96-08-16 Firestone – Facedown – Vitality – Outrage – Victims Of Society – Down For The Count – Liar – Spawn – Unborn

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>They had entitled this fest ‘Hardcore; the new generation’, as far as I’m concerned I would have rather called it ‘Hardcore the last generation’ or better yet ‘The demise of the Belgian scene’. It started early on Friday with ‘Firestone’: heavy metal from da neighborhood or something. Then I think it was ‘Facedown’, quite a good surprise, powerful emo-ish metal with quite a few things to say. ‘Vitality’: can’t rermember so I guess it was heavy metal or maybe even death-metal from Belgium. ‘Outrage’: pretty good powerful emo-metal; I was disappointed they didn’t talk much between songs. ‘Victims Of Society’ might have been the best band of the day; raging old-school hardcore punk à la ‘Inkisiçao’; I talked to them a bit and it turned out their lyrics are not serious, just funny or weird. ‘Down For The Count’ from Spain were good modern style HC but the sound-quality wasn’t too hot unfortunately. ‘Liar’: at least the vocalist was honest when he said “If you think it’s too violent get out!”, ‘cause the crowd did act like a bunch of football-supporters. But I enjoyed it, it was very powerful death-metal. ‘Spawn’ disappointed me a bit: at first the sound-quality wasn’t that good, and the band acted like a bunch of musicians. No wonder they went from Crucial Response to New Age… I think they’ve split up now. Oh yeah, it was good old-school though. Late at night ‘Unborn’ came up with their powerful basic death-metal, I totally enjoyed it but the set was short!<<

Here’s what Helene K. of Subjugation recs wrote about this fest on her blog:

>>Alas things were a bit different when I returned to the Ieper festival in 1996 with my friend’s band ‘Unborn’…It was much bigger and people seemed to be more into the idea that the highest echelons of human connectivity was achieved through busting some karate-esque moves, pushing those who weren’t turned on by this to the back of the room, and I guess philosophically speaking out of the way and out of the door to find desultory solace back in the mainstream. This aggressive individualism was in stark contrast to the good humoured communal feeling at the earlier festivals. I have to confess I find all this muscle-flexing a bit dull. I find it executed in a more finessed and meaningful way on the football-terraces and in any northern town on a weekend, and the need for ‘unity’ in this context much more understandable than one where you just watch a band together. But I can be a bit slow to grasp some of the more deeper and progressive philosophical stances about the inter-relationships between people, community and society. But I have to admit it had an effect on me. Some guy in the pit hit me once too often so I punch him in the back of the head, and I offered him out for a fight, which alas he turned down. Funny now to think of Nick from ‘Unborn’ stepping in to separate us. I guess you can take a girl out of the north east, but never the north east out of her!<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) wrote about the different nationalities of the visiters, the various ‘crews’ (H8000, Suckcore, ODK, Rennes, Evil Blood, Ruhrpott Posse, UK Vegan Warriors, Roma SxE) and the fact that this was ‘The Year Of The Moshpit’… Interesting ;-).

‘Firestone’ was a H8000 (from Kortrijk, Belgium) metal band. This was probably their first appearance at the Vort’n Vis. Their later singer Iris Walgraeve explained the band’s history in the post on their 97-06-27 show: >>Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander [Baert?] (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him [June ‘99]. Diederik Claes [bass] and Lennart Bossu [guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’] were the only constant members I think.<< In August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Also a first time for ‘Facedown’ (‘new-school’, metal-influenced, vegan SE-HC band from Kontich, near Antwerp): Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). The Ferket brothers (Evil Twin recs) released the Friendship Is Everything 7” (recorded at Studio 195 in July 1996; Bruno would re-release it – with some additional tracks – on Genet recs in 1997)… “Powerful, brutal, moshing emo-core”…

‘Facedown’, picture by Sergi E. Costa

‘Vitality’ was a “tough-guy edge-metal” band from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast): ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. In 1998 their Crucial Wires CD appeared on the French (from Rennes) label Overcome recs.

‘Vitality’, shot by Sergi E. Costa

‘ODK Crew’, also a band from Oostduinkerke, played a few songs unannounced. They played “Clevo style HC” and got quite some criticism for covering a song by ‘One Life Crew’ (with supposedly fascist inuendo)… The guys had some members of ‘Vitality’ (guitarist Bob Van Lierde & bassist Marc Paccou) and ‘Congress’ (drummer Ilja De Ceuleneire) in their ranks…

‘Outrage’ (friends from the Kempen area in Belgium) had already played the V.V. a few months before this (96-03-24). Sigi Loots (drums), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals) and Nico Peeters (bass). ‘Outrage’s had recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs) in April ’96…

Nico ‘Outrage’ (photo by Philippe Tuffet)

‘Victims Of Society’ were a (pretty commercial) band playing old-school HC hailing from Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium). They recorded the Screams From The Gutter demo at Labie’s Studio 195 that year and did a CD (Way Of Life) on Lost & Found (!) in 1997. They were: Davy Helsen (guitar), Dieter De Backer (drums), Hans Van Keilegom (guitar), Toon Severijns (bass) and Jim (vocals).

‘Down For The Count’, a new school sXe hardcore band from Madrid, were: Gonzalo Ávila (bass), David Fernández (drums), Conrado Isasa (guitar), Francisco Arroyo (Sanchez) (guitar) and Hugo Ortiz (vocals). They recorded for their tape entitled Reflections in April ‘96 (released by Víctimas Del Progreso – Crímenes De Estado).

‘Down For The Count’, photographed by Sergi E. Costa

‘Down For The Count’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

I guess ‘Liar’ did one of their first shows with Bert Guillemont (also ‘Sektor’; replacing Raf) here since he’d just joined in June. Being locals they played the V.V. several times. The others were Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’, etc.), UxJx (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’). The line-up on the Invictus LP (1997, Genet recs). In August they did a 3 week tour in Europe together with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Congress’…

‘Liar’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Apparently Bert tore down an anti-violenct dancing poster (“hung up by Spanish fruits”)… Trying to prove ‘Liar’s aggressiveness I guess… In the interview with ‘Sektor’ in Slaves Of Mainstream he describes how violend the crowd was during ‘Liar’s set (read below)…

Watch a bit of their set here: ‘Liar’ 96-08, Invictus line-up.

‘Spawn’ was an sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany). They performed at the fest 2 years ealier, 94-08-19) played their last concert. After that they still released an album entitled Adrift on the US label New Age recs (’96) and a split-7” with ‘Despair’ (USA) on March Through recs (’97). The guys in the band were Dirk Zeiser (bass), René Natzel (drums), Daniel Frankowski (guitar), Patrick Uhle (guitar) and Chris Van Dornick (vocals).

‘Spawn’ (pics by Sergi E. Costa): 1  – Dirk Zeiser bass  (Andre Hoppe, Two Face distro + Stefan Grabowski, World Eaters distro; in the crowd); 3 – Daniel Frankowski (supported by Peter Hoeren)

‘Spawn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Unborn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek (1) & Sarah Van de Mosselaer (2-3)

On the back of the flyer of the 1996 festival in the 1in12 (Bradford, UK), ‘Unborn’ was announced as “modern straight-edge mixed with Slayer”… The band consisted of Nick Royles (vocals; ex ‘Sore Throat’, ‘No Way Out’, ‘Nailbomb’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’; also How We Rock zine), Chris Meadows (drums; Clear Perception zine), Patrick ‘Rat’ Poole (guitar; ex ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’), James (guitar; ex ‘Neckbrace’) and Andy ‘Wrighty’ Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside’; R.I.P.). At that time they had the Ancestral Pagan Roots 7” out on (Nick’s label) Sure Hand recs (recorded in February 1996).

Brob

It was kinda sad that there were so many labels with a commercial attitude and that so many people bought their records from them (Green Hell, GoodLife, …) That’s why I’m so happy that there were also people showing an alternative way…

Manuel Harand, Smart Cookies Collective, Vienna, Austria (personal communication Sep. ’96)

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

People were dancing very violently during ‘Liar’s set. It was very harsh. I saw people coming from everywhere. It was like 5 meter wall of kids laying on top of each other in front of the stage. People have marked ‘Liar’ as “pro-violence, satanic” band but that’s bullshit. ‘Liar’ started out as a side-project of ‘Congress’- and ‘Blindfold’-members. They wanted to play music influenced by aggressive metal. It’s not because we’re anti-religion that we’re satan-worshippers.

Bert Guillemont (‘Liar’ drummer since June ‘96) in Slaves Of Mainstream zine #2

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I’d been there with ‘Bob Tilton’ (95-12-03) and also came for the festival in 1996 when ‘Unborn’ played.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

source: anonymous (but not ‘Unborn’)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

92-06-13 Kelly ‘Resist’s extra photos

More on this concert: 92-06-13 Resist – U.F.D. – Zero Positives – Hiatus (Bel)

Here’s a bunch of photographs taken and donated by Kelly Halliburton (‘Resist’ bassist):

‘Hiatus’; alternative line-up with Phill ‘Kill’ on bass

‘Hiatus’

L => R: Azill ‘Hiatus’, Chris Eagan, Chris Eagan’s girlfriend & Bruno Vandevyvere

L => R: some Canadian guy, Ty Smith [R.I.P.] (‘Resist’ drummer), Chris Rainier (a friend from Paris), Chris Eagan’s girlfriend, Chris Eagan & Bruno Vandevyvere

Chris Eagan; Desperate Attempt recs (Louisville, Kentucky)

Vort’n Vis courtyard with Roi (‘U.F.D.’ bassist) saying cheers, and (sitting down) closest to camera: Peter, (‘U.F.D.’ driver), Arno (‘U.F.D.’ guitarist) and Mark Landers (‘Resist’ roadie)

93-08-01 Subcaos – Subway Arts – Scraps

This gig was announced as a benefit-gig “in order to be able to finance the reparations needed for the vocal P.A.”. Lots of things, line-up wise, changed during the preparation…

At first another Portugese band, ‘Inkisiçao’ (see 94-09-17) was gonna tour with ‘No More’ but they couldn’t make it because of the singer’s job-duties… Their replacement ‘Corrosão Caótica’ – a hardcore/punk band from Lisbon with vocalist Paulo ‘Piranha’ Baptista, guitarist João(zinho) Morais, drummer Rui Lucena and bassist Miguel ‘Zé Gato’ (later also in ‘Subcaos’), and for a moment they also had a female guitarist called Susana – cancelled the tour aswell in the end. Hence the gig that was announced for July 31^st was abandoned…

‘Subcaos’ from Lisbon were Diogo Tovar Carvalho (vocals; also did Recognize No Authority zine, and distributed mine), Xico (or Chico or FJ; vocals), João Abrantes (guitar; was ‘held up’), João Barrelas (guitar; also in ‘X-Acto’), Tópê (bass) & David (drums). They put out a demo (Genocidio, “chaotic crustcore”) in ’92 and tracks for the split-7” with ‘Hiatus’ (out on Slime recs) were recorded at the gig they played in Bruges the day before … (93-07-31) Slime recs (which existed since 1989) changed it’s name to Ataque Sonoro around 1994/95 (ataquesonoro.blogspot) and released their split-album with ‘Genital Deformities’ in ’94. They came back twice… (94-04-02 & 94-12-31).

‘Subcaos’ photos from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras L’Bol #3 (top => bottom: Tópê – Diogo – ‘Xico’)

‘No More’ (see 92-05-24, 92-09-05 & 93-03-28) – Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (drums) – who were supposed to play with ‘Corrosão Caótica’ the day before didn’t come over either (or did they?)… Another band that ‘Diff’ played guitar for, ‘Subway Arts’ (political hardcore/punk from Esch/Alzette), played. The others in the band: Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums; (drums; Mike played on the split-LP but left also soon after), Fränz Laureys (bass), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals; David on the split-LP) and Xavier (guitar). It wasn’t their first visit either (92-12-20, 93-02-06, 93-07-04) and it wouldn’t be their last (94-04-02) … The Luxemburgers had released a split 12” (All Life is Equal) together with ‘No More’ in 1991 (on Markus Haas’ Per Koro recs). Around this time here they released a 12” titled “Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace” (‘93) – a collaboration of Genet recs and PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy).

‘Subway Arts’; photos by Eric ‘React’ Wawrzynkowski

‘Scraps’ were announced (in the newsletter) with a new line-up and new songs. At their previous passages (90-02-24, 90-09-15, 91-03-16, 91-09-01, 91-12-31) David (vocals) & his brother Raphael Dutriaux (guitar) still had Xavier (drums) in their ranks – besides Tomoy (bass) off course. I guess they might’ve recruted Pierre Anne (ex ‘6 Feet Over’) as drummer by then… He was on the LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (recorded April ’94).

‘P.J.D.’ (Private Jesus Detector) was also mentioned in the newsletter but there’s nothing about hem in the V.V. notes for that day… They’d played the Vort’n Vis several times before: 90-08-25, 90-10-27 & 91-03-16.

Brob

We’d split up since a while because we rehearsed very rarely in 1992. We did that last show in Ternat [93-10-23] because it was a benefit. We did a few show in 1993 but ‘Pette’ didn’t feel like it much anymore… Gigging became sporadic but the fun of it was gone by the end of ‘92/beginning of ‘93. Also ‘Spatje’ didn’t feel like it anymore…

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens, ‘P.J.D.’ bassist

Since we [‘No More’/’Subway Arts’] were kind of a collective with people switching from here to there and we all had a great relationship witch each other, we might have decided to just play as ‘Subway Arts’…

‘Diff’

I remember ‘Subcaos’: very cool people, the loved to play soccer. We went over to Portugal aswell… I guess ‘Diff’ organised all of that. Portugal, Spain,…

Sabrina D’Aurelio, ‘Subway Arts singer

I definitely think that the V.V. gig was the best of the ‘Subcaos’ tour as everyone talked over and over about it. I really would have liked to be there but it wasn’t possible…

Miguel Crespo (Ratazana Productions [a concert-collective, including with Guilherme Chalmers]), personal communication ‘94

I remember we shook hands in 1993 or the second time I was there in 1995. Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I believe I have some photos from those days.

I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay(lan) Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

I was on the road with ‘Subcaos’ and the Luxembourgers (I’m not sure if ‘Subway Arts’ played on all days or if they only played in Ieper. I think the other 2 days and probably the entire tour was with ‘No More’.); a tour that Bruno organised in the summer of 1993 (I also attended the 1994 ‘Subcaos’ gig): one gig in Manheim in the Cologne area, so not Mannheim in the south-west of Germany) and two in Belgium (Bruges and Ieper). Originally, I just wanted to attend the Ieper gig but Bruno asked if I was up for two more days. There were also a few other people accompanying ‘Subcaos’, which was nice: chatting, beer. :-). It was a really good experience being on tour (well, 3 or 4 days) with people from rather different backgrounds and countries (Portuguese, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany). Markus of Per Koro recs also attended those gigs.

Carsten Pötter (Frankfurt)

I remember ‘Subway Arts’ very well… First time I heard a band from Luxembourg: ‘bonne pêche’, nice people, etc. Don’t remember much about ‘Subcaos’…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

One thing that I can recall from on of the gigs at the V.V. is that we were playing the smaller room and right in the middle of our set smoke started coming out of one of the amps, not sure if they caught fire or not but it would make a better story if it did… ;-)

Diogo (Tovar), ‘Subcaos’ singer

I couldn’t go on tour at that time because I had a ‘small problem” with the law and could not leave the country :-) I believe the band played in the V.V. bar.

João Abrantes, ‘Subcaos’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Scraps’ once, playing the guitar. As far as I can remember I just played Germany and Austria for five weeks. I replaced the guitarist, Raphael (David’s bro; he used to work with handicapped people and could not get holidays). I think it was ‘93. [Brob: I think that was ’95; and Amanda Trevens was touring with them in ‘94…]

Ma Raab

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…