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!…

98-08-16 Reply – D.S.A. – Lifecycle – Inflexible – Ashlar – Caliban – Firestone – Arkangel – Reiziger – Eyeball – Congress

Introduction => 98-08-14&15&16 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

Laurent Chopard (from Besançon, France) wrote in his zine Co-existence (that he did with his mate Olivier Bresson): >>On Sunday I enjoyed ‘Lifecycle’, which I didn’t really like last year. The female vocals add a lot of extra. ‘Inflexible’ showed that metal-wise things are better in Poland than in Belgium. Style-wise, we can say that it’s successful. The Germans of ‘Caliban’ played slightly metal emo. I found it not bad but I was (like a lot of people) satured with metal. I was afraid that there would be more incidents since it was the Belgians of ‘Arkangel’ hit the stage. Nothing serious happened, except the pitiful hard-dancing duded happy to bust each other’s noses.

On a musical level, we got a long way from HC, it’s more like not too bad death-metal. On the other hand one may wonder if it’s useful to preach veganism in front of an informed and converted audience and if their “vegan revolution” doesn’t sound a bit ridiculous when you see their beautiful brand-clothing. Hopefully they’ll get there while growing up.

Finally emo! Yeah, the elders of ‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Reiziger’ gave a superb emo-rock concert which was a long way from some of the kiddy-play. ‘Eyeball’ disappointed me a bit, the audience loved it, it was very much old-school but I believe there’s much better style-wise. Guess who was closing the festival?… ‘Congress’! Yeah, some cancellations and there you go!: they call upon the local glories that are already playing every year. Well, let’s not be too mean: regarding metal H8000 style, it’s still the best.

We won’t insist too much on the ‘did-you-see-me’ attituded and the consumption at the festival, everybody should know by now; the same goes for the dirtyness of the site (Maybe it takes more SxE bands writing songs explaining how to get rid of trash in a garbage-can!) and and the bad smell in the venue. Well, I’ld better calm down because there’s at least there no cigarette-smoke. I regret (and I’m not the only one) the cancellations (‘Serene’, ‘Grade’ [cancelled for family-matters], ‘Bob Tilton’, ‘As Friends Rust’, etc.) and the absence of Swedish bands this year (let’s not even talk about French!) and on the other hand I’ll remember the good times and the people I met there. I don’t know why but this year almost the entire French scene was in the audience!<<

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‘Reply’ (Lint/Kontich/Wilrijk): Kevin Meylemans (guitar), Jimmy Wouters (drums; replaced Yannick (Muylle?) and after that Brian De Bondt – author of the anti-windmilling flyer for 96-08-16&17&18; Jimmy also did a distro called Petition Of Menes and played in ‘One For Sorrow’) who left the band because of disagreemebts), Sven Roevens (vocals; also did Hoeëmai zine), Dries Verhaert (bass) & Michael Camerlinck (2^nd guitar later on but not here). Sven & Yannick also did Constructive zine. Kevin described his band’s music as “solid, intense metallic (emo) HC”. Their split-7” with ‘One For Sorrow’ came to the world in ’99 (Funtime recs, Firestorm recs, Fallen Angel recs). In 2000 they did a CD entitled Nine Batteries To Fuel Our Dying Teenage Love Affair (on Funtime recs).

‘D.S.A.’ was a local band that played the V.V. several times (see 97-06-27, 97-10-25 & 97-12-26). They also had a track on this year’s festival compilation-CD…

Sofie – ‘Lifecycle’s singer – wrote me (May ’98) that their bassist Jürgen had quit the band a few weeks earlier (“We did more shows without him than with him.” His last show was May ’98.) and that they were no longer an SxE band. They were gonna try out a girl as bassist but apparently that didn’t work out… They also had gotten the proposal to release a 7” on SoberMind recs. Check out their many other V.V. performances…

‘Lifecycle’ with Maarten Kinet replacing Jurgen Degryse on bass (photos by ?)

‘Inflexible’, from Łódź in Poland, were: Maciej ‘Maciek’ Derfel (bass), Piotr ‘Carlos’ Wołosz (vocals), Sebastian Niciński (drums) and Piotr Szambelan (guitar). Their music was described as mosh-core and they had a tape out entitled Progress By Hatred (Youth Culture, ’97). In ’99 their album Born To Hate was released (Shing recs). The band’s members were the founders of the B.D.H.Crew (or 248 Crew), a group of people from central Poland who wanted to promote HC & straight-edge scene.

‘Inflexible’ pics courtesy of Piotr Szambelan

The Good Life promo-talk on ‘Ashlar’ went like this: “Limburg metal-core following in ‘Kindred’s footsteps, with a more metal and Cleveland (‘Ringworm’, ‘Integrity’) influenced sound”. They were Rob Moonen (vocals; “a maniac on stage”), Raoul Cuypers (guitar; later ‘Sons Of Irah’), Frank Rogiers (bass; later ‘Ekzeem-A’) and Bert Daemen (drums). That year they released a mini-CD entitled Enthroned In A So-Called Heaven.

‘Ashlar’ (+ Rudi Brans); source unknown

‘Caliban’ are (they still exist and became ‘major’) a metal-core band from the ‘Ruhrpott’ area. The line-up in the beginning was: Engin Güres (bass), Robert Krämer (drums), Marc Görtz (guitar), Claus Wilgenbusch (guitar) & Andreas ‘Andy’ Dörner (vocals). ‎That year they did a self-titled EP on Lifeforce recs (the recording of their 1^st demo) and the next year the A Small Boy And A Grey Heaven LP on the same label (from Leipzig).

‘Caliban’; source unknown

‘Firestone’ (Kortrijk) were a H8000-metal band had played at the V.V. already (96-08-16, 97-06-27). Not sure who did vocals here (Thomas Desimpelaere or Alexander Baert or Pieter-Jan or Iris Walgraeve.), Mathieu Storms (drums), Diederik Claes (bass), Matthias Desimpelaere (guitar; later replaced by Ward Dufraimont – who was also in ‘Liar’) and Lennart Bossu (guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’). They released an EP entitled Element on Sober Mind recs (’98) and an LP Aim For A New Tomorrow on Genet recs (‘00).

‘Arkangel’ (Brussels metalcore) were: Baldur Vildmurdarson (vocals), David Vande Zande (drums), Numa (guitar) & Mehdi Thepegnier (bass; or was it Vince(nt) Meseeuw of ‘Length Of Time’?). Kirby Michel (guitar; ex ‘Mental Disturbance’, ex ‘Deviate’) replaced Numa later on; they became a five-piece with Julien Chanut (guitar). Their EP Prayers Upon Deaf Ears got out on Alain Herszaft’s Released Power Productions (1998) and their LP Dead Man Walking on GoodLife recs (1999). Filip Staes’ girlfriend Adina ‘Storm’ Hepworth was ‘Arkangel’s webmaster and she started working for GoodLife.

‘Reiziger’ evolved from ‘Kosjer D’; their music was described as “post hardcore” and “emocore”. I think they were an ‘indie’ band on the edge of the DIY scene… The band consisted of Sven Gielen (drums), Pascal Hens (guitar), Kristien Hendrix (bass) & Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals). The year before Bruno (Genet recs) had released their 1^st (12”) EP Don’t Bind My Hands. And I think now the split-12” with ‘Bob Tilton’ and their LP (Our Kodo) was available from the same label. Tracks for a 7” (Grab And Nailed) on the Czech label Day After were recorded (at Patrick Delabie’s 195 studio) Nov ‘99. Other show of this band at the V.V.: 97-06-14 & 97-08-15.

‘Reiziger’ (photo by Vincent Troplain)

‘Eyeball’ was a German SxE HC band with Daniel Frankowski (guitarist of ‘Spawn’) on vocals. Ingo Engelhardt (the guitarist) also played in ‘Degradation’ & ‘Upright’. The others were Tim Kriependorf (bass), Thorsten (guitar) & Jörn (drums), Peter Hoeren informs me… Christoph (‘Spawn’) used to play bass in the beginning but he soon dropped out of the band. Their slogan ‘Tri-City Straight Edge’ refers to the fact that the members came from different cities. Crucial Response recs released their Talkin’ Straight 7” in 1998 & More Days To Come LP in 1999.

‘Eyeball’; photographed by Philippe Tuffet

1998 was the year of Angry With The Sun (LP on GoodLife recs) for ‘Congress’. It featured the usual gang: ‘U.J.’, Ilja, Pierre, ‘Josh’ and Michael. They also played the Graspop Metal Meeting that year…

Brob

‘Reply’ and my friends always meant a lot to me. We played there – replacing a band – on borrowed equipment (of the guys of ‘Building’, I think). The intensity and charm of that shed behind the original Vort’n Vis has never been surpassed; it was unique, even with all the shortcomings that came with it. We played there another time [???].

Kevin Meylemans, ‘Reply’ guitarist

I don’t have any stuff from that time (flyer etc.) but some good memories… I have been to the V.V. a couple of times…and yes, we played there too… I remember drinking my first Alpro soja choc drink there… And listening to ‘Queen’ in the car outside…and enjoying a lot of great bands there (‘Arkangel’ here, ‘Swing Kids’ & ‘The Locust’ on other occasions, and tons of more) and meeting friends…

Claus Wilgenbusch, ‘Caliban’ guitarist

The ‘Ashlar’ pic was from the infamous set where ‘Spirit Of Youth’ played a few songs – that got ‘Ashlar’ kicked from SoberMind recs even before there CD was released! [‘Ashlar’ gave ‘S.O.Y.’ the opportunity to play before their set, even though the organisation (Bruno & Hans) told them not to and hence ‘Ashlar’ was dismissed by SoberMind…]

Rudi Brans

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Vincent Theeten & Sim Strike One); source unknown

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-16 Firestone – Facedown – Vitality – Outrage – Victims Of Society – Down For The Count – Liar – Spawn – Unborn

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>They had entitled this fest ‘Hardcore; the new generation’, as far as I’m concerned I would have rather called it ‘Hardcore the last generation’ or better yet ‘The demise of the Belgian scene’. It started early on Friday with ‘Firestone’: heavy metal from da neighborhood or something. Then I think it was ‘Facedown’, quite a good surprise, powerful emo-ish metal with quite a few things to say. ‘Vitality’: can’t rermember so I guess it was heavy metal or maybe even death-metal from Belgium. ‘Outrage’: pretty good powerful emo-metal; I was disappointed they didn’t talk much between songs. ‘Victims Of Society’ might have been the best band of the day; raging old-school hardcore punk à la ‘Inkisiçao’; I talked to them a bit and it turned out their lyrics are not serious, just funny or weird. ‘Down For The Count’ from Spain were good modern style HC but the sound-quality wasn’t too hot unfortunately. ‘Liar’: at least the vocalist was honest when he said “If you think it’s too violent get out!”, ‘cause the crowd did act like a bunch of football-supporters. But I enjoyed it, it was very powerful death-metal. ‘Spawn’ disappointed me a bit: at first the sound-quality wasn’t that good, and the band acted like a bunch of musicians. No wonder they went from Crucial Response to New Age… I think they’ve split up now. Oh yeah, it was good old-school though. Late at night ‘Unborn’ came up with their powerful basic death-metal, I totally enjoyed it but the set was short!<<

Here’s what Helene K. of Subjugation recs wrote about this fest on her blog:

>>Alas things were a bit different when I returned to the Ieper festival in 1996 with my friend’s band ‘Unborn’…It was much bigger and people seemed to be more into the idea that the highest echelons of human connectivity was achieved through busting some karate-esque moves, pushing those who weren’t turned on by this to the back of the room, and I guess philosophically speaking out of the way and out of the door to find desultory solace back in the mainstream. This aggressive individualism was in stark contrast to the good humoured communal feeling at the earlier festivals. I have to confess I find all this muscle-flexing a bit dull. I find it executed in a more finessed and meaningful way on the football-terraces and in any northern town on a weekend, and the need for ‘unity’ in this context much more understandable than one where you just watch a band together. But I can be a bit slow to grasp some of the more deeper and progressive philosophical stances about the inter-relationships between people, community and society. But I have to admit it had an effect on me. Some guy in the pit hit me once too often so I punch him in the back of the head, and I offered him out for a fight, which alas he turned down. Funny now to think of Nick from ‘Unborn’ stepping in to separate us. I guess you can take a girl out of the north east, but never the north east out of her!<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) wrote about the different nationalities of the visiters, the various ‘crews’ (H8000, Suckcore, ODK, Rennes, Evil Blood, Ruhrpott Posse, UK Vegan Warriors, Roma SxE) and the fact that this was ‘The Year Of The Moshpit’… Interesting ;-).

‘Firestone’ was a H8000 (from Kortrijk, Belgium) metal band. This was probably their first appearance at the Vort’n Vis. Their later singer Iris Walgraeve explained the band’s history in the post on their 97-06-27 show: >>Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander [Baert?] (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him [June ‘99]. Diederik Claes [bass] and Lennart Bossu [guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’] were the only constant members I think.<< In August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Also a first time for ‘Facedown’ (‘new-school’, metal-influenced, vegan SE-HC band from Kontich, near Antwerp): Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). The Ferket brothers (Evil Twin recs) released the Friendship Is Everything 7” (recorded at Studio 195 in July 1996; Bruno would re-release it – with some additional tracks – on Genet recs in 1997)… “Powerful, brutal, moshing emo-core”…

‘Facedown’, picture by Sergi E. Costa

‘Vitality’ was a “tough-guy edge-metal” band from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast): ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. In 1998 their Crucial Wires CD appeared on the French (from Rennes) label Overcome recs.

‘Vitality’, shot by Sergi E. Costa

‘ODK Crew’, also a band from Oostduinkerke, played a few songs unannounced. They played “Clevo style HC” and got quite some criticism for covering a song by ‘One Life Crew’ (with supposedly fascist inuendo)… The guys had some members of ‘Vitality’ (guitarist Bob Van Lierde & bassist Marc Paccou) and ‘Congress’ (drummer Ilja De Ceuleneire) in their ranks…

‘Outrage’ (friends from the Kempen area in Belgium) had already played the V.V. a few months before this (96-03-24). Sigi Loots (drums), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals) and Nico Peeters (bass). ‘Outrage’s had recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs) in April ’96…

Nico ‘Outrage’ (photo by Philippe Tuffet)

‘Victims Of Society’ were a (pretty commercial) band playing old-school HC hailing from Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium). They recorded the Screams From The Gutter demo at Labie’s Studio 195 that year and did a CD (Way Of Life) on Lost & Found (!) in 1997. They were: Davy Helsen (guitar), Dieter De Backer (drums), Hans Van Keilegom (guitar), Toon Severijns (bass) and Jim (vocals).

‘Down For The Count’, a new school sXe hardcore band from Madrid, were: Gonzalo Ávila (bass), David Fernández (drums), Conrado Isasa (guitar), Francisco Arroyo (Sanchez) (guitar) and Hugo Ortiz (vocals). They recorded for their tape entitled Reflections in April ‘96 (released by Víctimas Del Progreso – Crímenes De Estado).

‘Down For The Count’, photographed by Sergi E. Costa

‘Down For The Count’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

I guess ‘Liar’ did one of their first shows with Bert Guillemont (also ‘Sektor’; replacing Raf) here since he’d just joined in June. Being locals they played the V.V. several times. The others were Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’, etc.), UxJx (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’). The line-up on the Invictus LP (1997, Genet recs). In August they did a 3 week tour in Europe together with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Congress’…

‘Liar’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Apparently Bert tore down an anti-violenct dancing poster (“hung up by Spanish fruits”)… Trying to prove ‘Liar’s aggressiveness I guess… In the interview with ‘Sektor’ in Slaves Of Mainstream he describes how violend the crowd was during ‘Liar’s set (read below)…

Watch a bit of their set here: ‘Liar’ 96-08, Invictus line-up.

‘Spawn’ was an sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany). They performed at the fest 2 years ealier, 94-08-19) played their last concert. After that they still released an album entitled Adrift on the US label New Age recs (’96) and a split-7” with ‘Despair’ (USA) on March Through recs (’97). The guys in the band were Dirk Zeiser (bass), René Natzel (drums), Daniel Frankowski (guitar), Patrick Uhle (guitar) and Chris Van Dornick (vocals).

‘Spawn’ (pics by Sergi E. Costa): 1  – Dirk Zeiser bass  (Andre Hoppe, Two Face distro + Stefan Grabowski, World Eaters distro; in the crowd); 3 – Daniel Frankowski (supported by Peter Hoeren)

‘Spawn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Unborn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek (1) & Sarah Van de Mosselaer (2-3)

On the back of the flyer of the 1996 festival in the 1in12 (Bradford, UK), ‘Unborn’ was announced as “modern straight-edge mixed with Slayer”… The band consisted of Nick Royles (vocals; ex ‘Sore Throat’, ‘No Way Out’, ‘Nailbomb’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’; also How We Rock zine), Chris Meadows (drums; Clear Perception zine), Patrick ‘Rat’ Poole (guitar; ex ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’), James (guitar; ex ‘Neckbrace’) and Andy ‘Wrighty’ Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside’; R.I.P.). At that time they had the Ancestral Pagan Roots 7” out on (Nick’s label) Sure Hand recs (recorded in February 1996).

Brob

It was kinda sad that there were so many labels with a commercial attitude and that so many people bought their records from them (Green Hell, GoodLife, …) That’s why I’m so happy that there were also people showing an alternative way…

Manuel Harand, Smart Cookies Collective, Vienna, Austria (personal communication Sep. ’96)

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

People were dancing very violently during ‘Liar’s set. It was very harsh. I saw people coming from everywhere. It was like 5 meter wall of kids laying on top of each other in front of the stage. People have marked ‘Liar’ as “pro-violence, satanic” band but that’s bullshit. ‘Liar’ started out as a side-project of ‘Congress’- and ‘Blindfold’-members. They wanted to play music influenced by aggressive metal. It’s not because we’re anti-religion that we’re satan-worshippers.

Bert Guillemont (‘Liar’ drummer since June ‘96) in Slaves Of Mainstream zine #2

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I’d been there with ‘Bob Tilton’ (95-12-03) and also came for the festival in 1996 when ‘Unborn’ played.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

source: anonymous (but not ‘Unborn’)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

97-06-27 Spineless – Spirit Of Youth – Lifecycle – Firestone – Sorehead – D.S.A. – Warcraft – Instinct – [Voices At The Front]

The poster indicates this was the release-party of the ‘Spineless’ CD. ‘Fifi’ had a hand in setting this up. There’s no mentioning of ‘Voices At The Front’ in the V.V. notes, but ‘Instinct’ is mentioned. Did they replace them?

Some of the bands also played here: 96-12-30 SxE @ 100 hours

‘Spineless’ (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 – ex ‘The Jedi’ – in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96), Hans Verbeke of SoberMind recs released the Painfields 7”/CD (presented here). The album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album would follow the next year (Presentation at the V.V., 98-04-26). They also performed on the Fest in August that year.

‘Lifecycle’, a ‘new-school’ HC band from the Ieper/Kortijk region (H8000 but not with that typical sound), had done their first gig the previous month. Here the line-up was: Sofie Vantomme (vocals; co-founder Vincent Merveillie soon went on to sing for ‘Spirit Of Youth’), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Jan Volckaert (drummer of ‘Resist The Pain’; was stand-in a few times for Jan ‘Relle’ Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later there were a few others). They did a demo (There Is Hope Again!; recorded by Michael Maes) and a mini-album (CD) Forever… Until… on Sober Mind recs. When Sofie gave up SxE but still wanted to continue ‘Lifecycle’, Steve decided to quit the band… Because of that, the band split-up, they couldn’t continue without him… He formed ‘Eliot Ness’ (together with Saskia Verbeke). Vincent Tetaert, who used to play drums with the band for a while went on to join ‘AmenRa’ (as guitarist)…

‘Lifecycle’ (Jurgen Degryse – Steve Noyelle – Jan Volckaert)

Not realy sure if ‘Voices At The Front’ actually played… But they’d been here before (96-05-12 & 96-08-17). You can find some history there. ‘V.A.T.F’ was a local straight-edge band (Poperinge) with Gaëtan Golvet (drums), Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (guitar; also Strike One fanzine) Sim ‘Simtje’ Meersseman (bass) and Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (guitar; R.I.P. Vincent’s cousin). A H8000 band that didn’t follow the trend. Metal-influenced but self-willed (thanks to vocalist Vik) HC; they did some ‘Inside Out’ covers. They had a demo (’96) but didn’t release any vinyl… Some of them were part of the New Skate Generation posse (which included Kobe Desramaults, chef of Michelin-starred restaurant In De Wulf). A while after Vik had moved to Gent he started the Smart Art Movement collective, that organised all kind of activities/parties/gigs. Later he started to squat and got even more politically active…

‘V.A.T.F’ was probably replaced by ‘Instinct’, a band my hometown Tielt (and Deinze). They were mentioned in the V.V. notes. ‘Instinct’ had played here before (97-03-01) and would play a couple of times more that summer (97-07-12 & 97-08-15). A “positive old-school” (Steve Noyelle’s words) band. Alex Dierickx & Thomas Hauttekeete played guitar (both were also playing in the new school metal band ‘Eulogy’ with Tom of ‘Family Of Dog’), Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes sang (he was also in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’, later ‘The Deal’ & ‘Rise And Fall’), Pedro Tallieu did the bass and the drummer was Tuur Delodder. Later they released a 7” on Marc Decaigny’s label Braveheart recs, entitled Friendship, A Lifetime Commitment. There’s also mentioning of a live-demo at the Vort’n Vis…

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Roeselare/Poperinge area) played in there new line-up (more new-school metal-HC). Dominiek ‘Dompi’ Denolf (guitar) & Frederik ‘Fré’ Denolf (drums), bassist Kris Casier of ‘Solid’ (who played on Source – replaced by Sim Meersseman of Strike One zine; later ‘Kingpin’), guitarist Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (also Strike One zine) and Vincent Merveillie (vocals; also ‘Resist In Pain’, ‘Lifecycle’). The start of their “second phase”… During which they did 3 LPs: Source on Sober Mind recs (1998), a split with ‘One King Down’ ‎on GoodLife recs (1998) & Colors That Bleed on GoodLife recs (1998).

promo-pic (GoodLife): Vincent Merveillie / Frederik Denolf / Sim Meersseman / Dominiek Denolf / Vincent Theeten

‘Firestone’ (Kortrijk) had already performed at Hardcore, The Next Generation (96-08-16). They were a H8000-metal band. Their later singer Iris explains the early history below. In August 1996 they had recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Steve Noyelle informs me: >>‘Sorehead’ was a band from Ieper with Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar) and Pieter Derycke (drums); their music resembled that of ‘Sektor’. [The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive.] ‘D.S.A.’ – old-school NY Hardcore – was the band of Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later ‘Retaliate’), Frederik Vanhee (bass; later ‘Retaliate’), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (PJ; guitar)…<< (see 96-12-30 & …) I believe the vocalist of ‘D.S.A.’ (who were from the Ieper area) was Davy Verhoye (on the 1^st demo) and Maarten (2^nd demo); guitarist was Pieter-Jan Vandenberghe.

Frederik Vanhee (pic courtesy of Karel Deweerdt)

‘Warcraft’ (from Ieper) was with Wouter Keirse. Read what he has to say below… The same guys of what was the band ‘Defence’, that played on 96-12-30…?

Brob

The V.V. was and still is very inspiring to me. We played there 2 or 3 times I think. Once there was a last minute improvised line-up on the top floor (this one here with ‘D.S.A.’ and others). I believe that a band played alternately in the pub and then on the first floor. ‘Warcraft’ was a band with Wouter Keirse (living in France nowadays), which I think performed only once. ‘D.S.A. was with Fré, Sientje & ‘PJ’. ‘Lifecycle’ with Steve, Karel & Jurgen. ‘Voices’ with Vik, ‘Spirit’ with Vincent & Kris. ‘Firestone’ was -I think- with Lennart (who shortly after moved to ‘Janez Detd’ for big money and now plays for ‘AmenRa’. ‘Spineless’ was also with Colin ‘AmenRa’ (I believe ?) and with Pedro Fioen. All very fine shows. I think there were photos taken of everyone at the front-door. ‘Sorehead’ quit when we were all about 18 and not long after our vocalist Laurent Peene died. Sometimes the V.V. organises an in memoriam for him; what I appreciate a lot.

Pieter Desmyter, ‘Sorehead’ guitarist

I wasn’t in ‘Firestone’ at that time. Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him. Diederik Claes and Lennart Bossu were the only constant members I think.

Iris Walgraeve

I joined ‘Firestone’ later, in June ’99. I only played the Fests in 2000 & 2001. In ‘99 & 2000 I helped out in ‘Liar’ quite a number of times (e.g. 99-10-31); from the summer of 2002 until Octobere of 2006 I was a permanent member of ‘Liar’ (with a number of passages at the Fests).

Ward Dufraimont

The Vort’n Vis was ‘a way out’, a place where anyone got a chance and where (20 years ago [and still]) those going against the grain gathered. A bit of a gloomy, shabby place. But great fun. We had a rehearsal-space on the first floor; sharing with Steve Noyelle, Karel Deweerdt, Lieve Goemaere, Vincent Tetaert, etc. ‘Warcraft’ consisted of myself, Kurt Deramoudt [drums], Wim Eggermont [vocals] and Olivier Maes [bass ?]. Or was it indeed Virgil & the Ryckebosch brothers? After that we messed about a bit with Vincent Tetaert and David Lernout: ‘Lizard…’ something…? At no timepoint we were a macth with ‘Lifecycle’ or our other heroes from the Westhoek. We could make a racket, hairless teenagers on stage het, light a spliff, have a beer to many and stay as long as we wanted. I always felt a gentle little guy amongst all those hardcore togh guys. I was at the first hardcore Fests during the straight-edge era. ‘Morning Again’, ‘Liar’,… Jeez, what a fantastic time!

Wouter ‘Wally’ Keirse (“Searching for autonomy in the hills of the Limousin [France]. Permaculture fanatic and plant-grower.”), ‘Warcraft’ guitarist

Not sure if we actually played there. If so, then we came by train. That happened quite frequently. I often had to beg the other bands for a bass-amp. Always annoying and stressful. I do remember that about a month before this ‘Spirit of Youth’ & ‘Lifecycle’ played at my parents’ garage for my birthday: ‘S.O.Y.’ wasn’t announced and did a try-out.

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’ bassist

There were so many bands that we ended up playing at 1 a.m. Headlining was no laughin’ matter back in the days. ;-) We almost took of in anger but Eward convinced us because there were some people from New-Zealand that had come over especially to see us. ;-)

Dominiek Denolf, ‘Spirit Of Youth’ guitarist

If ‘S.O.Y.’ played there with their new line-up, then I’m certain that ‘V.A.T.F.’ didn’t play…because I’ve never seen play in that configuration!

Vik B., singer of ‘Voices At The Front’

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!…

98-08-14&15&16 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

Paul Van den Berg wrote me (around that time) that ‘Seein’Red’ had discussed the fact whether they would play this fest or not (also with people like Bernd ‘Stack’, ‘Beertje’ & Marcel of Coalition recs, Theun Koelemij and some others) because there had been a lot of communication from various people (and myself) that this fest was not truly D.I.Y. They’d taken a collective decision to confront the audience and not compromise… “By staying away, you’re not gonna change things!”. I might’ve gone there for an afternoon (allthough I have no recollctions, it might’ve been the year before) to try and explain some people but I definitely didn’t pay entrance or saw any of the bands, because I considered this whole thing nothing more than a ‘year-market’/fair(ground) intended as promotion for the record-labels GoodLife and Genet… The latter also relased a CD of the Fest.

Brob

The HC-fest was a mix of fun and some irritation. We travelled down with a whole gang and that was cosy of course. Also met nice people in Ieper; old friends and contacts. A minus was ‘Arkangel’ and the monotonous program. ‘Seein’ Red’ was great. A real party and they also had sensible things to say. Also ‘Eyeball’, ‘Reiziger’, ‘Stack’ and ‘Highscore’ were good.

Jeroen ‘ Beertje’ Vrijhoef, ‘Mainstrike’ guitarist; personal communication Sep ‘98

I was at the Ieper SxE festival this summer and it sucked. I didn’t pay entrance and only managed to get in when ‘Seein’Red’ played. But besides the dumb consumerist kids, I met some nice friends from Germany so being on the train for 15 hours was worth it.

Philipp Smeh (Austria), personal communication Nov ‘98

That was my first Ieper fest ever, great memories! First time to I saw ‘Seein’Red’ and ‘Stack’ as well. Great! I remember there was some fuss during the ‘Stack’ set when a girl was asking the band to say something about some people dancing violently in the back during their set.

Stig Koppen

[Brob: “propaganda-flyer ‘Stack’ frontman Bernd wrote a few years later…]

This was the first time I went to this Fest!

I remember going with Arnaud Benoist (drummer of ‘2138’ & ‘Hippies Of Today’ – now ‘Llamame La Muerte’) and Romain Trocherie (who ran Revolution recs). I have some recollections of the ‘Facedown’ & Reiziger’ shows (awesome songs but ‘Kosjer D was better). There were a lot of French people (the Boislève bros, guys from Strasbourg, perhaps Christophe Mora from Stonehenge recs, …)

Vincent Troplain, Rouen (nowadays Emergence recs & photo-zine)

Two friends of mine wanted to go to the unholy Vort’n Vis to meet / see & hear ‘Seein’Red’, ‘Highscore’, ‘Stack’, ‘Grade’ [???], … I didn’t give it much thought and drove to Ieper, and was very surprised to see so many stupid, trendy HC kids. It was terrible …

Christian Dreker, ‘Asmodinas Leichenhaus’ (Germany); personal communication Nov ‘98

column by Sophie, singer of the French band ‘Aside’, in Empowerment #9

additions wellcome!…

(full posts with photos of some bands playing follow…)

98-08-14: One X More (Bel), One Fine Day (Ita), Driven (Nl), Building (Bel), Contrition (Ger), Stack (Ger), Timebomb (Ita), Liar (Bel), Culture (USA)

98-08-15: Sad Origin (Bel), Highscore (Ger), Opposite Force (Ita), Pray Silent (Swi), Clouded (Bel), Seein’Red (Nl), Spineless (Bel), Thumbs Down (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Earthmover (USA)

98-08-16: Reply (Bel), D.S.A. (Bel), Lifecycle (Bel), Inflexible (Pol), Ashlar (Bel), Caliban (Ger), Firestone (Bel), Arkangel (Bel), Reiziger (Bel), Eyeball (Ger), Congress (Bel)

crowd-shots by Patrick Federli

British HardCore women – Camilla Bradshaw Burke / Louise Brown / Nicola Waterson (photo Nick Royles)

96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

pre-posters

Right before this fest Stephane Boens (74-04-17 * 96-08-06) a.k.a. The Famous Vegan (a friend of some collaborators at the V.V.) passed away…

photo: Roel Brals

This trend that had silently been creeping in during previous years (commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes) got even more established here. Earlier in ’96, I had been isolated, denigrated and vilified because of my criticisms (by the H8000 buisnessmen and their disciples). For many I wasn’t wellcome but I tried to be one of the few who offered radical/political literature, and went over to explain to those who wanted to listen and support my few remaing friends. This here below shows there were also still a few people trying to get (part of the) message across…

someone from The NL in Yann Boislève’s SxE Bulletin #20

It was the last time I attended… I refused to pay entrance and hardly saw any of the bands. I believe this was the programme (but some might have been added):

96-08-16: Firestone (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Outrage (Bel), Victims Of Society (Bel), Down For The Count (Spa), Liar (Bel), Spawn (Ger), Unborn (UK)

96-08-17: Voices At The Front (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Sektor (Bel), Saidiwas (Swe), Regression (Bel), Timebomb (Ita), Burning Defeat (Ita), Congress (Bel), Racial Abuse (Öst), Despair (USA)

96-08-18: Spineless (Bel), Resist The Pain (Bel), Stampin’ Ground (UK), Vanilla (Fra), Approach To Concrete (Ger), Bruma (Ita), Separation (Swe), Swing Kids (USA), With Love (Ita)

the marketplace… :-(

courtesy of Karel Deweerdt (Wim ‘Blindfold’ & UJ ‘Liar’ on the left)

photo by Joeri Hoste (central: Eric Allen, Marco Walzel, Justin Pearson)

the international crowd… :-)

even the local girl-scouts visited…

…and a little British kitten named Vique… (photo courtesy of Joeri Hoste)

photos by Sergi E. Costa (unless where otherwise mentioned)

There were people from all over but there was especially an Italian invasion… Quite a few bands from there played and some people who were in Italian bands that didn’t play also came over. One of them was Federico Oddone (ex ‘Maze’), the guitarist of ‘Sottopressione’ (from Milano). In that band he played together with ‘Diste’ Andrea Di Stefano (bass), ‘Kuku’ (drums; replaced Mauro Dossi ex ‘Crash Box’) and Mayo Maggiore (vocals). The band released a 7” through Mele Marce recs and 3 albums on Rudy Medea’s Vacation House recs. Federico wrote this entry in the guestbook:

Veganism was a big issue too… Animal Truth zine (by Cindy Frey & An Lehaen) a reference…

additions wellcome!…