98-08-14 One X More – One Fine Day – Driven – Building – Contrition – Stack – Timebomb – Liar – Culture

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): >>We arrived around 18 hours. As usual, I will only give my opinion on the bands that I saw (more or less for a longer time). Know that there were about 25 of them. ‘Driven’ was playing at the time we got there. They’re Dutch and play a new-school HC, unpretentious but not too bad. Then it was up to ‘Stack’ to go loose. A very good powerviolencore gig; spoiled however (as well as the evening) by an individual, fan of windmilling and shouting homophobic slogans. Some people objected and there was a brief confrontation later on. It’s entirely legitimate, in our opinion, to prevent these types of people from spreading their hateful messages in this scene, and it’s even rather surprising to see that very few people in the end reacted to this kind of aggression. The atmosphere was tense from that moment on. The Italians of ‘Timebomb’ unleasehed their devils. I saw them two years ago. There had been some changes in the band; it was less black-metal and very disappointing musically. ‘Liar’ then took over. We see them every year and it seemed a little better than the other times but without convincing me; the nice surprise was that the singer took a stand against homophobia and violent dancing during their set. However, the homophobic individual from Brussels had to get noticed again, on scene. It’s sad to see that this type of people refuses dialogue, has no arguments and hides behind violence. The festival was taking a rather bad turn because of this kind of tension. ‘Culture’ started in difficult conditions (because there were also problems with the material). What could have been a great concert turned into an average one. The band had to stop playing several times. This is where we learned that there was a lot of agitation outside. Guess who was involved? The individual from Brussels in question and his friends who had been at a nearby pub. It’s truly pitiful for a community that claims to be alternative and “better” than society in general. Let’s no longer talk about unity.<<

————————-

‘One X More’ (from Wortel) were Jan Matthé (bass), Tim ‘Petrel’ Van de Plas(-Peeters) (vocals; did Cosy zine), Sis Matthé (guitar) and Krist Torfs (drums). They appeared on a couple of compilations with their “fast, blasting old-school HC with a positive message”. Around the time of this fest Robert Voogt released their debut 7” on his label label Commitment recs. Their 2^nd (They Say That You Sold Out) came out in 1999. Needless to say they were a SxE band. The Matthé brothers were also active on the zine-front: Jan & Sis did X Realm X and Pol did Willow Tree.

‘One Fine Day’ (described as a “post-hardcore” band) were Adriano ‘Baulo’ Fontaneto, 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 1998 the Vladimir Illich Ulianov’s Failure 7” (with Matteo Masciaga instead of Andrea) came out on Cycle recs (Stefano’s label) & Tough Guy Anthems CD on Impression recs. They did a demo earlier on.

‘One Fine Day’ (pic by Federico Albertini)

‘Driven’ from Amsterdam were: Bas Sondervan (bass), Nickel van Duijvenboden (drums), Joris Oonk (guitar), Rogier Stevens (guitar) & Vincent Hausman (vocals). Their music was described as “political hardcore metal” (quote by GoodLife). They did a demo in 1996or97 and Ed released the Cowardice Consumer Of The West EP on GoodLife recs in1999.

‘Driven’ (photographed by David Pujol)

‘Building’, a “youth-crew style” SxE HC from Antwerp, were: Olivier ‘Paco’ Packolet (vocals; later ‘True Colors’), Jelle De Cremer (guitar), (P)Andy Van Den Wijngaert (bass; later Werner Boes) & Bruno (drums; replacing Joris). 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.

‘Building’ (pic Martijn Wouters)

‘Contrition’ (a “metallic hate-edge” band from Schleiz/Jena, ex East-Germany) released the following: in ’96 a self-titled mCD on Time For Revolt recs (Rico Majchrzak), a demo recorded live 97-07-30 in Jena, a 3-way split ‎-7” on Threesome recs (’97) and the Transitory CD (’98). They were: Eddy Langner (guitar), Lars Ostermann (vocals), Andreas Ferge (bass), Alex(ander) Fischer (guitar) & Ulli Walther (drums). Some of them went on as ‘Fall Of Serenity’.

‘Stack’, the powerviolence band from Ludwigshafen, had been at the V.V already (95-04-28). They recorded for the Mondonervaktion 7” in September ‘96 (their former bassist Corey released it on Equality recs in ‘97) with Bernd Bohrmann on vocals, Chris(tophe) Klimmer & Marcel ‘Croissant’ Hanneman playing guitars, Ralf Bock on drums and Michael Bergweiler on bass. This resulted in “deranged pissed-off blasts of total mayhem that threaten to split the ear”… The same sessions served for the Selbstfindungsgruppe 6” (Coalition recs), the split-7” with ‘Carol’ (on Holger Ohst’s label Summersault) and the two songs for the A Tradition Of 7″ compilation (on the US label Fall recs). In January 1998 they entered the studio again to record the songs for the split-7” with ‘Narsaak’ (released by Per Koro). After a 3 weeks tour in the summer of 1998 Marcel left the band and they became a four-piece for a few months before they split up for the first time in November 1998 (due to personal difficulties). In June 1999 they reformed with a new bass-player called Steffen Hinkel (the guitarist of ‘Fear Is The Path To The Dark Side’), Ralf on drums, Chris on guitar and Bernd on vocals. In March 2000 Chris decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. Steffen took over the guitar and Michael returned to bass again. In 20001 The Konkret Lichtgeschwindigkeit 10” – fast blasting manic HC – came out on Bernd’s label Scorched Earth Policy and Ralf’s label Flowerviolence recs. This was recorded with Chris doing the guitar-tracks.

‘Stack’ ([1] by ?; [2 & 3] courtesy of Roel Brals)

‘Timebomb’, from Rome, were a communist, vegan and straight-edge band playing metallic HC. They played at the V.V. on 95-08-20 & 96-08-17 aswell. The band consisted of Marco Ciccone (guitar), Daniele Marini (guitar), Simone Marini (bass; Kill For Love zine), Cristiano Suriano (drums) & Giorgio Fois (vocals; replaced by Emiliano). After releases on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs they did The Full Wrath Of The Slave on Genet recs in in 1998.

‘Liar’ had been playing the V.V. August fests since 1995. The Invictus album was recorded in Spring ’97 with U.J., Josh, Hans and drummer Bert Guillemont. Don’t know if additional guitarist Lennart Bossu played here already (he was on Deathrow Earth that got out in ’99).

‘Culture’ was a vegan straight-edge band from Gainesville, Florida that was active from 1992-1998. If I’m well informed the band conisted of singer Damien Moyal (also ‘Morning Again’ & ‘As Friends Rust’), Rich Thurston (guitar), Stephen ‘Steve’ Looker (guitar), Jason Dooley (drums) and Gordon Tarpely (bass). They had been over here the year before (97-08-16) to promote the split with ‘Kindred’ and the Oath 7” (both on Good Life recs). The latter was – in the spirit of ‘free enterprise’ – extended to the Hetronome CD. Good’ole chugga chugga HC for the H8000 kids.

Brob

I joined ‘Liar in ‘99 so I didn’t play here.

Lennart Bossu

I remember ‘Culture’ and of course ‘Seein’Red’. I left the band to start ‘Prone’ later that year… [Powerviolence trio with Christophe Klimmer (guitar) and Ralf Bock (drums), all ex ‘Stack’]

Michael Bergweiler, ‘Stack’ bassist

I remember that we played second or third, and that we just got back from our first touring-adventure in Spain (together with ‘Between The lines’). Fantastic and fun times!

Tim ‘Petrel’ Van de Plas(-Peeters), ‘One X More’ vocalist

We played our last show on our European tour with ‘Building’ here.

Jan Matthé, One X More

We got there after a trip of more than 20 hours (problem with IDs, gas and various shit)… It has been a great esperience and we hope someone enjoyed our gig; we thank everyone who was there standing in front of us, waiting for us to play even if we were late…

‘One Fine Day’

In a first version of ‘One Fine Day’ we were called ‘XconsciousnessX’ (with Matteo Masciaga).

The V.V. Fest was like our home away from home. Bruno treated us well…

Let me tell you this: looking in retrospective, let alone few humans and few ideas that stuck in life, HC has been a bunch of white guys preaching to the converted; a toxic heterosexual environment where girls where treated like human hangers. The whole emo sucks. I find it equal to the black-hating and the whole way women are treated nowadays. I find the entire hardcore-movement to be a very conservative and old-thinking component of people that are mostly white and male. What’s so interesting? Also a bit jaded and naïve. As of today… I’m the only PUNK I know, including all the people I met during my punk years. I still live up to it.

Luca Fontaneto

I think we played twice at the V.V. I recall spending the night on the camping. And that the mosh-pit was extremely aggressive. I have a recording of the concert in ’98 … It was one of the better shows we played despite the preaching of our frontman Vincent, who was rather preoccupied with expressing his beliefs. There are still people confused if we were a completely vegan straight-edge band. Looking back a rather childish matter. ‘Driven’ was mainly about the music, we were musicians and for the hardcore scene dependent of the ideological passion of our frontman, who maintained all contacts.

I have a lot of memories about ‘Driven’ but nothing specific. The musicianship stayed, the political shifts, the adolescent militancy disappears for a big part. I’m not in touch with the other bandmembers anymore (Vincent is the singer of ‘Howl’ (US); Rogier is a lawyer, Joris is a composer, Bas is a journalist, philospher, musician; Max Porcelijn [the first bassist] is a director (won a Gouden Kalf [prize at the Dutch Film Festival]) and I’m a graphic artist, teacher, writer & classical tenor); we share too little to meet up.

The person in the pic singing along with Vincent is Antje Klaster (who’s running a model-agency, I believe)…

It was awesome to be in the band ‘Driven’. We toured 3 times (twice across Europe, all the way to Spain, Slovenia & Hungary; once across the UK with shows in Leeds, Londen & Manchester). People can watch a movie with footage.

Nickel van Duijvenboden, drummer of ‘Driven’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

95-01-29 Fabric – Badgewearer – Vanilla – [Ambush] – Liar – Neuthrone

This gig was first planned for (Saturday) 95-01-28 but got switched over…

Here’s a description of ‘Ambush’s music I read somewhere: “An intense mix of heavy sounds. Imagine combining ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘Neurosis’, ‘Acme’ (the same feeling of despair), ‘Black Flag’ and a spoon of ‘Spazz’… Gloomy, powerful, sludgy intense stuff; mostly on the slow side of things, it just rumbles along but occasionally speeds up. Lots of changes from really quiet passages to really intense, angry, agonizing passages with feedback, etc., heavy riffs all over.”… In the (German) band were (at that time): Gunnar Jakobson (drums), Thomas Schaal (vocals), Tobias Werner (guitar) and Tom Rusnak (bass; also ‘Rorschach’). By that time they had a few 7”s out (Ocean Of Irrelevance & Zebaoth, on Winter recs), a 10” (Amarcord, on André Sieg’s Maximum Voice productions) and 3 albums (Lach!, Pigs & Revue, on Common Cause recs). ‘Ambush’ and ‘Neuthrone’ were touring together but I believe ‘Ambush’ actually didn’t play (they also weren’t mentioned in the V.V. notes)…

‘Neuthrone’ were locals so regulars… This gig here was probably their last ever at the V.V. The next year there was mention of ‘7 Hate Day’ as ex ‘Neuthrone’. Around 1997 David Stubbe started ‘Holefiller’ and later he drummed for several bands (such as ‘Möse’ and nowadays ‘Gura’). Steven W./ Steve McM. ended up in prison for a while…

If ‘Liar’ actually played (they weren’t mentioned in the V.V. notes and in the final newsletter either) it was probably their 1^st show at the V.V. They had already been announced (as “new locals”) on 94-12-10 but that whole gig got cancelled… They rose from the ashes of ‘Wheel Of Progress’ (see 93-01-09 & 93-06-13). Hans Verbeke (vocals), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar), Jan ‘UxJx’ Vandekerckhove (bass) and Raf (or Raphael; drums; replaced by Bert Guillemont in ‘96) played socalled edge-metal (straight-edge metallic hardcore). They were to become some of the most ardent H8000 promoters. It was early days for the band so no records yet…

‘Fabric’ had been here before (94-08-20) aswell… The guys were writing for and planning the recordings (May ‘95) of their Lightbringer 12”.

‘Fabric’; photography by Vique Martin

‘Vanilla’ (an emo band from Paris) put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995. On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs in 1996. They had been announced already for 94-12-10 but bassplayer Jean had hurt his hand then. They’d also ended up on the bill opf the 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival and would come back a few times more (96-03-24 & 96-08-18)…

It was ‘Badgewearer’s 2^nd visit aswell – though they didn’t get to play the first time (after 93-07-04). The band (from Glasgow, Scotland) played complex jazz-punk with quirky guitars and groovy bass-lines. They released their stuff on Jer Reid of ‘Dawson’s label Gruff Wit recs. The band consisted of Tony Kennedy (bass & bugle), Neil Bateman (guitar & sax), Jim Carstairs (vocals) & Ross Main (drums).

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

97-08-16 Culture – Liar – Kindred – Blindfold – Sektor – Serene – Spirit Of Youth – Intensity – Metroschifter – ODK Crew – Thumbs Down

Introduction => 97-08-15&16&17 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

‘Thumbs Down’ (from Antwerp) played “youth crew hardcore”. If I’m correct the band consisted of Roeland De Keulenaer (bass; later replaced by Andries Beckers of ‘Diablo Blvd’), Ken (drums; since ’99 Benjamin Buschgens – later ‘The Setup’), Raf(aël) Balrak (guitar; later ‘The Setup’) and Steven Tuffin (vocals). They were also signed to Genet recs (Going For Gold 7” – with bassplayer Roeland – in ’97, No Retreat No Surrender 7” and Crossroads LP in ’99).

Barricada #2: “I was baffled by ‘Thumbs Down’ because I thought they resembled ‘Battery’. There was also a black person in the band, reminding of ‘Battery’s Ken Olden (even the guitar was the same). An even bigger surprise was when they played that great old-school ‘Bold’ cover.”

‘Thumbs Down’ (photo by Sergi E. Costa)

‘ODK Crew’ played old-school HC influenced by ‘Judge’, ‘Rise Above’, etc. They were from Oostduinkerke (Belgian coast-town). That year Hans (of Sober Mind recs) released a 7” entitled Old School vs New School. These guys were members of ‘Vitality’ (guitarist Bob Van Lierde & bassist Marc Paccou) and ‘Congress’ (drummer Ilja De Ceuleneire); singer was Micha(ël) ‘Mika’ Sallaerts. They reformed halfway the noughties with ‘Lil’ Wayne’ (Chris Weyne; ex roadie of ‘Vitality) on vocals…

Barricada #2: “Boring old fast metal in the vein of ‘One Life Crew’.”

‘Metroschifter’ – from Louisville, Kentucky – did a first tour of Europe (22 days) with the band ‘Omaha’ (from Toledo, Ohio; with Dirk Hemsath of Doghouse recs) Dec ’96 – Jan ‘97. Drummer Chris(topher) Reinstatler (a.k.a. ‘The Hört’; ex ‘Transcend’) had joined the band because Mario Rubalcaba left. Mark Ritcher filled in on bass as Pat(rick) McClimans (ex ‘Endpoint’) was unable to go on the trip. But it was Brendan Bogosian who played bass on ‘Metroschifter’s August 1997 Euro tour. In June ’97 they recorded the Metroschifter 4 LP – “loud, distorted, mathematical rock”; post-HC – (released on Doghouse recs) and then came over to Europe again. The line-up here was Scott Ritcher (guitar/vocals; Slamdek recs; writer and graphic designer – kcomposite.com), Pat and Chris. Dec ’98 they came to Europe for the 3^rd time; and a 4^th time Dec ’99 (with Curtis Mead on bass).

Scott Ritcher (photo by Sergi E Costa)

Here’s a few words by Scott (from the zine Love, Sweat & Tears) on this:

Barricada #2: “They cleaned our dark ears and cooled the air in the hall.”

‘Intensity’, from Malmö/Lund (Sweden) played “fast, intense old-school HC à la Minor Threat”: Jonas Nilsson (guitar; later Mathias Blixtberg & Andy Dahlström, both also ‘Satanic Surfers’; works for Bad Taste), Rodrigo Alfaro (vocals; also ‘Satanic Surfers’; founder of the Putrid Filth Conspiracy label), Kristoffer Lind (bass) and Simon Ricci (drums; later Tommas Svendsen). At that time they had 2 albums our on Bad Taste recs (where Jonas & Rordrigo helped out – Bought And Sold (1996) & Wash Off The Lies (1998), and a 7” – Battered Soul – on Rodrigo’s label Putrid Filth Conspiracy. The band came back to the V.V. on 99-06-27 (because Bruno Genet recs had re-released their Bought And Sold album as a 10”)

‘Intensity’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

Barricada #2: “Old school with vocals reminiscent of ‘Ignite’ but the music sounds more punk.”

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Roeselare/Poperinge area; heart of the H8000 area) had played in there new line-up (their “second phase”, more new-school metal-HC) at the V.V. already (97-06-27). Dominiek ‘Dompi’ Denolf (guitar) & Frederik ‘Fré’ Denolf (drums), bassist Kris Casier of ‘Solid’ (who played on Source, recorded in May) was replaced by Sim Meersseman (of Strike One zine; later ‘Kingpin’) here, guitarist Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (a.k.a. ‘Tweet’, also Strike One zine) and Vincent ‘Marvel’ Merveillie (vocals; also ‘Resist In Pain’, ‘Lifecycle’). They would do 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).

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (pic courtesy of Sergi E. Costa)

‘S.O.Y.’s ‘Marvel’ (+ ‘Lifecycle’s Sofie) (pic kindly donated by Jan Beckers)

Barricada #2: “A mix of metal and old-school. Their new album on SoberMind sounds quite good.”

‘Serene’ (from Gävle, Sweden) – Olle ‘Hård’ Johansson (drums), Petter Karlsson (bass), Fredrik Nygren (guitar), Klas Joakim Eriksson (guitar; later ‘Leiah’) and Anders Nähslund (vocals) – had been at the V.V. earler that year (97-03-30). ‘They did a split-7” with ‘Separation’ on Genet recs that year. Their LP Inward Flowering was released on the same label in ’98. “Melody-driven hardcore and screamo punk.”

Barricada #2: “The surprise of the evening. After some small technical problems, they got started… So we could fly off. A brutal emo band lead by a teenage singer who made considerable effort. Only a shame that the band didn’t talk that much.”

‘Serene’ photographs ([1] courtesy of Olle Johansson, [2] Laurent Chopard)

The band with silliest nick-names: ‘Lenny LadyLover’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert ‘BabyNipples’ Guillemont (drums; also in ‘Liar’), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (a.k.a. ‘Mousti’ or ‘Tripple Nipple’; guitar), Vadim ‘KarateKip’ Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (a.k.a. ‘KungFu Mike’ or ‘Morbid Mike’; vocals). Since they were from from “Beseloare”; Beselare, a village close to Ieper, they’d played the Vort’n Vis sevral times already (96-05-12, 96-08-17, 96-09-22). 1997 was the year Hans SoberMind released their 12”/CD Human Spots of Rust.

Barricada #2: “One of the spiritual fathers of the H8000 crew. [Oh irony!] Ultra-fast brutal metal with some aggressive dancing [see video], so we preferred staying outside where we felt safer (but it wasn’t that terrible).”

‘Blindfold’ did NOT play their last ever gig here at the ‘97 V.V. Fest. (see intro) Their set was recorded an released as Live At The Vort’n Vis on SoberMind recs. Mich Decruyenaere (ex ‘Fungus’, later ‘Hitch’) had started as 2^nd guitarist; he’d already played on the band’s 1996 German tour. Most in the band were V.V. ‘shitworkers’ and practically the ‘house-band’ so they played their umpteenth set…

Wim ‘Blindfold’ (pic by JanCoert Toerse)

‘Blindfold’ (photo-shoot by Sergi E. Costa)

Barricada #2: “When hell passed away, we quickly returned inside since ‘Blindfold’, pioneers [???] of the hardcore in Belgium, started to play. The atmosphere was excellent: they played their most famous songs; music on the border of melodic HC and metal. Their performance was [NOT just yet] the last of the band’s six-year existence.”

‘Kindred’ was an SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) with Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan was in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (see: 93-02-27) & both in ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06 & 93-09-19) and ‘Churn’ (95-08-20); later ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). Their earlier sets here (96-05-12 & 96-08-17) were with Raf Gielen playing 2^nd guitar. The recordings for the LP on GoodLife recs (File 01) were done in October ’96 without Raf. The band was touring with the Americans of ‘Culture’ so there was a split out (on GoodLife recs) with tracks from ‘Kindred’s recording-session of March that year. (see ad below)

‘Kindred’: (1) Eric & Walter (pic courtesy of Jan Beckers), (2) Maarten (source unknown)

Barricada #2: “There were more people on stage than just the band: Belgian fans stood everywhere in-between the band-members. I couldn’t breathe so I went to out to gains some strength for ‘Liar’.”

‘Liar’ (UxJx – bass, Josh – guitar, Bert- drums & Hans – vocals) had recorded the Invictus album in Feb/March at Midas studios. There was also the split-EP with ‘Family Of Dog’ (a freebie with H8Z fanzine #5)…

Barricada #2: “Contrary to last year – when ‘Liar’ seemed to be very intolerant towards people – their performance had changed a lot and there was a new ‘Liar’ in front of us. Even the singer (‘Blindfold’s guitarist) seemed very sympathetic to me. An excellent clear sound and new songs gave the concert dynamics. The hymn Blade was sung along by perhaps all Belgians. I was so excited, the dancing was not so brutal and the band was visible from the back of the hall.”

‘Culture’ was a vegan straight-edge band from Gainesville, Florida that was active from 1992-1998. The line-up changed a number of times over the years. Stephen ‘Steve’ Looker wrote me he was the guitarist of ‘Culture’ when they were on tour with ‘Kindred’ in 1997. The CD entitled Heteronome (“chugga chugga HC”) and the Oath 7” that GoodLife recs marketed in ’97 was recorded with Steve (also ‘Morning Again’), Jason Dooley (drums), Gordon Tarpley (bass; also in ‘As Friends Rust’), Rich Thurston (guitar) and Damien Moyal (vocals; also ‘Shai Halud’, ‘Morning Again’, ‘As Friends Rust’) – the guys who were on this tour.

Damien ‘Culture’ (pics by JanCoert Toerse & Laurent Chopard)

commodification…

Barricada #2: “They started with songs from Born Of You [1995 album on Conquer The World recs], followed by tracks from the split with ‘Kindred’. Towards the end, it got too hot on the stage: dozens of people packed together on a few square meters. They also played new things from the last mCD [Heteronome; which GoodLife released right before the fest] and when the microphone broke (it was astonishing that it lasted so long), they played the last song on this tour (They ended their summer-tour with ‘Kindred’ here in Ieper.): the older song Deforestation – the whole crowd sang and the vocalist could do nothing else than climb the iron girders that supported the roof, and watch the hell below him. Highlight of this Saturday night.”

Brob

I remember playing the Vort’n Vis in 1997 with ‘Culture’ on tour with ‘Kindred’.

Stephen ‘Steve’ Looker, ‘Culture’ guitarist

I didn’t do the first euro tours… I started the band but left shortly after we recorded the ‘Kindred’ split but currently I’m in ‘Culture’ again… Jason Dooley was on the 97/98 tours.

Joshua Williams, ‘Culture’

I played the Vort’n Vis twice with ‘Culture’ in both 1997 and 1998, and it was everything a hardcore punk show should be: sweaty, intense, crowded. I remember the stage being over-run with people singing along, and there was barely room to play. The height of the stage was perfect, the setting was perfect, the era was thriving. I’ll never forget those shows.

Damien Moyal

I remember I had to work and regretted I couldn’t stay. I do recall being very impressed by ‘Abhinanda’ [the day before]. It might be the day when ‘Vinnie’ said someone lost their clock and he’d found it: it was one of those giant clocks hanging on the wall… Vincent wore his giant nerdy specs. At the end of our set, I sang this song… Together In The Sand…? By ‘NoFX’…? No sure if it was then? We did so many gigs. And of course I a lot of had fun… Ah, and I assume there were loads of people sleeping at our house. My mom sometimes couldn’t open the door because our living-room was full of people.

Fred Denolf, ‘S.O.Y.’

Our show here is partly on the H8000 DVD. The venue was packed and loads of people were diving and singing along. The best time we ever played there. The video shows everyone from the scene standing around us really, all colleague’s bands. It’s shot from the rear of the stage, in the direction of the crowd…

Dominiek Denolf, ‘S.O.Y.’

97-08-16 was the first time we met the overly tattooed guys from ‘Endstand’. Great guys! We also hung out with the ‘Serene’ guys. I think we played another gig with them two days later at some small club. Awesome band! I think we were well taken care of at the festival but I don’t remember any details. I do recall that there was a disturbing number of pro-violence vegans everywhere. Guys with tank-tops, lots of muscles and a really bad attitude. And lots of Milk Is Murder shirts. It would surprise me greatly if any of them is still vegan today. They were just bullies looking for a fight, people who could just as easily have been nazi-skins or gay-bashers if they had grown up in a different environment. During our gig there was an extremely violent mosh-pit, where lots of people who had travelled a long way to see us couldn’t get near the stage. It was, of course, the well-muscled guys with shaved heads and tank-tops that were violent. I’m all for a little craziness in the pit but these guys were just nasty. Like entering the pit with a fly kick, hard. Idiots. Rodrigo, our singer, told them to calm down, or we would leave the stage. Anyway, macho assholes aside, the place was cool and I had a good time.

Simon Ricci, ‘Intensity’

That show is etched in my memory as the most intense show ever. The response and the commitment grabbed me by the throat. I still know that I looked at Vadim who was going berserk. Our sets weren’t ever quite long but I always gave myself completely. That time it was as if I could keep going, purely on adrenalin. I will never forget this! Thanks to the Vort’n Vis and everyone that was there that day.

Jeroen Therry, ‘Sektor’

That ‘Triple Nipple’ thing in the guestbook doesn’t ring a bell but it could be about me…

Piet Cardoen, ‘Sektor’

I remember the HC fest quite well; it was still in the ‘barn’. There’s a live LP from our show there. The shack was packed to the top of the roof, 35 degrees, people piled together and on top of these more people :-) Good times. I recall being mega-psyched about the fact that ‘Metroschifter’ was playing; I was already a big fan of that band.

Mich Decruyenaere, ‘Blindfold’

It was really super-hot that day, my lower lip was slightly lacerated because someone from the audience accidentally jumped against my mic. It was really wild in front and on stage. After the show I immediately got of the stage ‘cause I felt like passing out. Dead tired! It was also the lasts show of the ‘Culture’/’Kindred’ tour.

Eric Sefton, ‘Kindred’ vocalist

August ’97 was the only time I went out with ‘Metroschifter’; 5 weeks: Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic and England (but the dates in England got cancelled so we just hung out). The bassist at the time (I don’t recall who it was; Pat maybe?) had a family-emergency and could not go on that tour. I was friends with Chris (‘The Hört’) and he asked me a few weeks before they were leaving if I would like to jump on bass! I had to learn a bunch of songs real quick, and rush to get a passport!

Brendan Bogosian

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

95-03-25 Peace Of Mind – Blindfold – Regression – Liar

Another benefit for Kakak Asuh, the Indonesian education-project that Blindfold’s drummer Sacha Baelen introduced us to (see 93-02-21 & 94-04-23). Organised by Joeri Hoste (and Aaron Vyvial) who had this thing Earthwill? / Earthwell? going… Of course other shitworkers (like myself, and Kurt & David of ‘Shortsight’ e.g.) were helping out.

‘Blindfold’ had played here at the V.V. several times. Sep-Oct ‘94 they went into the studio for the World Of Fools 7” (released on Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers’ Machination recs in ’95). Also the recordings for the Astreroid 164 LP started then but that one was only mixed in ’95 to be released in ’96 (by SoberMind and GoodLife recs). My interest in the band had disappeared by then because of their distribution-deal with the commercial company GreenHell. Pity ‘cause Wim, Hans, Jan & ‘Chatn’ were mates. Mich Decruyenaere (guitar; later ‘Hitch’) played on the 1996 German tour but wasn’t on the LP; on 95-08-20 he played with his former band ‘Fungus’ at the V.V.

We’d already had ‘Peace Of Mind’ over some months before (94-11-05). The 7” on World Upside Down (Urte Böhm’s label) and Harmony recs (Ralf ‘Ballo’ Ballschmieter) was recorded in June ’96 and that was with Aga singing and Antje S. on bass. In the band here were Jobst Eggert (vocals and guitar), Berti (drums), Jörn Allert (guitar) and Claudia (bass). Jörn left somewhere in ’95 and then Arndt Buck (ex ‘Spit Acid’) played guitar.

‘Liar’ (Roeselare/Ieper area) rose from the ashes of ‘Wheel Of Progress’ (93-01-09 & 93-06-13) and did one of their 1^st gigs of a long series at the V.V. (They’d been announced a couple of times but I think they had to cancel, and this might be the very first time?). They would become of the most ardent H8000 promoters. During these early days the band consisted of Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’s guitarist), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar), Jan ‘UxJx’ Vandekerckhove (bass) and Raf (drums). They played socalled edge-metal (straight-edge metallic hardcore with non-compromising, hard-hitting lyrics). Raf (Raphael) left the band in ‘96 to do other things in life, he turned into a professional snowboarder and played in a punk band called ‘Red Lobster’, together with some ‘Spirit Of Youth’ members. From then on Bert Guillemont (ex ‘Sektor’) played the drums. The recordings (still with Raf) of their debut Falls Of Torment (released on GoodLife recs in ’96 and announced as “a mix of ‘Unbroken’ & ‘Morbid Angel’…”) happened after some 10 rehearsals and a few shows.

First appearance at the V.V. of ‘Regression’ (Menen/Roeselare) too. H8000 style, crunchy metallic (vegan) straight-edge HC: “Perhaps the most heaviest of all the ‘edge-metal’ bands: uncompromising death-metal mixed with straight-edge hardcore spirit”. They were Bjorn Lescouhier (drums, ex ‘Shortsight’; he replaced Raf -who was in ‘Liar’ too- around July 95), Kristof Taveirne (bass; nowadays in ‘Spoil Engine’), Niek Jacobsen (vocals) and ‘Stuutje’ David Decoutere (guitar). A bit later they took ‘Lookmulle’ (Davy Vanlokeren of ‘Deformity’) as second guitarist. Hans Verbeke wrote about them that they “created their own style of technical hardcore/metal with ‘Carcass’ and ‘Machinehead’ influences”; other people compared them with ‘Earth Crisis’. They recorded a demo in ’95, then did the x-Heartless-x CD on GoodLife recs (‘96) and a split-CD with ‘Breach’ from Sweden ‎followed (also GoodLife recs, ‘97).

Brob

Some info on Kakak Asuh:

from the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi #2

95-08-20 Churn – By All Means – Liar – Fungus – Timebomb – End In Sight – Chokehold

Intro: 95-08-18&19&20 Hardcore Festival

The ‘Chokehold’ guys were coming from the train-station with their guitars and bass in hand. Their European tour [with ‘Feeding The Fire’] was a mess (some of the last gigs of their tour got cancelled) and they got robbed if I remember correctly. I felt sorry for them for having such a bad experience over here. They mention it in an interview.

Carsten Pötter, Frankfurt

‘Steadfast’, a band playing “powerful new-school sXe hardcore” from the Osnabrück/Munster region (in Germany), were announced at some timepoint but didn’t play. Their guitarist Stefan Uhe and their bassist Volker Pohlschmidt (R.I.P.) did visit.

‘Churn’ was an emo-core band (Leuven/Limburg) with Raf Gelenne (vocals), Peter Peumans (bass), Raf Gielen (guitar), Jan Beckers (guitar) & Maarten Beckers (drums). The latter 3 went on with ‘Kindred’.

‘Churn’ (courtesy of Peter Peumans)

‘By All Means’ (from Mantua/Modena), was a straight-edge HC band with vocalist Massimo ‘Melo’ Meloni, guitarists Andrea ‘Gallo’ Gallinini & Mario ‘Ringo’ Luppi (he founded the label Insociale recs and was also in various other bands), Adriano Pratissoli (drums) and Matteo Verri (bass; replacing Stefano Bertelli). The members swapped also intsruments in bands such as ‘Society Of Jesus’ and ‘Immortal Majority’… In 1992 they did a tape, a self-titled 7” on Inaudito Dischi and a split-7” with ‘Equality’ on Green recs. In 1993 there was the Blind Side LP (also Green recs) and in the 1998 Fino A Qui… Tutto Bene! LP.

‘Liar’ (Roeselare/Ieper area) rose from the ashes of ‘Wheel Of Progress’ (93-06-13). This was their 1^st appearance at one of the V.V. fests (the had already played some regular concerts late ’94, early ‘95). They would become of the most ardent H8000 promoters. During these early days the band consisted of Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’s guitarist), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Jan ‘UxJx’ Vandekerckhove (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Raf (drums). They played socalled edge-metal (straight-edge metallic hardcore with non-compromising, hard-hitting lyrics). Raf (Raphael) left the band in ‘96 to do other things in life, he turned into a professional snowboarder and played in a punk band called ‘Red Lobster’, together with some ‘Spirit Of Youth’ members. From then on Bert Guillemont (ex ‘Sektor’) would play the drums. The recordings (still with Raf) of their debut Falls Of Torment (released on GoodLife recs in ’96 and announced as “a mix of ‘Unbroken’ & ‘Morbid Angel’…”) happened after some 10 rehearsals and a few shows.

‘Fungus’ (from the Kortrijk area) were Mich Decruyenaere (guitar; later in ‘Blindfold’ & ‘Hitch’), Olivier Wychuyse (drums; later in ‘Hitch’), Carl Lachat (bass) & Tim Nottebaert (vocals – might not have been in the band anymore at that time…). They probably ended up here because Hans (‘Liar’) was a fan… Not really a band fitting in; they played “noisy rock”…

‘Timebomb’ (from Rome) was a communist, vegan and straight-edge band playing metallic HC: Cristiano Suriano (drums; later ‘Opposite Force’), Daniele Marini (guitar), Giorgio Fois (vocals; later replaced by Emiliano), Marco Ciccone (guitar; his first show with the band here; later also ‘Opposite Force’) and Simone Marini (bass; Kill for Love zine). In 1993 they did a demo and a 7” (Fury) released by SOA recs. Paolo Petralia also did their Hymns For A Decaying Empire CD (‘96) and in 1998 The Full Wrath Of The Slave got out on Genet recs (last recordings with Giorgio). They became regulars at the V.V.: they also played the 96, 97 & 98 fests…

‘End In Sight’ (“edge-metal” from Gislaved) were Toni Niskanen (bass), Janne Hanhela (guitar/vocals), Marko K. (drums), Matthias P. (guitar) and Mikke Niskanen (vocals; he was only on the 1^st 7”). Marko Raboldt (Emotion X recs) released that Deep Wound 7” (recorded in Feb). The second (Obiter Dictum; released in ’96 was in another line-up with Andreas ‘Lasse’ Lassus on drums, Daniel on guitar).

‘End In Sight’ (photographed by Steve Lammertyn)

‘Chokehold’ was a vegan straight-edge ‘chugga chugga’ hardcore band from Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). The band was – I believe – Jon ‘Randy Sharronto’ Sharron (bass; also in ‘Union Of Uranus’), Chris(topher) Logan (vocals), Jeff Beckman (guitar), Matt Beckman (drums) and Matt S. (guitar). They had been touring in Germany with ‘Feeding The Fire’ (organised by Mad Mob from Berlin) but that didn’t go too well. 1995 ws the year their Content With Dying LP got out on Scott Beibin’s Bloodlink recs. He’d also done the Instilled 7” (the year before). The band split up in ’96. Here’s the band playing live at the Vort’n Vis. Their last show was in March 1996 at the New Bedford Fest.

Brob

‘Chokehold’ (pics 1+2: Patrick Federli, 3: unkown)

As far as I can remember it was a reasonably good gig for us. I further recall the Italians especially. It was here that we got in contact with the guys of ‘Burning Defeat’. When they toured later, they ended up sleeping on my floor. Great guys! Everyone was there for the Swedish but I’ve never been an X-crew person so they didn’t do much to me. ‘Churn’ started after Jan Beckers and I had a conversation about our mutual musical interest in ‘Rorschach’. He invited me over to his house where I got to know Maarten and Peter. A bit later Raf joined. Bart (Poer zine) [Verelst; of ‘Hopeman Path’, ‘State Of Grace’, ‘Sheen’] also rehearsed with us a certain time… We quit after a gig in Germany (musical theatrical differences).

Raf Gelenne, ‘Churn’ singer

‘Chokehold’ got their by train. That was because they played this fest and we didn’t.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ singer

I remember that we finished our set with Firestorm (‘Earth Crisis’ cover) and a guy in the pit broke his collar-bone or something. It was pretty intense!

Toni Niskanen, ‘End In Sight’

I also played in ‘Society Of Jesus’ (guitar) and was the singer of ‘The Immoral Majority’, bassist in ‘Mourn’ & ‘Celestials’, etc. etc. ‘Melo’ played bass in ‘Society Of Jesus’ & ‘No Somos Nada’. Adriano [Pratissoli] also drummed for ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, ‘Celestials’, etc. ‘Ringo’ was also the singer of ‘Society Of Jesus’ and the guitarist of ‘The Immoral Majority’. Matteo played guitar in ‘Society Of Jesus’ & ‘No Somos Nada’ and bass in ‘The Immoral Majority’.

At that time we all did the fanzine The Legendary Blumergaster (raised from the ashes of my own Monkey Face) together. Nowadays I have a tattoo-shop in Berlin [Out Of Step Tattoo Parlour].

I remember the fest was great, good organisation; there were cool people, record-stalls and distros, decent food. ‘Concrete’ practiced outside the venue acoustically…really really funny. People of ‘Comrades’, ‘Concrete’, ‘Burning Defeat’ were all together on the road from Italy to Belgium. Great tour! We were there the whole weekend; it was awesome. I remember ‘Kosjer D’ as one of the best bands. And ‘Chockehold’!!!

‘Gallo’, ‘By All Means’

I wasn’t there…

‘Ringo’ Luppi

The ‘Kiss’ face I had during the ‘Congress’ show, the day before, didn’t shock people. With ‘Liar’ we did succeed to shock the crowd…

U.J.

U.J.’s arms were all cut up. I had rubbed his blood all over my face. My mother who was standing on the side of the stage, saw everything. Good old ‘Liar’ days. Top. Bounded by blood…

Hans Verbeke

I remember it being the best show we played. And the hell we went through to get there…

Chris Logan, ‘Chokehold’ singer

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

“Con Ogni Mezzo” = By All Means

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!…

 

97-08-15&16&17 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

‘Blindfold’ was supposed to play their “last show ever” but they still did shows, even toured during the summer, in ’98, their drummer Chatn informs. According to Hans their last gig was at ‘t Molentje in Kuurne. They recorded their live-LP (with 2 new songs only to be heard there) at the V.V.

Brob

We released our CD [Redeem The Monsters] at this fest but we didn’t actually play… Our singer Mark arrived with the first 500 copies, straight from the prsssing-plant and they were practically all gone in a day (sold to people attending and on consignment to various distros. We had to order a second pressing immediately. Crazy!

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’s guitarist

I ended up there with some SxE friends from Vienna (Daniel Eberharter of Eloquence zine), from Vienna (Austria), that were going to the fest. I was also friends with ‘By The Grace Of God’ (ex-members of the Louisville band ‘Endpoint’ [BTGOG had been touring earlier. They were already back in the states by August.]) who I think played the fest. They were on tour in Europe and I dragged along as van-duty, slacker, bad jokester for some shows. I toured with them on and off throughout the tour. We had a blast at Ieper and met great people. It was a nice meet-up of us all. I slept in the ‘loft’-area on an old couch. I had a giant necklace with a cock-ring on it. Good times! The venue was pretty unique in what I’ve seen around the world. It was impressive seeing the show set-up and so successful, especially with so many bands. The diversity in the punk-styles was evident and it was great to be apart of. There were New York style harcore, crust-punk and metal bands; and kids all hanging out.

Kevin Zelko; Wellfair? zine (also helped putting out ‘The Get Up Kids’ record)

Kevin Zelko & friends (Daniel Eberharter and Henrik from Stockholm)

I was at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Acheborn’… I have very good memories of sleeping in the park nearby in the festival. It was only us and another two people the first time The next year it was pretty full in there. The groundkeeper was actually so friendly that he almost didn’t let us go. A bit like in the movie Misery ;-) (Where a nurse takes care of an author that had a car-accident, in her house; and at the beginning she is all caring but then becomes this psycho who doesn’t let him leave her house, etc. We thought maybe he is all nice and then he won’t let us leave anymore…)

Here’s a few random memories:

There were 2 guys sleeping in the middle of the main square close to the venue because it was super-packed with people occupying every inch on the floor. We were walking past the main square when they were waking up and they were surrounded by market-stalls and people shopping. I guess they were too polite to wake them up to tell them that there is a market going on in their new bedroom….

There was this guy selling rare test-pressings of ‘Infest’, etc. for big bucks and American bands were spending a lot of money on it. I was sleeping at this guy’s house once on tour and he had hundreds of sleeves left and was making a test-pressing every once in a while. Power-violence hardcore capitalism…

And once I hitchhiked half way and was picked up by two guys from Munich at a highway-stop along the way but didn’t have a seat to get back. I didn’t really find anyone and at the last night there were four guys with a tiny car from Frankfurt that didn’t have any space as it was loaded with records that they were selling… Either way they squeezed me in and we all had records literally up to our nose driving for 6 hours or so. I think that was in the top 10 of the worst car-drives I ever had. but I guess that was the price to pay for going to the Vort’n Vis.

Christian Mix-Linzer (Outlet recs)

I was here aswell: I drove ‘Acheborn’. That was my first time at the V.V.

Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)

The persons (Jan & Jakub ‘Kuba’ Dušek of the sXe band ‘Balaclava’) that wrote a report in the Czech zine Barricada #2 mentioned that they got a discount on the admission-fee (a ticket for all three days costed 40 DM [20 Euro] – which was too much for them). The first day “of the three-day marathon” started about half past three. They spent the first (hot) night on the sand near the shore, and in the morning went skipping in the sea. They came back to the city and after lunch got ready for “the next round”. After day 2 they they left the hall “soaking in sweat and with torn earrings”, looking for a place to sleep in town. But there was hardly a place to lie down? “It’s not easy at all in this part of Belgium: there’s either cow-pastures and corn-fields surrounded by wire, or villages everywhere; but no forests where one can lay down one’s head.” After straying around for a long time, they found that single one place in the whole state and “slept the sleep of the righteous”. The last day started early right after lunch to get everything finished by nine o’clock… “Compared to the year before, there were fewer bands that took our breath. We probably also knew what was coming and the Belgian bands weren’t that big of a risk. But where else can you see so many wonderful bands and people together, find things you don’t know about, and especially to meet new friends and learn about European scenes. Beautiful memories…”

(full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…)

[‘Natural Order’ & ‘Timebomb’ were not listed on the poster but they signed the guestbook. They didn’t play… Some bands got switched around… ‘Lifecycle’ was added to the bill last-minute.]

97-08-15: Instinct (Bel), Purification (Ita), Clouded (Bel), Endstand (Fin), Reiziger (Bel), Spineless (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Abhinanda (Swe), Veil (Ger)

97-08-16: Thumbs Down (Bel), ODK Crew (Bel), Metroschifter (USA), Intensity (Swe), Spirit Of Youth (Bel), Serene (Swe), Sektor (Bel), Blindfold (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Liar (Bel), Culture (USA)

97-08-17: Lifecycle (Bel), Acheborn (Ger), Starmarket (Swe), Deformity (Bel), Mainstrike (Nl), Rubbish Heap (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Congress (Bel), Morning Again (USA)

crowdshots by Sergi E. Costa

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visiters from the Czech republic; some of them wrote a review in Barricada #2

‘Roman vegan sXe legion’

militant… or hardline…?

all sorts of visiters…

additions wellcome!…

 

95-08-18&19&20 Hardcore Festival

Local (Menen/Roeselare) straight-edge hardcore band ‘Regression’ was announced but didn’t play. Perhaps because they just switched drummers? (Bjorn Lescouhier, ex ‘Shortsight’ replaced Raf – who played in ‘Liar’.)

‘Steadfast’, a band playing “powerful new-school sXe hardcore” from the Osnabrück/Munster region, didn’t play either. Their guitarist Stefan Uhe and bassist Volker Pohlschmidt (R.I.P.) did visit.

‘Chokehold’ wasn’t announced but they showed up anyway; read the story below. Also ‘Solid’, ‘Concrete’ and ‘End In Sight’ were added to the bill…

18 aug ’95: The Jedi (Bel), Solid (Bel), Burning Defeat (Ita)

19 aug ’95: Veil (Ger), Concrete (Ita), Doughnuts (Swe), Rancor (Nl), Mainstrike (Nl), Blindfold (Bel), Comrades (Ita), Kosjer D (Bel), Congress (Bel), Abhinanda (Swe)

20 aug ’95: Churn (Bel), By All Means (Ita), Liar (Bel), Fungus (Bel), Timebomb (Ita), End In Sight (Swe), Chokehold (Can)

If I remember correctly Christophe Mora (‘Undone’, Stonehenge recs) was there. Henk Smit (Kangaroo recs) was selling records. Patrick Federli took photos… Yann Boislève from Rennes wrote a review about this fest in his SxE newsletter #13.

Brob

Mathias Hartmann and I attended together. The V.V. was too full, the weather nice, so we slept a few hundred metres away on some nice grass in front of a church, I think. People strolling by the next morning were not amused about us. ;-)

This summer-festival in the bigger ‘hall’ in the back of the V.V. I remember ‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Chokehold’ from Canada played there. The ‘Chokehold’ guys were coming from the train-station with their guitars and bass in hand. Their European tour [with ‘Feeding The Fire’] was a mess (some of the last gigs of their tour got cancelled) and they got robbed if I remember correctly. I felt sorry for them for having such a bad experience over here. They mention it in an interview.

Carsten Pötter, Frankfurt

If my memory serves me right, this was my first Ieper HardCore Fest. I turned 18 just a few months earlier, I had a very broad musical taste ranging from simple hardrock to the most extreme black/death metal, but it was just a year or so that I really started to appreciate the HC-scene and started to attend a lot more HC shows than metal. Because of the music and especially the very metallic sound of the H8000 bands, but also because the HC-scene was – in my eyes and at the time – a much more interesting scene with a lot more open-minded people (that was of course, pure bullshit, but it was a nice smoke-screen that got me fooled for a while :-) …). You soon learn that assholes are everywhere but so are nice people really… You just need to know who to avoid, that’s all. :-)

Anyway, I remember this fest as the most underground thing I had ever seen or been to… I just took a backpack with some basic ‘go-away’-stuff and just headed to Ieper… There was not really a camping back in those days. I remember people sleeping in the bar, the barn, on the upper floors. I remember those funny Hare-Krishna kids that seemed to attend every show in the whole Benelux (bands like ‘Abhinanda’ and other Umea-area bands were kinda the big thing then… So a lot of people became Krishna all of a sudden – LOL).

All the bands I have seen then performed legendary sets… I was just blasted away by the atmosphere … The barn was as full as it could get and then some more, people were flying all over the place, the pictures I have of that HC fest are still some of my favourite ones. It was pure madness!!! HC the way it should be! Massive mosh-pits, pile-ups, sing-alongs, circle-pits, you name it… From morning till evening, all day long. If I were to attend now, I probably would see 1 band and need 2 other sets to catch my breath… Yeah, we were young and unstoppable then :-).

I remember also ‘taking a shower’ on the Ieper market, in the fountains with a lot of people… It was a ‘group-shower’ (at least 30 people, strength in numbers huh?) in the morning. With all the soap we used, the market was quickly transformed into a big foamy place. :-) Lotsa fun, but not appreciated by the police… Ah well…what’s new???

Also, we met some nice gothic kids and had a very cool evening in their bar ‘Den Donkeren Helft’ [The Dark Half]… After an afternoon of HC-metal, nothing better than some wave/EBM/gothic to relax a little. :-). Since that day, I always go to that bar when I go to Ieper (I think it’s gone now…).

I have very fond memories of ‘Liar’, ‘Congress’, ‘Veil’, ‘Comrades’, ‘Mainstrike’, ‘Abhinanda’ and ‘End In Sight’. You can see me going nuts on the back of the H8000 The Way It Is – European SxE HC compilation-CD (GoodLife recs)… I’m in the picture with ‘Mainstrike’ playing in the barn at that fest. [Brob: There was also a pic ont the ‘Mainstrike’ 7”?] A lot of bands that played that summer in Ieper are on the CD.

After that weekend I got home with sooooo many adresses and phone-numbers, I didn’t know where to start… I made a lot of friends, had wonderfull conversations,… good times in general! From then on until 2005 I attended every single HC fest… but none were so memorable than my first one… And for me, the Vort’n Vis became an icon of underground DIY music.

Greg ‘DragonBreath’ (90s zine; Bruxel)

I’ve only been to Vort’n Vis once, back in the summer of 1995. I went there for, what we called then, the Vort’n Vis festival. I remember a lot of Italian bands were playing, so it felt like I knew half of the people at the fest. [Brob: Dario is Croatian but lived in Rome at that time…] It was almost 20 years ago, so my memory is a bit fading, but I believe ‘Concrete’, ‘Timebomb’, ‘Comrades’, ‘Burning Defeat’ and ‘By All Means’, all from Italy (the first three from Rome), played at the festival and it was bands whose members I knew very well. I remember spending most of the time with ‘Sardo’ from ‘Tear Me Down’ [Massimo ‘Il Sardo’ Leonardi, vocalist], and I recall the sleeping-place was upstairs and there were dozens of bodies and arms+legs everywhere – it was almost impossible to find a free spot to lie down.

Everything was very DIY and there were several small distros, as well as bigger ones ran by Edward of GoodLife and Burkhard [Jünger] of GreenHell [label, record-store & mailorder in Münster, Germany]. I remember meeting one of the Boislève brothers [Yann & Pierre] for the first time at the festival, and that kid [Aaron Vyvial?] that used to make a really nice fanzine and later moved back to the US with ‘Hazel’ of ‘Rise Above’. ‘Mainstrike’ played one of their first shows and the crowd went pretty wild. I’ld see them later both in Italy and the USA. ‘Kosjer D’ were solid. I liked their first 7” a lot. I wasn’t impressed by ‘Doughnuts’ and I think I missed ‘Abhinanda’. I checked both ‘Liar’ and ‘Congress’, but that wasn’t really my cup of tea. I remember the ‘Congress’ bass-player was nice to us, but musically it’s nothing I would listen to at home…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

I was there with Christophe (Mora). Brob, you were screaming against the business during the ‘Abhinanda’ show. I found your attitude so cool; I totally agreed with you!

Fabien Charlot, later vocals for ‘JeanxSEberg’, Bordeaux; personal communication spring ‘96

I only went to the festival on Saturday. I couldn’t stand it very long. Firstly: I felt very lonely; I didn’t feel like communicating. It didn’t feel right…the people that were attending, all that typical sXe fuss. I had the feeling that a lot of these girls and boys were just there to be seen. It seemed like a competition: who has the newest T-shirt, who can dance the hardest, who knows the most lyrics by heart? It all seemed so fake. I don’t want to generalise though: there were also kids that seemed sincere…

Dirk De Vriendt, Introverted Outlet zine; personal communication August ‘95

I was seriously annoyed: everybody’s speaking out against pollution, using big words; but for perhaps half of them it remains just that: words. Have you seen the public road? Simply outrageous! Do people still understand what HC is about? The ‘scene’ has grown enormously but the ideals haven’t evolved. I think it’s sick!

Nico Peeters, ‘Outrage’ bassist/Day One distro; personal communication August ‘95

I thought there were only few really good bands. ‘Kosjer D’, ‘Mainstrike’ & ‘Burning Defeat’ were cool though. I saw a video of the fest and it was cosy. There was a bit of a fight between ‘Rancor’s guitarist and someone. What struck me was that flirting with satanism seems to become popular…Scary, because it equals extreme rightist ideas (egoism, fascism, war, etc.).

Peter Kroes, Ruinerwold (NL); personal communication December ‘95

I’ve been at the Vort’n Vis once in 1995. I was young, my first festival abroad I think…travelling alone by train, by the way. I remember enjoying the concerts of ‘Abhinanda’, ‘Doughnuts’, ‘Congress’ a lot. There were many Italians there! ‘By All Means’ played a crazy show, ‘Timebomb’ were great. I remember buying the ‘Rorschach’ discography CD, great vegan food, soy-milk in stores (I was stoked: in Italy nobody knew what that was). I recall hanging out with several country-mates but also with the guys from ‘Abhinanda’ in some kind of disco. It was fun and I keep great memories of that weekend. I also think some of the Italian bands being pissed off for not being treated like the Swedish bands but I’m not totally sure about that, haha!!!

Borys Catelani, Montorsoli/Sesto Fiorentino (Ita), Agipunk recs

I have the worst memory so details are very sketchy! I had some amazing times at Vort’n Vis… Vique always drove and I spent a lot of time at the festivals (I was there in ’94 as well) helping out with her distro and checking out everyone else’s. In the pre-download/-streaming days it was amazing to be able to get hold of so much great stuff all in one place. My strongest memory from Vort’n Vis was ‘Kosjer D’ playing here… One of my favourite gigs ever. I think it may have been their last show… Anyway, it was so much fun – great band (totally under-rated) and an incredible moving joyous set.

Mark ‘Macca’ Wilkinson, Brighton

I think Ieperfest 1995 was my first time at the V.V. Jenni wasn’t there, I think ’96 was the first time for her.

Robert Matusiak, Refuse recs (at that time Warsaw, nowadays Berlin)

I was there to support ‘Veil’ (who had a 7″ on my label Thressome recs)

Ferry Krop, Sittard (NL)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

organisers Saskia & Hans Verbeke (of course together with a whole bunch of other Vort’n Vis collaborators…)

additions wellcome!…

99-10-31 Catharsis – Man In The Shadow – Entreat – Convinced – Lifecycle – Liar – Leiah – [Man vs Humanity]

This show was – again (see also 97-10-12 for ‘Catharsis’ first appearance here) – organised by Lieve Goemaere (Ugly Duckling zine)…

‘Catharsis’ (“starving artists in capitalist countries”) was an anarchist hardcore band from Greensboro, North Carolina, releasing their albums through the CrimethInc. collective. Their singer, Brian, was editor of the political hardcore punk fanzine Inside Front and later went on (with other ex-members of ‘Catharsis’) to form the band ‘Requiem’. Ernie Hayes (bass), Alexei (‘Rasputin’) D. Rodriguez (drums), Brian D. (vocals/guitar) were still in the band. Guitarist Dan(iel) Young had died so guitarist was Matt(hew) Miller (Who was the second guitar-player on that tour?). Wicked Witch recs did a split-LP (Live @ CBGB’s) with ‘Gehenna’ around ’98. The Samsara album was finished late ‘98, I think (with Matt Miller playing bass; and Dan Young taking care of the guitars – Jonathan Raine & Jimmy Chang are referenced for the tracks from the 7” that were include). The Passion album was recorded May ‘99 and Bernd Bohrmann put it our it on his label Scorched Earth Policy (’99).

‘Catharsis’

‘Man In The Shadow’, from Solkan / Nova Gorica (Slovenia), played emotional and political HC (“anarcho-emo”). In ’97 they did a self-titled 7” on Dejan Pozegar’s Jay-Walk (label from Maribor) and in ’99 they put out the Pax Americana 7” (their 2^nd, on their own Choose Life recs; later also a complete discography on CD). The band consisted of vocalist Marko & guitarist Miran Rusjan (later in ‘Analena’), Nenad Kostadinovski (drums) and Valter Cijan (bass). The brothers did 13.Brat zine…

Valter Cijan’s other band, ‘Entreat’, toured with ‘Man In The Shadow’. That year there was a CD out on Choose Life recs (the label of Miran Rusjan) – entitled City Of… – featuring ‘Entreat’, ‘Low Punch’, ‘Man In The Shadow’ and ‘Straightforward’. ‎The music of ‘Entreat’ was labeled emo-metal. They were: Patrik (vocals), Matjaz (guitar), Milos (guitar) Valter (bass; replaced by Peter) and Rok (drums; replaced by Samo).

The music of ‘Leiah’ (from Gävle, Sweden) was decribed as indie-rock/emo-punk (“clone of the ‘Get Up Kids’…”) by some, others called it pop-music. The band consisted of Annsofie Lundin (bass), Anders Gustavsson (drums; later Gunnar Forsman when Anders moved to bass), David Lehnberg (vocals/guitar) and Klas Joakim Eriksson (guitar; ex ‘Serene’). In 1999 they had 3 releases on Genet recs: a split-7” with (the Belgian) ‘Hebriana’, a 7” & CD entitled Mood Shifting Tones. They ‘d already played on the ‘Ieperfest’.

‘Convinced’ (from Karlstad, Sweden) were: Martin Magnusson (drums), Amir Tehrani (bass), Jessica Johansson-Jern (vocals), Joakim Johansson (guitar) and Johan Gärdt (guitar; replaced Christina ‘Kicki’ Sundqvist). Their early material had a hardcore edge to it and the late material is more heavy metal/hard-rock (references to ‘Iron Maiden’ & ‘Helloween’). They had done a demo (Believe In Yourself) in 1996. In 1999 they released two 7”s on Joakim’s label Words Of Wisdom recs (Silence & A Dream Of Reality.) The album Life Is My Enemy came out on Genet recs (who also did the The Carnival CD in 2000).

‘Convinced’

‘Man vs Humanity’ were Bastian Gaeng (vocals), Hilmar Demant (guitar), Jakob Rupprecht (guitar), Marc-Antonio Hartmann (drums) and Max Hebel (bass). That year they released a split-7” with ‘My Hero Died Today’ on Bernd Bohrmann’s label Scorched Earth Policy (1999) and the Anti Imperialist Culture Sound 7” on Paracelsius. Their music was grindy “extreme hardcore” with metal influences; often compared to ‘His Hero Is Gone’ and ‘Acme’. They did a bunch of shows with ‘Catharsis’ but not this one…

‘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 Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later replaced by Jelle ‘Jay D’ Dobbelaere). There were some more people involved (Steve explains below). Not really sure who did drums and bass here but Lieve Goemaere interviewed the band for her zine Ugly Duckling on 99-08-01; present there were Sofie, Steve, Karel, bassist Peter Leuwers bass & drummer Vincent Tetaert. The band did a demo (There Is Hope Again!; recorded by Michael Maes) and a mini-album (CD) Forever… Until… on SoberMind recs (’97; recorded in Labie’s 195 studio). 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…

Here’s a photo of ‘Liar’ with drummer Bert Guillemont and 2 young kids I didn’t recognise: Ward Dufraimont (ex ‘Firestone’; who kindly provided it) played bass here. He explains a bit of his ‘history’ below.

That is ‘Liar’ on the photo, indeed. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that I play bass. U.J. couldn’t make it for one reason or another. I remember it was kind of a big deal, because it hardly ever happened; but he couldn’t/wouldn’t play… You also see Lennart [Bossu] on guitar. Out of sight is Hans [Verbeke; vocals] and Christophe Herreman on guitar. The night before I had already replaced Christophe for ‘Mainstrike’s last show (Goudvishal in Arnhem). So this was my second time. I was playing in ‘Firestone’ with Lennart; so that’s why. I did a few more replacements, like the second Deathrow Earth European tour in April 2000. Lennart had quit a few days before that tour. After the tour Matthias ‘Empathy’ [Halsberghe] joined and I went on with ‘Firestone’. That ended somewhere in May 2002 (when Lennart started to play for ‘Janez Detd.’) and I joined ‘Liar’ again for a European tour in the summer of 2002 because Christophe couldn’t make it. Halfway the tour Matthias was told to leave the band and I stayed until the last show in October 2006 (at first with Christophe and later with Matthias again). Lennart joined by the end of 1998 if I remember well: he was there during the recordings of Deathrow Earth but didn’t play a note because Joost wanted to take his last ‘Liar’ record completely in his own hands. Joost quit around May 1999 and Christophe (who was in ‘Aborted’) joined. On the pic I’m playing Jan Maelfait’s bass, thé legendary ‘Blindfold’ bass …

I can’t remember anything about the other bands, except for the handsome blonde of ‘Convinced’!

Ward Dufraimont

When I see pictures of us playing that show I see we were all dressed up in our PJ’s (costumes for Halloween). Ward D. was playing bass because UxJx did not want to play that show cause of the pyjama thing… Seems to me now the most obvious explanation. We then just went on with Ward on bass.

Bert Guillemont, ‘Liar’ drummer

At the gig at Vort’n Vis I was ex-member of ‘M.I.T.S.’ but my new band ‘Entreat’ toured together with ‘M.I.T.S.’. ‘Entreat’ was the opening band that night.

Valter Cijan (nowadays in ‘Hellcrawler’)

We never played at the V.V.! We played a few shows with ‘Catharsis’ but not here. We were asked later on but we broke up …

Jakob Rupprecht, guitarist ‘Man vs Humanity’

Indeed I don’t remember seeing ‘Man vs Humanity’ in 1999, though they are on the flyer. We did play in Aalter with them in December of 1998. I have some good shots from when we played Halloween 1999, let me get my stuff together and get back with you.

Ernie Hayes, ‘Catharsis’ bassist

I remember wishing we had planned some sort of Halloween thing. Like costumes or a few covers of a band or something. In general, I remember touring with ‘Convinced’ and the men in that band treating the woman singer so badly that she rode in our van many days. Not sure who organised the ‘Convinced’ tour. Maybe Patrick [Federli; Drive To Play], maybe Bruno [Genet recs], maybe us. Maybe some combination…

Matt Miller, ‘Catharsis’ guitarist

I wasn’t in ‘Catharsis’ during those years. I’d left the band to start the band that would become ‘Undying’.

James Chang

My perspective is that we’re both seeking similar goals in different ways… We could bicker for years about which one of us is more pure in our struggle against capitalism but that would be just plain dumb and a waste of our time…

Brian D.; personal communication Sep. ’99 [Brob: This is reference to my questioning their dealings with a commercial label here. To me that didn’t seem to accord with Brian’s anarchist ideology… Below is a pic of ‘Catharsis’ with my correspondent Eric Boehme (editor of After The Revolution; on the left) touring Europe in –supposedly- the summer of ‘98)]

Just a couple quick notes to get the historical details perfect… The Samsara album was recorded in spring 1997, not late 1998 – I think what was released in late 1998 was the vinyl version of it for the US. You know, we made GoodLife put Samsara out of print after that first pressing and never worked with them again. Basically, the whole thing was a result of not understanding the context of the Belgian hardcore scene until we got there. As you know, we were playing a DIY show set up by Lieve.

The photograph of us with Eric Boehme is indeed from our European tour in summer 1998. In fall 1999, on that tour in Europe (which was 3 months long), we had a second guitarist, Jon Ridenour, who was also the guitarist of ‘Zegota’, a band that later toured Europe themselves. The live photo is indeed from the 1999 show (you can tell because we have eyeliner on our faces for Halloween) but Jon and Alexei aren’t visible in it. We were probably at our best as a band with Jon – he was a very expressive guitarist, and balanced out Matt nicely. Today Jon lives in Stockholm.

I remember it being a really intense show. But my only actual clear memories from the night are of meeting ‘Man In The Shadow’. I had already been corresponding with Miran about his zine for some years. Their drummer struck me as one of the warmest, sweetest people I had ever met, and I remember he had a big, dreadlocked beard around his neck.

Brian D.

This was kind of a Halloween show and I was dressed up in a sparkling, pink dress wearing a Belgian ribbon, as a Miss Belgium candidate (N° 8). It was the first time ever I was wearing high heels, terrible! ;-)

Lieve Goemaere

The gig went really well. I was kinda proud of myself. The Slovenian bands were really good; I was really impressed by ‘Man In The Shadow’. Better than I ever could’ve imagined.

Lieve Goemaere; personal communication Nov. ‘99

The performance of ‘Catharsis’ was very inspiring…

Bart De Geeter; personal communication Nov. ‘99

Halloween… Most bands were dressed up… ‘Convinced’ also played: glam-rock from Sweden, with female vocals. A bit like ‘Purusam’ but less technical.

About ‘Lifecycle’: After Jurgen Degryse had quit, he was replaced by Maarten Kinet (later played for ‘AmenRa’)… When he abandonned the ship we got Peter Leuwers… And after him there was Céline Delqueux and then Jelle Dobbelaere… Concerning drummers: when Jan Verhelst stopped, Vincent Tetaert [‘AmenRa’ guitarist] took his place… And when things got too busy for him (with ‘Firestone’), he quit ‘Lifecycle’… He was replaced by Tim Jult [‘Empathy’, ‘Liar’, ‘Congress’, …]. Yeah, we had ours share of drummers and bassists…

Steve Noyelle, ‘Lifecycle’ guitarist

The first time I played at the V.V. was actually ‘97 with ‘Serene’ and I visited for the first time in ‘96 when I drove ‘Separation’…

Klas Joakim Eriksson, ‘Leiah’ guitarist

I remember seeing ‘Entreat’ and ‘Man In The Shadow’ in Belgium (I drove with them home to Ljubljana)… Actually, all that I remember is that on the way from Ieper to Gent, the rented van went on fire, that is: the engine went on fire! Pretty scary but we were all fine.

Tea Hvala, Pssst zine

I was here at the V.V. with ‘Catharsis’. I did that entire 3 month tour back then, since we (Scorched Earth Policy) put out the vinyl that year. ‘M. Vs H.’ never played there, that’s correct. I recall that ‘Catharsis’ were in a desperate spot prior to the this tour, which would have been their 2^nd European tour. As I recall, they had a loose agreement with the guys who worked on their first tour in 1997 (Pat Federli; if I am not mistaken). Apparently, they were not able to get that going. Having met the band two years earlier I was eager to help out. After I had gotten the ball rolling, Bernd Bohrmann and I have then starting booking the tour and also started talks regarding the vinyl version of ‘Catharsis’ Passion album.

Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)

The band ‘Convinced’ hasn’t been active for almost ten years so it’s easy to forget. However, we did a two week tour in Belgium/Germany with ‘Catharsis’ (US) in the fall of 1999 which took us to Ieper and the Vort’n Vis. I visited the Ieper hardcore fest both 1997 & 1998 (great festival and an awesome vibe) so I remember was excited to play the V.V. But honestly I don’t remember that much more from the show than the fact that it was Halloween and a lot of people in the audience wore costumes and/or make-up. I don’t think that the members in our band wore any costumes though. Probably because Halloween wasn’t a big thing in Sweden back then, so we hadn’t thought about it. I have some pictures somewhere in an album but unfortunately I can’t find them.

Myself & Jessica don’t think that Matt Miller is telling the truth about our tour. Jessica shared the van with ‘Catharsis’ becuse she didn’t want to spend all the time with her brother Joakim (guitar) and her father (who was our driver at the time). Fair enough!

Martin Magnusson, ‘Convinced’ drummmer

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)