Maria Iskariot still has no answers to your questions. But they’re reaching out anyway - a wet hand, a wink, a scream, a mess of noise and emotion for anyone who’s danced the Waltz of the Hopeless more times than they’d like to admit.

Their debut album Wereldwaan is punk that doesn’t preach, but refuses to look away. It’s both a joyful protest and a sharp, complicated love letter to life itself - written from inside the confusion, the guilt, the rage and the absurdity of our time. Released via Burning Fik (NL) and Montgrí (ES), it marks their arrival as a powerful new voice in the trans-European punk scene.

Maria Iskariot is a Dutch-language punk band from Ghent with a clear sense of purpose and a deep love for distortion. Formed in 2022 by frontwoman Helena Cazaerck and guitarist Loeke Vanhoutteghem - who first bonded over language and the DIY ethos at a literary festival - the band found its full shape with the addition of drummer Sybe Versluys and bassist Amanda Barbosa. What began as a personal outlet quickly grew into a collective voice: part panic attack, part poetic pamphlet, part riot - but with tenderness, too. The band doesn’t break things (there’s already enough broken); they build, scream, whisper, and hold space.

The name says a lot: Maria Iskariot fuses the sacred (Maria) and the damned (Judas Iskariot), pointing straight to the band’s fascination with moral tension, contradiction and collapse. That duality runs through everything - in their sound, their lyrics, and their presence. They make music about growing up, feeling lost, confronting complicity, and trying to find slivers of hope inside the overwhelm. It’s aggressive and intimate, messy and meticulous, playful and deeply serious.

A1. Waaromdaarom
A2. Dat Vind Ik Lekker
A3. Vele Mussen
A4. Leugenaar
A5. Rozemarijn
A6. Tijm
B1. Toch Uitverkoren
B2. Zes Bekers
B3. Wereldwaan
B4. Witte Rook
B5. Suiker