Band Biographies: Rettenet

Rettenet is a Hungarian alternative metal trio born from songs that refused to die.

The band grew out of Blackroam, the former one-man project of guitarist Mátyás Koncz. For more than a decade, the songs existed in various unfinished states while Mátyás fought a largely unsuccessful war against MIDI drum programming, questionable bass playing, and the general limitations of trying to be an entire band by himself.

Then drummer Gábor Fekete joined, followed by bassist Béci Badarász — and somehow, after somewhere between ten and fifteen years of overthinking and struggling with virtual instruments on a screen, most of the material finally took shape in about six months.

Apparently, actual musicians help. What started as a solitary project became a real band. Sort of.

Rettenet still doesn't operate much like a conventional one. There is no regular rehearsal room and no weekly ritual of standing around amplifiers pretending everyone remembers how the song actually goes. The members record in their own home studios, exchange tracks and versions online, and write and reshape the songs through video calls.

The method became so natural that Gábor and Béci actually met each other in person for the first time at the band's first press photo session — when the debut material was already essentially finished. Rehearsal rooms only enter the picture when there's a live show to prepare for.

The members come from different corners of the Hungarian music scene, with histories stretching from the underground to the more visible end of the country's rock and metal world. Rettenet takes those different backgrounds and feeds them into something darker, heavier and deliberately difficult to file under a single genre.

Or we could just call it metal.

Their five-track debut EP, Sundance, was released in August 2026. Recorded entirely in the members' home studios and mixed by Mátyás Koncz, the record was mastered for streaming and vinyl by John McBain, former guitarist of Monster Magnet.

A music video was also released for the EP's opening track, “Pigs Want To Fly”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISFxTv-VTqQ

So, after more than a decade of abandoned sessions, overthinking, and desperately trying to convince MIDI drums to sound like a human being, Sundance came together surprisingly fast.

Which probably means Rettenet has finally figured out how to make records.

Or at least how to finish them.

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