ONHEIL entered the metal scene in 1999 and released their first demo in that same year. The band immediately showed potential with their original Black Metal sound, which was enriched with a good dose of Death and Heavy metal. Holland’s and Belgium’s premier rock & metal magazine AARDSCHOK agreed with this, even saying in their review that the demo contained “one of the best Black Metal songs I’ve heard in a while”.

In 2002 a second, full-length demo, was published expanding ONHEIL’s reach further into Europe. ETERNAL FROST e-zine (USA) called the sound on this release ‘Black Metal Iron Maiden’, a term still sometimes used to describe ONHEIL’s music and a good indication of the gradual change to an even more diverse and melodic sound.

The success of the demo CD’s led them to the signing of a contract with WAR CRY PRODUCTIONS. The first official release, ‘The Threat’ MCD, saw the light of day in June 2003. WAR CRY’s better distribution network expanded sales further into Europe. With this release small underground ‘zines, larger metal magazines and even mainstream music press such as dutch leading alternative music magazine OOR all agreed that ONHEIL now belonged to the top of the Dutch (Black) Metal scene. Unfortunately the band got into serious line-up problems during 2004 - 2006, but was still able to do some live shows.

It took the band until 2007 to get up to full speed again, forming a new and, to this date, steady line-up. From this moment on ONHEIL had three guitarists and two vocalists, giving the band an even more diverse sound. The return was announced with a first music video and a wide range of live shows with bands like VADER, MAYHEM, ENTOMBED and BELPHEGOR. This caught the attention of German metal record label CYCLONE EMPIRE releasing ONHEIL’s full-length album RAZOR in may 2009.

‘Razor’ was received extremely well and got high ratings by the media almost everywhere. The band was praised for their original blend of aggressive Black and Death Metal, classic Thrash Metal riffing, harmonic Heavy Metal inspired guitar melodies and with that having an original and ‘fresh’ and ’exciting’ sounding style. The album regularly gained an album of the month/week status and Razor was thought of as one of the best debut albums ever. ONHEIL also saw their fan-base extend throughout Europe, regained interest from the US and getting responses from countries such as Russia, Israel, Turkey and Japan.

With this success ONHEIL was able to share the stage throughout Europe with bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE, AUTOPSY, WATAIN, THE DEVILS BLOOD, ASPHYX, NAPALM DEATH, DYING FETUS, KRISIUN, ROTTING CHRIST, and the band appeared on festivals such as PARTY.SAN OPEN AIR, EXTREMEFEST (3 days, in 3 different countries), METAL MEAN, STONEHENGE GAHLEN MOSHT OPEN AIR, BRUTZ&BRAKEL FEST, OCCULTFEST and ZABBADUSCHER. Now, after playing more than 100 shows, ONHEIL is very experienced live and each gig ends in true metal mayhem!

After playing for a few hundred metal heads during their headlining album release show, ONHEIL unleashed their second epos ‘Storm Is Coming’ on the 5th of September 2014. This album has taken ONHEIL’s musical style to an even higher level with its more dynamic compositions and better production sound. As the incoming reviews are again amazingly positive it seems that ONHEIL succeeded in the goal to make an even better album than ‘Razor’ was. ‘Storm Is Coming’ has even been called the best album of 2014 in some reviews.

Interest has been coming from all over the world… Europe, USA, South-America and even countries like Japan, Israel, Egypt, Lithuania and Russia. Following this success ONHEIL ‘Stormed the stage!’ doing a range of shows in their home country The Netherlands as well as abroad.

ONHEIL needed some time these last years to make some changes in their ranks. A few members, some of whom were part of the band for more than 15 years, had some personal changes in their lives and could not invest the required time, energy and dedication anymore. In the meantime The band focused on writing new material.

The band escaped the studio to do a few gigs, including a special headliner show at Baroeg, Rotterdam. This show was organized to celebrate the Digital Release of their two albums on Spotify, i-Tunes, Google Play, etc.

Two years ago a new, dedicated, line-up was formed and, after a headliner show at DORDRECHT METALFEST 2020, ONHEIL started focussing again on new music. This resulted in the recording of a new album in the well-known ONHEIL style, yet pushing it more to the extreme. Currently the album is being mixed and mastered and is set for a release in 2022.

STORM IS COMING!