Bockreiter

Bockreiter is a blackened doom metal band from Belgium, featuring members and former members of Absolutus, Humanitas Error Est, Excavated, Spectre, Garden of Decay, and Caligula. The band takes its name from gangs of outlaws who roamed the former Duchy of Limburg and the neighbouring areas.According to local folklore, the Bockreiter (i.e. “buckriders”) made a pact with the Devil, who granted them goats to ride across the night skies. On Walpurgisnacht in 1740, a convent in the Duchy of Limburg was raided by such a Bockreiter gang. Several of its key figures vanished without a trace. Legend holds that they were executed for witchcraft, their bodies cast into the swamps of the High Fens. Now, their spirits have risen again.This is the story behind the album Spirits of the Swamp.Released in May 2026 by underground label Abstruse Eerie Radiance (Oldd Wvrms, Humanitas Error Est, Lebenssucht, Arnwald), the album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Déhà at Blackout Studio in Brussels. It features guest contributions from Michel Kirby (Wolvennest, Satanic Witch), Aubry André (Excavated, Neverlight Horizon), and Déhà.Spirits of the Swamp has so far been presented in several radio shows (Classic 21 Metal, Radio Panik, Metal Factory, Silenceless, ...), magazines and webzines (Metal Hammer Spain, Smorg Magazine, Shoot Me Again, Pitstop Metal, ...).Formed in 2018, Bockreiter released their first demo three years later and have since been invited to share the stage with bands such as White Ward, Devil Master, Lamp of Murmuur, À Terre, Pothamus or Wolvennest.