Introduction => 98-08-14&15&16 HardCore – The Next Generation festival
Laurent Chopard (from Besançon, France) wrote in his zine Co-existence (that he did with his mate Olivier Bresson): >>Saturday I saw two or three songs by ‘Sad Origin’ who played trite and uninteresting metal. Then the Germans of ‘Highscore’ impressed me with their very successful old-school HC (Olivier would have loved it!), ‘Seein’Red’ didn’t disappoint me musically but also attitude-wise (long explanations between the songs): fantastic! ‘Spineless’ with their unconvincing death-metal, ‘Facedown’ and their personal, technical HC gave a good concert in front of an active and convinced public, and finally ‘Earthmover’ who’d listened and looked too much at ‘Earth Crisis’… a pale copy.<<
————————-
‘Sad Origin’ (from Dendermonde) played metal-core with NYHC influences (style: ‘Facedown’, ‘Chokehold’, ‘Strife’). The line-up was Peter De Bondt (bass), Wim Aerts (drums), Wes(ley) Steels (guitar) & Hans ‘Link’ Teirlinck (vocals). In 1997 they did a first demo Sober & Clean. Window Of Sarcasm (self-releases on Inner Belt recs) followed in 1998. Genet recs would release the LP A Double Edged Sword In A Triangle Of Emotions (reviewed in On Display #3 as “bad death-metal”) in 1999 (presented on the Fest of that year). Alain Herszaft put out the split-CD with ‘Misura’ on Released Power Productions in 2000.
‘Highscore’ were from Münster/Göttingen/Berlin and played energetic and intense old-school SExHC (sometimes compared to ‘Minor Threat’ or ‘Uniform Choice’). Guitarist Jobst Eggert (had been at the V.V. with his old band ‘Peace Of Mind’ on 94-11-05 & 95-03-25); the others were Sebastian Stronzik (vocals; later ‘Short Fuse’), Matthias Volke (guitar), Matthias Borgmann (bass; Chris Fold according the guestbook) and Volker Schlüter (drums). That year they released a demo (It’s For Real) and a self-titled 7” on Sebastian’s label La Familia.
‘Highscore’ (photo by Vincent Troplain)
‘Opposite Force’, a vegan SxE band from Rome, played “tough as hell in-your-face old school hardcore”. After a demo (’93), they had done an LP entitled Near on Vacation House recs (label of Rudy Medea, the singer of ‘Indigesti’) in 1994. Their LP History As We Lived It was released by Genet recs in 1999. Performing on that record were Andrea ‘Monster’ Campanelli (guitar), Cristiano Suriano (drums; also ‘Timebomb’), Marco Ciccone (bass; also ‘Timebomb’) and Simone Tripodi (vocals).
‘Pray Silent’ was a vegan straight-edge metalcore band from Switzerland (Sankt-Gallen) who released records on Genet recs (The Golden Flag 7” in ’97 and a split-7” with ‘Andromeda’ in ’99). The people in the band: Andi Grob (guitar), Attila Varga (vocals), Etienne Geyer (guitar; ex ‘Cwill’), Philipp Zimmerman (bass; replaced Jan) & Roger Cadalbert (drums). They came back the next year…
‘Pray Silent’ (photographed by Patrick Federli)
‘Clouded’ (from Kontich) were: Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals; also did Paradise Regained zine), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) & Wout Bosschaert (guitar). Their 7” Inheritance was done by Genet recs (’98).
‘Clouded’ (courtesy of Steven Anthonis)
1998 was the year of the split-releases for ‘Seein’Red’: they did an LP with ‘MK Ultra’ (recorded October 1997) and with one with ‘The Judas Iscariot’ (recorded April 1998), both released on Coalition recs (Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef & Marcel Palyama). No further introduction for the band necessary I guess… Jos & the brothers had been here already a bunch of times (90-09-15, 95-04-28, 97-03-01)…
‘Seein’Red’ (pictures taken by Vincent Troplain & Philippe Tuffet)
‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96 (96-08-18). They band consisted of Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Mathieu Vandekerckhove (guitar; replaced Koen Sandra in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans Verbeke of Sober Mind recs released the Painfields 7” (1997) and the album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998) – inspired by their “near-dead-experience” (car-crash on tour)… There’s a video them playing their song Exalt The New God here…
‘Thumbs Down’ (Antwerp) played “youth crew hardcore”. They were Andries Beckers (bass; later ‘Diablo Boulevard’; or was it still Roeland De Keulenaer?), Ken (drums; from ’99 on 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 played the fest the year before (97-08-16) and earlier that year (98-05-10).
‘Thumbs Down’ (shot by Vincent Troplain & Philippe Tuffet)
‘Facedown’ had been playing at the V.V. various times (96-08-16, 97-08-15 & 97-10-12). The ‘new-school’ (metal-influenced) vegan SE-HC band from Kontich consisted of: Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). Genet recs released the Beyond All Horizons album earlier that year and the Education, Contemplation, Dedication EP in ’99. They changed their name to ‘Calibre’ when they got a record-deal with a major label (Warner Music).
‘Facedown’ (pic by Steve Lammertyn)
‘Earthmover’ (from Detroit) played pounding metal-core and were Andy Dempz (guitar; owner of Ann Arbor based hardcore/punk label +/- recs), Mike Hasty (guitar; also ‘Walls Of Jericho’), Wes Keely (drums; ex ‘Walls Of Jericho’), Chris(tian) Mueller (bass; replaced Nick Bristow), Jason/Jay Clifton (drums) and Len Adams (vocals). Releases: Abuse (7” on Autonomy recs ’95), Themes From Everyday Life (10” on +/- recs ’96), split-7” with ‘Facedown’ (Moo Cow recs ’97) and Death Carved In Every Word (LP on Genet recs ’98).
‘Earthmover’ (photo by Patrick Federli)
Brob
I liked the atmoshere at the festival. Ieper seemed occupied by (straight-edge) HC troops, and the streets surrounding the venue seemed like they were ours, haha. Until today this is my best moment on stage. Memorable line-up too. A quite unique registration of Members Of Futility: the only time we played that song live. Heydays of 90s metalcore. It gives me a lot of pleasure that influences of that 90s metalcore are emerging again with new and old bands. With my new band ‘Royal Jake’ we try to keep doing similar things. Our EP definitely has a number of musical references to my time in ‘S.O.’
Peter De Bondt, ‘Sad Origin’ bassist
Oh yeah! I remember very well. That was the first hardcore show that size any of us had ever seen/been a part of. Usually there maybe a few hundred people losing their minds. This place was packed with over 3.000 people ready to go! You could feel the place about to explode. We only had a few minutes to frantically get our gear up before we played, everything was a mess. The stage was all the way at the back, we had to plow through all 3.000+ people just to get to the stage. It was all a mess, but absolutely glorious at the same time.
Chris Mueller was not in ‘Earthmover’ at that time. That was where I came in. I joined ‘Earthmover’ for that tour, played with them for their duration. Then we started ‘Walls Of Jericho’ out of the ashes…
Aaron Ruby
excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 