The idea for Slovenia’s CHALLENGER started in the summer of 2016, when Jakob Rejec (ex-VIGILANCE, Ambra) was challenged to play a foodball game with Urban Železnik (SkyEye), and if Urban won, they would form a band together. Unfortunately, they never played the game, but still decided to form a band.For the first lineup, they invited Blaž Tanšek (Mist, ex-Teleport) to play the bass guitar and Mihaela Žitko (Mist) to join on the drums. Through some jam sessions, the first riffs were made, and in November, the band had their first gig under the name Irön Breed, combining the surnames of Jakob and Urban, with Rejec meaning “breeder” and Železnik meaning “iron.” Soon after, they changed their name to CHALLENGER, and Mihaela left her drum duties to Toni Pleško (ex-Teleport, Natt, Đornata). In 2019, they released their first EP Turned to Dust to critical acclaim.