Blood Like Love" serves as the album's aching heart: a poetic elegy rendered in grief-soaked melody and lyrical fire. Meanwhile, lead single, "Vertigo Ego" - a track of nocturnal paranoia, asks, “What monsters come after you when you are alone in the dark?”

Blending the raw aggression of early Wax Trax!/90’s era industrial music with cinematic darkwave atmospheres and hard-earned poetic insight, the album unfolds across gritty city streets and the shadowed corners of the mind, where desire blurs with danger and monsters move in silence.

Fueled by modular synths, jackhammer beats, spectral drones, and disembodied spoken word samples, Imaginary Enemies pulses with post-pandemic urgency and late-night mystery. Mackey’s ritualistic vocal delivery cuts like a psychic transmission, charting an intimate descent through fear, ecstasy, and invisible wars within. This is music for the haunted hours: seductive, volatile, and uncomfortably honest.

Imaginary Enemies concludes a trilogy that began with Instant Exorcism (2019) and deepened with Immoral Emporium (2022). Where Exorcism confronted internal chaos and Emporium explored societal decay, Enemies is a haunting culmination, mourning creative and personal losses while reaching for redemption in the wreckage.

Produced by Curse Mackey and longtime collaborator Chase Dobson, Imaginary Enemies features contributions from Jake Garcia (The Black Angels) and Rona Rougeheart (SINE), adding depth and tension to an already immersive soundscape. The result is intimate yet cinematic, insular yet explosively alive.

Imaginary Enemies is Mackey’s heaviest, most deliberate work yet. A fully realized vision carved from shadow and memory. It doesn’t just resonate with the pulse of darkwave, it haunts it. The album is a requiem, a ritual, and a rallying cry for those who live and create in the margins, carrying their ghosts with grace.

Imaginary Enemies is available on CD, vinyl LP and also on digital platforms everywhere including Spotify and Bandcamp.

open.spotify.com/artist/0usgY8btlTK2oA5B2nxaSC

Today it’s been exactly 38 years since electro-industrial band The Klinik released their second full album Plague (Antler 065 - Release date: 25.09.1987). Originally released as a gatefold vinyl it was re-released again by Antler Records as a bonus CD with the release of the 1991 Time (Antler 5040) album.
Plague, with menacing sounds and engaging songs, can be seen as one of the darkest albums released by the band. Marc Verhaeghen’s uncompromising and unpredictable programming, sampling and synth manipulation revoke apocalyptic visions while the typical, sometimes hissing, sometimes shouting, vocals of Dirk Ivens complete the dark atmosphere perfectly.

Plague (Tracklist)

A1 World Domination
A2 Murder
A3 No Time To Win
A4 Outside
B1 End Of The Line
B2 Pictures
B3 Into Deep Water
B4 Plague

DISCOGS

Today it’s been exactly 33 years since Nine Inch Nails released its first EP Broken (September 22, 1992). The EP was produced by frontman Trent Reznor and Flood and entirely consists of new material. The synth-pop style from the band's 1989 debut album Pretty Hate Machine was replaced by a heavier sound that would act as a precursor to their second album The Downward Spiral (1994). One of the reasons for this drastic change in sound and style being TVT Records, who had signed the band, pressuring Trent Reznor to record a similar synth-pop album as follow-up after the success of the previous Pretty Hate Machine album. As a reaction to this attempt to interfere with his artistic and creative freedom Reznor secretly started recording with Flood under various monikers to prevent TVT Records from confiscating and releasing their recordings.
In the end, a deal was reached with Interscope Records to release future Nine Inch Nails releases.

The accompanying short movie Broken, filmed and directed by Peter Christopherson (Trobbing Gristle / Coil / …) and based on a scenario by Trent Reznor, was never officially released due to its extreme graphic content but was leaked as a bootleg which became heavily traded amongst fans.

Although the videos were widely censored from television airplay, the song Wish made the band win the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance (1993) while their Woodstock '94 performance of Happiness in Slavery won the same award at the 38th Grammy Awards (1996).

Broken peaked at the seventh rank on the US billboard 200 chart.
The original release of Broken was limited to 250.000 copies and included two bonus tracks on a separate 3" CD including a cover version of Physical, a song originally by Adam Ant, and Suck which Reznor had co-written with all-star industrial band Pigface.

A remix EP titled Fixed (with blue cover) was released late 1992.

Broken (EP)

1. Pionion
2. Wish
3. Last
4. Help me I Am In Hell
5. Happiness In Slavery
6. Gave Up

3" CD tracklist (Bonus)
1. Physical
2. Suck

DISCOGS

Earlier this month NIN performed the Broken EP in its entirety on their Cold and Black and Infinite North America 2018 Tour (see video below).