98-05-10 Thumbs Down – Sorehead – Lifecycle – Clouded – Rain – Symbiont – Mindfist

‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ was a project of Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes with a few people from Deinze. They only did a few shows. [Brob: They are in the guestbook but not really sure if they played. ‘Pit’ was the singer of ‘Instinct’. ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ also played at the 1999 Ieperfest and their music was described as “rocking slomo emo HC”…]

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’

According to the V.V. notes this gig was again arranged by ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke)…

‘Thumbs Down’ had played already on 97-08-17 (The Next Generation festival). They were from Antwerp and played “youth crew hardcore”. I believe in the band at that time were Roeland (bass; later replaced by Andries Beckers of ‘Diablo Blvd’), Ken (drums; since ’99 Benjamin Buschgens – later ‘The Setup’), Raf(aël) Balrak (guitar; later ‘The Setup’) and Steven Tuffin (vocals). They were also signed to Genet recs (Going For Gold 7” – with bassplayer Roeland – in ’97, No Retreat No Surrender 7” and Crossroads LP in ’99). They also performed at the ’98 & ’99 fests….

‘Clouded’, a metal-core band from Antwerp (Kontich), were: Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) and Wout Bosschaert (guitar; replaced Kurt). Their 7” Inheritance was released by Genet recs in 1998. They also played at the ’97, ’98 & ’99 fests…

‘Rain’ (from Antwerpen/Edegem) played post-rock, emo metalcore, with sluggish guitar-riffs and manic vocals: Mark Kram (vocals), Joris Van Haute (bass), Sven Leys (guitar) & Jeroen Taeymans (drums). They had self-released their album Redeem The Monsters ‎(1997) under the name Redeem The Monsters And Kill The Beast recs…

Locals ‘Lifecycle’ had been on the V.V. stage a bunch of times before and it wouldn’t be their last. In a letter from May ’98, Sofie (‘Lifecycle’s vocalist) mentions that their bassist Jurgen Degryse had quit the band. His last show was May ’98. He was replaced by Maarten Kinet (who later played for ‘AmenRa’)… When he left Peter Leuwers joined… And later there was Céline Delqueux and then Jelle Dobbelaere…

‘Sorehead’ (from Ieper) had already played the V.V. several times. They were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan Lazeure (guitar; he’s not in the guestbook and might’ve quit for half a year [According to Dries he’s always been in the band…]) and Pieter Desmyter (guitar). Steve Noyelle describes their music as resembling ‘Sektor’. The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive.

‘Symbiont’ and ‘Mindfist’ were Belgian bands but I’ve got no recollections of them…

Brob

I’ve also played at the V.V. with ‘Before Machine’ (with Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere of ‘Clouded’ / ‘The Setup’ / ‘Bear’)… The excerpt in the guestbook was done by our singer Mark. Our CD was released on the 1997 Ieperfest. [Brob: It was still called HardCore – The Next Generation festival; no trace of ‘Rain playing there…]

‘Mindfist’ was with singer Kevin Heynen, who’s in ‘Shirley’s Locker’ nowadays…

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’ guitarist

I joined ‘Thumbs Down’ in ‘99! I replaced Roeland De Keulenaer.

Andries Beckers

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…