An American bassist, a Canadian drummer and a German guitarist made up this unique crypto-metal band, a strange incident of subversive musical activity. Belfegore was produced by Conny Plank, the krautrock icon who went on to work with Ultravox and other new wavers; the band’s first video was directed by Zbigniew Rybczynski directly after his landmark Art of Noise clip. Musically dark and energetic, Belfegore bypasses metal’s clichés for a somber intelligence that has common ground with everyone from Motörhead to Joy Division. Fascinating.