Introduction => 2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest
Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:
After a a few hours of sleep, we took the distro to the site early enough so that they would let us in this time. A nice first band (‘5 Day Get Away’) opened the day. We decided we could better enjoy it because a series of retarted metal bands was lined up. It wasn’t until ‘Point Of No Return’ (from Brazil) that our ears opened up again. Not al that original but with quite some sincerity. ‘Knut’ delivered an impressive show of chaotic technicality. Hard to get into though (except for Phil ‘Burn Out’). The hardrock of ‘Firestone’ could have been fun if it hadn’t been so rickety. ‘Leiah’ unleashed the elements, including Laurent, without much surprise, remembering last year. The rain continued to poor when ‘Good Clean Fun’ took the stage. A nice concert that could’ve been even better if the weather had been good. To finish up this 2nd day, there was ‘Grade’: good concert despite the weak singing in the melodic parts and a ‘did-you-get-to-see-me’ attitude. Since the day ended early, we found ourselves in J.P.’s (Jean Paul of ‘Nothing To Prove’) van, listening to the latest gossip of Gael and laughing.
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‘5 Day GetAway’ was ‘Blindfold’ directly after they’d split up, without Hans Verbeke and Mich Decruyenaere: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar), Jan Maelfait (bass), ‘Chatn’ Sacha Baelen (drums), with the addition of Vincent Maes (vocals; ex ‘Instinct’). Discriptions of their music went from “melodic/rockin’ HardCore” to “emo with a punky old school touch”. There was a (6-track) self-titled CD released in 2001 that was distributed through Genet recs and they had a song on the The Crossroad Project compilation-CD.
‘Posession’ (from Aviles, Asturias, Spain) put their album Anoxia (and some of their other releases) out on my mate ‘Uge’s labels Don’t Belong and Throne recs. Their music (“stoner rock/death-metal”) was compared with ‘His Hero Is Gone’, Systral’ & ‘Dystopia’. The people in the band were Pablo Muñoz (guitar), Titi Muñoz (guitar/vocals), Xuxo ‘Suso’ Gallego (bass/vocals) & Richard (drums; later Ivan Rubio).
‘Circle’ (from Landen, Belgium) consisted of Dries Olemans (vocals; later Hypertension recs), Arne Robijns (drums), Danny Kempeneers (bass), Dimitri Degreef (guitar) and Kristof Uittebroek (guitar; later ‘Customs’). They did an album for Funtime recs: Radiostation Infiltration (2000) & one for Reflection recs: Vaudeville (2003); their EP The Day Elvis Shook His Ass came out on Genet recs (2001) There was also the Phonography / Leaving The Parade EP (Reflections recs 2003) and a 4-way split CD with ‘Reply’, ‘PN’ & ‘Exit 19’ (Funtime recs).
‘Dawncore’ (Budapest, Hungary) – “new school mosh à la ‘Morning Again’” – were Ács Máté (bass; he replaced the 1st bassist Attila Bozo), Tibor ‘Tibi’ Szalkai (guitar), Ferencz Zsolt (drums), Németh ‘Szabi’ Szabolcs (guitar) and Soos Balázs (vocals). Around that time they were preparing for an album that was released on Marco Walzels’ label Join The Team Player recs: Entertainment For The Rest. Before they had released, besides other material, the EP Obedience Is A Slower Form Of Death on Trottel recs.
‘Dawncore’ (pictures: 1, 2 & 3 courtesy of Ferencz Zsolt; 4 by Pat Federli)
‘Negate’, a metalcore band from the Charleroi area, released a demo in ‘97 with Arnaud Detry (guitar/vocals), Saïd Derouiche (bass/vocals; later just vocals & Greg on bass) & Stef (drums). That year there was also a split with ‘Negative Verdict’ (France) and they recorded for a mCD entitled Between Anger And Pain. Some more releases followed and their final release was a CD – Enemy – for GoodLife in 2003 (with bassist Justin Veronesi, drummer Niko Collaer & guitarist François-Xavier Marciat). The guestbook here was signed by Arnaud, Greg (Gregory Avau), Niko & Moulain…
‘Point Of No Return’ (São Paulo, Brazil) was vegan, straight-edge metal-core band with 3 singers: Alexandre Fanucchi (a.k.a. ‘Kalota’), Frederico Freitas (fredericofreitas.org) & Marcos Suarez. Their music was described as “a mix of ‘Earth Crisis’ metal-mosh with death-metal elements”; they had political lyrics in Portugese focused on the Third World struggles and on the animal liberation fight. The musicians were: Tarcisio (De Arantes) Leite (guitar; also ‘Personal Choice’), Paulo Júnior (‘Juninho’, Paulo Sergio Sangiorgio Júnior; guitar), Jefferson Queiróz (a.k.a. ‘Tigrilo’, bass) – here: Pedro Carvalho – and Luciano Juliatto (a.k.a. ‘Lobinho’, drums). They had a self-titled EP out on Catalyst recs and had recorded for the Centelha LP a few months before this fest. There was an interview with Tarcisio (conducted at this fest) in Co-existence zine.
‘Point Of No Return’ (pics courtesy of the band)
‘Born From Pain’ – “brutal mosh” – (from Dutch Limburg) recorded for the album Reclaiming The Crown in May 2000 with Rob Franssen (ex ‘Wheel Of Progress’, ‘Feeding The Fire’, ‘Backdraft’) on bass, Wouter Alers (bass on ‘F.T.F’s last CD) on drums, Stefan van Neerven on guitar and Ché Snelting singing. Nowadays Rob Fransen sings…
‘Knut’ was described as a “sludge/mathcore” band but also as a “noisy rock outfit” from Geneva, Switzerland. I believe they were friends of Joris De Buysser (who ran Conspiracy recs). In April ’99 Didier Severin (vocals), Jeremy Tavernier (bass), Philippe Hess (guitar) & Roderic Mounir (drums) were in the studio for their 7” Ordeal (on Fabien Thévenot’s Molaire Industries) and in November did some live recordings for a split-10” with ‘Ananda’ & ‘Botch’.
‘Withdrawn’ (where Chris(topher) Meadows of Clear Perception zine used to be singing – he was also the drummer of ‘Unborn’) with Martin Von Bargen and Ian Leck of ‘Voorhees’ had line-up problems and re-formed as ‘Evanesce’ – “vicious vegan XXX metalcore” from Liverpool. In 2000 the band’s CD Sower Of Sedition – recorded with ‘Onion’ Martin Von Bargen (guitar; ‘Solstice’), ‘Mortiis’ David ‘Dave’ Fergusson (drums), Jay/Jason Hearne (vocals), Colin Robertson (bass; replaced Phil Smith) and Danny McDermott (guitar) – came out. The music was described as “black/death-metal influenced metalcore”. Watch (part of) their set on video!
‘Firestone’ (from Kortrijk, Belgium) had played the Vort’n Vis a few times already: 96-08-16, 97-06-27, 98-08-16 & 2000-07-16. The line-up here was Iris Walgraeve (vocals), Lennart Bossu (guitar), Diederik Claes (drums), Mathieu Storms (drums) & Ward Dufraimont (guitar). They presented their debut-album Aim For A New Tomorrow.
‘Firestone’ (photos: courtesy of Iris Walgraeve)
‘Sad Origin’ (from Dendermonde) played at the 1998 fest and presented their LP during the 1999 fest: A Double Edged Sword In A Triangle Of Emotions (‘adesiatoe’) was released by Genet recs. They had done a demo in ’96 and a mini-album entitled Window Of Sarcasm on Inner Belt recs (‘98). The band (from Dendermonde) consisted of Robin (bass), Wim Aerts (drums), Wes(ley) 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” (not to use the generic term “Tuff-Guy HC”). Alain Herszaft put out the split-CD with ‘Misura’ on Released Power Productions in August 2000. Some of the members went on as ‘Die My Demon’. No idea if they actually played here (they’re not in the guestbook)…
‘Leiah’ (Gävle, Sweden) had played at the V.V. pub on 99-10-31 and the ‘Ieperfest’ the year before (99-08-22)…Their music was indie-rock/emo-punk: Ann-sofie Lundin (bass), Gunnar Forsman (drums), David Lehnberg (vocals/guitar; he’d also performed here with ‘Ariel Kill Him’ the day before) and Klas Joakim Eriksson (guitar; ex ‘Serene’). In 1999 they did 3 releases for Genet recs and this year Bruno released the LP Tigra Songs.
‘Leiah’ (photos courtesy of the band)
‘Good Clean Fun’ – “old school Hahahardcore” – was a vegan straight-edge positive hardcore punk band from Washington D.C. As influences they mentioned ‘Gorilla Biscuits’, ‘7 Seconds’, ‘Minor Threat’ and ‘Youth Of Today’. In 2000 they had the album, entitled On The Streets Saving The Scene From The Forces Of Evil, out on the Dutch label Reflections recs (Johan Prenger from Tilburg). On these recordings: Mike ‘Phyte’ Mowery (bass), Andrew William Black (drums), John Delve (guitar) and Issa Diao (vocals). Probably they toured with another line-up: in the guestbook there’s a drawing of Casey a.k.a. Chuck Water Music [NÓT Chuck Ragan of ‘Hot Water Music’], Issa, ‘Phyte’, ‘Scooter’ & a drummer…
‘Good Clean Fun’ (pics: source unknown)
‘Grade’ (photographed by Pat Federli)
‘Grade’ (from Burlington, Ontario, Canada) “blended metallic hardcore with emo” and were inspired by ‘Integrity’ and ‘Chokehold’. Bruno’s marketing lingo: “top speed emo hardcore with a really driving edge”. In 1999 they had signed to Victory recs and their videos were played on MTV. Members at that time, I believe, were Matt Jones (bass), Chris Danner (drums), Shawn Magill (guitar), Greg Taylor (guitar/vocals) and Kyle Bishop (vocals).
Brob
It was me singing, Scott Affront (guitar) & Casey Watson (guitar; no relation to ‘Hot Water Music’), Mike ‘Phyte’ (bass) & Geoff (drums).
Issa Diao, ‘Good Clean Fun’
I believe I only performed once with ‘Firestone’ in Ieper (the band had a number of singers before), on Ieperfest. I can’t remember a great deal about it. I was studying for re-exams and just popped over for our gig, driving along with our bassist Didier (who had to work until a certain time) – singing along with to ‘Hammerfall’ CD to warm us up.
A bit after performing at Ieperfest we were addressed by Bruno (Genet recs). Larry [Watts] of ‘Standing Tall’ wanted to do a project with Lennart and myself, after he’d seen us play. We rehearsed twice with Larry and Louis [Louie/Luis Gonzales ?] in the back of the Pyrrhus shop and then we went into the studio. Lennart played bass and I was singing together with Larry. The project was named ‘Bracelet’ but nothing happened with that. Larry continued it on his own but the songs we recorded were never released because Genet didn’t want that.
Larry & myself did go see American Psycho, together with Bjorn Dossche…
Iris Walgrave, ‘Firestone’ singer
I remember that we played the V.V. these twice but nothing more. I played in ‘Circle’ from ‘98 to 2004. We did this one and played also on 2001-08-18 with ‘Leiah’, ‘Liar’, ‘The Locust’, ‘Facedown’, etc. In 2001 we also did a gig in the pub (Oct 19th) with ‘Severance’. Later we played the Animal Truth Benefit with ‘Liar’, ‘Absone’, ‘Firestone’, ‘Severance’, ‘Empathy’ & ‘Bloodshed’; and the Ieper HC Fest on 2002-08-18.
Danny Kempeneers, ‘Circle’
This was a weird day for us: in the morning we’d burried a friend (car-accident) and we didn’t expect much from our gig but the response was super and that performance plus the contacts we got there helped us expand our horizon and get out of our local scene to play with a lot of different bands.
Dries Olemans, ‘Circle’ vocalist
I would like to thank those organising the fest in 2000. The Vort’n Vis was legendary for us in Brazil and it was a great honour to play there. I remember we had a blast. It was such a great time! I have the sense that at the time the fest was beginning to stray away from its DIY roots towards a more commercial mode of operation but I think it still retained some of its old ethos.
Our bass-player had to return to Brazil before the end of the tour and our friend Pedro played bass in Ieper. We also had other friends from Brazil who were following us, so many of the non-stage 2000 European tour pictures on our page have them mixed up with the band.
Frederico Freitas; ‘P.O.N.R.’
From 1999 on, when ‘ADESIATOE’ was recorded, Robin took over the bass.
Peter De Bondt, ‘Sad Origin’s first bassist
If I remember well, we were just on tour with the band. I really liked the location, we liked the party. Food was delicious. After our show we stayed at the festival the next day… I can say it was an honor to play there.
Ferencz Zsolt, ‘Dawncore’ drummer
‘Leiah’ were not that DIY even if we did most stuff like any other punk-band. We played squats, smaller venues, printed shirts, owned a shitty van, eat beans and vegan stews and got wasted. We were all young punks and the party had just begun and we partied alot. I joined ‘Leiah’ in 2000 playing the Tigra Songs LP tour. I played there 2 times: 2000 & 2001. I remember all the vinyl and vegan food. And I’ve never in my life seen so many ‘Liar’ T-shirts at one place. The moshpit thing was brutal, not my kind of thing though. Most bands played really strict metal-core/ old-school and I guess our more Swedish mid-western emo-thing was a welcomed pause from all the heavy stuff. I was really psyched up playing in 2000 since I knew from the response of the first show that ‘Leiah’ (at the time the EP with ‘Hebriana’) got a nice welcoming.
Nowadays, David and Ann-sofie are doing music far from the punk-scene and they do it successfully. I don’t think they care that much about punk-music these days. Anders and Joakim had some band together years ago that was in the vein of ‘Strike Anywhere’ (melodic and fast). I moved up north after 10 years in Stockholm and I’m still keeping my D-beat band ‘Terror Attak’ from ‘99 alive…
Gunnar Forsman, ‘Leiah’ drummer
‘Knut’ played off-beat hardcore that sounded very tight live.
Kristof Mondy
I remember that I already felt completely alienated from that scene…
Sacha Baelen
This was since 20 years ago, a time where flemish kids enjoyed meeting walloons like us. I remember arriving by car and seeing a lot of people coming from the railway-station to find the place. I also recall the amazing vegan food…
I also met Ovidie (the french porn-star) at the fest and we had a real cool discussion about what she was doing there.
Arnaud Detry, ‘Negate’ guitarist
I quit ‘Negate’ in 1998…
Saïd Derouiche
excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 