HIPPOTRAKTOR

Since emerging from Mechelen, Belgium, Hippotraktor has steadily carved out a singular artistic identity guided by an enduring commitment to exploration. Their music unfolds through carefully sculpted contrasts, where immense rhythmic force exists alongside delicate melodic detail. Moments of overwhelming intensity dissolve into passages of quiet reflection, suspended stillness erupts into visceral power and sonic chaos.

Often associated with progressive metal, post-metal and sludge, Hippotraktor resist classification: rhythmic complexity, cinematic atmosphere and deeply human expression fused into a sound both expansive and immediate. For listeners of Karnivool, Tool, Tesseract, Meshuggah and Mastodon, the intricate rhythms, atmosphere and heavy riffs may feel familiar.

Their third album Annihilist (Pelagic Records, 2026) follows Meridian (2021) and Stasis (2024) and continues the story of the same nameless protagonist — now at war with the entity that keeps him locked in a cycle of incarnation, searching for a way to end it.