2000-09-16 Kingpin – Outcast – Legacy – 187 – Striker – Kalashnikov – Retaliate

The flyer indicates this one was organised by Frederic Plets (guitarist of ‘Retaliate’) & Bert Hoofd (guitarist of ‘One Outta Six’, ‘All My Sins’, …)

‘Kingpin’ formed in the summer of 1998 when: Sim Meerseman (guitar; also ‘Spirit Of Youth’), ‘Vinnie’ Vincent Merveillie (drums; singer of ‘Spirit Of Youth), Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (bass; ‘Natural Order’, ‘Congress’) & Pedro Fioen (guitar, ex ‘Spineless’) started jamming. Joost Noyelle (‘Congress’/ ‘Liar) joined the band, doing vocals. They played “groovy and catchy New York HC” (references to ‘Cro-Mags’, ‘Leeway’, etc.). In 2000 they recorded a 5-song demo. Their first gig was at the GoodLife Fest in July 2000. They also played at the IeperFest in 2001. Hans Verbeke released the Bad Habits Die Hard 10” on his label Pyrorex (2002).

‘187’ (or One Eight Seven; from Ingelmunster / Meulebeke) played “deathcore”. Kathy Verhelle (vocals; later replaced by a guy called Nico), Steve Vanhoutte (bass; later vocals for ‘All My Sins’), Wesley Gielen (drums), Steven De Backer (guitar) & ‘Rumme’ Rumminick Vanluchene (guitar). Some of their tracks were recorded live at the Animal Truth Benefit Festival in Eeklo (98-02-22). They did a demo in 1999. Some of them are currently still active in ‘Rock Stovrie’, a (hard) rock cover band, quite popular in Flanders. Kathy & ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (‘Sektor’) had a project going called ‘Edge Of Life’ for which they used a drum-computer. Kathy’s brother Geoffrey Verhelle (vocalist of ‘Retaliate’) was also involved.

‘Retaliate’ (from the Ieper area) started out early 2000 (first gig @ V.V. on 2000-08-17) and played brutal metal-core (“a mix of ‘Merauder’, ‘Hatebreed’ & ‘Bolt Thrower’). The members were: Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee (bass; ex ‘D.S.A.’), Geoffrey Verhelle (vocals), Thomas Allegaert (vocals), Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; ex ‘D.S.A.’), Nick Rebry (guitar) & Frederik Plets (guitar). They released a demo-tape entitled W.A.R. in the summer of 2000. In 2002 they did a split with ‘Outcast’: Hate Injected (DHM recs).

‘Outcast’ (from Gullegem, the Kortrijk area) started out as “a heavy NY-styled mosh-band”. Later on they took a different singer and played death-metal; also dubbed as “deathcore” or “tuff guy hardcore death-metal mosh” (They “used to be an all straight-edge band”.). They played the V.V. already on 98-04-26. Around this time the people in the band were Tim Vanglabeke & Wesley Bral (guitar), Nick Vanglabeke (drums), Nico Degroote (bass) and ‘Gerre’ (vocals; quit halfway ’99; replaced by Pieter Vanham and Gerrit Van Horebeek who sang for the band briefly). They featured on a 3-way split, entitled Sweets For My Sweet: Chapter I (that was released on Lowlife recs in 2000). Their style “changed from NYHC to more death-metal influenced grind”.

‘Striker’ had aslo played the V.V. previously (98-04-11 & 99-11-27). They consisted of Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; ex ‘Sorehead, R.I.P.), ‘Gerre’ Gerald Goedhart (guitar; later guitarist of ‘Core of Anger’), ‘Tomme’ Tom Bordeaux (guitar; later ‘One Outta Six’ & ‘The Boss’), PJ Vandamme (bass; later guitarist of ‘Retaliate’ & ‘Outcast’) & David ‘Terre’ Termote (drums). They released a demo entitled High Hopes For Nothing in 1999.

‘Kalashnikov’ was a “H8000 metalcore” band from Diksmuide. They had played at the V.V. before (99-11-27). Thijs Plovie played guitar, Dave Willaert was the bassist, Tom Verheecke sang and Bart Gouwy hit the drums.

No idea about ‘Legacy’…

Brob

‘Legacy’ [“Göteburg influenced metalcore”] were the band of mates of Thomas Allegaert; from Ledegem I believe…

Nico Sinnaeve, ‘Retaliate’ drummer

We played the V.V. a few times with ‘Outcast’ (in the barn – with a striptease – and in the pub). Also with ‘Whatever It Takes’ later on. And I set up a few gigs myself aswell.

Pieter Vanham, ‘Outcast’

We still have a video of us playing here… I remember that our vocalist at the time (Nico) had to perform a small bodyslam on a totally pissed guy (a Vort’n Vis regular) that was constantly annoying – wanted to grab the mike and that sort of stuff. A bit of a sad story. I believe he died shortly after…

Our first line-up was with Nico Degroote on bass (who later also played for ‘Whatever It Takes’). We switched vocalist and bassists a couple of times, also had a few second guitarists. Nico, Nick and myself were already doing things in ‘95 but the name ‘Outcast’ (We wanted to sound different from the H8000 bands.) came into existence in ‘97 when Nick bought his drumkit (before he was hitting pots & pans), then we started doing shows. We were the first to play slow beatdown in West-Flanders; because of the evolution of Nick’s drum-style we sounded more and more extreme, and the speed went up, the breakdowns stayed. We’ve never been an outspokenly SxE band – we wanted to be different from the rest of the scene – but we were for a while and then SoberMind wanted to release our material. All of a sudden there were Xs next to our name (not what we’d planned). Nico wrote some lyrics and one was about SxE but we’ve never been militant about it. But we’ve always been veggie.

Our first V.V. show was in ’97 (NOT 97-06-27), upstairs in the rehearsal-room with ‘D.S.A.’, ‘Spineless’ & ‘Firsetone’ – the complete Kortrijk ‘chapter’. I believe it was a Sunday in October ’97 for the birthday of ‘D.S.A.’s Freddy & Sientje; shortly after we became good friends with them (we did a show in Gullegem together)… We did a first demo in ’97, for Esophagus recs (Sven ‘Aborted’ [De Caluwe]). The second was is ’99 (who was planned to be released on SoberMind). Then Gerrit left and we got another singer (Nico Ruysbergh), what made us sound even more extreme. After we did that thing on Lowlife (2000) everybody but myself & Nick quit. Enter Pieter and Gerrit Van Horebeek. They both sounded good so we couldn’t choose. That’s when we did that ‘striptease’ show and after that Gerrit Van Hoorebeek left…

Interesting perhaps: the band ‘Retaliate’ from Ieper is named after our demo Total Retaliation…

Tim Vanglabeke, ‘Outcast’

About a year after our first appearance we played at the Vort’n Vis again. During our performance ‘Lorre’ set the place on fire and at one timepoint there were so many people on stage that we ended up playing in front of the stage.

Thijs Plovie, ‘Kalashnikov’ guitarist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2001-03-17 Edgecrusher – Modilia – Cradle Of Dismission

Not sure how this one really came about but the bands were mentioned in the V.V. notes. That night the bar was attended by Davy Bauwen, Tim Denutte, Steph Quintens, Christophe Deconinck & Karel Willemyns). It was probably one of the last shows before the end of the Vort’n Vis at the Kiekenmarkt…

As I wrote before (2000-11-11) ‘Edgecrusher’ was a band that rehearsed in the Vort’n Vis. There’s also a guestbook-entry by them on 2000-04-22. Their vocalist was Davy Bauwen, a V.V. ‘shitworker’ (volunteer) that organised quite a few gigs there. They also wrote something in the guestbook on 2000-04-22… They played “melodic death-metal”. Besides Davy, there was Isaac Delahaye (guitar; also singer in ‘Panopticum’), Jo Decaesteker (guitar), Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; replaced by Karel Willemyns and then Arian Van Weesenbeek), Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee (bass; replaced by Thijs Lanoye). ‘Freddy’ & ‘Sientje were both ex ‘D.S.A.’ and also played in ‘Retaliate’. The first ‘Edgecrusher’ demo Damnatio Memoriae (recorded by Michael ‘Link’ Maes) was out for a while and their second demo Impressions Of Mankind (2002), was with Michael ‘Link’ Maes on drums.

No idea who and where from ‘Modilia’ and ‘Cradle Of Dismission’ were…

Brob

I still have quite some photographic material of shows; I was always in the background taking pics. I also have some video-recordings of Vort’n Vis shows. I lack the time to get all that sorted… Some day, I suppose?…

Davy ‘nachtthoth’ Bauwen (co-organiser of the Ieperfest, vocalist of ‘Edgecrusher’)

I believe I wasn’t in the band anymore then. I was too much of a HC drummer. The others wanted pure metal. That’s when I decided to start ‘Retaliate’…

Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve

I don’t recall that much from this period (especially the recordings of the first demo are a blank – perhaps because I hate studios). I do know that ‘Edegcrusher’ began with ‘Siene’ and myself who started jamming with Jo. It was the intention to do something à la ‘All Out War’ but soon it turned out a lot more ‘metal’ than originally planned. Davy joined and after him Isaac. We did some shows and Davy plus myself organised a lot around that time. ‘Edegcrusher’s music was very technical. If I’m not mistaken we covered ‘Death’ and ‘At The Gates’… (Not sure about the last.) That was the reason why I quit and concentrated on ‘Retaliate’. Those technicalities were nothing for me: I wanted to go crazy on stage in stead of staring at the frets of my guitar. We combined the 2 bands for a while but the moment ‘Retaliate’ started to go well, ‘Siene’ and myself said thanks but no thanks.

I remember that Isaac also played in ‘Panopticum’ and in ‘Forcible’ but I’ve no clue about those other two bands.

Frederik Vanhee