98-04-11 Sorehead – Lifecycle – D.S.A. – Striker – Kalashnikov – Ignominy – Powers Of Discipline – Inside

The V.V. notes mentioned that ‘Lorre’ (Laurent Peene) & ‘Sientje’ (Nico Sinnaeve) were on bar-duties that day. The bands were mostly, if not all, locals. It probably wasn’t an announced gig (because there’s no other traces) but more like a get-together…

‘Lifecycle’ (‘new-school’ HC – H8000 but not with that typical sound, Ieper/Kortijk region) was one of the ‘house-bands’ of the V.V. in that periode (97-06-27, 97-07-12, 97-08-17, may ’98-05-10). The line-up: 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). In a letter from May ’98, Sofie mentions that their bassist Jurgen Degryse had quit the band. His last show was in that month. He was replaced by Maarten Kinet (who later played for ‘AmenRa’)… Later the band had a few more changes…

‘Sorehead’ (from Ieper) played the V.V. a bunch of times (see: 97-06-27, 97-07-12, 97-10-25, 97-12-26, 98-05-10). They did a 5-track demo in 1997. Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene did vocals; the others were Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Pieter Desmyter (guitar) and Jan Lazeure (guitar). ‘Lorre’ died in 2003.

‘D.S.A.’ (Ieper area) – old-school NY Hardcore – was the band of Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later ‘Retaliate’), Frederik Vanhee (bass; later ‘Retaliate’), Davy Verhoye (R.I.P.)/Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (Vandenberghe?; guitar)… Have a look at 97-06-27, 97-07-12, 97-10-25, 97-12-26, 98-08-16 for their other V.V. shows

‘Striker’ (H8000 metalcore) was a band that Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene joined but he didn’t sing here fro them yet… The rest of the line-up: ‘Gerre’ Gerald Goedhart (guitar; later guitarist of ‘Core of Anger’), ‘Tomme’ Tom Bordeaux (guitar), PJ Vandamme (bass; later guitarist of ‘Retaliate’ & ‘Outcast’) & David ‘Terre’ Termote (drums). They released a demo entitled High Hopes For Nothing in 1999. Check also 99-11-27 & 2000-09-16.

‘Ignominy’ was a vegan straight-edge band; their guitarist Ward Dufraimont went on to play for ‘Firestone’. The others in the band were Ward Cecat (bass), Wouter Debonnet (drums; also ‘Rhymes Of Destruction’), ‘Jakke’ Jacob Vanluchene (guitar) & David Derammelaere (vocals). They recorded a demo (A Cry For Justice) early ’98.

‘Kalashnikov’ (metalcore from Diksmuide, so also H8000) would be back at the V.V. on 99-11-27 & 2000-09-16. The band was Thijs Plovie (guitar), Dave Willaert (bass), Tom Verheecke (vocals) & Bart Gouwy (drums).

‘Powers Of Discipline’ had the bassist of ‘Minotaur’ and ‘Archaï’ in their ranks.

‘Inside’ was an emo band linked with people from the first line-up of ‘Minotaur’

Brob

I can remember vaguely that we did this gig with the bands but nothing more…really.

Gerald Goedhart

I recall we did a ‘Merauder’ cover: the vocalist at the time sang the lyrics of the verse and chorus the other way round and people came up to me after the show saying that the new song resembled ‘Merauder’ a lot. (smile) It was the day we stole ‘Sorehead’s singer.  Before him we tried out some local guys: the first one was in ‘Evangelist’ [Frederik ‘Zwartn’ Deswarte], the second one couldn’t keep rhythm and became our roadie [Vincent Degryse]. ‘Lorre’ joined by the end of ’98: we played the old set a few times with him and then restarted with new tracks. He was one the demo.

PJ Vandamme

We always said ‘D.S.A.’ was short for ‘Download Society Agression’ but in fact it was more like ‘Dikke Stront Affaire’ [“a huge load of crap”] from the very beginning. ‘Sien’ and myself started ‘Edgecrusher’ to take a totally different direction (thrash-metal). ‘Retaliate was supposed to be a side-project; ‘Edgecrusher’ came earlier.

Freddy Vanhee

I only remember I liked ‘Striker’.

Wouter Debonnet

I remembered little of that show but a fellow band-member gave me some info. The bands were all just starting out; it was a matinee type of thing in the afternoon (so hardly any people whowed up – the same day there was a mega-cool show in Wevelgem with ‘Sektor’, ‘Vitality’, ‘Arkangel’, etc.), organised by ‘Schmitters’ [Stijn Desmyter], in the Vort’n Vis pub. We played with our original line-up: Wouter, Jacob, Ward, David & myself.

Ward Cecat

I set up a few gigs at the Vort’n Vis, often on request of the bands themselves… Most of them were Belgian. My principle was that we have some ‘home-grown’ gems that earn a stage and I wanted something other than ‘Madball’ clones with a fucked-up attitude. I booked bands that I could trust, knew and had seen live. I also always tried to mix styles to avoid monotonous shows.

Stijn Desmyter

‘Powers Of Discipline’ was Alexander Ronsse on guitar and some guy named Filiep or Philippe on drums. Helmert Decavele was also our bassist (‘Minotaur’ & ‘Archaï’). He replaced someone else, can ‘t remember his name. I might have rehearsed with ‘P.O.D.’ once. Long time ago…

Jeroen Algoet, ‘Minotaur’ & ‘Archaï’ drummer

Maarten Byttebier was the drummer for ‘Inside’. He was one of the vocalists of ‘Minotaur’ in the beginning…

Bram Algoet, guitarist of ‘Minotaur’, (occasionally) ‘Archaï’ & ‘The Curse’

‘Powers Of Discipline’ was me (bassist of ‘Archaï’ & ‘Minotaur’) as a singer, Alexander Ronsse on guitar, Jelle Vandepitte (bass) & Dimitri Dias (drums).

‘Inside’ was Maarten Byttebier (singer of ‘Minotaur’ in its early days), his brother Thomas Byttebier on bass, Dimitri Declerq and Bart Wattez on guitar. Natascha Jaumain & Amber Omez were singing.

Bram Algoet wasn’t part of ‘Archaï’ [he was an occasional stand-in: see 99-11-27]; that was Brecht Algoet (guitar), Jeroen Algoet (drums), Liesbeth Meyfroid (vocals), Helmert Decavele (bass) & Dimitri Declerq guitar.

Helmert Decavele

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!<<

————————-

‘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!…

99-06-25 Standing 8 – 8 Days Of Nothing – Shank – Hernandez – Lifecycle

This was the first day of the 10 year anniversary weekend of the Vort’n Vis: 99-06-25&26&27 10 years Vort’n Vis

‘Shank’ from Glasgow played super-fast screaming HC/thrash; influenced by ‘Half Off’ & ‘Stupids’: John ‘Wurzel’ Burridge (vocals), Jamie ‘Lamberta’ Thomson (guitar), Jason Boyce (drums; ex ‘Stretchheads’, also ‘Scatha’), Andrew Nolan a.k.a. ‘Andy Stick’ (bass & vocals; ex ‘Ebola’, also ‘Sawn Off’). At the time of this concert they had 2 split-7”s out: with ‘Minute Manifesto‎’ (on Nick Loaring’s Enslaved recs, 1998) and with ‘Scalplock’ (Retribution, 1999). Recordings for the 7” with ‘Unholy Grave’ were just finished. Andy once described their music as follows: “We just rip off old Boston and Japanese bands, dropped the tune to B, speed shit up, slow shit down, chuck in a few cheesy breakdowns…” (he didn’t like the term powerviolence).

Andrew Nolan tells me ‘Hernandez’ were Simon Henderson (vocals, guitar, keyboards; ex ‘Curll’; lives in NY), Derek Brown/Sexton (bass, vocals, keyboards; nowadays in ‘Headless Kross’) and ‘Hoppy’ (drums). They were touring with ‘Shank’…

‘Standing 8’ “sounds like ‘The Locust’…” it said on the flyer. This hardcore band from was Pickering, Ontario (Canada): Jesse Frederick Keeler (guitar/vocals), Sean Chamberlain (guitar/vocals), Mark Wallis (drums) & Robin Young (keyboards). They had a (self-titled) 7” out and a split-10” (1998) with ‘This Robot Kills’. The latter was released on Bates recs (that also released the 7” by ‘8 Days Of Nothing’). Scott Henderson became the band’s singer right before their European tour.

‘8 Days Of Nothing’ … “A legendary punk band in Sweden; formed by 4 friends in Gislaved in the spring of 1997. During 3 years they played about 100 shows (including 3 European tours) and released 2 records. The last show was at Kråkenäsryd festival in August 2000.”. Their 7” was entitled The Next Thing That Happened Was A Mind-Mangling Explosion Of Noise & Light, and they did also a 10” (split with ‘Die Kosmo Gesellschaft’). Members of the band were: Daniel ‘Fagge’ Fagerström (guitar), Henrik Grevesmühl (vocals), Janne Hanhela (drums) and Pär Fridholm (bass; Reinforced zine). Their music was described as emo/screamo. The flyer states “ex ‘End In Sight’ (guitarist Janne) (who played at the V.V. 95-08-20)…

One of the many times ‘Lifecycle played at the Vort’n Vis… A couple of months after this (99-08-01) Lieve Goemaere interviewed the band for her zine Ugly Duckling; present there were Sofie Vantomme (vocals), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), bassist Peter Leuwers & drummer Vincent Tetaert. So I’m guessing that was the line-up here…

Brob

At the show, someone randomly asked if they could play The Trooper by ‘Iron Maiden’ (I think that’s what they said) on my bass in front of everyone as I was setting up. I told them no and they looked really disappointed. Being the person I was back then I told them to get off stage and stop wasting everyone’s time.

The Canadian band that played had a guitarist (Jesse) that went on to be one half of the mildly famous ‘Death From Above’ (bass and drums rock band). They were doing this vaguely ‘The Locust’ inspired thing (i.e. not wearing punk uniforms and having keyboards) and I remember enjoying them live and liked hanging out with them and the Swedes after the show.

‘Hernandez’ were 3 good friends of ours from Glasgow that we took on tour; they were good touring partners, unfortunately nothing ever really came of that band. They played a sort of heavy post-emo but that was probably a few years too early to be fully understood and appreciated by people at the time. ‘Disaffect’s drummer IB was driving. He was a friend of all of ours, bandmate of Jason and co-worker of ‘Wurzel’.

Just before the show started a guy dressed as Jesus Christ (complete with a giant crucifix he was carrying) dramatically dragged himself on stage, said a few words in Flemish, then threw his crucifix to the ground and left. I have no idea what that was about and he didn’t seem to be a part of the event or Vort’n Vis. I may have a photo of him somewhere…

Andrew Nolan (survivalist-deathcult.blogspot)

It was a pretty fun night so I have some good memories of it. But whether anyone else will agree, I can’t say…

Jamie Thomson, ‘Shank’ guitarist

This is what I remember about that show. Fish-shaped construction-paper beer-tickets, playing hacky-sack [circle-kicking with a crocheted foot’ball’] in the courtyard, a guy dressed like Jesus interrupted ‘8 Days Of Nothing’, and half of ‘Standing 8’ went to cause shit at the rival jock bar across the street and ‘Shank’s lead-singer said to me in a thick Glasgow accent “There’s now’t to come of that but tears.”…

‘Standing 8’ relaxing in the Vort’n Vis courtyard

It was our 2^nd last show on our 27 day tour that was set up by Johan Lagerlöf and his label Bates recs. We toured for 2½ weeks with ‘8 Days Of Nothing’ from Gislaved. I remember that the space was nice, with a small stage and a little bar. We had fun before the show, hanging out with the friendly staff and the guys from the other bands in the courtyard. There was an audience of around 30 I think which was good for an unknown Canadian band. ‘Shank’ played a heavy set, as did ‘8 Days’ excluding the part where they were interrupted by a random guy dressed like Jesus.

Scott Henderson, ‘Standing 8’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Lifecycle’ (Steve, Peter, Sofie) & crew (Brecht Vanderwee, Aline Noyelle)

additions wellcome!…

97-08-17 Morning Again – Congress – Vitality – Rubbish Heap – Mainstrike – Deformity – Starmarket – Acheborn – Lifecycle

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

The Czech zine Barricada #2 mentions ‘Starmarket’ switched places with ‘Endstand’…

The last day started earlier – right after lunch – so that it all could be finished by 9 o’clock.

‘Lifecycle’ had played the V.V. their 1^st gigs a bit before (97-06-27 & 97-07-12) and they would become one of the ‘house bands’ in the future… I believe here they played in the early line-up: Sofie Vantomme (vocals; co-founder Vincent Merveillie had joined ‘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).

‘Lifecycle’ (from the video shot by Steve Lammertyn?)

Barricada #2: “A young band with a metal sound and a girl singing; a lot like ‘Shortsight’. The guitarist mentioned how terrible the garbage was around the concert-venue and that Hardcore should go all the way and not make a mess in the city. I tought wasn’t that bad with the waste last year though.”

‘Acheborn’s music was “raw, heavy, violent and brutal: thick guitars, hard-pounding rhythm-section and screaming vocals building a wall of metallic crust”; some compared them with ‘Unbroken’. They came from the Darmstadt area: André Liegl (bass), Heikki Eiden (vocals), Sascha Salipurovic (drums), Steffen Heller (guitar) and Jens Wucherpfennig (guitar). At that time I believe they just had the Demon Love (7”) out (Defiance recs). The split-7” with ‘Systral’ (on Trans Solar; Christian Mix-Linzer’s label) came in 1998. The LP Tuesday Is Dead LP (also released by Trans Solar) in ’99. Sascha Franzen of Alveran recs (vocalist of ‘Nyari’ – from Bochum) intended to release a split-7” with ‘Upset’ but that didn’t work out.

Barricada #2: “Next up were the Germans of ‘Acheborn’, an enjoyable thrashing of the ears.”

‘Starmarket’, an indie-rock band from Sweden Piteå (north of Umeå), were: Fredrik Brändström (guitar/vocals), Patrik Bergman (bass; later Jesper Löfroth), Johan Sellman (guitar), Magnus Öberg(-Egerbladh) (drums). They did a bunch of records on the Swedish alternative/indie label Dolores recs. Around this time their album Sunday’s Worst Enemy was out…

Barricada #2: “Melodic punk, but they played for a minority of the people attending (everyone seemed to load up power for the evening).”

The band ‘Deformity’ played death-core/metal and were from the H8000-area (Menen/Houthulst/Roeselare). They had started in the summer of ‘95, with ‘Bolle’ (Dominiek Defrancq, drums), ‘Wulf’ (Kristof Dewulf a.k.a. ‘Christopher D. Wolff’, bass; also sang for ‘Solid’ for a little while), ‘Lookmulle’ Davy Vanlokeren (guitar; also in ‘Regression’, later bass in ‘Spoil Engine’) and ‘Gaze’ Steven Sanders (guitar; later ‘Spoil Engine’). A “power-throat” was found in the person of ‘Becque’ (Laurent Delbecque; later in the blues-band ‘Smoking General’ with Bjorn Lescouhier of ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Regression’). After a few months ‘Becque’ and ‘Lookmulle’ switched places (the latter sang on ‘Misanthrope’ & ‘Murder’…). Around the end of ’96 they recruted Michael (‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon; also ‘Congress’) as second guitarist because “they sounded a bit too empty for your average metal-outfit”. Their 1^st release was the Beyond live demo (in Dadizele, ‘96; with Dave/y Vanlokeren on guitar and Laurent Delbecque doing vocals). The CD Misanthrope and the split-7” with ‘Congress’ followed (GoodLife ‘97)…

Barricada #2: “After a lengthy tuning and sound-check, and even longer intro, they started playing. The second guitarist of ‘Congress’ was in the band. Just metal, nothing more. This didn’t have much to do with hardcore.”

‘Mainstrike had played here a few times already (95-04-09, 95-08-19 & 95-10-20. At some point they split with bassist Jasper Meijerink and Johnny van de Koolwijk of ‘Reaching Forward’ became the new bassplayer. In March 1997 ‘Mainstrike’ recorded the Quest For The Answers album. Here the line-up was Roland ‘Big’ Roller (vocals), Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef (guitar), Johnny (bass), Jonas Moberg (guitar) & Pepijn Oostenbrink (drums). Their set here was recorded on video…

‘Mainstrike’ (photoshoot by Sergi E. Costa)

posi crew crowd; pics by Sergi E. Costa

Barricada #2: “The Dutch ‘Mainstrike’ started of with the words ‘Do you remember real hardcore?’. Somewhat older people playing classic old-school sXe, similar to bands such as ‘Wide Awake’, ‘Youth Of Today’ and others of those acient times. There was a great atmosphere and especially during the last covers of ‘Y.O.T.’ and ‘Chain Of Strength’, the crowd gathered on stage again.”

‘Rubbish Heap’ had been hear already on 96-05-19. They were a HC/metal band from Antwerp with Dave Vanderplas (drums), Kim Vandyck (vocals; later guitarist of ‘KingTerror’), ‘Peche’ (guitar), Tijs Geerts (bass; later ‘Bad Influence’) and Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Royers (guitar). They were friends of Joris De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) who released their Path Of Lies 7” (“mix of ‘Rorschach’ & ‘Downcast’…”), and their other stuff later. Early on they had done a rehearsal-tape and a demo (Slow Defeat). Here Kim was injured and had to be replaced… (read his comment) Was their set also video-taped?

Barricada #2: “This gave me power; emo with a metal sound!”

Not new (96-08-16, 96-09-22) for the V.V. each either: ‘Vitality’s “tough-guy edge-metal”. By that time the band, from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast), consisted ‘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). 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.

Barricada #2: “Crazy Belgians again, H-8000 power! I prefered to leave…”

In 1997 ‘Congress’ put out a split-7” with ‘Deformity’ (Exhume The Truth / God Defined; on GoodLife recs). Angry With The Sun (released in ‘98) was with Michael Pintelon as second guitarist.

‘Congress’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

Barricada #2: “With the exit of the moon, ‘Congress’ path of immortality conquered the stage. They started with the old songs Lifting The Ban & Prayers [from Blackened Persistance], and finished with new songs. During the concert, the bassist sang more than the singer, who climbed in the ceiling-beams and jumped down on people’s heads. The Belgian fans got angry; I expected the worst. At that moment the hall was about to burst with people.”

‘Morning Again’ toured with ‘Congress’. They were a vegan straight-edge metal-core band from Fort Lauderdale, Forida. The line-up here was Kevin Ray Byers (vocals, bassist of ‘Outcast’; he replaced Damien Moyal, who was “asked to leave the band”), Joseph Lee ‘Joe’ Simmons (guitar; also ‘As Friends Rust’, ‘Culture’), Matt Thomas (drums; replaced Louis Ogburn Long), John Michael Wylie (guitar; ex ‘Culture’) and Gerardo ‘Jerry’ Villarroel (bass). In the guestbook there’s mention of Kevin, Joe, Matt and Jerry; Jordan Leitner did the merch… They’d done a few 7”s on various US labels in ’96 and in ’97 GoodLife recs released the album Martyr (recorded in February).

‘Morning Again’; by JanCoert Toerse

Barricada #2: “Then the last band (also from Florida) was on! I was curious: ‘M.A.’ & ‘Culture’ are some of the American bands that are widely recognised in Belgium; thanks to GoodLife recs. (I noticed almost every girl in the scene wears a ‘Morning Again’ T-shirt!) So I was curious about what would happen on the ‘home ground’. Although the sound wasn’t excellent, they melted the crowd. The stage was packed with 100 people all singing along; the vocalist couldn’t even sing because they were all-over, he stumbled all the time. There were several moshpits. I was pleased with the sympathetic behavior of ‘M.A.’: it didn’t matter a lot how they were playing; it didn’t exactly work out because the crowd had such a power and the whole stage was rocking! After back-breaking hits such as Turning Over, America On Line, Puppet And Soldier, and Martyr, the whole crowd joined in for the finale: Remedy. The bomb exploded! Count the victims! On the brink of collapse, we crawled out of the hall into the courtyard, where we could take a bit of breath. After regaining my senses, I had to start thinking about heading home, and with tears in our eyes we left the nightly city.”

Brob

Finally, a brief evaluation… Compared to last year, there were fewer that were breath-taking, we probably also already knew what was going to happen and the Belgian bands didn’t seem that dangerous anymore. But where else can you see so many wonderful bands and people together, find things that you don’t have at home, and especially meet new friends and learn about European scenes. Beautiful memories, which we won’t forget… That was Ieper ‘97 … Goodbye Belgium!!!

Jan and Jakub, the bros. of Barricada zine and ‘Balaclava’

I remember playing football with a huge bunch of festival-visiters. There’s a photo of that somewhere at home.

Johan Sellman, ‘Starmarket’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Morning Again’. I did merch for them for a number of years.

Jordan Leitner

>> I didn’t like touring Europe. I did pretty much everything for the band so it wasn’t really fun anymore. I think I just reached my breaking point. […] We all agreed to finish off the tour for financial reasons, and also because we were in Europe and we wanted to enjoy it one more time. Everyone had different reasons for wanting to finish the tour. <<

John Wylie, ‘Morning Again’ guitarist (interviewed on xstuckinthepastx.blogspot)

At that time I had a dislocated hip from skateboarding. Kris Delacourt (‘S.Y.C.’, ‘Stifled Cries’, …) replaced me and sang.

Kim Vandyck, ‘Rubbish Heap’ vocalist

I remember spending more time in our van than in the venue. Not everyone was into ‘Rubbish Heap’ back then, I believe. Not really SxE (guess what the cloud hanging over the van was). I also recall that a lot more people than I expected were shouting along, and that eventually made it into a good show. ‘Rubbish Heap’ were my local (from the same village as myself) heroes at that the time and it was honour for me to this replacement (a series of 3 concerts, if I’m not mistaken). We also played an encore at the V.V. (which we didn’t expect): the song Broken (which we didn’t rehearse and I fucked up big time). The sound-engineer recorded that concert so if he still has them, I would like to hear it…

Kris Delacourt

When ‘Deformity’ first came out, they were called ‘Race Deformity’. I told them to change their name, which they did ‘cause HC isn’t about race…

Edward Verhaeghe, GoodLife recs (on the www)

There was a report on the regional TV-station (WTV) about this. I still have it on tape…

‘Bolle’ Dominiek Defrancq, ‘Deformity’

review in the Belgian zine Beyond Perfection #2

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

98-05-10 Thumbs Down – Sorehead – Lifecycle – Clouded – Rain – Symbiont – Mindfist

‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ was a project of Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes with a few people from Deinze. They only did a few shows. [Brob: They are in the guestbook but not really sure if they played. ‘Pit’ was the singer of ‘Instinct’. ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ also played at the 1999 Ieperfest and their music was described as “rocking slomo emo HC”…]

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’

According to the V.V. notes this gig was again arranged by ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke)…

‘Thumbs Down’ had played already on 97-08-17 (The Next Generation festival). They were from Antwerp and played “youth crew hardcore”. I believe in the band at that time were Roeland (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). They also performed at the ’98 & ’99 fests….

‘Clouded’, a metal-core band from Antwerp (Kontich), were: Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) and Wout Bosschaert (guitar; replaced Kurt). Their 7” Inheritance was released by Genet recs in 1998. They also played at the ’97, ’98 & ’99 fests…

‘Rain’ (from Antwerpen/Edegem) played post-rock, emo metalcore, with sluggish guitar-riffs and manic vocals: Mark Kram (vocals), Joris Van Haute (bass), Sven Leys (guitar) & Jeroen Taeymans (drums). They had self-released their album Redeem The Monsters ‎(1997) under the name Redeem The Monsters And Kill The Beast recs…

Locals ‘Lifecycle’ had been on the V.V. stage a bunch of times before and it wouldn’t be their last. In a letter from May ’98, Sofie (‘Lifecycle’s vocalist) mentions that their bassist Jurgen Degryse had quit the band. His last show was May ’98. He was replaced by Maarten Kinet (who later played for ‘AmenRa’)… When he left Peter Leuwers joined… And later there was Céline Delqueux and then Jelle Dobbelaere…

‘Sorehead’ (from Ieper) had already played the V.V. several times. They were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan Lazeure (guitar; he’s not in the guestbook and might’ve quit for half a year [According to Dries he’s always been in the band…]) and Pieter Desmyter (guitar). Steve Noyelle describes their music as resembling ‘Sektor’. The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive.

‘Symbiont’ and ‘Mindfist’ were Belgian bands but I’ve got no recollections of them…

Brob

I’ve also played at the V.V. with ‘Before Machine’ (with Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere of ‘Clouded’ / ‘The Setup’ / ‘Bear’)… The excerpt in the guestbook was done by our singer Mark. Our CD was released on the 1997 Ieperfest. [Brob: It was still called HardCore – The Next Generation festival; no trace of ‘Rain playing there…]

‘Mindfist’ was with singer Kevin Heynen, who’s in ‘Shirley’s Locker’ nowadays…

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’ guitarist

I joined ‘Thumbs Down’ in ‘99! I replaced Roeland De Keulenaer.

Andries Beckers

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-07-12 Lifecycle – Spirit Of Youth – Family Of Dog – Sincerity – Sorehead – Instinct – Fanta’s Farm – D.S.A. – Cult-T

Most of these (local) bands had played a month earlier on ‘Spineless’ CD release (97-06-27). Steve Lammertyn and ‘Lifecycle’s Steve Noyelle & Sofie Vantomme organised this one here (see flyer). According to the V.V. notes ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke) was also involved. Michael Maes & Inge Cappoen attented the bar…

‘Family Of Dog’ were not local (from Deinze) and had already performed at the V.V. on 96-09-22. They played “metal” (Steve Noyelle’s words). The band was: Bert Walgraeve (bass), Stijn Everaert (drums), Peter Staelens & Wim De Taeye (guitar) and Tom Claus (vocals; also sang for ‘Congress’ on their Angry With The Sun CD). They released a promo-tape in ’96, did a split-7” with ‘Liar’ in ’97 (Genet recs) and a self-titled CD (Midas prods, ’98).

‘Sincerity’ was another band (metal-influenced HC) from Deinze. Members: ‘Sjaab’ Frederic Chaboteau (vocals), Maarten Kinet (bass; later ‘Lifecycle’ & ‘AmenRa’), Bram Walgraeve (guitar; brother of ‘Family of Dog’s Bert Walgraeve), Fré(derick) De Vogelaere (drums) & Thomas Hauttekeete (guitar; also ‘Instinct’). Bram & Fré were later in ‘King Creole’… The band played another show a few months later (97-10-12) but they split up somewhere in ‘98…

‘Spirit Of Youth’ had done a show at the V.V. in their new line-up (more new-school metal-HC) already. Guitarist Dominiek ‘Dompi’ Denolf, drummer Frederik ‘Fré’ Denolf and bassist Kris Casier (who had been in ‘Solid’ with the bros), recruited Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (also Strike One zine) on second guitar and Vincent ‘Marvel’ Merveillie (also ‘Resist In Pain’, ‘Lifecycle’) on vocals. ‘Dompie’ had tried to reform ‘S.O.Y.’ with originals Hans Verbeke & Jan Maelfait in ’96 but that didn’t work out.

Vincent Theeten (photo courtsey of Karel Deweerdt)

D.S.A.’ were playing old-school NY Hardcore. Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later ‘Retaliate’), Frederik Vanhee (bass; later ‘Retaliate’), Pieter-Jan ‘PJ’ Vandenberghe (guitar) and the singer was Davy Verhoye (on the 1^st demo) or Maarten Verschaeve (2^nd demo). They did a few more shows at the V.V. (97-10-25, 97-12-26 & 98-04-11)…

‘Fanta’s Farm’ was with Korneel Barbry (bass), Sim Meerseman (guitar; ex ‘Voices At The Front’), Stijn Dequidt (drums) & Jeroen Beyens (vocals). Steve Noyelle labeled them as “melodic pop/rock”. They played again on 97-09-19.

‘Sorehead’, another local (Ieper) band, had also been at the V.V. already (96-12-30 plus the one mentioned above) and would be here again 97-10-25. They were: Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar) and Pieter Derycke (drums). According to Steve N. their music resembled that of ‘Sektor’. The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive. Jan Lazeure (guitar) might’ve quit for half a year… But according to Dries he’s always been in the band…

‘Instinct’ already did V.V. shows on 97-03-01 & the one mentioned in the intro, and they would be back for 15/16/17 aug ’97: Hardcore – the Next Generation festival. Alex Dierickx & Thomas Hauttekeete (also ‘Sincerity’) 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.

‘Lifecycle’, a ‘new-school’ HC band from the Ieper/Kortijk region (H8000 but not with that typical sound), had done their first gig at the V.V. a bit before this (97-06-27, the release-party of the ‘Spineless’ CD) and may more would follow. I believe at that time the band consisted of Sofie Vantomme (vocals), 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).

No idea who/what ‘Cult-T’ was…

Brob

I have vague recollections of ‘Sjaab’ writing something in the V.V. guestbook but don’t know if it was this day… We also played there with ‘Catharsis’, ‘Gehenna’, ‘Natural Order’ and some more bands. It’s been a while… We also used to visit the Vort’n Vis quite often. I also rehearsed there with ‘Lifecycle’ when ‘Sincerity’ disbanded. I certainly like to reminisce that show with ‘Sincerity’, a band that I was proud of.

Maarten Kinet, ‘Sincerity’ bassist

I believe that our singer Tom tooted along on a dilapidated clarion during a song and that our bassist put on a blond wig for the occasion… The usual ‘F.O.D.’ silliness.

Peter Staelens, ‘F.O.D.’ guitarist

I’m almost certain that we [Fanta’s Farm] didn’t play…

Korneel Barbry

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

99-06-25&26&27 10 years Vort’n Vis

If my memory serves me right the very first gig at the Vort’n Vis was on 89-07-09. To celebrate this the autonomous centre served it’s audience a mix of touring and local (H8000 and other) bands; plus drinks at the price of 10 years before…

For full posts on the bands that were playing: click below…

25 jun ’99: Standing (Can), 8 Days Of Nothing (Swe), Shank (UK), Hernandez (UK), Lifecycle (Bel)

26 jun ’99: Faroutski (Bel), The Lovehandles (Bel)

27 jun ’99: Shai Hulud (USA), Intensity (Swe), Hebriana (Bel), Clouded (Bel), Alignment (Bel)

For some more history:

Vort’n Vis genesis

20 (+) years Vort’n Vis

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

99-11-27 Congress – Solid – Lifecycle – Striker – Kalashnikov – New Innocence – Archaï

2 more “brand-new” bands were announced. On the poster there were 3 extra. The person who organised this was ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke).

H8000 metalcore band ‘Striker’ consisted of Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; ex ‘Sorehead, R.I.P.), ‘Gerre’ Gerald Goedhart (guitar; later ‘Core of Anger’), ‘Tomme’ Tom Bordeaux (guitar; later ‘One Outta Six’), PJ Vandamme (bass; later guitarist of ‘Retaliate’) & David ‘Terre’ Termote (drums). They released a demo entitled High Hopes For Nothing in 1999. I believe they had already played the V.V. on 98-04-11 and came over a few times more…

‘Solid’ had already played the V.V. 95-08-18 with Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf (guitar) and Frederik Denolf (drums), Kris Casier (bass) and ‘Sid’ Giovanni Debruyne (vocals). Their CD Darkside Moments (released in ’97 by the Danish label Diehard Music Worldwide) was recorded with Jim (from Limburg) singing. It was described as death-metal. I believe at some point they also had ‘Wulf’, ‘Deformity’s bassist, doing vocals. ‘Sid’ returned to the band after the turn of the century…

Being a local band ‘Lifecycle’ played the V.V. quite a few times (97-06-27 / 98-05-10 /98-08 / 99-06-25 / 99-10-31). They had quite a few different drummers and bassists over the years. Sofie Vantomme was the steady vocalist by then and together with guitarists Karel Deweerdt & Steve Noyelle she formed the core of the band.

‘Congress’ recorded Angry With The Sun (released in ‘98) with Michael Pintelon as second guitarist. Stake Through The Heart (2000) was with Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (bass; ‘Natural Order’), Pedro Fioen (2^nd guitar; ‘Spineless’) and Tom Claus (vocals; ‘Family Of Dog’ – he played the first time live with Congress on the GoodLife Fest in July 2000). The split-CD with ‘Mindsnare’ (99) featured the original line-up (UxJx – Ilja – ‘Josh’ – Pierre).

‘Kalashnikov’ was a “H8000 metalcore” band from Diksmuide.

All I know about ‘Archaï’ is that they were featured on the Overdrive 20 Year Tribute Compilation (Midas productions 2002). Metal, I guess… The poster mentions they were from the H8000 area.

‘New Innocence’… anyone?

Brob

Jim was the 2^nd singer of ‘Solid’. Actually not a story to be proud of… We got the offer from the guy of the studio where all H8000 bands were reording (Tony [De Block] of Midas studios). He asked us if we were interested in releasing our first full CD on a sub-label of Nuclear Blast called Diehard (from Denemark), who had already approached ‘Liar’ before (but they didn’t do it). When they did the proposal to us, we were promised a decent promotion, wide distribution, a big studio-budget, etc. so of course we were impressed. When the recordings were finished the boss of the label didn’t approve of the vocals: if we weren’t going to do anything about it, the CD wasn’t goinng to be released. Then we chose for Jim, a guy from the Limburg scene who was touring with ‘Shaft’ as a roadie. The vocals for all songs were re-recorded and the CD got released: Darkside Moments. Jim was studying psychology in Gent so we would rehearse in West-Flanders. When he his studies didn’t work out, it became impossible to rehearse (him living on the other side of the country). So that ended. We continued ‘Solid’ with ‘Deformity’s bassist ‘Wulf’ [Kristof Dewulf] doing vocals and a second full CD was recorded. The guy of Midas studios was gonna release it himself but he suddenly blew the deal and ‘Solid’ broke up. Later we re-started the band with our original singer Sid and released that CD Total Rush on a hardcore label (RPP, Released Power Productions, ran by Alain [Herszaft] (singer of ‘Out For Blood’ [and of ‘Mental Disturbance’ in the 80s] from Brussels). That CD has 5 new songs who sounded ‘stoner meets New York hardcore’. Quite a lot of gigs followed but we had to quit after a year (because of my hearing-problems after 15 years without earplugs in front of loud amps). When I got used to playing with professional earplugs, we started ‘Blood Redemption’…

Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf

‘Kalashnikov’ was started around 1995 by 4 schoolmates (Thijs Plovie – guitar, Dave Willaert – bass, Bart Gouwy – drums, Tom Verheecke – vocals), influenced by H8000-bands. A few months later we did our first gig supporting ‘Jigsaw’ and ‘Congress’ at the 4AD (Diksmuide). The following years we played together with bands such as ‘Congress’, ‘Liar’, ‘Vitality’, ‘Solid’,’ Sektor’, etc. At the Langemark Hardcore event in 1998 we got to know ‘Lorre’ of ‘Sorehead’ and ended up at the Vort’n Vis. A small venue and a super-enthusiastic audience, that’s what we remember. ‘Lorre’ sang along during our cover of ‘Liar’s Blade and there was some serious mosging going on (on stage and in the pit). ‘Striker’, ‘Lifecycle’ and ‘Solid’ also played, but ‘Congress’ ruled that day! We returned to the V.V. 2000-09-16. because we were still young and didn’t have a driver’s licence, we never made it to the Vort’n Vis to see other bands.

Thijs Plovie

‘Archaï’ evolved from ‘Minotaur’ (which was actually started as a metalcore band but went on to play more ‘real’ metal). There was’t actually 100% agreement about that within the band and that resulted in a kind of lack of direction aan richting in the end we quit. Soon after we started ‘Archaï’: the drummer, guitarist & bassist of ‘Minotaur’, guitarist of ‘Inside’ and female vocals. Metalcore was the intention. ;-)

Jeroen Algoet, ‘Minotaur’ & ‘Archaï’ drummer

Thomas Maeseele was the bassist of ‘Archaï’. I sometimes replaced him but I never played the V.V. with them.

Bram Algoet, guitarist of ‘Minotaur’, (occasionally) ‘Archaï’ & ‘The Curse’

Bram Algoet wasn’t part of ‘Archaï’ [He says he was an occasional stand-in.]; that was Brecht Algoet (guitar), Jeroen Algoet (drums), Liesbeth Meyfroid (vocals), Helmert Decavele (bass) & Dimitri Declerq (guitar).

I believe Bram is mixing things up (possibly with ‘The Seven Ride’); there were a lot of side-projects going on. My dad was janitor at the local primary school and many a band used its old garage: ‘Archaï’, ‘Minotaur’, ‘Inside’, ‘Powers Of Discipline’, ‘The Seven Ride’, projects with ‘Ringo’ & ‘Herre’ (Christophe Herreman). I believe the basis of ‘Amen-Ra’ was also laid there…

Helmert Decavele

 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!…

2000-07-16 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!…