More on this concert: 96-09-22 Strain – Ananda – Systral – Elision – Sektor – Vitality – Family Of Dog
photo-shoot by Sarah Van de Mosselaer
Eric Thorkelsson, ‘Strain’ bassist
Chris Rayes, ‘Strain’ drummer
Jody Taylor, ‘Strain’ singer
John Franco, ‘Strain’ guitarist
Sean Lande, ‘Strain’ guitarist
‘Strain’ [Jean-François Fleury video-taping]
‘Elision’
Introduction => 99-08-20&21&22 Ieper HC festival
Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:
(1) Overall, the second day announced to be more metal/old-school HC and it needs to be said, the least enticing. I’ll remember however some likeable stuff such as ‘Reveal’ and their wild cover of ‘Inside Out’s No Spiritual Surrender, ‘Lifecycle’ [???] and their SxE hard-rock, ‘Bloodpact’ for the very militant side, ‘Ananda’ and their chaotic metal or ‘Mörser’ for the impressing aspect (3 singers, bassists) more than for the music. Big disappointment was ‘Sabeth’ who seem to want to be early ‘Helmet’ without getting anywhere much because of an incredibly monotonous voice. As for ‘Ensign’: they quickly tired me despite the giant mosh-pit in the audience during a song.
(2) On Saturday the festival started with a band of local heroes, with little importance, that allowed me to finish my night. I arrived on the site for ‘H Street’, who made a good impression. I took advantage of the next bands to replace Laurent at the distro (Sell or die!) and make a tour of the record-fair. This day only the performances of ‘Bloodpact’ (We can be old-school and committed, right Guy?) and ‘Ensign’ (boys-band on tour) challenged me.
(1&2) Determined to take advantage of this night, we took some precautions (earplugs,…) but unfortunately the Belgian summer-nights don’t resemble nights of Ibiza, so we found ourselves victims of a chill we rarely experience in the East. Laurent managed to sleep an hour, Olivier none. Once out of the tent, surprise, the Belgian army paraded outside of the camping-site, determined to recruit two or three depressed vegan warriors who were looking for a new home since hardline stopped. In addition the soldiers organized their own festival in the camping-site. What a contrast to the troops heading for the Vort’n Vis.
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‘Ochtenddauw’ – “H8000 twisted power Metal.”. A local band (from Ieper; they rehearsed at the V.V.) with Wouter Keirse (guitar; keyboards in ‘Eclipse’, guitarist of ‘Warcraft’), Vince(nt) Tetaert (guitar; drummer of ‘Lifecycle; also in ‘Alignment’), Peter Leuwers (bass; also in ‘Lifecycle’), Ward Spruytte (drums; also guitar in ‘Solid’) & Steve Lammertyn (vocals). They had a demo out that year.
‘H-Street’ – “Snotty old school, start piling up now!”. SxE band from Vienna, Austria with Dan(iel) ‘El Toro’ Braaf (guitar), Thomas ‘Tom’ Krutzler (vocals), Mario Schöbinger (bass), Rob(ert) (drums) and Georg Ondrak (guitar). They did a demo (’98) and a self-titled 7” (’99). They got a massive response for covering ‘Token Entry’s The Edge here…
‘H-Street’ (photo by Marco Pasini)
‘Stroke Of Grace’ – “Limburg softcore! Great riffing!!”. Band from Belgian Limburg playing “pretty original and diverse metallic emo-core” with references to ‘Refused’ or ‘Abhinanda’: Stijn Vliegen (vocals), Jurgen Werelds (guitar), Steven Duchateau (guitar), Manu Fredericks (bass) and Luc Nicolaers (drums). Their CD The Body, The Soul, The Spirit was released in ‘98 (Flying World recs). They were also on some compilations.
‘Stroke Of Grace’ (photos courtesy of Stijn Vliegen)
‘Redemption’ – “Vegan metal mosh – split mCD presentation.”. From the “Roma Straight Edge Legion”. A band that was compared to ‘Catharsis’. They did a self-titled 7” & a mini-DC (Until The Next Day) on Surrounded recs (Maurizio Ricci’s label) in ’97 & ‘98, and a split-mCD with ‘Timebomb’ out on War.ds (’99). ‘Gipsy Rufina’ (Emiliano) was the “founder and everlasting member of the band”. The members were Liv Cosentini (guitar), Pierpaolo Perilli (vocals), Simone Achille (guitar), Dario (drums) & Emiliano Liberali (bass).
‘Ananda’ – “Terrifying metallic HC, sort of ‘Acme’ meets ‘Carcass’.” had already played at the V.V. on 95-07-02 & 96-09-22. They switched vocalists in 1998 which “marked a drastic change in their sound from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”: Michaël joined in December ’97. Their Profane LP (2000) co-released by Snuff recs (Didier Severin & Roderic Mounir of the band ‘Knut’, Genève) and Molaire Industries (label run by Fabien Thévenot of ‘Iscariote’). Members were Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass), Jérôme Mizou (drums), Michaël Clergeot (‘Mikachu’; vocals) and guitarists Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) & Thomas ‘Tom’ Guillanton (ex ‘Fingerprint’/’Jasmine’).
‘Ananda’ (courtesy of Vincent de Roguin)
‘Sabeth’ – “Turbo stuff, like ‘Helmet’ meets ‘Botch’?”. Band from Böblingen, South Germany with Carsten Pflugbeil (bass), Felix Böhlken (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Dawnbreed’), Thomas Hahn (guitar; nowadays Thomas Harsem, producer) and Steffen Falcke (drums). Marten Thielges was only on their debut. They did their first (self-titled) 7” themselves (’96). Their next releases were on Marco Walzel’s Join The Team Player recs: the Zwei 7” (’98) and the Cobrajet LP (’99).
‘Product – “Rapid old school by really dedicated people.”. Italian poison-free (vegan SxE) band from the Milano area. Stefano Bertelli (guitar; was in ‘By All Means’ – but not when they played the V.V. in 95-08-20), Stefano Milani (bass), Chris(tian) Paracchini (drums), Dan(iele) Casti (vocals) & (Pier)Paolo Bruschi (guitar). Green recs put out their Dedication 7” (‘98) & Not An Answer 7” (’99). A 7” (Watch Your Step) came out on Genet recs (’99), together with New Type Crew (a mCD version of the 7” containing bonus-tracks previously released on their 1st 7”).
‘Product’ (courtesy of the band’s fanpage)
‘Mörser’ from Bremen were not announced; apparently they replaced ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, who had split up. They played diabolic ultra-fast death/grind with 3-4 singers, 2 bassists, guitarist & drummer. At that time (I think): André Wendelken (drums; also ‘Carol’, etc.), Sven ‘Svenion’ Nienaber (guitar; also ‘Minion’, etc.), Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne (bass; also ‘Carol’, etc.), Sven Seelkopf (bass; also ‘Metöke’, ‘Systral’), Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’ & ‘Systral’, etc.), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Systral’), Daniel ‘Grabi’ Grabowski (vocals; also bass in ‘Assay’, ‘Rusty James’) & Ulf ? (vocals). At that time they had an LP (Two Hours To Doom, ’97) out, and a split-7” with ‘The Swarm’ (’98) on Markus Haas’ Per Koro.
‘Mörser’: (1) Sven Seelkopf [taken from Bords Perdu fanzine] – (2) Sven Nienaber [courtesy of Sven]
‘Reveal’ – “Emo-metal, ‘Unbroken’ meets ‘Converge’?”. Another GoodLife – Genet recs band: Dissection Of Thought EP (GL 97), Through The Eye Of Perfection Evolution Dies Slowly CD (GL 98) & To Explore The Invention To Create CD (Genet 2000). Maarten van Oers (drums), Mischa van Rodijnen (guitar), Geert van Hoesel (vocals) & Dave van Beek (bass) were from Dongen (near Breda, NL).
‘Reveal’ (pic by Peter Hendricks) [drumset switched around so one can see the crowd]
‘Spineless’ – “Emo-metal, H8000 rocker-jacks! Last show?”. This band (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96. They were 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). Their music was brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans Verbeke of Sober Mind recs released the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998). The band played the V.V. quite a few times. After Spineless ended in 1999, 3 members started a new band called AmenRa, which is still going nowadays.
‘Bloodpact’ (USA) were described as “old-school feat. ‘Earthmover’ & ‘Trephine’ members” or “political pissed-off hardcore”. They were from Ann Arbor/Detroit (Michigan): Andy Dempz (vocals; +/- recs, ex ‘Earthmover’, also in ‘Ruination’), Annie Sullivan (bass), Dustin Schoenhofer [see below] or Adam Arola (drums), John Skinner (guitar). At the time of this tour they had a split-LP (with ‘Varisty’; on +/-) and a 7” (As Good As Dead; on Element recs) out. Later they would release some stuff on Reflection recs and on Genet recs.
‘Thumbs Down’ – “Belgium’s old school HC pride.”. ‘This band (from Antwerp) played “youth crew hardcore”. They’d played at the Vort’n Vis before (97-08-16, 98-05-10 & 98-08-15): Roeland (De Keulenaer?) (bass; or was he already replaced by Andries Beckers?), Ken or his replacement Benjamin Buschgens? (drums), Raf(aël) Balrak (guitar) and Steven Tuffin (vocals). They were signed to Genet recs (Going For Gold 7” – with bassplayer Roeland – in ’97, No Retreat No Surrender 7” and Crossroads LP in ’99).
‘Pray Silent’ – “Clevo style HC – LP/CD presentation.”. A Swiss (from Sankt-Gallen) vegan straight-edge band (metal-core) signed to Bruno VdV’s Genet recs. They’d played the fest the year before aswell (98-08-15). The band consisted of Andi/y Grob (guitar), Attila Varga (vocals), Etienne Geyer (guitar), Philipp Zimmerman (bass) and Roger Cadalbert (drums). They were compared with H8000 in ads…
‘Ensign’ (courtesy of the band’s fanpage)
‘Ensign’ – “Topclass old school, back after touring with ‘S.O.I.A.’!”. Hardcore punk band from New Jersey. Nathan Gluck (bass; replaced Walter Svekla), Ryan Donoghue (guitar; replaced John Fraunberger), Ryan Murphy (drums; ex ‘Undertow’; replaced Chris(topher) Ross) and Tim(othy) Shaw (vocals). Early on they were signed to Dave Mandel’s label, Indecision recs. They came back the next year (2000-08-18)…
Brob
For us it was the hugest audience we have ever played. It was a pleasure for us to play there. I think it was the biggest HC festival in Europe and everybody was there. I am not involved in the HC-scene anymore but I think about the gig in Ieper very often. I loved it.
Carsten Pflugbeil, ‘Sabeth’ bassist
I was at the ‘Ieperfest’ as a stage-hand ‘for Sabeth’…
Johannes Schreiber, ‘My Hero Died Today’
Thomas Harsem had taken over guitar for me when I moved to ‘Dawnbreed’ (now ‘Monochrome’).
Marten Thielges, ‘Sabeth’
I have a couple of pictures and 2 videos (‘H-Street’ & ‘Mainstrike’) from that Ieperfest.
Danny Braaf, ‘H-Street’ guitarist
That was an amazing gig!!! We came over from Bremen only for that night. I think we’d just come back from our US tour a few days before. So it wasn’t sure we could make it over to this festival. The organiser decided to put us on the running-order as a secret special headliner. We played before ‘True Blue’ I think. [These played the next day.] Even most people of the festival-team didn’t know we were the ‘special guests’. When we got on stage there were already rumours running through the crowd and a lots of people were already standing waiting up-front. And a lot of people surrounded us on stage (as you can see on photo). After the show we met some guy of ‘As Friends Rust’ in the backstage-kitchen. He was totally sad about missing us because he was informed too late were playing (he was on the camping-area). At that time ‘Mörser was: André – drums, Sven – bass, ‘Matze’ – bass; ‘Svenion’ – guitar, Daniel ‘Grabi’ – vox, Björn – vox, Denny – vox.
Ulf had left the band earlier to move to Berlin. Hajo (short for Hans-Joachim) was the guitarplayer of ‘Carol’ and ‘Rusty James’. There were much more bands we all played in but not every band released something.
Sven Nienaber, ‘Mörser’ guitarist
One of the Top 5 shows in 20 years.
Sven Seelkopf, ‘Mörser’ bassist
I believe we opened on Friday??? This was something we’d been looking forward to for a long time. I’d been visiting the fest for several years. That weekend some of my favourite bands were on the bill (‘As Friends Rust’, ‘Hot Water Music’, ‘JR Ewing’, ‘Reveal’, …). Some of them played in Tongeren (Pumpkeskal) aswell. There were quite some people from the beginning of our set; one of the biggest crowds we had. It didn’t go smoothly though: because of nerves and the over-enthousiasm, I myself as singer was the cause that the lead-gitaar was out of tune from the first note on. That wasn’t very helpful to calm us down :-). In the end it mustn’t have been that bad because Bruno [Genet recs] asked us that very day if we could play at the Frontline together with ‘The Get Up Kids’ a few days later. I still have the live recordings of our set somewhere. Apparently all bands were recorded. What also stuck, is the fact that is everything was so well organised. We didn’t have to ask anything: everything was made clear to us from our arrival. Something we didn’t anymore later on. ‘Ieperfest’ was a starting-point for ‘Stroke of Grace’. That was because of the international character of the fest. Because of that we got the opportunity to play a number of shows in Germany.
Stijn Vliegen, ‘Stroke Of Grace’ vocalist
Always loved playing at the V.V.! A personal highlight will always be ‘IeperFest’ [not yet that name] 1999, I think it was. Where we had the hugest circle-pit I’ve ever seen!!!
Nathan Gluck, ‘Ensign’ bassist
Hey, I did play in ‘Ensign’, was one of the original members, but left the band in 1996 or 97 before they toured Europe. Tim and Nate were definitely in the band. Not sure if Chris Ross was still drumming or not at that point. John F had been playing guitar but was probably out. I think I saw them in Seattle in 99 or thereabouts…
Walter Svekla
I did not play with ‘Bloodpact’ in Europe.
Dustin Schoenhofer
additions wellcome!…
Introduction => 99-08-20&21&22 Ieper HC festival
Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:
(1&2) This year we went to the famous Vort’n Vis festival again. Our car was filled to the brim. After a long drive we arrived in the ever charming town of Ypres, where we had to find the new place where the festival was (the old one had become too cramped). This new place happened to be in the yard of an old school. The joys of the outdoors!
(1) I was disappointed to have arrived too late to see ‘Hebriana’ that first day… We had to wait until a local thrash band (read: H8000) stopped playing to see the first interesting band: ‘Discount’ that I only knew by name until then. Poppy punk rock with female vocals. Nice surprise! Their gig was pleasant and many made a diary-entree because of the singer. ‘As Friends Rust’, who accompanied ‘Discount’ on this tour, gave a good concert musically (tinged with emo and metal), that brought the audience together. On the other hand, I was rather disappointed by the performance of the ‘old-school heroes’ in ‘Mainstrike’, compared to the concert they gave two years ago. Normally this was their last concert. The band of the day was undoubtedly ‘Hot Water Music’: they offered the audience an excellent energetic emo-rock concert. A lot of people were there for them and they even managed to convince the youth-crew 88 (like Olivier; who even bought their CD); congratulations guys!
(2) We weren’t hardly out of the car when metal chords of the worst kind reached our ears. A shiver ran through my body. Would I once again have to endure a treatment of metal during this Belgian weekend? Fortunately we were just at the end of ‘Heaven Shall Burn’ (phew!) The rest of the day (in my opinion) more accessible groups were scheduled. I was pleasantly surprised to discover ‘As Friends Rust’ and ‘Discount’ that I didn’t know yet musically. On the other hand the performance of the grandpas of ‘Mainstrike’ disappointed me a lot. It was super flabby. The last band of this first day was ‘Hot Water Music’ and something that didn’t really had to happen, did happen. It was a revelation. I’m still in love with it. Emo rock’n’roll at its best.
(1&2) After this busy first day we had to find the famous camping-site (where no one pays) and especially find ourselves a place, something rather difficult at past 1 a.m. Most seemed to believe that everyone had a soundproof tent. After this very ‘white night’, restless people had decided to skate at 7 a.m., destroying all chances to close our eyes…
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‘Tumult’ – “Ruhrpott powerviolence” – were announced but apparently didn’t play. It was a fast-core band from Bonn/Köln with Christian Czerwinski (vocals), Marco Andree (guitar), Dirk Weißenfels (guitar) and others. They did a few 7”s: The Heroic Bloodshed (Defiance recs ’97), a split with ‘Gomorrha’ (on Anomie recs & Marco Andree’s Bastardized recs ’98) & a split with ‘Yacøpsæ’ (Spiral Objective 2000); and a self-titled LP on Per Koro (2000). For some reason they didn’t show up…
‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ – “Rocking slomo emo HC.”. A Belgian SxE band. Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes, the singer of ‘Instinct’ was in this band… So was Bjorn Dossche (One Step Down zine). The band had a demo out. Both guys were later in later ‘The Deal’ & ‘Rise And Fall’.
‘JR Ewing’ – “Noisy & pissed off, feat. ‘Amulet’ member – split set with ‘O.N.A.’.”. Norwegian HC band with (at that time) Andreas Tylden (vocals; ex ‘Lash Out’, also ‘Amulet’), Erlend Mokkelbost (guitar), Martin Molden (guitar), Jonas Thire (drums) and Nils Petter Strand (bass). At that time they had 3 7”s (also compiled by Scorched Earth Policy) out on Dance Of Days Recording Coalition: a split with ‘Break (97), Integritas.Consonantia.Claritas. (98) and another split with the Belgian ‘S.Y.C.’ (99). Together with his gig they did 5 (!) other shows in Belgium (Kontich, Leuven, 2 in Antwerp & Tongeren).
‘Once…Never Again’ – “New school, CD presentation – split set with JR!”. A “heart-core band” (as their label dubbed them) from the Antwerp area. Originally a straigt-edge band but that changed… They did a CD entitled Others Came Along And Killed My Dreams (on Funtime recs, ‘99) which was referred to as resembling ‘Morning Again’. Members: Bram De Laet (guitar), Hans De Groef (guitar), Kristof Van Den Broeck (drums), Stijn Op De Beeck (bass) & Stijn Davignon (vocals).
‘Surface’ – “Metallic new school mosh!!”. Another “Ruhrpott metal-core band.” (with 5 sXe-ers): Frank Knöfler (drums), Sven Pust (bass), Thorsten Kleine-Hegermann (guitar), Boris Pracht (guitar) and Sammy Eftekhari (vocals). They did 2 albums on Mad Mob recs: To Millenium…And Beyond (’97) & Shadows Cast By The Light Of The World (’99); toured with ‘Snapcase’ in ’98.
‘Hebriana’ – “Rapid, distorted Merksplas emo-core.”. They’d just played the V.V. (99-06-27) supporting ‘Shai Hulud’. Stijn Colson (guitar), Sven Hoskens (bass/vocals; later ‘Confuse The Cat’), Peter Bols (drums) & Vaast Colson (guitar/vocals) came from a little town in the North of Belgium and were described as an emo/post-HC band with references to ‘Reiziger’. They did a split-7” with ‘Leiah’ (from Sweden) on Genet recs in1999. A review mentioned their music is “herky-jerky post-hardcore with vocals that are pretty shouty, kind of Dischord-y”…
‘Heaven Shall Burn’ – “Blistering H8000 style metalcore.”. A “melodic death-metal/ metal-core” band from Thüringen (Germany). They’d released some demos, an EP (In Battle…There Is No Law) in ’98 and a split-LP (with ‘Fall of Serenity’) in ’99. At that time they were Eric Bischoff (bass), Maik Weichert (guitar), Marcus Bischoff (vocals), Matthias Voigt (drums) and Patrick Schleitzer (guitar).
‘Discount’ – “Poppy punkrock/HC, female vocals. Shake it up!”. In the band (from Florida) were: Alison Nicole Mosshart (vocals; nowadays ‘rockstar’), James Parker/Todd Rockhill (bass), Justin Focco/Bill Nesper (drums) & Ryan Seagrist (guitar). Comparisons with the melocic HC band ‘Tilt’ were made. To mention just a few of their relases: a split-7”with ‘As Friends Rust’ (GoodLife recs 1999), split-LP with ‘J Church’ (on Rugger Bugger Discs 2000)… In 1999 their album Crash Diagnostic was released (recordings with Alison, Todd, Bill & Ryan).
‘Sad Origin’ – “DMD brutal stomping HC – LP/CD presentation.”. Their album A Double Edged Sword In A Triangle of Emotions was released by Genet recs. They did a demo in ’96 and a mini-album entitled Window Of Sarcasm on Inner Belt recs (‘98). The band (from Dendermonde) consisted of Robin ‘Robby’ (bass; replaced Peter De Bondt who played on 98-08-15), Wim Aerts (drums), Wesley Steels (guitar) and Hans ‘Link’ Teirlinck (vocals). Peter XKombatX did backing vocals on the Genet CD. Some people reviewed it as “metal with an early ‘Morbid Angel’ sound” or “metalcore with NYHC influences” or (On Display #3) “bad death-metal”. Alain Herszaft put out the split-CD with ‘Misura’ on Released Power Productions in 2000. Some of the members went on as ‘Die My Demon’.
‘Sad Origin’ (source unknown)
‘As Friends Rust’ – “Damien & co back in Europe!”. American punk/hardcore band founded in 1996 in Gainesville, Florida; with Damien Moyal (vocals: ex ‘Culture’/‘Shai Hulud’/‘Morning Again’). In early 1996 Jeronimo Gomez (bass), Henry Olmino (guitar) and Matt Crum (drums) were jamming and recruited Damien. After recording six songs and making a three-track demo, the band soon disbanded and was not picked up until 1998 when Damien revived it with new members, mostly from the breaking up band ‘Culture’. The new line-up recorded a single new song, and used four from the demo, to come out with the debut The Fists of Time (GoodLife recs). A year later, with a slightly different line-up, the split with ‘Discount’ came out and they quickly went on tour. Another line-up change and the new EPs God Hour and As Friends Rust were released on GoodLife recs. Damien posted a video of ‘As Friends Rust’ playing Encante at this festival here. They came back the next year…
‘Mainstrike’ – “Youthcrew masters.”. They played the V.V. before They did their last gig 99-10-30 at their hometown’s Goudvishal (where Pytrik Schafraad interviewed them for It’s Raining Truths #4) so this was probably their last Belgian show… On the www there’s a video of ‘Big’, Jonas, Jeroen, Johnny & Pepijn performing their song Break The Cycle… In May 1998 they’d recorded the album No Passing Phase. And in January & April 1999 four songs meant to be for two split-7”s (with ‘Ensign’ and with ‘True Blue’); but the band later decided to put all the songs on one record. The self-titled 7” came out in 2000 (a year later after they had already had broken up). Former V.V. gigs: 95-04-09, 95-08-19, 95-10-20 & 97-08-17.
‘Mainstrike’ (photographed by Marco Pasini)
‘Hot Water Music’ (pics courtesy of Stijn Vliegen)
‘Hot Water Music’ – “Leading Florida emo hardcore.”. Melodic punk/hardcore band. Releasing material on No Idea recs and more recently Epitaph recs. The band still exists (hotwatermusic.com). Members of the band are Charles Allen ‘Chuck’ Ragan (guitar), Christopher James ‘Chris’ Wollard (guitar), Jason William Black (bass) and George Rebelo (drums).
Brob
The first revived line-up of ‘As Friends Rust’ – the one that recorded Home Is Where the Heart Aches (1998) was me, Tim Kirkpatrick (drums), Joe Simmons (guitar), Kaleb Stewart (bass) & Gordon Tarpley (guitar). The ‘Discount’ split line-up (1998): me, Tim, Joe, Kaleb & Peter Bartsocas (guitar). The God Hour line-up (1999): me, Tim (drums), Joe, Kaleb and new guitarist James Glayat (guitar).
It was the first year in that outdoor space. Great energy. I think that was sort of a peak year for us in Europe…
Damien Moyal
Actually I do have some pics and stuff of that festival. Stories too, cause we slept in our cars most of the time.
Sammy Heininger, ‘Surface’ vocalist
I know I have some pics from when we played that Vort’n Vis fest in ‘99. Just need time to find them…
Jonas Thire, ‘JR Ewing’ drummer
From 1999 on, when ‘ADESIATOE’ was recorded, Robin took over the bass.
Peter De Bondt, ‘Sad Origin’s first bassist
Bruno (Genet recs) asked us to do a split-set with ‘JR Ewing’… Can’t remember which band we had to replace. [Probably ‘Turmoil’ from Germany] Our band only lasted about one and a half year.
Stijn Davignon, ‘Once Never Again’ vocalist
One of our band-members had to work a bit longer than expected that day so we weren’t sure if we could make it in time. We asked the organiser (the Genet recs guy) what would happen if we’ld arrive later than planned in the time-schedule. He replied “If you’re to late, you won’t play. You hàve to be there in time otherwise you won’t play.”. I remember him being quite inflexible, not giving us the chance playing later, so we quickly decided to stay at home. We were really looking foward to play Ieper but that guy didn’t give us any leeway. Imagine us in a hurry arriving like 20 min late and that guy’s like “Tough luck, you’re too late.”. To avoid this awkard situation a.k.a. trouble we decided not to show up at the fest. That’s it.
Christian Czerwinski, ‘Tumult’ vocalist
I’m not 100% sure about our line-up because we had a change that year but it must’ve been me and Tommy on guitars, ‘Sabbel’ [Christian] doing vocals, Jens on drums and bassist Marco. That’s at least the line-up we recorded our LP with that year.
Dirk Weißenfels, ‘Tumult’ guitarist
I recall that we were all super nervous. It was our first ‘big’ concert (I was only 16) and everything was pretty overwhelming. Because of the tense nerves we played our set twice as fast. Actually one of our worst gigs ever. But we were, and still are, proud for being able to play the Vort’n Vis fest. And we could see the rest of the bands for free. A gift of the gods for a 16-year old with a flat wallet…
Hans De Groef, ‘Once…Never Again’ guitarist
We only played the festival in 1999 (and 2002), I believe. At least when I was in the band. Unfortunately I can’t say that much because we went there in an overnight drive, played in the afternoon and left in the early evening. We were supposed to play another festival in East-Germany the next day, early afternoon. I only remember that it was a rather bad show for us, but a good way to introduce ourselves to a wider audience. I wish we could have stayed longer and watch the other bands…
Matthias Voigt, ‘Heaven Shall Burn’ drummer
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 