Michiel Eikenaar, singer of Dutch black-metal acts Dodecahedron and Nihill, passed away Friday, April 12th at the age of 42.
Dodecahedron's label, Season of Mist, confirmed the news on Saturday (April 13th) ahead of the group's performance at Tilburg, Netherlands festival Roadburn that same day. "The @DODECAHEDRON set at Roadburn festival should be a very heavy today," the label wrote in a Facebook post. "Their original singer and founding member, Michiel Eikenaar, passed away yesterday. All our thoughts are going to his family."
Eikenaar's Nihill bandmate Vincent Koreman confirmed to Pitchfork that the cause of death was cancer.
Nihill posted the following remembrance on their Facebook page:
"It is with devastating sadness that I share the death of my brother on the left hand path, our singer and black metal icon Michiel Eikenaar.
"Loved and respected by his peers and the international #blackmetal community. A commanding frontman and fantastic lyricist, a great visual artist, but above all, a big friendly loveable guy. Death comes for all of us. It comes for the strongest, the brightest and the most loved, and Michiel was all of those things and much more.
He leaves two small, beautiful children, a sweet and lovely wife, a close family that supported him through these difficult times and an international inner circle of friends and admirers that will miss him every hour of every day.
We were working on a fifth album, to be called 'Seven Trumpets Of Doom'. Those recordings will join him in the great beyond. #THE_KVLT_OF_NIHILL // NIHILL will cease to exist today, right now. I will continue as ULVEBLOD. Jelle will continue with Terzij de Horde. Our live aids Michel & Jasper will continue as/with DODECAHEDRON."
In addition to providing lyrics and vocals to each band, Eikenaar designed artwork for several of the albums recorded with each.
