The Venezuelan metal community is grieving after all four members of nu-metal band Van Der Dijs were confirmed among the more than 1,700 people killed by the pair of powerful earthquakes that tore through the country on Wednesday, June 24.
According to Venezuelan outlet Últimas Noticias, the group, vocalist Manuel van Der Dijs, guitarist Gabriel Gómez, bassist Xander Hernández and drummer Abraham Foucault, were together in their rehearsal room in the coastal city of La Guaira when the quakes hit and flattened the building around them. Rescue crews later pulled their bodies from the wreckage of the Costamar II building in Tanaguarena, one of the districts hardest hit by the disaster.
The two tremors, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, struck within roughly 39 seconds of one another and brought down hundreds of buildings across northern Venezuela (via BBC News). Confirmed fatalities have continued to climb in the days since, with tens of thousands more still reported missing as recovery teams work through the rubble.
Van Der Dijs came together in 2024 and had been steadily building a name for themselves on the Venezuelan circuit, putting out a run of singles that included their newest track, “15 Minutes“, released just a month before the tragedy. Their music videos and live footage remain available on the band’s official YouTube channel.
The four had been in the middle of an active stretch of shows. Only days before the earthquakes, they’d sold out a performance at the Experimental Hall of the Modern Art Center in La Castellana, Caracas, and they had further concerts on the books for June 27 and August 8.
The scale of the catastrophe across Venezuela has been enormous. NASA estimates roughly 60,000 buildings were destroyed, and among the dead were more than 100 people recently deported from the United States, who were killed when the hotel housing them collapsed. Thousands of survivors have been left without homes as the country works through a recovery effort that continues to grow in size and urgency.
Our thoughts are with the families, friends and bandmates of Van Der Dijs, along with everyone affected by the earthquakes in Venezuela.
