98-01-16 Serial Butcher – Natron – Mharbh – Damn Nation

Not sure who organised this but I have a stronh hunch that it was Fred(eric) Driessens. Attending the bar that night (according tot the V.V. notes): Steph Quintens, Michael Maes & Inge Cappoen.

‘Natron’, “the godfathers of death-metal” was a band from the deep south of Italy (Bari in the Apulia region – the ‘heel of Italy’); with Max Marzocca (drums), Lorenzo ‘Fünj’ Signorile (bass/vocals) & Domenico Mele (guitar). On their debut CD Hung Drawn & Quartered ‎(1997) there was a guy named Trevor ‘Sadist’ who did guest-vocals. Mike Andriani sang on their demo A Taste Of Blood (recorded in ’96).

Playing “symphonic” death/black-metal: ‘Mharbh’ (Bari, Italy); with Francesco Simone (bass), Antonio Tafaro (drums), Dario Nitri (guitra/vocals), Luca Loreto (vocals) & Nello D’Innocenzo (keyboards). They had released a tape entitled When God Sleeps..;

The death-metal band ‘Serial Butcher’ still exists but back then they were: Nico Veroeven (drums), Hendrik Dobbelaere (guitar), Bob D’Hondt (bass) and Steven De Craeker (vocals; later Kurt ‘Monie’ Termonia). They had a demo out and would record their mini-album Exhumed Rotting. They were decribed as “a more brutal version of ‘Cannibal Corpse’…”. I believe the “H8000 Ringmaster” Nicolas Malfeyt was in the band at one time too.

‘Damn Nation’ played death-metal/grindcore and were from Lille (France). They had a demo, entitled A Hated Life, out in ’97. The people in the band were Franck Camus (drums), Jocelyn ‘Virgil’ Quesne (guitar), Yvan Debuck (guitar) and Nicolas Willaert ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’ (vocals).

Brob

I was singing in a (very bad) band called ‘Dam Nation’ that was (trying to) play somekind of death/grind back then and we did indeed play a show at the V.V. with ‘Natron’.

Here’s a kind of ‘fun fact’: after the soundcheck, while waiting to start the gig, someone was playing In The Bondage Of Vice, by ‘Dead’. That’s how I “discovered” them. Last year, I re-issued their debut You’ll Never Know Pleasure on my label Xenokort precs…

I also did Agony’Zine (2-3 issues) but then decided to sign ‘Goden’ (The Netherlands), one of the artists I reviewed stuff of. The label was named Agony recs and the zine was renamed Suffer! (that was given away with mailorders). I did something like 10 issues before the label folded and it became what was most probably one of the very first webzines on the internet in the late ‘90s (before it stopped alltogether before the change of millennium).

I don’t remember much about the gig itself besides the fact that we were very bad (especially that night) and I became so bored that I left the stage in the middle of a song; and that was our final gig. ‘Serial Butcher’ were quite good at what they were doing. Cool they’re still around!

De Vermis Mysteriis stands for The Secrets of the Worm(s?) in Latin. It didn’t mean much but for some reason I wanted to use a pseudonym and since was a big fan of Lovecraft, I took this from one of his novels… Franck relocated to Québec and still drums in some death-metal band); Yvan, I believe, is playing in a pop/reggae band (with his girlfriend) and Jocelyn became a stripper and later the promoter of the largest erotic fairs in France). We didn’t have a bassplayer back then.

I don’t remember how we ended playing but I loved the atmosphere and the place. Sadly, because of my eyesight-problems, I never had a driving-license and hence no real opportunity to visit the Vort’n’Vis

Nico(las) Willaert

Steven De Craeker joined ‘Putrid Inbred’ but I wasn’t in the band yet then. But probably attended the gig…

Kurt Termonia

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…