It all started with a blog, in 2005, and a handful of enthusiasts determined to shout loud about a music we loved to excess. On 22 February 2005 it took shape for real: Purkas became a non-profit association, at once a webzine, a collective and a distro. The webzine meant album and concert reviews, live photos, news, live reports, contests and a forum. Behind it stood around twenty volunteers, all hooked on rock, metal, punk and hardcore.
The founding idea was simple: listening to bands we felt were unfairly kept in the shadows, we wanted to give them a platform, a stage to be heard by everyone. Purkas set out to promote the metal, hardcore, punk and rock scene of French-speaking countries: France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The collective went further, with a space on the forum for bands and a distro to share and sell their albums and demos.
And because a scene only truly lives on stage, Purkas climbed down into the pit. At the Batofar in Paris we ran big hardcore bills: Comeback Kid, Parkway Drive, Cancer Bats, This Is Hell, The Warriors, Madball, but also Angel Crew, Apocalypse Now and Danforth. The idea was simple: bring in headliners to fill the rooms and, on the same stages, carry the bands we championed.
In Montmagny, at the Salle des Fêtes, that energy became a festival: the Touch Metal, which we ran across several editions from 2005 to 2008. In 2005 Gojira tore up the stage alongside Oestre and why.draft; in 2006 the bill brought together Arkangel, Surge Of Fury, Providence, Coverhate, Kwamis and Lokurah. Bands, crowds and volunteers, the same rush, until the adventure wound down around 2008.
Played for Purkas: Gojira, Terror, Comeback Kid, Madball, Bane, Providence, Angel Crew, Apocalypse Now, Arkangel, Cancer Bats, Coverhate, Danforth, Down To Nothing, Get Lost, Kwamis, Lokurah, Money Time, No Turning Back, Oestre, Parkway Drive, Surge Of Fury, The Warriors, This Is Hell, True Colors, why.draft, You Lose!.
None of it happened alone. Purkas was one link in a web of associations, venues, labels and volunteers: we helped and were helped, in the buzz of a whole metal community held up by sheer arms and passion.
Then came a long break. Purkas is back in 2026. Same standards, new means: every release, the gig calendar, and reviews that take a stand, built on critical consensus, in five languages.
And because metal is for everyone, Purkas is built to be accessible to all: usable with a keyboard, readable with a screen reader, high contrast, no forced motion. The site adapts to each person, not the other way round. Our accessibility commitment.
Behind the reviews, one signature since day one: Mr Patton, a.k.a Pirus.