Upcoming Releases

Maria Iskariot have shared details of their debut album of defiant, spit-flecked punk, 'Wereldwaan' (“World Delusion”), set for self-release on October 31st. 

Maria Iskariot have 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.

Latest single "Witte Rook" ("White Smoke") is, in their words: "a victory for losers, an attempt at forgiveness, swallowing, biting in your own lip and saliva that tastes like iron".

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 front-woman 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.

 

'Wereldwaan' expands on the themes of their debut EP EN/EN (2024), which explored identity, moral ambiguity, and a longing for something different in a world that doesn’t reward doubt. On the album, the band sharpen their tools and open up their vision - tackling everything from social despair to interpersonal grief to the absurdity of performance itself. But it’s never didactic. Instead, they offer a kind of solidarity through shared confusion: as Helena puts it:

 

“We are four people that have found each other. Being a gang, having fun and creating something meaningful together, is our way of coping with the madness attacking us from inside and out. We try to make something beautiful out of frustration, unwanted complicity, greed, fingerpointing, ugliness. We choose life.

We choose not falling for the temptation of depression or aggression. We choose to be friends, not colleagues, we choose to be adventurers not competitors. We choose togetherness not efficiency. We choose expression not the measure stick.

We speak to you, our friends from different languages, in a way that is not about understanding.

We don’t have solutions for the problems that surround us. We don’t claim to know the answer. We only show the alternative.”

 

Live, Maria Iskariot is a full-body experience - Helena prowls through the crowd, words in your face, daring you to feel something. A live session of “Leugenaar” went viral in early 2024, racking up 2 million views and winning fans from every corner. The band was quickly scooped up by Tropical Fuck Storm to support their UK and Scandinavian tour, blowing away rooms full of people who didn’t understand a word of Dutch but didn’t need to.

 

Over the course of 2024–25, Maria Iskariot played more than 180 shows across Europe. But they’re not just a band on the rise. They’re a band with a worldview. They reject the grind and competition of the music industry and lean into togetherness, mess, joy, and the strange intimacy of singing with strangers. They’re not trying to be understood - they’re trying to connect.

 

Maria Iskariot is punk in the truest sense: a refusal to conform, a celebration of imperfection, a bold and beautiful mess with its arms wide open.

Wereldwaan tracklist:

1. Waaromdaarom ("Whythatswhy")
2. Dat Vind Ik Lekker ("That’s What I Like")
3. Vele Mussen ("Many Sparrows")
4. Leugenaar ("Liar")
5. Rozemarijn ("Rosemary")
6. Tijm ("Thyme")
7. Toch Uitverkoren ("Chosen Nonetheless")
8. Zes Bekers ("Six Cups")
9. Wereldwaan ("Worldmania")
10. Witte Rook ("White Smoke")
11. Suiker ("Sugar")
12. Niets Gaat Verloren ("Nothing Is Lost")