First day of the grind/death Bulldozer fest, an “underground meeting with brutal death and bestial grind”, organised by Fred(eric) Driessens. The poster announces ‘Catafalque’, ‘Last Days Of Humanity’, ‘In-quest’… The V.V. notes also make mention of ‘Ectopia’, ‘S.C.D.’, but not ‘Catafalque’…
[Second day: Mastic Scum (Öst), Necrophagist (Ger), Suppository (Nl), Pleurisy (Nl), Mangled (Nl)]
‘Last Days Of Humanity’ was a grindcore band from The Netherlands. They formed in 1989 and split-up in 2006 but reformed in 2010. In 1998 their CD The Sound Of Rancid Juices Sloshing Around Your Coffin was released. The recordings (from 1996) were with Hans Smits (vocals), William Van De Ven (guitar), Anne Van De Burgt (guitar), Glenn Jagers (drums) & Erwin De Wit (bass). They came back to the V.V. with 98-09-25 with Bart Boumans as vocalist & (Rutger-)Rogier Kuzee (bass).
‘In-quest’ was a death-metal band from the Antwerp/Turnhout region. At that time probably Gert Monden (drums; ex ‘System Shit’), Jan Geenen (bass/guitar; ex ‘System Shit’), Wim Roelants (guitar), Laurent Swaan (guitar; ex ‘System Shit’), Manu Van Tichelen (bass) & ‘Noisegrinder’ Ben Adams (vocals; ex ‘System Shit’, later ‘Caducity’ and replaced by Sven De Caluwé of ‘Aborted’). In ’97 they released a CD entitled Extrusion-Battlehymns.
‘Ectopia’ was a grindcore band (from Ronse, Belgium) with Steven ‘Roy’ De Rui (bass; later ‘Leprasy’), Guy (guitar), Kurt ‘Monie’ Termonia (vocals; also ‘Serial Butcher’) & ‘Narre’ Bernard Demeulenaere (drums; ex ‘Dreft’). They did a self-released tape (entitled Necronymphomaniac) in 1997 and later a CD (Sickly Private; with Wesley Carrez on guitar, also ‘Caducity’).
‘Ectopia & friends; L => R: ‘Narre’, Steven De Cracker (nowadays vocalist of ‘Putrid Inbred’, back then ‘Serial Butcher’, Nico Veroeven (‘Serial Butcher’ drummer), Kurt
‘S.C.D.’ or ‘Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition’ is (still active) a grindcore band from France. They recorded a bunch of tracks in February 1997 that appeared on a split-tape with ‘Infected Pussy’. The guys playing these were with Yov (drums), Bruno (guitar/vocals) & Seb (vocals). Nowadyas only Seb remains.
There was a Belgian band named ‘Catafalque’ (from Loppem, near Bruges) that did technical melodic death-metal. Steve Folens (guitar/vocals), Pol Van Tieghem (bass) and Frank Rosseau (drums) recorded the tape Ruins Of A Forgotten Age in 1996. Vocalist Kris Maes (ex ‘Dreft’) joined them for the recording of the Awakening CD (GoodLife recs 1997).
‘Catafalque’ (Nl); courtesy of Kris Maes
Kris tells me that it was probably the Dutch ‘Catafalque’ that played. In 1997: Rutger Noij (drums; also ‘Suppository’, ‘Last Days of Humanity’), Jozef ‘Jupke’ Folkerts (bass/vocals) & Susan Gerl (guitar).
Brob
I was there that friday, it was the first concert of ‘LDOH’ with the new singer, Bart Boumans.
Hans Smits
We were together with the boys of ‘Suppository’… Fantastic times!
Jozef Folkerts
I’m 85% certain that we played there with ‘Catafalque’… An eternity ago!
Rutger Noij
I remember there was a big crowd. We played in the pub, not the barn in the back and that I got of the stage for a moment to release the surplus of beer from my stomach. :-) During our act.
Kurt Termonia, ‘Ectopia’ vocalist
We had already been at the Vort’n Vis to see ‘Dead Infection’ [97-05-31]. There weren’t a lot of grind gigs in France at that time so we used to come to Belgium (the Vort’n Vis in Ieper or the Frontline in Ghent, or the Zichem Open Air of ‘Agathocles’). I recall we came to the V.V. at one time to see bands and that one almost cancelled because of a health-issue so we asked Frederic Driessens to play ‘cause our band was there already. In the end the health-problem wasn’t too bad and it we didn’t get to replace them. But we kept in touch with Fred and soon after he proposed that we would play the Vort’n Vis. We got to play there several times (and slept on upstairs, in the attic). I’m almost sure that the picture of our band in Hard’n’Heavy # 72 was taken at the Vort’n Vis [Brob: Yes, I recognise the V.V. courtyard.]. I also believe we met Nico [Nicolas Foubert] of our first label (Bones Brigade recs) at a gig in the V.V.
L => R: Yov – Bruno – Seb (‘S.C.D.’)
Seb, ‘Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition’ vocalist
I have a recollection of this: 2-day fest and nice weather. I came to the Vort’n Vis often, also when we didn’t play ourselves; always good atmosphere. To me there were a few places that stood out: Groningen, La Zone in Liège and the V.V. Quite far away for us but always worthwhile. Grind or crust or punk, everyone was getting along well (most can learn from that nowadays)…
Erwin De Wit, ‘L.D.O.H.’ bassist
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 