Triggerfinger have put out a new album, Tarmac, and it arrives more than two decades after the Belgian band's self-titled debut. Clash reports the release, describing the record as a confident and assured return from a group whose name became shorthand at home for a particular kind of lean, physical rock music.
The circumstances behind it are not ordinary. The band had worked relentlessly for years before stepping back, with the members putting time into other projects. During that pause, co-founder Paul died in October 2025 after struggling with health problems for more than a year.
What the two remaining founders did with that is the reason the record sounds the way it does. Mario Goossens and Ruben Block decided to honour him by making the most full throttle album of their careers, which is a specific kind of tribute: not a quiet record about loss but a loud one made in his name.
Block fronts the band on vocals and guitar, Goossens plays drums and sings, and for live work they are joined on guitar by Geoffrey Burton, whose own credits run through Grace Jones, Iggy Pop and Misia. That lineup is built for a stage rather than a studio, and Clash frames Tarmac as a record informed by both the band's studio experience and the gnarly physicality of their shows.
Twenty years is long enough for a band to become a reference point, and Triggerfinger became one in Belgium and the Netherlands without ever quite translating into an English-language audience of the same size. A band in that position making a deliberately hard record this late is not chasing a breakthrough. It is closing something.
The only date attached so far is London, at O2 Academy Islington on 8 December. The record is out now with no tracklist or label detail given in the report. The same Monday brought another guitar band back with a third album and two songs, as Dirty Honey named Catch My Butterfly. Our release calendar tracks the quarter, and the rock hub carries the rest.
The facts
- Triggerfinger have released an album called Tarmac.
- It arrives more than twenty years after their self-titled debut.
- Co-founder Paul died in October 2025 after more than a year of ill health.
- Ruben Block and Mario Goossens set out to make their most full throttle record.
- Block plays guitar and sings; Goossens plays drums and sings.
- Geoffrey Burton joins the band on guitar for live shows.
- Triggerfinger play O2 Academy Islington in London on 8 December.
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