Dögmën is a hardcore-punk band from Belgium with members Tom Bornarel (Sects Tape, Pedigree, Slavemaker) guitar / vocals, Mathias Estelles (Cocaïne Piss, Umungus) guitar, Pierre Toussaint (Mont Doré, Cere) bass and Gaetan Marchan (Brewed in Belgium) drums. They play brutal, riff-based music in line with bands such as Poison Idea, Warthog and Black Breath. They released their 8-song debut album »Bitten By The Hand« on Loner Cult Records in 2024.
skug: When did you start Dögmën?
Tom Bornarel: We started the band in early 2023 and recorded in September. I’m not sure when exactly the band started because we just talked about getting a punk hardcore band together, then we wrote all the songs and recorded, then the first show was in February 2024.
How did you get to know each other? Did you know each other from other bands already?
Mathias and I were in a power violence band before they split up because some members were super negative and toxic and it really bummed us out. So we decided to start another band with only nice people! I met Mathias when he was in Cocaïne Piss, Gaetan is one of my oldest friends, and we all know Pierre from the Belgian music scene.
Are you all from Liège?
Gaetan and I live in Tournai next to the French border, Pierre is in Brussels and Mathias in Liège.
Are you part of the Liège punk scene?
We’re all from the Belgian punk hardcore scene.
I know one record from Dögmën, which is »Bitten By The Hand«, released on Loner Cult Records.
It’s the only record yet. We’re recording another one this year. We recorded everything ourselves in our rehearsal space and then sent the tracks to a friend who mixed and mastered. I think it took three days in total for the instruments and the vocals. I think we just wanted to make something brutal with nice riffs.
Which bands do you see as your influences?
The major influences for Dögmën are Poison Idea, Warthog and Black Breath.
Which bands around you do you see as your peers?
The band Gutter from Lille is pretty much our French counterpart, we love them.
What are you currently listening to yourself?
I know Pierre is into Faux Départ recently, a French band. Mathias is in his dungeon synth era. Gaetan listens to a lot of funky jazz like Vulfpeck and I listen to a lot of Scottish traditional folk, but the last hardcore record that I really enjoyed was »Faze« from Montreal.
What does the name Dögmën refer to?
We got it from a cryptid called the Michigan Dogman, but it really spoke to me because the term dog is an interesting term when referring to humans. It usually means »less than human« and it works really well with the themes I explore in the lyrics. We mostly talk about two things: hatred of humanity and going back to nature, so the term Dogman really works for this.
What does the album title »Bitten By The Hand« mean?
»Bitten By The Hand« is about the broken social contract between us people (dogs) and the government or the authority. We’re always told not to bite the hand that feeds us, but what happens when it’s the hand that bites? And I think it happens a lot these days.
