2000-08-20 As Friends Rust – [Walls Of Jericho] – Stigmata – Length Of Time – Reveal – Standing Tall – One Fine Day – Children Of Fall – Purification – [Chispa] – Inane – Course Of Action – Oil – Bobby Peru – Severance

Introduction => 2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:

3rd day: some interesting bands in the afternoon such as ‘Bobby Peru’ (hard rock’n’roll emo) or ‘Oil’ (original HC). For Laurent, ‘Children Of Fall’ gave the best concert of the festival, despite the vocal problems of the singer and especially the penultimate concert worthy of attention. ‘Stigmata’ gave occasion to a good bit of fun for most of us French, entering into some ‘caterpillars of death’ in the pit. We were waiting for ‘As Friends Rust’ but their gig was brief, since the police decided to put an end to the festival. A little disgusted but not too sad because there’s enough opportunities to see this band (that roams the old continent for quite some time).

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‘Severance’ (Brugge/Knokke-Heist) did a “blend of the post-hardcore thing with some indie rock”; they’ve been compared with ‘As Friends Rust’ & ‘Hot Water Music’. The band was started in 1998 by Bert Degraeve (guitar), Jochen Verledens (vocals), Koen Barbier (bass) en Pieter Deroo (drums). Tim Debrabandere became the 2^nd guitarist in 1999 and Ivo Debrabandere replaced Pieter on drums in 2000. Their first release was a split-CD with ‘DeathBeforeDisco’ on Eye Spy recs (2001). A couple of years later Genet recs would release their CD Let’s Talk About Us…

‘Bobby Peru’ – “Rock on emo-power!” –  (emocore from southern Germany) played a “frantic, chaotic style of hardcore; heavily influenced by the ‘Swing Kids’ and other San Diego bands of the time”. They – ‘Bobby Belmondo’ (bass), ‘Badass Peru’ (drums), ‘Bobby Fett Peru’ (guitar), ‘Cpt. Loco Peru’ (guitar) & ‘Byron J. Peru’ (vocals) – released 2 7”s: Liberate Tute Me Ex Inferis (Two Friends recs 1999) and The X-File Conspiracy (Strange Fruit 2001).

‘Chispa’ (from Hamburg) were people who’d played in ‘Loxiran’: Dennis Becker (guitar; he had been at the V.V. with ‘Lebensreform’ in ‘97), Norman Kolodziej (guitar), Oliver Koch (bass), Thomas Tröger (drums) & Ulf Stolley (vocals). “San Diego all over it!”… Markus Haas (Per Koro) released their 7” Obstinator (’99) and there was a split-CD with ‘Enfold’ on Bloodlink recs. They were announced but didn’t actually play.

‘Inane’ (from Bottrop, Ruhrpott area, Germany) – “Mörser with grunts” – playd brutal metal/death-core with frantic drums/guitars and hellish vocals. Their album Zeitraffer was released on Sascha Franzen’s label Alveran recs in 2000. Markus Haas (Per Koro) did their second – Kill ‘Em & Grill ‘Em – in 2001. There was also a 7” on Autumn Leave Network… The band consisted of ‘Ollie’ Oliver Hapke (bass), Oliver Hemker (guitar), Jörg Fenhoff (guitar), Michael Heidenreich/Christian S (drums) & Heiko Nickel (vocals). No idea who Wes was (see guestbook).

‘Course Of Action’ (from the French-speaking part of Belgium: Wavre/Louvain-La-Neuve) played “technical/melodic metal-core with the emotion and intensity of bands like ‘Converge’ or ‘Morning Again’…”: ‘JP’ Jean-Pascal Bolle (drums), David Scurr (bass), Tiago Lemaitre (guitar), Phyl Bautzer (vocals) & ‘Max’ Maxim Polya-Vitry (guitar/vocals). They put out a self-released tape (entitled Ocean Of Despair) in ’98). Then there was the CD No Redeeming The Sunlit Path Of Bliss ‎(Hellbound Corporation, ’99) and GoodLife recs released the Carving Our Way By Tearing Our Faith ‎CD (2001). They came for the fest in 2001.

The album Definition Delta by ‘Oil’ (from A’dam & R’dam) was recorded July 2000, with guitarists Jasper Uhl & Robin van der Kaa, bassist Peter Heemskerk, drummer Marcel Wiebenga (also ‘Das Oath’) and singer Nicholas van den Doel. It came out on Jeroen Vrijhoef & Marcel Palijama’s label Coalition recs. They were a hardcore band; in Bruno’s marketing-lingo: “Like ‘Rocking From The Crypt’ going old-school.”.

‘Purification’ – “vegan straight-edge mosh metal terror” – played already on the fest in 1997 (97-08-15)… This Roman vegan sXe metal-core band, I believe, consisted at that time of Maurizio Ricci (vocals), Paolo ‘Uccello’ Castagna (bass), Fabio ‘Kappa’ Cappabianca (drums), Emiliano De Santis (guitar) and Andrea ‘Monster’ Campanelli (guitar; also ‘Comrades’). They did a split-CD with ‘Unborn’ in 2002. Watch their set…

‘Children Of Fall’ (“emotional metal-core”; from Malmö) did several records; one of which was on Genet recs (2000): Riding A Broken Vehicle. A later album was also released on tape by Marko Rusjan (Choose Life label). The band was: Olle ‘Hård’ Johansson (guitar; ex ‘Serene), Anders Näslund (vocals; ‘Serene’), Emil Björkander (bass; see below) & Linus Rösell (drums). Olle got replaced for this show (see comment below).

‘One Fine Day’, a “post-hardcore” band, had already played at the ’98 fest already. In 2000 they released a split-7” with ‘Dead Inside’ The band consisted of Adriano ‘Baulo’ Fontaneto (guitar), Alessio Fornasiero (bass), Andrea ‘ics’ Ferraris (guitar; also ‘Burning Defeat’, ‘Permanent Scar’, etc.), Luca ‘Mouth’ Fontaneto (vocals; editor of the zine Outlet) and Stefano Bosso (drums). In 2002 they would release a CD on Bruno’s Genet recs: “Mixing heavy ‘Botch’-esque sounds with more rocking ‘Swing Kids’-alike madness.”. Their set here was video-taped: 1^st part & 2^nd part.

‘One Fine Day’ (pic courtesy of the band)

‘Standing Tall’ (Gainesville, Florida) – ‘Starkweather’ meets ‘Converge’! – had 2 releases on Genet recs: the album Swallow The Gods (released right in time for their European tour 2000) and the EP To Suffer Discomfort For Compassion (’99). The band consisted of Larry Watts (guitar/vocals), Tony DePaolo (bass/vocals), Louie Gonzales (drums; he replaced Andy Seltzer); don’t know if guitarist Ruben Lopez was in the band at this timepoint. The guestbook was signed by Lew (Larry), Luis, Tony & Dani (read below). Their music was described as “wicked, discordant and messy HC” and also as “destructo-core influenced by ‘Starkweather’, ‘Botch’, ‘Coalesce’…”.

‘Reveal’s second appearance (first one: 99-08-21). “Driving hardcore/noise whirlwind, new LP/CD out now!”. They’d left GoodLife and switched to Genet recs for the To Explore The Invention, To Create CD (2000). Maarten van Oers (drums), Mischa van Rodijnen (guitar), Geert van Hoesel (vocals) & Dave van Beek (bass), from the south of The Netherlands.

‘Length Of Time’ was a metal-core band from Brussels with Michel Kirby (guitar; ex ‘Mental Disturbance’, ex’ Deviate’), Yves ‘Ross Demon’ Van Geel (vocals), Christian Zegers (drums) & Vince(nt) Meseeuw (bass). They did 2 albums and an EP for GoodLife recs between 1998 & 2000. Someone wrote about them: “Our lives were full of agony until we heard this magic band.”…

Michel Kirby (source unknown)

‘Stigmata’ was a hardcore band from Albany, New York; with Bob Riley (vocals), Buddy Armstrong (bass), Jason Bittner (drums; later ‘Overkill’ etc.), Jason/Jay Sunkes (guitar) and Mike Maney (guitar). In 1999 Victory recs had released their album Do Unto Others…

‘Stigmata’ (source unknown)

‘Walls Of Jericho’ – announced as “Ex ‘Earthmover’, brutal mosh metal with harsh female vocals” – was a metalcore band from Detroit. At the time of this fest they had a demo out, a 7” (A Day And A Thousand Years) and an album (The Bound Feed The Gagged, on Trustkill recs). At that time: Candace Puopolo/Kucsulain (vocals), Aaron Ruby (bass), Wes Keely (drums; ex ‘Earthmover’), Kevin Kroeger or Chris(topher) Rawson (guitar) & Mike Hasty (guitar; ex ‘Earthmover’). ‘W.O.J.’ didn’t actually make it here. ‘Earthmover’ played an earlier fest on 98-08-15…

Damien Moyal sporting a ‘Liar’ T-shirt (source unknown)

‘As Friends Rust’ had been here the year before aswell: “Melodic, fastforward hardcore harmonies! A pleasure to have them back!”. Another band from Gainesville, Florida! Damien Moyal (vocals: ex ‘Culture’/‘Shai Hulud’/‘Morning Again’) was the main man. After a major line-up change the double-7” God Hour (GoodLife recs 1999) and the 8” As Friends Rust (Doghouse recs 1999) were released. The line-up at that time was James Glayat (guitar), Joseph ‘Joe’ Simmons (guitar; also ‘Culture’, ‘Morning Again’), Kaleb Stewart (bass) & Tim Kirkpatrick (drums).

Brob

I have very good memories regarding Ieperfest and the Vort’n Vis. I was indeed the guitarist – later bassist – of ‘Oil’. As it happens I missed the concert on Ieperfest in 2000 because I was ill. Nobody replaced me, I was such a limited guitarist that they could do with the one giutar.

Robin van der Kaa, ‘Oil’

Wasn’t the ‘As Friends Rust’ concert interrupted by the cops because of complainys about the ‘noise’?

Nikos Houzet, drummer ‘Eliottt Ness’

I have memories of Damien ‘A.F.R.’ singing through the kick-drum microphone when they played. The vocal microphone ended up getting smashed with all the people climbing the scene. Fantastic show and great guys!

I think Joakim did stand in guitar for Olle at the ‘Children Of Fall’. Not 100% sure though. He got a nasty infection on his leg after doing a huge tattoo while we were on tour. I think he had to cancel Ieper because of that and go home?

Gunnar Forsman, ‘Leiah’ drummer

Yes, it’s true that I had a medical condition that sent me straight back to Sweden and into hospital. It was actually a really bad tattoo infection But I don’t think the band cancelled any shows, the guys from ‘Leiah’ filled in for me when I went home…

Olle ‘Hård’ Johansson, ‘Children Of Fall’ guitarist

If Olle didn’t play that year and the band borrowed stuff of the ‘Leiah’ members, I’m totally sure I wasn’t in the band then already. I must have joined during the fall of that year, after the band had played that fest. Petter Karlsson probably played the bass instead of me.

Emil Björkander

Ieper was an absolute blast. It was built up in my mind from all the stories I heard from our friends in ‘Culture’ / ‘Morning Again’ / ‘As Friends Rust’ and when we got there it certainly did not disappoint. New/old friends, bands from all over the world and a great atmosphere both at the fest and in the city made Ieperfest a fantastic experience. One of my favorite things about the fest was the fact that there were so many bands from different parts of the world and how welcome everyone was made to feel. Our Belgium shows were some of my favorite of the tour due to the fantastic crowds that came out. Our Ieperfest crowd was among one of my favourite of my career due to the fact that they were so patient with us. We had no idea what we were doing as we had never played on a stage that big before. Add to that technical difficulties, rain and a non-English speaking crowd, and you get a potential recipe for disaster. We got the exact opposite and it was awesome. Our Ieperfest set also doubled as our CD release show for our second offering from Genet recs. If not for Bruno having faith in a bunch of kids from Florida, we never would have been there. That European tour was one of the best experiences of my life and kicking the whole thing off at Ieper was incredible.

The Swallow The Gods line-up was Larry, Louie and myself. Ruben and Andy had moved on at that point. The European tour was with Dani on vocals, a guy from Spain who came to Gainesville in early 2000. He hung out with us until his visa ran out and he had to go home. He played a few shows with us in the States but he went back to Spain a few months before the tour. We met up with him in Gent at the start of the tour and we played as a 4 piece.

Tony DePaolo, bassist of ‘Standing Tall’

‘Children Of Fall’ belonged to the Swedish emo-hardcore scene but played bone-hard live… One lump of passion. They became real friends and I drew the cover of their CD. ‘As Friends Rust’ was…a party on stage; poppy up-tempo hardcore with one of the best frontmen of that era (Damien Moyal). Awesome… Good time!

Kristof Mondy

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2000-08-19 Grade – Good Clean Fun – Leiah – Sad Origin – Firestone – Evanesce – Knut – Born From Pain – Point Of No Return – Negate – Dawncore – Circle – Posession – 5 Day GetAway

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 1^st 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 19^th) 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!…

2000-08-18 Ensign – Voorhees – Reiziger – Serene – Cast In Fire – Building – January Star – Cataract – Lvmen – With Love – Ariel Kill Him – AmenRa

Introduction => 2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:

Arriving at the entrance it seemed like we heared a well-interpreted cover of ‘Serene’; in fact, to Laurent’s great despair, it was the last piece of a surprise reunon of the band. And to add to our frustration we also missed ‘Ariel Kill Him’ and ‘With Love’. Things started off in a bad way. In addition we were denied access to the distro-space. The bouncer in service at the entrance claimed there was a lack of space, even though we had only two miserable boxes. Once the distro was set up, we could finally enjoy the sweet metal melodies.

It wasn’t until ‘Reiziger’ we found a little consolation. But Olivier found that a little too long. Fortunately for him the English legend ‘Voorhees’ took the stage. For Olivier it was the best concert of the festival, Laurent got tired of it after 5 or 6 songs, and the mangled ‘D.R.I.’ cover didn’t make things better. ‘Ensign’ concluded the evening in a déjà-vu kind of way (not to sound mean).

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‘AmenRa’s performance here – “Mix of hard and soft mid-tempo doomy core; all star formation!” – was their first time in Ieper… That was with (ex ‘Spineless’ guys) Kristof Mondy on bass, Mathieu Vandekerckhove playing guitar & Colin Van Eeckhout singing; plus Bjorn Lebon on drums & Jan Maelfait (ex ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Blindfold’) on extra bass.

‘Ariel Kill Him’ (from Gävle, Sweden) – “David ‘Leiah’ solo with guests! Acoustic emo-pop” – was indeed the band of David Lehnberg (guitar/vocals). That year the album She Wears The Stars Like Him (alternative/indie rock, emo) was out. No idea who supported him: Alec Ahlénius (drums)?, Magnus Björk (keyboards)?…

In 1996 ‘With Love’ was added to the bill last minute. (96-08-18) In 2000, the band (from the Triviso area, in Italy) had an album (entitled I Love Cul-De-Sac) out on Green recs that year. It was recorded with Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass; canedicoda.com), Nico Vascellari (vocals; pinchukartcentre.org), Andrea Giotto (guitar) & Nicolò Fortuni (drums). They were described as “screaming emo rock”.

‘With Love’ (courtesy of Paolo Riscica)

‘Lvmen’ (Prague, Czech Republic) were announced wit the phrase “As pompous as ‘Neurosis’, as bright as ‘Unbroken’!”… The band at that time consisted of Petr ‘Husar’ Proft (vocals/keyboards), ‘Melnick’ Robert Taschner (drums), David Mirda (guitar; R.I.P.), Tomis (guitar), Tschepitz/Čepic (bass; ex ‘Rat Race’). They had several releases on the Czech label Day After recs (ran by Miroslav Pátý) by that time 2 albums (a self-titled one and Raison D’Être).

‘Lvmen’ (source unknown)

‘Cataract’ – “Brilliant brutal metalcore/mosh presenting their new CD” – was a band from Zürich, Switzerland. In 1999 they did a couple of EPs (one of which was on Marco Walzel’s label Join The Team Player recs). In 2000 Carl Severson released the album Golem on his label Ferret recs (with vocalist ‘Mosh’ Chris(tian) Ebert, guitarists Simon Füllemann & Greg(or) Mäder, bassist Michael ‘Michi’ Henggeler and drummer Patrick ‘Ricky Lions’ Dürst). Federico ‘Fedi’ Carminitana probably sang for the band here…

‘Cataract’ (source unknown)

The German band (from the Münster area) ‘January Star’ – “Soft & delicate emo-pop! Like drinking a mineral water on a sunny day…” – had an album out on Genet recs in 2000: Home Without A Heart. Line-up: Andre Beyer (bass/vocals), Lars Röhm, Jan Flick & Henrik Neumann. They were often compared with ‘The Get Up Kids’…

‘January Star’ (source unknown)

‘Building’, a “youth-crew style” SxE HC from Antwerp, had played at the fest before (98-08-14). Supposedly this here was their goodbye show. The line-up probably was: Olivier ‘Paco’ Packolet (vocals; later ‘True Colors’), Jelle De Cremer (guitar), Werner Boes (bass, also ‘Kombat’; replacing (P)Andy Van Den Wijngaert) & original drummer Bruno had left and was replaced by Gert Jacobs (drums; later ‘Dead Stop’). They released material on SoberMind recs: In Time We’ll Grow (1998) & split-7” with ‘Up Front’ (1999). There’s also a live-tape of them playing at the GoodLife 1999 summer-fest. “Old school mosh heroes, nailed to the X!”

‘Cast In Fire’ (originally named ‘Full Assault’) – “Brutal, stomping, slow & heavy Detroit m-o-o-o-s-h”. In 2000 they had a split-7” out with (the Belgian) ‘Kombat’, and Genet recs released their Apology ‎album. The people in the band were Jake Dufour (drums), Vincent ‘Vinny’ Dufour (guitar), Nate Stickney (guitar), Ricardo ‘Fire’ Hernandez (bass) and Len(ny) Adams (vocals; ex ‘Earthmover’).

‘Cast In Fire’ ([1] & [2] photographed by Roel Brals; [3]?)

‘Out For Blood’ – “BXL style moshcore, back on the map!” –  was a hatecore band with Alain Herszaft on vocals (he ran Released Power Productions label and was the singer of ‘Mental Disturbance’ in the 80s). Apparently they didn’t make it over. There was a surprise show by ‘Serene’ (see 97-08-16). Read the remark below…

‘Reiziger’, announced here as “top quality European emo HC”, had played a few fests before this one: 97-08-15, 98-08-16.

‘Voorhees’ (“Power-violence legend, around since ages!”) hadn’t been ablo to make to the Vort’n Vis 1994. In 1999 they had their album entiled 13 released on Richard Corbridge’s label Armed With Anger recs. It was recorded with a totally different line-up than in ’94: only vocalist Ian Leck remained. The others on that were Andrew Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside, ‘Unborn’), Dave(y) Allen (drums) and guitarists James Atkinson & Rich(ard) Armitage (ex ‘Ironside’). It was followed by a split-12” with ‘Out Cold’ in 2000 (on Ian Glasper’s Blackfish recs). The split-7” with ‘Kill Your Idols’ was recorded in August with Steve Stewart on bass (who’s mentioned in the guestbook). It was released by Dave Mandel on his label Indecision recs.

‘Ensign’ with ‘Fedi Edge’ of ‘Cataract’ (pic taken by by Patrrick Federli)

In the announcements for this fest, Bruno poses the question “Remember last year’s circle-pit with 1000 kids?!” referring to the show they played the year before (99-08-21)… ‘Ensign’ was a hardcore/punk band from New Jersey. I read somewhere that guitarist Ryan Donoghue had left the band before that tour. Read Nate’s remark below though… Nate ‘Edge’ (Nathan Gluck) switched from bass to guitar and Chris Oliver became the new bassist on the tour. Tim(othy) Shaw was the vocalist. In June 2000, the band recorded for the For What It’s Worth EP with drummer John ‘Vince Vegas’ O’Neill.

Brob

I totally had forgotten about his… How I experienced it?… Ieperfest was always THE show/experience of the year. Back then it was still the biggest underground HC festival I think, so everyone was looking forward to it. Internet was not that prominent but people were eager to meet up with international friends. I remember being impressed by ‘Knut’, ‘Children of Fall’ and ‘As Friends Rust’ [the next days]. The first 2 became real friends: I played with some of the guys of ‘Knut’s new band; I did the drawing for the cover of the ‘Children Of Fall’ CD… ‘Knut’ played that off-beat hardcore (Hydra Head recs) that sounded super-tight live. ‘C.O.F.’ was in the Swedish emo-core vein, live one big lump of passion. And ‘As Friends Rust’… a party on stage, poppy up-tempo hardcore with one of the best frontmen of that era (Damien Moyal). Sweet… Good times!

Kristof Mondy, ‘AmenRa’ bassist

Our first show ever, I believe. Not many people know this or took note of it but in the beginning (just a few shows) we had 2 bassplayers. The second was Jan Maelfait.

Colin H Van Eeckhout, ‘AmenRa’ vocalist

First time ‘AmenRa’ was indeed Colin, Mathieu, Bjorn, Kristof Mondy (with cowboy-hat, if I remember correctly) & Jan.

Lennart Bossu, later ‘AmenRa’ guitarist

One of my clearest memories was watching ‘Serene’ doing their one-off reunion gig here. Not the complete original line-up. Olle [Johansson], the drummer of ‘Serene’, got a nasty infection on his leg after doing a huge tattoo while we were on tour. I think he had to cancel Ieper because of that and go home?

Gunnar Forsman, ‘Leiah’ drummer

I didn’t play in ‘Reiziger’ anymore there…

Arne Van Petegem

Pretty sure that was the line-up with Ryan Murphy on drums (ex ‘Undertow’) and ‘Mackenzie’ [Ryan Donoghue] (the younger kid that played/recorded with ‘Ensign’ on Cast The First Stone and did most of the touring with us) on guitar, plus me & Tim obviously. I know ‘Circle’ played, love that band. Most likely it was either Mad agency [Ute Füsgen, Berlin] or Avocado booking [Marco Walzel, München] that booked our tours, I just don’t remember off the top of my head. I believe in 2000 I was playing guitar at Ieperfest and our friend Chris was filling in on bass.

Nathan/Nate ‘Edge’ Gluck a.k.a. Nathan ‘Voorhees’

This was our last show on a ‘real’ European (3 weeks), before leaving for a tour of 10 days in Japan… I remember that that show started really well, good and powerful sound…but there was a technical problem after the first song (no more electricity?) and when the problem was solved the sound was awful! Good memories anyway…

Paolo Riscica, ‘With Love’ guitarist

After our appearance in 1996 [96-08-18] I think we weren’t able to play the festival again untill 2000. Our second album (I Love Cul De Sac) had been very well received and we left that summer for what has been the longest and best tour for With Love: an entire month around Europe and Japan. We were still excited by the vivid memories of the concert in ‘96 at the Vort’n Vis: that was absolutely one of those tings we were mostly looking forward to. We actually wanted to play there so badly that we accepted Bruno’s invitation even knowing that the day before we were playing in Barcelona (1.400 km away) and that we would have to play in the early afternoon as one of the first bands. That meant we would have had to start driving immediately after the show in order to catch our flight to Tokyo in Venice 2 days later (another 1.300 km). We arrived and basically had to get on stage immediately. The show started and it was incredible. There was so much energy in the air. At least for the first song. Than the electricity failed and it took what seemed like an hour (it was probably just 5 minutes) to be fixed. It happened again during the 3^rd or 4^th song of our set. That was surely one of the most frustrating and horrible shows we’ve ever played. Then we took of for a 16 hours drive. I’m not even sure why I miss touring sometimes…

Nico Vascellari, ‘With Love’ vocalist

Swiss guys living it up (shot by Patrick Federli)

Pat Federli came with us if I’m not mistaken…

‘Ricky Lions’, ‘Cataract’ drummer

I just remember trying to hold ‘Ensign’s drumkit together from the frontside: the stage was so crowded and everything was almost falling apart during their last song…

‘Fedi Edge’, ‘Cataract’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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!…

2000-11-11 Link – Edgecrusher – Forcible

The VV notes mention that night the bar was manned by Frederik Plets & Nick Rebry (‘Retaliate’ guitarists) and Davy Bauwen… The profits went to Solar recs.

‘Edgecrusher’ was a band that rehearsed in the Vort’n Vis. Their vocalist was Davy Bauwen, a V.V. ‘shitworker’ (volunteer) that organised quite a few gigs there. They wrote something in the guestbook on 2000-04-22 so this one here might not’ve been there first one… 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 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 available that year and their second demo Impressions Of Mankind (2002), was with Michael ‘Link’ Maes on drums.

Davy and Freddy ran the label Solar Productions (intended to release an ‘Edgecrusher’ CD?) together. Davy also did Arcane Chaldaeus (a “dark zine, dealing with philosophy, occultism, mythology and other magic darkness”) and a newsletter (in Dutch) entitled Youth Against Society (with philosophical/political items).

‘Forcible’ (also previously in the guestbook on 2000-07-26) was a local thrash-metal band. The above-mentioned Isaac Delahaye (a student at the Rotterdam conservatorium) was also in this band. Besides him there was Matthias Baillieuil (bass/vocals), Michiel Cauwelier (drums) and Phil (guitar). Isaac later played for the Dutch death-metal band ‘God Dethroned’ (and a few others). They did a demo (Imprisoned Redemption of Disorder) in ’98.

‘Forcible’

‘Link’; another local band with V.V. shitworkers: Inge Cappoen & her partner Michael Maes (vocals & guitar). They played many times since they started around ‘97… I think bassist Greg ‘Briko’ and drummer ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere had left by then. Their 1^st CD The Last Sacrifice was recorded in 2000, with a drum-computer and Geoffrey Geeraert on bass. Geoffrey & drummer Michiel (both in ‘Abrogate’) had joined the band beginning 2000 but the latter already left  after a few months. The band continued with a drum-computer for a few years… (Read Michael’s ‘history-lesson’: 97-09-12)

‘Link’ (The Last Sacrifice line-up)

Brob

Isaac joined later on. The original line-up was with ‘Sientje’, Jo and myself.

Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee, ‘Edgecrusher’ bassist

additions wellcome!…

2000-08-17 Retaliate – Surge Of Fury – Killed In Action

We did a pre-show at the Vort’n Vis pub in 2000, on a Thursday…  The actual 2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest was in a school-yard. I just remember my band (‘Surge Of Fury’) and ‘Killed In Action’ played, I don’t recall who else played… It’s possible that ‘Retaliate’ was a that show but I can’t remember. At that time ‘Surge Of Fury’ was Emeric on drums, Dave & Sam playing guitars, John on bass and myself, ‘Tito’, doing vocals,… The line-up is different nowadays… I just remember the ‘Killed In Action’ singer’s name… Max…

‘Tito Fury’ [also played at the V.V. with the Liège band ‘Belief’ on 98-04-26]

‘Tito’

‘Surge Of Fury’ (hardcore metal from Liège) did a demo-tape in 1999…

‘Retaliate’ was a band from the Ieper area playing brutal metal-core. Members: 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 recorded a demo in 2000 and released it under the name W.A.R. in 2001, and later (2002) a split with ‘Outcast’ (DHM recs): Hate Injected. This was probably their first show here. They were also on a poster for a gig with ‘Kingpin’ at the V.V. on 2000-09-16 (on which they were labeled “NY HC”). The line-up changed a great deal later on…

‘Retaliate’

People of ‘Killed In Action’ (from Rouen, France) apparently were later in ‘The Elektrocution’… Maxime Prieux was the singer.

‘Killed In Action’

Brob

The pics are indeed pre Ieperfest 2000 with ‘Killed In Action’, ‘Surge Of Fury’, etc. I think also ‘Striker’ played [Brob: No mention of that in the V.V. notes]…

Frederik Plets, ‘Retaliate’ guitarist

I believe we started out in 2000… In 2001 ‘Retaliate’ opened the actual festival.

Geoffrey Verhelle, ‘Retaliate’ vocalist

The pre-fest before Ieperfest 2000 was organised by me and ‘Lorre’ [‘Striker’ vocalist].

Alexander ‘Lex’ Decoene

It was a wonderful time and a super venue!

Maxime Prieux, ‘Killed In Action’ vocalist

additions wellcome!…

2000-05-27 Impiety – Pentacle – Celestia

According to the Vort’n Vis notes Frederic Driessens (local grind/death/noise fanatic; did a series of compilation-tapes under the name Possessed By Death) arranged for these bands to come to the Vort’n Vis. Practically speaking, things were organised by Davy Bauwen (‘Edgecrusher’ vocalist) – who had to go rent mikes in the local municipal youthcentre e.g. Tom Bordeaux (‘Striker’ guitarist) and some other shitworkers attended the bar…

‘Impiety’ is a black/death metal band from Singapore. They state ‘Bathory’, ‘Possessed’, ‘Morbid Angel’, ‘Venom’, etc. as their influences. On their website, one can read that they “desecrated the Vort’n Vis with Dutch desecrators ‘Pentacle’ and French BM supremacist ‘Celestia’!”: Skullfucking Euro Armageddon Tour 2000 => 27 May – Vort’n Vis HellPub, Ieper, Belgium. Frontbeast ‘Shyaithan’ (Muhammad Ariffeen Deen) (bass/vocals) is the constant factor. On the CD Skullfucking Armageddon, recorded spring ’99, the guitarist was ‘Fyraun’ and the drummer ‘Dajjal’. Judging from the photos, they had a seperate vocalist here…

‘Pentacle’ play black/death metal from Bladel (near Eindhoven, The Netherlands) recorded their album …Rides The Moonstorm in April ’98 with Wannes Gubbels (bass/vocals), Marc Nelissen (drums) & Mike Verhoeven (guitar).

‘Celestia’ (black metal), from Avignon (France), were ‘Fureïss’ a.k.a. Franck (guitar), ‘Noctu Geiistmortt’ (bass/vocals; runs the label Drakkar prods) & a drummer. A tape, entitled A Cave Full Of Bats (their mini-album from ’99) / Live Vort’n Vis – 27/05/00 was released in Portugal and Brazil (2001); “limited to 666 copies”…

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

From the www… >>The Vort’n Vis Festival is one of the biggest underground fests in Europe and can be found in Ieper. It exists a long time already, I think from the eighties. It used to be in the club called Vort’n Vis but since two years it has become an open-air festival at the music-school. The fest offers us a lot of styles of hardcore like old school, NYHC, emo, more metal stuff; and combines big names with lesser known names. The big names this year were Ensign, Good Clean Fun, Stigmata, Grade and As Friends Rust. Convinced, Walls Of Jericho, Out For Blood and Shai Hulud were bands listed on the bill but who couldn’t show up in the end, pity… The weather on this year’s fest really sucked, lotsa rain… But that couldn’t stop the fun. The atmosphere on the fest was good but not as good as last years. There were no fights or something but some people seemed to enjoy fucking things up at the camping. A lot of people showed up. They told me almost 1.500 people on Friday, about 1.700 on Saturday and the same for Sunday. Also a lot of people decided to stay on the camping.<< (author unknown)

Programme (full posts with photos of some bands can be accessed by clicking…):

Friday 18 August: Ensign (USA), Voorhees (UK), Reiziger (Bel), Out For Blood (Bel), Serene (Swe), Cast In Fire (USA), Building (Bel), January Star (Ger), Cataract (Swi), Lvmen (Cze), With Love (Ita), With Love (Ita), Ariel Kill Him (Swe), AmenRa (Bel)

Saturday 19 August: Grade (Can), Good Clean Fun (USA), Leiah (Swe) Sad Origin (Bel), Firestone (Bel), Withdrawn/Evanesce (UK), Knut (Swi), Born From Pain (Nl), Point Of No Return (Bra), Negate (Bel), Dawncore (Hun), Circle (Bel), Posession (Spa), 5 Day GetAway (Bel)

Sunday 20 August: As Friends Rust (USA), Walls Of Jericho (USA), Stigmata (USA), Length Of Time (Bel), Reveal (Nl), Standing Tall (USA), One Fine Day (Ita), Children Of Fall (Swe), Purification (Ita), Chispa (Ger), Inane (Ger), Course Of Action (Bel), Oil (Nl), Bobby Peru (Ger), Severance (Bel)

At least one critical visiter… “What are we all doing ???” ;-)

Some shots of the crowd & distro-stalls (source unknown):

An Caers & Nico Peeters (Day One distribution)

The ‘shit-workers’ in the shadow:

2000-07-16 Abstain – Lifecycle – Firestone

‘Abstain’ was a grindcore band from Cerritos, California. They had toured Europe already in 1997… Bryan MacNamara (guitar) & (Guy) Jay Farihi (drums & vocals). Rob M played bass on the records. They brought “growling vocals, distorted guitars and blasting drums” and had quite afew 7”s out (e.g. Defy on Profane Existence Far East, and a split with ‘Agathocles’ on Burt Beyens’ label Uxicon recs). In 2000 Paolo Petralia (SOA recs) released the World Full Of Zombies album, so they toured with his band ‘Comrades’… Because ‘Abstain’ had problems with their tour-bus (the one of ‘Comrades’) and had to pay extra train-fares, the Belgian bands donated their amends to the Americans. The Americans spent the night in the Ieper ‘Jeugdstadion’ (camping-site)…

‘Firestone’ was an H8000 metalcore band from the Kortrijk area. They had already performed on the 1996 Next Generation Festival, in the pub (97-06-27), the 1998 Vort’n Vis Hardcore Festival and also played on the Ieperfest this year. Early on the band consisted of Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander Baert (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan ‘PJ’ (his first show was 97-10-04) and then Iris Walgraeve. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alex). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but later on Ward Dufraimont (also ‘Liar’) replaced him. Diederik Claes (bass) and Lennart Bossu (guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’) seemed to have been the only constant members. Recordings of them playing at the Animal Truth Benefit Festival at De Warande, Kuurne (97-10-04) were released as a split-tape with ‘Spineless’. August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo. Sober Mind recs released an EP entitled Element in ’98 and they did an LP Aim For A New Tomorrow on Genet recs in 2000 (with Iris on vocals).

‘Lifecycle’ were locals and played here many times… From the post of their gig on 99-10-31 the reader might remember the core of the band was singer Sofie Vantomme and guitarists Karel Deweerdt & Steve Noyelle (guitar). Steve explained that they had a few switches on bass (Jurgen Degryse – Maarten Kinet – Peter Leuwers – Céline Delqueux – Jelle Dobbelaere) and drums (Jan Verhelst – Vincent Tetaert – Tim Jult).

Brob

I believe the rhythm-section here was Peter on bass and Vincent on drums…

Karel Deweerdt, ‘Lifecycle’

I played bass for ‘Lifecycle’ here. I believe I did from ‘99 to 2000 but I was only 16 then and remember very little. It was a fun time but as I grew older, I discovered another world outside HC & sXe. I quite liked ‘messing about’ at gigs, something I would still wanna do. I rarely listen to real hardcore music but solid rock is on daily!

Peter Leuwers

‘Abstain’ was just Jay and me back then. I remember we played with ‘Agathocles’ and a bunch of other bands but it’s difficult to remember specific shows/venues; after touring for like 6 weeks everything turns into a big blur… So many names/faces/venues, it’s difficult to keep track of everything. I’m stoked about the picture in the journal (that is Jay’s writing there)…

Bryan MacNamara

I didn’t play that show (someone in my family had died). Lennart was the only guitarist there. I had just joined ‘Firestone’ the month before; this would’ve been my second or third performance…

Ward Dufraimont, ‘Firestone’ guitarist

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…