Ahrayeph marks 30th anniversary with concert at J.C. De Klinker, Korinthians as special guest
Gothic rock band Ahrayeph marks 30 years with a concert at J.C. De Klinker in Aarschot on 5 December 2026, with special guest Korinthians.
Photo: Ludo Moise / (c) 2026 Rose Creek A.V.
Belgian progressive gothic rock band Ahrayeph marks 30 years as a project with a concert at J.C. De Klinker in Aarschot on Saturday 5 December 2026. Ghent post-punk quartet Korinthians joins as special guest, presenting songs from their new album “After Life”, released 23 October.
Ahrayeph is the project of Raf Ahrayeph, who founded the band in 1996. For the anniversary show he is joined by drummer Tom Veltens, formerly of Minus 273, and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Yanes; the line-up is still completing its search for a bassist. The set is billed to span the band’s full three-decade catalogue, with the night closing out in a DJ set from Leuven-based D.J. Malcolm Nix.
Korinthians is a dance-postpunk quartet from Ghent that released “After Life” on 23 October as a digital album, vinyl LP and CD via Bandcamp. Side-Line interviewed the band in 2023 ahead of their album “A Major Walk”.
Ahrayeph’s 30th anniversary concert details
- Saturday 5 December 2026 – J.C. De Klinker, Aarschot, Belgium, with special guest Korinthians and a closing DJ set by Malcolm Nix
About Ahrayeph
Ahrayeph began in the late spring of 1996 in Leuven, Belgium, when Raf Ahrayeph formed a band under the name Crucifire, drawing on The God Machine, Fields of the Nephilim, Paradise Lost, Type O Negative and other proto-goth acts of the 1980s. That line-up recorded a demo the following autumn and split up after about a year. Crucifire stayed dormant until 2000, when Raf revived the project as its sole member and renamed it Ahrayeph, moving away from the earlier metal influences toward a more organic, progressive sound closer to Pink Floyd, Marillion, Fields of the Nephilim, The God Machine, Killing Joke and Joy Division.
New songs followed, and by 2004 Ahrayeph had a new line-up, which played its first show in September 2007. The band’s debut album, “Marooned On Samsara”, came out in April 2008, but that line-up also proved short-lived. Raf spent the following years trying, without success, to hold a stable band together, and went fully solo in 2012.
For the next thirteen years, Ahrayeph operated as a one-man studio project, releasing the albums “AnimAElegy” and “Heavy Like The Ancient Sun” – the latter dedicated to his late friend James Blaast of Glasgow – along with regular singles and EPs. The fourth album, “The Final Hurt”, followed in 2025; Raf has described it as the band’s last full-length, with future releases to take the form of singles and EPs.
With that album out, Raf shifted his focus from the studio back to the stage, recruiting drummer Tom Veltens, formerly of Minus 273. The pair built up a live set through tryout shows in early 2026, backed by outlets including the Belgian gothic magazine Dark Entries. Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Yanes joined over the summer, and the band is still looking for a bassist to round out the line-up. Ahrayeph marks its 30th anniversary on 5 December 2026 at J.C. De Klinker in Aarschot, with Korinthians as special guest and a closing set from D.J. Malcolm Nix.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
