98-04-26 Sektor – Spineless – Canvas – Arkangel – Natural Order – Outcast – Belief

This one was announced as a presentation for the new ‘Spineless’ album (A Talk Between Me And The Stars), released by SoberMind recs (Hans Verbeke)… but Roland Frey might have taken care of some of the organisation… Their Painfields CD had also been wellcomed with a release-party (97-06-27)

‘Canvas’, a noiseHCdeathmetal band from Leeds, were Andy Sutcliffe (guitar), Dan Kearns (drums), Gareth ‘Gaz’ Brown (bass), John Sutcliffe (vocals) and Karl Fieldhouse (guitar; later ‘Born From Pain’). They did 2 split-EPs in 1999 – with ‘John Holmes’ (on Devil Rock) & with ‘Hard To Swallow’ ‎(Contrition recs), and 2 albums on Household Name recs: a self-titled one (‘98) & Lost In Rock (2000). The music of the latter was described as “psychedelic rock/metal with electronics, synthesizers, effects, soundscapes; an unpredictable musical experience”.

‘Arkangel’ were/are a metalcore band from Brussels. The line-up in the beginning was Baldur Vilmurdarsson (vocals), David Vande Zande (drums), Numa (guitar) and Vince(nt) Messeuw (bass; ex ‘Out For Blood’; later replaced by Mehdi Thepegnier). Guitarists Julien Chanut & Michel Kirby (ex ‘Mental Disturbance’ & ‘Deviate’) would join after the turn of the century. Alain Herszaft did a miniCD (Prayers Upon Deaf Ears) on his label Released Power Productions (’98) and their LP Dead Man Walking would appear on GoodLife recs (’99). They were invited to play on the fest the next year (99-08).

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96 and came back a few times. 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 in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) they did the Painfields 7” (‘97) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (‘98) – an album inspired by their “near-dead-experience’ (car-crash on tour) – for Sober Mind recs.

‘Belief’ (Liège) wasn’t on the poster but the V.V. notes mention them playing. This was a metalcore band with – at that time – Pierre Boudry (vocals), Tito ‘Fury’ (guitar; vocalist of ‘Surge Of Fury’), Jef(f) Pauly (drums) & Ange Koetz (bass).

The ‘Sektor’ line-up had changed by then (since early ’98)… ‘Lenny’ had taken over vocals from Jeroen Therry. Wesley Bral replaced Piet Cardoen. A guy named Ringo played bass (later ‘Wulf’ Kristof Dewulf of ‘Deformity’). Drummer Bert Guillemont (also ‘Liar’) and guitarist Vadim Vandekerckhove stayed put.

‘Natural Order’ had already played here (97-10-12). They were a vegan sXe hardcore / hardline band (“violent dancers and pro-life” as someone described them once) with Roland, the brother of Cindy Frey (Hans’ girlfriend at that time) singing, hence their track on Animal Truth’s Animal Rights Benefit Sampler (out on Sober Mind recs in ‘98). The others were guitarists Pedro Fioen (also ‘Spineless’) & ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (also ‘Sektor’), bassist Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (also ‘Congress’) and the drummer of ‘Spineless’ (Stefaan Buyse), I believe.

‘Outcast’ (from the Gullegem/Kortrijk area) started out as “a heavy NY-styled mosh-band”. Also dubbed as “deathcore” or “tuff guy hardcore death-metal mosh” (in 1997). They used to be an all straight-edge band. Their guitar-player also played bass in ‘Sektor’ (Wesley Bral – also played the bass in ‘Strong Individual’, together with ‘Sektor’s Lenny & Bert, and Outcast’ vocalist Gerrit). I believe their line-up here was Tim Vanglabeke & Wesley Bral (guitar), Nick Vanglabeke (drums), Nico Degroote (bass) and Gerrit ‘Gerre’ Van Horebeek (vocals; quit halfway ’99; replaced by Pieter Vanham). Read Tim’s comment below. They also played the V.V. on 2000-09-16.

Brob

‘Outcast’s first line-up was with Nico Degroote op bass (also played with us in ‘Whatever It Takes’). The vocalist and bassist changed a few times and we also had a couple of 2nd guitarists. Our first Vort’n Vis “show” was in the rehearsal-space upstairs, with ‘D.S.A’ & ‘Spineless’. In ‘98 this had to be one of our first shows with Wesley. Gerrit quit halfway ’99; later Pieter Vanham did vocals…

The line-up here was Tim Vanglabeke (guitar), Nick Vanglabeke (drums), Nico Degroote (bass) and Gerrit Hannicar (vocals). Wesley joined later as 2nd guitarist.

‘Outcast’ original line-up (courtesy of Tim V.)

We were the first band in the H8000 area that played slow slam HC-style… We were, because of circumstances, an sXe band: Gerrit and myself used dope when were younger and decided to become clean. So we ended up with SoberMind but a few months later we already dropped the X’s and our record was never released. We did a second demo instead.

‘Natural Order’ started after they’d seen us play in Kortrijk. The slow-paced bands emerged like mushrooms. We already had ‘Sightless’ in ‘95, later ‘Ignorance’, ‘Stronghold’ and that became ‘Outcast’. I also played in ‘Strong Individual’…

Tim Vanglabeke

I only played one show with ‘Outcast’… Not this one here…

Gerrit Van Horebeek

Jeroen was in the band until end ’98. We still did a 97-98 winter-tour with him Jeroen. The people in the guestbook were myself, Wesley, Vadim, Bert & Ringo (don’t know his full name)…

Wouter Cael, ‘Sektor’

I used to drive bands around in ‘Doom’s van. I drove the band ‘Canvas’ from Leeds round Europe. They played a straight-edge gig at the Vort’n Vis. I felt very intimidated and fucking hated all that hardline shit. I couldn’t believe the stupid violent karate dancing. Some young girl got accidentally kicked in the face and they all thought it was hilarious. Needless to say I sat outside for most of it and got drunk on lovely Belgian beer.

Brian Talbot

We played in Belgium a couple of times with ‘Canvas’. [Brob: I only know of GoodLife Fest 98-12-31] My memory is fuzzy, to say the least…

Karl Fieldhouse

We played the V.V. a number of times.The first time there we were really impressed with how the scene was compared to the UK. There were some really strong Belgian bands at the time. We nearly recorded something for GoodLife but for some reason it all fell through… After a while we became a bit more technical but the kids weren’t that into it as they all just wanted to do that generic hardcore dancing and show-off pit-moves that I believe still goes on today… As time went on the UK scene got a lot better and the bands were much more varied and by the time we were ready to come back over to play one last V.V. show, we broke up! Happy memories of watching ‘Regression’ and ‘Convinced’ and ‘Deformity’ etc. in the sun. Got to meet and hang out with some really awesome people.

John Sutcliffe, ‘Canvas’

We had a second guitar-player later… I just remember ‘Arkangel’ was playing that show; for the rest it’s too long ago, just that it was a sunny Sunday.

Tito ‘Fury’

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

“windmills are fun; a boot in your face aswell”

additions wellcome!…

99-08-21 Ochtenddauw – H-Street – Stroke Of Grace – Redemption – Ananda – Sabeth – Product – Mörser – Reveal – Spineless – Bloodpact – Thumbs Down – Pray Silent – Ensign

Introduction => 99-08-20&21&22 Ieper HC festival

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

(1) Overall, the second day announced to be more metal/old-school HC and it needs to be said, the least enticing. I’ll remember however some likeable stuff such as ‘Reveal’ and their wild cover of ‘Inside Out’s No Spiritual Surrender, ‘Lifecycle’ [???] and their SxE hard-rock, ‘Bloodpact’ for the very militant side, ‘Ananda’ and their chaotic metal or ‘Mörser’ for the impressing aspect (3 singers, bassists) more than for the music. Big disappointment was ‘Sabeth’ who seem to want to be early ‘Helmet’ without getting anywhere much because of an incredibly monotonous voice. As for ‘Ensign’: they quickly tired me despite the giant mosh-pit in the audience during a song.

(2) On Saturday the festival started with a band of local heroes, with little importance, that allowed me to finish my night. I arrived on the site for ‘H Street’, who made a good impression. I took advantage of the next bands to replace Laurent at the distro (Sell or die!) and make a tour of the record-fair. This day only the performances of ‘Bloodpact’ (We can be old-school and committed, right Guy?) and ‘Ensign’ (boys-band on tour) challenged me.

(1&2) Determined to take advantage of this night, we took some precautions (earplugs,…) but unfortunately the Belgian summer-nights don’t resemble nights of Ibiza, so we found ourselves victims of a chill we rarely experience in the East. Laurent managed to sleep an hour, Olivier none. Once out of the tent, surprise, the Belgian army paraded outside of the camping-site, determined to recruit two or three depressed vegan warriors who were looking for a new home since hardline stopped. In addition the soldiers organized their own festival in the camping-site. What a contrast to the troops heading for the Vort’n Vis.

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‘Ochtenddauw’ – “H8000 twisted power Metal.”. A local band (from Ieper; they rehearsed at the V.V.) with Wouter Keirse (guitar; keyboards in ‘Eclipse’, guitarist of ‘Warcraft’), Vince(nt) Tetaert (guitar; drummer of ‘Lifecycle; also in ‘Alignment’), Peter Leuwers (bass; also in ‘Lifecycle’), Ward Spruytte (drums; also guitar in ‘Solid’) & Steve Lammertyn (vocals). They had a demo out that year.

‘H-Street’ – “Snotty old school, start piling up now!”. SxE band from Vienna, Austria with Dan(iel) ‘El Toro’ Braaf (guitar), Thomas ‘Tom’ Krutzler (vocals), Mario Schöbinger (bass), Rob(ert) (drums) and Georg Ondrak (guitar). They did a demo (’98) and a self-titled 7” (’99). They got a massive response for covering ‘Token Entry’s The Edge here…

‘H-Street’ (photo by Marco Pasini)

‘Stroke Of Grace’ – “Limburg softcore! Great riffing!!”. Band from Belgian Limburg playing “pretty original and diverse metallic emo-core” with references to ‘Refused’ or ‘Abhinanda’: Stijn Vliegen (vocals), Jurgen Werelds (guitar), Steven Duchateau (guitar), Manu Fredericks (bass) and Luc Nicolaers (drums). Their CD The Body, The Soul, The Spirit was released in ‘98 (Flying World recs). They were also on some compilations.

‘Stroke Of Grace’ (photos courtesy of Stijn Vliegen)

‘Redemption’ – “Vegan metal mosh – split mCD presentation.”. From the “Roma Straight Edge Legion”. A band that was compared to ‘Catharsis’. They did a self-titled 7” & a mini-DC (Until The Next Day) on Surrounded recs (Maurizio Ricci’s label) in ’97 & ‘98, and a split-mCD with ‘Timebomb’ out on War.ds (’99). ‘Gipsy Rufina’ (Emiliano) was the “founder and everlasting member of the band”. The members were Liv Cosentini (guitar), Pierpaolo Perilli (vocals), Simone Achille (guitar), Dario (drums) & Emiliano Liberali (bass).

‘Ananda’ – “Terrifying metallic HC, sort of ‘Acme’ meets ‘Carcass’.” had already played at the V.V. on 95-07-02 & 96-09-22. They switched vocalists in 1998 which “marked a drastic change in their sound from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”: Michaël joined in December ’97. Their Profane LP (2000) co-released by Snuff recs (Didier Severin & Roderic Mounir of the band ‘Knut’, Genève) and Molaire Industries (label run by Fabien Thévenot of ‘Iscariote’). Members were Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass), Jérôme Mizou (drums), Michaël Clergeot (‘Mikachu’; vocals) and guitarists Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) & Thomas ‘Tom’ Guillanton (ex ‘Fingerprint’/’Jasmine’).

‘Ananda’ (courtesy of Vincent de Roguin)

‘Sabeth’ – “Turbo stuff, like ‘Helmet’ meets ‘Botch’?”. Band from Böblingen, South Germany with Carsten Pflugbeil (bass), Felix Böhlken (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Dawnbreed’), Thomas Hahn (guitar; nowadays Thomas Harsem, producer) and Steffen Falcke (drums). Marten Thielges was only on their debut. They did their first (self-titled) 7” themselves (’96). Their next releases were on Marco Walzel’s Join The Team Player recs: the Zwei 7” (’98) and the Cobrajet LP (’99).

‘Product – “Rapid old school by really dedicated people.”. Italian poison-free (vegan SxE) band from the Milano area. Stefano Bertelli (guitar; was in ‘By All Means’ – but not when they played the V.V. in 95-08-20), Stefano Milani (bass), Chris(tian) Paracchini (drums), Dan(iele) Casti (vocals) & (Pier)Paolo Bruschi (guitar). Green recs put out their Dedication 7” (‘98) & Not An Answer 7” (’99). A 7” (Watch Your Step) came out on Genet recs (’99), together with New Type Crew (a mCD version of the 7” containing bonus-tracks previously released on their 1^st 7”).

‘Product’ (courtesy of the band’s fanpage)

‘Mörser’ from Bremen were not announced; apparently they replaced ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, who had split up. They played diabolic ultra-fast death/grind with 3-4 singers, 2 bassists, guitarist & drummer. At that time (I think): André Wendelken (drums; also ‘Carol’, etc.), Sven ‘Svenion’ Nienaber (guitar; also ‘Minion’, etc.), Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne (bass; also ‘Carol’, etc.), Sven Seelkopf (bass; also ‘Metöke’, ‘Systral’), Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’ & ‘Systral’, etc.), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Systral’), Daniel ‘Grabi’ Grabowski (vocals; also bass in ‘Assay’, ‘Rusty James’) & Ulf ? (vocals). At that time they had an LP (Two Hours To Doom, ’97) out, and a split-7” with ‘The Swarm’ (’98) on Markus Haas’ Per Koro.

‘Mörser’: (1) Sven Seelkopf [taken from Bords Perdu fanzine] – (2) Sven Nienaber [courtesy of Sven]

‘Reveal’ – “Emo-metal, ‘Unbroken’ meets ‘Converge’?”. Another GoodLife – Genet recs band: Dissection Of Thought EP (GL 97), Through The Eye Of Perfection Evolution Dies Slowly CD (GL 98) & To Explore The Invention To Create CD (Genet 2000). Maarten van Oers (drums), Mischa van Rodijnen (guitar), Geert van Hoesel (vocals) & Dave van Beek (bass) were from Dongen (near Breda, NL).

‘Reveal’ (pic by Peter Hendricks) [drumset switched around so one can see the crowd]

‘Spineless’ – “Emo-metal, H8000 rocker-jacks! Last show?”. This band (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 in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). Their music was brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans Verbeke of Sober Mind recs released the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998). The band played the V.V. quite a few times. After Spineless ended in 1999, 3 members started a new band called AmenRa, which is still going nowadays.

‘Bloodpact’ (USA) were described as “old-school feat. ‘Earthmover’ & ‘Trephine’ members” or “political pissed-off hardcore”. They were from Ann Arbor/Detroit (Michigan): Andy Dempz (vocals; +/- recs, ex ‘Earthmover’, also in ‘Ruination’), Annie Sullivan (bass), Dustin Schoenhofer [see below] or Adam Arola (drums), John Skinner (guitar). At the time of this tour they had a split-LP (with ‘Varisty’; on +/-) and a 7” (As Good As Dead; on Element recs) out. Later they would release some stuff on Reflection recs and on Genet recs.

‘Thumbs Down’ – “Belgium’s old school HC pride.”. ‘This band (from Antwerp) played “youth crew hardcore”. They’d played at the Vort’n Vis before (97-08-16, 98-05-10 & 98-08-15): Roeland (De Keulenaer?) (bass; or was he already replaced by Andries Beckers?), Ken or his replacement Benjamin Buschgens? (drums), Raf(aël) Balrak (guitar) and Steven Tuffin (vocals). They were signed to Genet recs (Going For Gold 7” – with bassplayer Roeland – in ’97, No Retreat No Surrender 7” and Crossroads LP in ’99).

‘Pray Silent’ – “Clevo style HC – LP/CD presentation.”. A Swiss (from Sankt-Gallen) vegan straight-edge band (metal-core) signed to Bruno VdV’s Genet recs. They’d played the fest the year before aswell (98-08-15). The band consisted of Andi/y Grob (guitar), Attila Varga (vocals), Etienne Geyer (guitar), Philipp Zimmerman (bass) and Roger Cadalbert (drums). They were compared with H8000 in ads…

‘Ensign’ (courtesy of the band’s fanpage)

‘Ensign’ – “Topclass old school, back after touring with ‘S.O.I.A.’!”. Hardcore punk band from New Jersey. Nathan Gluck (bass; replaced Walter Svekla), Ryan Donoghue (guitar; replaced John Fraunberger), Ryan Murphy (drums; ex ‘Undertow’; replaced Chris(topher) Ross) and Tim(othy) Shaw (vocals). Early on they were signed to Dave Mandel’s label, Indecision recs. They came back the next year (2000-08-18)…

Brob

For us it was the hugest audience we have ever played. It was a pleasure for us to play there. I think it was the biggest HC festival in Europe and everybody was there. I am not involved in the HC-scene anymore but I think about the gig in Ieper very often. I loved it.

Carsten Pflugbeil, ‘Sabeth’ bassist

I was at the ‘Ieperfest’ as a stage-hand ‘for Sabeth’…

Johannes Schreiber, ‘My Hero Died Today’

Thomas Harsem had taken over guitar for me when I moved to ‘Dawnbreed’ (now ‘Monochrome’).

Marten Thielges, ‘Sabeth’

I have a couple of pictures and 2 videos (‘H-Street’ & ‘Mainstrike’) from that Ieperfest.

Danny Braaf, ‘H-Street’ guitarist

That was an amazing gig!!! We came over from Bremen only for that night. I think we’d just come back from our US tour a few days before. So it wasn’t sure we could make it over to this festival. The organiser decided to put us on the running-order as a secret special headliner. We played before ‘True Blue’ I think. [These played the next day.] Even most people of the festival-team didn’t know we were the ‘special guests’. When we got on stage there were already rumours running through the crowd and a lots of people were already standing waiting up-front. And a lot of people surrounded us on stage (as you can see on photo). After the show we met some guy of ‘As Friends Rust’ in the backstage-kitchen. He was totally sad about missing us because he was informed too late were playing (he was on the camping-area). At that time ‘Mörser was: André – drums, Sven – bass, ‘Matze’ – bass; ‘Svenion’ – guitar, Daniel ‘Grabi’ – vox, Björn – vox, Denny – vox.

Ulf had left the band earlier to move to Berlin. Hajo (short for Hans-Joachim) was the guitarplayer of ‘Carol’ and ‘Rusty James’. There were much more bands we all played in but not every band released something.

Sven Nienaber, ‘Mörser’ guitarist

One of the Top 5 shows in 20 years.

Sven Seelkopf, ‘Mörser’ bassist

I believe we opened on Friday??? This was something we’d been looking forward to for a long time. I’d been visiting the fest for several years. That weekend some of my favourite bands were on the bill (‘As Friends Rust’, ‘Hot Water Music’, ‘JR Ewing’, ‘Reveal’, …). Some of them played in Tongeren (Pumpkeskal) aswell. There were quite some people from the beginning of our set; one of the biggest crowds we had. It didn’t go smoothly though: because of nerves and the over-enthousiasm, I myself as singer was the cause that the lead-gitaar was out of tune from the first note on. That wasn’t very helpful to calm us down :-). In the end it mustn’t have been that bad because Bruno [Genet recs] asked us that very day if we could play at the Frontline together with ‘The Get Up Kids’ a few days later. I still have the live recordings of our set somewhere. Apparently all bands were recorded. What also stuck, is the fact that is everything was so well organised. We didn’t have to ask anything: everything was made clear to us from our arrival. Something we didn’t anymore later on. ‘Ieperfest’ was a starting-point for ‘Stroke of Grace’. That was because of the international character of the fest. Because of that we got the opportunity to play a number of shows in Germany.

Stijn Vliegen, ‘Stroke Of Grace’ vocalist

Always loved playing at the V.V.! A personal highlight will always be ‘IeperFest’ [not yet that name] 1999, I think it was. Where we had the hugest circle-pit I’ve ever seen!!!

Nathan Gluck, ‘Ensign’ bassist

Hey, I did play in ‘Ensign’, was one of the original members, but left the band in 1996 or 97 before they toured Europe. Tim and Nate were definitely in the band. Not sure if Chris Ross was still drumming or not at that point. John F had been playing guitar but was probably out. I think I saw them in Seattle in 99 or thereabouts…

Walter Svekla

I did not play with ‘Bloodpact’ in Europe.

Dustin Schoenhofer

additions wellcome!…

98-08-15 Sad Origin – Highscore – Opposite Force – Pray Silent – Clouded – Seein’Red – Spineless – Thumbs Down – Facedown – Earthmover

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): >>Saturday I saw two or three songs by ‘Sad Origin’ who played trite and uninteresting metal. Then the Germans of ‘Highscore’ impressed me with their very successful old-school HC (Olivier would have loved it!), ‘Seein’Red’ didn’t disappoint me musically but also attitude-wise (long explanations between the songs): fantastic! ‘Spineless’ with their unconvincing death-metal, ‘Facedown’ and their personal, technical HC gave a good concert in front of an active and convinced public, and finally ‘Earthmover’ who’d listened and looked too much at ‘Earth Crisis’… a pale copy.<<

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‘Sad Origin’ (from Dendermonde) played metal-core with NYHC influences (style: ‘Facedown’, ‘Chokehold’, ‘Strife’). The line-up was Peter De Bondt (bass), Wim Aerts (drums), Wes(ley) Steels (guitar) & Hans ‘Link’ Teirlinck (vocals). In 1997 they did a first demo Sober & Clean. Window Of Sarcasm (self-releases on Inner Belt recs) followed in 1998. Genet recs would release the LP A Double Edged Sword In A Triangle Of Emotions (reviewed in On Display #3 as “bad death-metal”) in  1999 (presented on the Fest of that year). Alain Herszaft put out the split-CD with ‘Misura’ on Released Power Productions in 2000.

‘Highscore’ were from Münster/Göttingen/Berlin and played energetic and intense old-school SExHC (sometimes compared to ‘Minor Threat’ or ‘Uniform Choice’). Guitarist Jobst Eggert (had been at the V.V. with his old band ‘Peace Of Mind’ on 94-11-05 & 95-03-25); the others were Sebastian Stronzik (vocals; later ‘Short Fuse’), Matthias Volke (guitar), Matthias Borgmann (bass; Chris Fold according the guestbook) and Volker Schlüter (drums). That year they released a demo (It’s For Real) and a self-titled 7” on Sebastian’s label La Familia.

‘Highscore’ (photo by Vincent Troplain)

‘Opposite Force’, a vegan SxE band from Rome, played “tough as hell in-your-face old school hardcore”. After a demo (’93), they had done an LP entitled Near on Vacation House recs (label of Rudy Medea, the singer of ‘Indigesti’) in 1994. Their LP History As We Lived It was released by Genet recs in 1999. Performing on that record were Andrea ‘Monster’ Campanelli (guitar), Cristiano Suriano (drums; also ‘Timebomb’), Marco Ciccone (bass; also ‘Timebomb’) and Simone Tripodi (vocals).

‘Pray Silent’ was a vegan straight-edge metalcore band from Switzerland (Sankt-Gallen) who released records on Genet recs (The Golden Flag 7” in ’97 and a split-7” with ‘Andromeda’ in ’99). The people in the band: Andi Grob (guitar), Attila Varga (vocals), Etienne Geyer (guitar; ex ‘Cwill’), Philipp Zimmerman (bass; replaced Jan) & Roger Cadalbert (drums). They came back the next year…

‘Pray Silent’ (photographed by Patrick Federli)

‘Clouded’ (from Kontich) were: Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals; also did Paradise Regained zine), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) & Wout Bosschaert (guitar). Their 7” Inheritance was done by Genet recs (’98).

‘Clouded’ (courtesy of Steven Anthonis)

1998 was the year of the split-releases for ‘Seein’Red’: they did an LP with ‘MK Ultra’ (recorded October 1997) and with one with ‘The Judas Iscariot’ (recorded April 1998), both released on Coalition recs (Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef & Marcel Palyama). No further introduction for the band necessary I guess… Jos & the brothers had been here already a bunch of times (90-09-15, 95-04-28, 97-03-01)…

‘Seein’Red’ (pictures taken by Vincent Troplain & Philippe Tuffet)

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96 (96-08-18). They band consisted of 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 in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans Verbeke of Sober Mind recs released the Painfields 7” (1997) and the album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998) – inspired by their “near-dead-experience” (car-crash on tour)… There’s a video them playing their song Exalt The New God here…

‘Thumbs Down’ (Antwerp) played “youth crew hardcore”. They were Andries Beckers (bass; later ‘Diablo Boulevard’; or was it still Roeland De Keulenaer?), Ken (drums; from ’99 on 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 played the fest the year before (97-08-16) and earlier that year (98-05-10).

‘Thumbs Down’ (shot by Vincent Troplain & Philippe Tuffet)

‘Facedown’ had been playing at the V.V. various times (96-08-16, 97-08-15 & 97-10-12). The ‘new-school’ (metal-influenced) vegan SE-HC band from Kontich consisted of: Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). Genet recs released the Beyond All Horizons album earlier that year and the Education, Contemplation, Dedication EP in ’99. They changed their name to ‘Calibre’ when they got a record-deal with a major label (Warner Music).

‘Facedown’ (pic by Steve Lammertyn)

‘Earthmover’ (from Detroit) played pounding metal-core and were Andy Dempz (guitar; owner of Ann Arbor based hardcore/punk label +/- recs), Mike Hasty (guitar; also ‘Walls Of Jericho’), Wes Keely (drums; ex ‘Walls Of Jericho’), Chris(tian) Mueller (bass; replaced Nick Bristow), Jason/Jay Clifton (drums) and Len Adams (vocals). Releases: Abuse (7” on Autonomy recs ’95), Themes From Everyday Life (10” on +/- recs ’96), split-7” with ‘Facedown’ (Moo Cow recs ’97) and Death Carved In Every Word (LP on Genet recs ’98).

‘Earthmover’ (photo by Patrick Federli)

Brob

I liked the atmoshere at the festival. Ieper seemed occupied by (straight-edge) HC troops, and the streets surrounding the venue seemed like they were ours, haha. Until today this is my best moment on stage. Memorable line-up too. A quite unique registration of Members Of Futility: the only time we played that song live. Heydays of 90s metalcore. It gives me a lot of pleasure that influences of that 90s metalcore are emerging again with new and old bands. With my new band ‘Royal Jake’ we try to keep doing similar things. Our EP definitely has a number of musical references to my time in ‘S.O.’

Peter De Bondt, ‘Sad Origin’ bassist

Oh yeah! I remember very well. That was the first hardcore show that size any of us had ever seen/been a part of. Usually there maybe a few hundred people losing their minds. This place was packed with over 3.000 people ready to go! You could feel the place about to explode. We only had a few minutes to frantically get our gear up before we played, everything was a mess. The stage was all the way at the back, we had to plow through all 3.000+ people just to get to the stage. It was all a mess, but absolutely glorious at the same time.

Chris Mueller was not in ‘Earthmover’ at that time. That was where I came in. I joined ‘Earthmover’ for that tour, played with them for their duration. Then we started ‘Walls Of Jericho’ out of the ashes…

Aaron Ruby

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-08-15 Abhinanda – Veil – Facedown – Spineless – Reiziger – Endstand – Clouded – Purification – Instinct

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

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

‘Instinct’ was a – “positive old-school” (Steve Noyelle’s words) – band with people from my hometown Tielt (and Deinze). Alex Dierickx & Thomas Hauttekeete played guitar, Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes sang (was also in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’, later ‘The Deal’ & ‘Rise And Fall’), Pedro Tallieu did the bass and the drummer was Tuur Delodder. They’d played the V.V. before (probably a few times that year: 97-03-01, 97-06-27 & 97-07-12)… They did a 7” on Marc Decaigny’s label Braveheart recs, entitled Friendship, A Lifetime Commitment (release-party 98-04-18).

On the internet (the German Outspoken forum – outspoken.de) one could read “In 1997 Purification made it to the most important European hardcore festival of those days, the Vort’n Vis fest in Ieper (Belgium).”.

‘Purification’ was a Roman vegan sXe metal-core band and they were inspired by (hardline and pro-life bands) ‘Vegan Reich’ & ‘Earth Crisis’, and influenced by American Straight-Edge. The members were: ‘Puritan’ Maurizio ‘Er Vegano’ Ricci (vocals on the demo and here aswell) – later Matteo ‘Cumenda’ Ferrari (‘P Bird’ or ‘Caustic Bird’, switched from bass – which he played here – to vocals), Andrea ‘Monster’ Campanelli (guitar; later together with Emiliano ‘Er Frusinate’ De Santis), Fabio ‘Kappa’ Cappabianca (drums; Demian Campora informed me he wasn’t in the band at that time). They did a demo in 1996 entitled Arkangel. The Vessel Of Wrath 7” was released on Maurizio Ricci’s label Surrounded recs (xCatalystx recs in the US) in 1998. They also had a track on the Animal Truth compilation that SoberMind recs did. Hans also released their 1996-2000 compilation-CD in 2001.

Barricada #2: “I was really curious about ‘Purification’ because their demo is really good. But I was surprised when the new songs turned out even better than those on the tape. A sympathetic band that talked a lot about veganism and ecology. They also played an ‘Earth Crisis’ cover, The Order That Shall (from the compilation Stones To Mark A Fire). Their performance may have taken a wrong turn with the infernal dancing of the Italian fans, but otherwise I was content.”

‘Purification’; courtesy of Adam Malik

‘Clouded’ was a “new-school” metal-core band from Antwerp (Kontich) with Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) and Wout Bosschaert (guitar; he replaced Kurt). They started rehearsing November ’96 and did their first show March ’97. The 7” Inheritance was released by Genet recs in ‘98. They played a show at the V.V. pub (98-05-10) and also did the ’98 & ’99 fests.

‘Endstand’ was a HC/punk band from Riihimäki consisting of Jani Kivijärvi (drums), Janne Tamminen (vocals), Joel (Asseri) Sipilä (bass) and Mika Kaukonen (guitar). They’d done a demo-tape (Fear Of Future) in ’96. A split-7” with the Swedish band ‘Outlast’ came out on Grey Days recs / Bridge Of Compassion (‘97). The same year as their Tolerance 7” (on Arto Savolainen’s label Rising Justice recs). The next years there was the Freedom mCD (’98, on Impression recs, the later Lifeforce recs) and a split mCD with ‘Aurinkokerho’ (Halla Julkaisut ‘99). Learn more about the band’s history from the documentary Fire Inside that is on the www.

Barricada #2: “I went to relax in the car when ‘Starmarket’ was supposed to play. About half an hour later I went to the hall and I was horrified: instead of the Swedes, ‘Endstand’s show was in full swing. I only saw the last 6 songs but these were full of energy, which was evidenced by the people piling up on stage. The guys in the band said it was their best concert ever.”

‘Endstand’; (1)&(2) from Hobson’s Choice #4 zine, (3) by JanCoert Toerse

‘Reiziger’ evolved from ‘Kosjer D’; their music was described as “post hardcore” and “emo-core”. 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). At this time I think they were about to release their 1^st (12”) EP Don’t Bind My Hands (Genet recs)… They’d just done an intimate show at the V.V. pub (97-06-14) and would return for the ’98 fest.

Barricada #2: “Things calmed down a bit with ‘Reizger’. Pleasantly affectionate emo!”

‘Reiziger’; pics courtesy of the band

‘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). Their music was brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans Verbeke of SoberMind recs released the Painfields 7”/mCD (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998).

Barricada #2: “After peace had filled our hearts, a more violent band came along. A very compact mix of HC and metal, in the vein of ‘Morning Again’. Their new MCD is very brutal.”

Not the first time for ‘Facedown’ (‘new-school’, metal-influenced, vegan SE-HC band from Kontich, near Antwerp) either… Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar) saw the Ferket brothers (Evil Twin recs) release their 7” Friendship Is Everything (recorded at Studio 195 in July 1996) but Bruno re-released it – with some additional tracks – on Genet recs this year… … The same for the split-7” with ‘Earthmover‎’ (on Moo Cow recs). “Powerful, brutal, moshing emo-core”…

Barricada #2: “Evening fell when ‘Facedown’ came up. They surprised us last year but now it was really worth checking them out. The whole hall rumbled when they played songs from their EP and also new ones that should appear on the new album. As a bonus, they added ‘Earth Crisis’ Firestorm – that was screamed along by all.”

‘Facedown’; by JanCoert Toerse

The 3^rd appearance (after 94-08-20 & 95-08-19) of the Swedish SxE band ‘Abhinanda’. In ‘96 they had released their self-titled CD. As Mel Hughes put it: “hardcore passion…metallic riffs speaking to you in poetic tones; fuelled by the power of ‘Verbal Assault’, ‘Shelter’ and ‘Inside Out’…”. It was recorded with José Saxlund (vocals), Pär Hansson (guitar; replacing Kris(tofer) ‘Stone’ Steen), Adam Nilsson (guitar), Mattias ‘Abris’ Abrahamsson (bass) & Daniel Berglund (drums; replacing Jonas Lyxzén). When they recorded in spring of ’98 for the album The Rumble, Niklas Rudolfsson played guitar instead of Adam. Niklas also played at this gig. Their set was recorded on video.

Barricada #2: “The Swedes appeared with a new guitarist and drummer. During the first riffs everything seemed calm but as soon as the singer started, a wave of people rose and made their way to the stage, striking the microphone. The musicians disappeared in the piles of people, sometimes the guitarist and the singer peeked over the heads of the crowd. They played songs from the last album but also old hits such as Senseless or Needle. All rocking and thrashing. The classic Let’s March! dragged some 100 people along. The best show of this Friday – as could be expected.”

‘Abhinanda’; (1) courtesy of Adam Malik, (2) by JanCoert Toerse

Two years after their first performance ‘Veil’ (from the Hannover area) returned. Jens Lauterbach (bass), Flo(rian) Schul (drums), Raoul Festante (vocals) and Nils Nordmann played metallic hardcore. In 1996 Ferry Krop (of ‘Crisis Of Society’) had released the 7” Time Will Tell (Threesome recs label) after he did their first self-titled one. The same year their LP The Burden Of Life was released (Frontline).

Barricada #2: “They arrived last minute. People were screaming along to their best songs, such as Everyday or Time Will Tell. But it seemed to me that ‘Veil’ gave a bit extra that evening.”

Brob

It sure was quite an experience to play this festival in Ieper and I have good memories about it.

Joel (Asseri) Sipilä; ‘Endstand’ bassist

We did play at the V.V. in ‘97 (when ‘Abhinanda’ played there as well)… Actually we arrived so late that they were forced to play before us, so we ended up being the headliners of that night… I remember that so well since we got out of the car (had an accident during the day which was a reason for the delay) after an 8 hour drive… When we finally arrived, we stretched out and and got right on stage. Holy moly! I’m pretty sure the first crowd-shot on the intro-page was during ‘Veil’s set.

Raoul Festante, ‘Veil’s vocalist

What I always remembered is the good atmosphere, the warm welcome by the audience. Not obvious at that time , ‘cause ‘Reiziger’ was not a typical hardcore-band.

Sven Gielen, ‘Reiziger’

Our record Our Kodo was just out then… I remember we were the ‘the odd one out’… Geert started our performance with “Hello, we’re ‘Reiziger’ and we’re gonna play half an hour of pop-music for you.”. It was a legendary gig, incredible ambience, very hot on stage, warm reactions afterward aswell. One can hear on the compilation that Bruno released, that Geert’s voice was broken…

Pascal Hens, ‘Reiziger’

I don’t remember that much gigs we played with ‘Clouded’. But the ones I will never forget are the shows at the Lintfabriek in Kontich (our second home) and at the Vort’n Vis festivals. I think we played there the last two times before the festival moved outside, to a much bigger location. We still played in the barn (no other way to call it), with sweat dripping of every wall, people diving from the ceiling-beams,… Chaos, but in a very contagious way. It was amazing to see how much people actually fit in that barn :-) … I remember being knocked out after our show – too many people, too much sweat, too little oxygen – but also kind of high on adrenaline at the same time. The Fest always had the most receptive and the most enthusiastic ‘crowd’. People were singing along with songs we played for the very first time. Songs that had no lyrics yet (I just shouted something). When ‘Kindred’ and ‘Culture’ played (my favorite bands back then), the barn just exploded.

I don’t know what it’s like nowadays, but back then all the bands (also the American ones) stayed at the same camping-site. We all hung out in the city and we played soccer together. I made friends in Ieper that I’m still in touch with 20 years later. Sweet memories.

Jeroen Verelst, ‘Clouded’ singer

What I particularly remember of that show is that we, being a young band, got a lot of support from the audience. Our song Positive Kids was enregistred that day and used for the H8000 sampler.

Alex Dierickx, ‘Instinct’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-18 Spineless – Resist The Pain – Stampin’ Ground – Vanilla – Approach To Concrete – Bruma – Separation – Swing Kids – With Love

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:

>>Last day already; it’s a pity so many people had to leave early, especially since it was the best of the 3 days! ‘Spineless’, just as their name suggests, played uneventful heavy metal. I can’t remember ‘Resist The Pain’ but I think it was just the same… ‘Stampin’ Ground (UK, ex ‘Neckbrace’) played good tight mosh-core. ‘Vanilla’ (France): I’ll never get into them, play boo-hoo style emo, but I think it got heavier than before. ‘Approach To Concrete’ were a good surprise, I thought they were on Lost&Found but I was wrong; they played very fast thrash-core with a couple moshy breaks, and they said many interesting things, I liked it a lot. ‘Bruma’ (Italy) were quite different from the other bands, they play ultra poppy punk with a female singer, I guess I kinda enjoyed it but it’s not the kind of music I’ld listen to all time long. ‘Separation’ were the best band of the fest (together with ‘Saidiwas’). They kicked ass! Just the right band to leave with a positive feeling. And positive was the word here: total old-school punk-ish HC; ‘7 Seconds’ and ‘Minor Threat’ covers, pogo-dance and stagedives all along hooray! I was disappointed by ‘Swing Kids’: I iked their 7” but they were way too emo here. OK, the drummer is good, but I got annoyed rapidly. And then ‘With Love’ (Italy) were added to the bill to close up the fest. Extremely powerful emo. Guess what: I enjoyed it, cool people, cool audience, cool music. Great! Just the kind of music I needed to hear before leaving all my friends… Conclusion: Basically none of the 30 bands that played said anything between songs, apart from “We have CDs for sale, they’re only 20$, it’s so damn cheap, you’ld have to pay 22$ if you’ld buy it from stores” or “We have DIY shirts for sale, we thought about a design and brought it ourselves to a multinational design-company who re-designed it, then we took the film and sent it to the printer ourselves and we chose the colour ourselves and when we got the shirts we sold half the copies ourselves (the other half going to bigger distribution, but we have to make sacrifices, ya know?) and we only charge 18$ each (plus taxes); man we’re so DIY, hardcore rules!”. The audience…well it’s either they kill each other during death-metal outfits or they stand still and apathetic during emo ones, there’s no middle ground. The only unity I could see was in the clothes style: they were ALL wearing baggy pants and chained wallets, how cool. The crowd was as dirty as ever. It’s so funny to see all those kids preaching out about respect for nature and our environment, and then when they leave the place it’s like there’s been a storm or something, it’s just filled with litter. But here again who cares? They’re not the ones who’re cleaning up… And tell me about greed and the consumist mentality of this society! Somenone brought some T-shirts next to my distribution-stall and the kids were literally walking over my zines in order to get the Victory shirt of their dreams. Ever saw kids slam-dance in front of a distro to get a bootleg 7”? We were not that far… Distributors? Well seems like no one had problems selling CDs for 16$ and EPs for 4$, but hey it’s a tough world and we all need to survive you know? Gotta save some money to keep the label going, and who’s gonna buy those baggy pants? Our parents are already paying for private schools and Marshall amplifiers, ya know?…. Anyway. Don’t wanna sound too negative here, I enjoyed the fest ’cause I met so many wonderful people, and Ieper is a very pleasant town too…<<

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on this fest. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Koen Sandra (guitar; replaced by Mathieu Vandekerckhove in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans ‘Liar’ Verbeke of Sober Mind recs would release the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998).

Local band ‘Resist The Pain’ had played the V.V. a few months before this (96-05-12). The band didn’t lat very long because the members joined/started other bands. The bassist Steve Noyelle became the guitarist of ‘Lifecycle’, guitarist Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen was also in ‘Spineless’ & ‘Congress’ (etc.), singer Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie appeared in later ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer Jan Volckaert was also in ‘Lifecycle’.

The British ‘Stampin’ Ground’ was a HC/thrash-metal band (‘Slayer’-style riffs). They said they were influenced by bands like ‘Earth Crisis’, ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Inside Out’. They formed after ‘Decadence Within’ split up with 3 ex-members – Antony ‘Mobs’ Mowbray (guitar; ‘D.W.’s drummer), Richard ‘Rid’ White (drums; ‘D.W.’s singer) and Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (bass) – teaming up with guitarist Scott Atkins and vocalist Paul Catten (ex ‘Medulla Nocte’). ‘Rid’ played on the first demo (Feb. ‘95). From the second demo on it was with Adrian ‘Ade’ Stokes (drums). Heath Crosby (vocals; later replaced by Adam of ‘Blood Oath’) sang after the 2 demos: Dawn Of Night 7” on Days Of Fury, Starved 7” on Too Damn Hype recs (from NY) and remastered these for a mini-CD on We Bite recs.

‘Stampin’ Ground’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Stampin’ Ground’ – Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (courtesy of Heath Crosby)

‘Stampin’ Ground’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Vanilla’ had already played here a few times. The emo band from Paris put out their 7” (I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space) on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). 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 VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for this.

‘Vanilla’ (pictured by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Approach To Concrete’ (from Köln) consisted of Jörg Schickel (vocals), Jochen Almeida (drums), Thommy (guitar; he replaced Pablo who just played on the 7”) and Seppl (bass). Christian Valk (vocals; later ‘Six Reasons To Kill’) did 2^nd guitars for a very short time during their tour with ‘Battery’. Not sure if he was in the line-up at the Vort’n Vis. They played fast, aggressive HC (and were not really a ‘full’ sXe band). There was a demo and in 1995 they did 2 releases on the Berliner label Mad Mob recs (I think ran by ‘Mad’ Marc, who did Mad Booking with his partner Ute Füsgen): the Drown 7” & the …Failures? CD.

‘Bruma’ was an emo-pop (some say “college rock”) band from Rome with Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’ bassist, nowadays singer of ‘Anti You’), ‘Orco’ Cristiano Fini (‘Comrades’/’Concrete’ guitarist), Valerio Borgianelli (drums) and a female singer (Eva Falomi). There was also a second guiatrist (‘Concrete’s singer Tommaso Garavini ?). They did a self-titled CD on Green recs (ran by Giulio Repetto; same label as ‘With Love’ & ‘Burning Defeat’; nowadays a record- and skate/clothing-store in Padova).

‘Bruma’ (photo by Patrick Federli) – front stage: Andrea Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’ guitarist), Adriano Pratissoli (‘By All Means’ drummer), ‘Spino’ (bassist of ‘Mourn’), Giovanni Donadini (‘With Love’ bassist ), etc.

‘Separation’ was a Swedish straight-edge hardcore-punk band (from Umeå) with Axel Stattin (bass), Jonas Lyxzén (drums; ex ‘Abinanda’, later ‘Demon System 13’) and Lars Johan Strömberg (guitar/vocals). José Saxlund (‘Abhinanda’) did the vocals from 1994 to 1996; he wasn’t in the band anymore here – he only sang on the 5th Song CD (recorded Dec ’95 and released on his label Desperate Fight recs). The band came back tot the V.V. the next year (97-03-30)…

‘Separation’ (source ?)

John Brady (bass), Justin Pearson (vocals), José Palafox (drums) and Eric Allen (guitar) were the ‘Swing Kids’ (named after resisting youngsters in nazi Germany). They were from San Diego and played emotional HC. The latter 3 had been in ‘Struggle’. Eric Allen was also in the SxE band ‘Unbroken’; he took his own life in 1998. Justin was running the Three One G (31G) label, that released most of their material (a split-7” with ‘Spanakorzo’ in ’95); though their first 7” appeared on Kidney Room recs (’94). Justin’s new power-violence band ‘The Locust’ came over the next year (97-03-30). Roel Brals made a video available from the ‘Swing Kids’ show here. There’s mention of their gig here in Justin’s (first) book: “We had to play this fest in Belgium with tons of really bad bands…” and there’s also a ‘Swing Kids’ tour-report in the Swedish zine Handbook For The Revolutionaries (see additional post on ‘Swing Kids’).

‘Swing Kids’ – photos by Albert Cheong (1) & Patrick Federli (2+3)

Joris Willekens wrote in his zine Forkboy that ‘With Love’ played unannounced as the last band of the last day but “conquered” anyway, leaving the drum-kit and the stage “deconstructed”. They had a demo out (with another line-up), a split(live)-tape with ‘Concrete’ and a split-7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. “They fit anger and rage in a suit of emotional and tempestuous chaos.”. The band (hailing from the Triviso area) was: Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass), Nico Vascellari (vocals), Edo(ardo) Rossi (guitar) and Simone Gerardo (drums).

‘With Love’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Peter Arthur Claesens, one of the “The Pit’s aficionados performing @ Vort’n Vis”, mentioned that he “once did a solo-act where I danced to the music of Bartok’s first concerto for piano, if I remember well… It was on a kind of international festival on a Sunday-afternoon; I believe it was a Straight-Edge concert.” There’s indeed a guestbook-entry of him on 96-08-18…

Brob

I might be wrong but I’m quite certain this was the first show ‘With Love’ played outside of Italy. We left Italy in a caravan my parents borrowed us (which we returned without a window – smashed it with my hand from the outside to scare one of the others that was sitting inside); somehow trying to convince ourselves that we were going on a European tour. As far as I remember the only show confirmed was in Cesena on the last day of the tour and then there was a show to be confirmed in Switzerland the day before. Basically we left hoping that we were going to convince Bruno to let us play the fest since our demo had gotten some good reviews. When we arrived at Vort’n Vis we were shocked. We’d never seen so many people at a HC show before. Boys and girls coming from all over Europe, tons of records and zines. It truly was an inspiring and motivating experience for us. I don’t remember much of the shows ‘cause we were mostly excited, spending time outside talking to people rather than attending shows. We tried to support all the Italian bands playing that year (I remember that ‘Burning Defeat’ delivered a very intense gig and so did ‘Timebomb’) and I have vivid memories of ‘SaidIWas’: their set was intense and they played a cover of ‘Born Against’ which was a favorite band of mine. Their drummer (that later became their singer) played naked. Bruno told us we could play if there was time left after the last band so we were finally announced by Justin of ‘Swing Kids’ (who were also memorable). We were so excited and so nervous to play that I think the shows exploded with energy and emotions. Stage and drum-kit were both broken. We tried our best to introduce some of the songs in our broken English. To these days this was one of the most memorable shows and experiences of ‘With Love’. After the show we left to continue our tour: ten days off before the show in Switzerland and the one in Cesena [Italy]. While going through my archives I’ve found images of ‘With Love’ doing this show at the Vort’n Vis…

Nico Vascellari

At that time ‘With Love’ had been playing for a year or so, and we had only a demo out and maybe the split 7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. I tried to organise some sort of ‘European tour’ using the contacts that Giulio from Green recs gave me. Obviously there was no internet and I tried to arrange some shows by mail and by telephone. We just wanted to have a holiday and tried to play somewhere. We ended up at the Vort’n Vis and immediately asked Bruno if we could play. (‘Ics’ from ‘Burning Defeat’ helped introduced us and Bruno let us play as the last band after ‘Swing Kids’.) I was surprised because I thought that people would have left after the ‘Swing Kids’ but I remember the place was still packed. It was one of our best shows ever, even if nobody (except the Italians) knew us. I still remember it after more than 20 years. Needless to say that all the other shows we should’ve played on that ‘tour’ got cancelled. We played other 2 shows with Adriano [Pratissoli] (‘By All Means’, ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, etc.) on drums because our drummer left after this show here to go back home. I don’t remember a lot of the bands that played… I was probably busy checking distros and talking to people. I do remember ‘SaidIWas’ did a great show (also saw them in Italy). I didn’t even see ‘Swing Kids’ because I had to prepare the instruments for our own show. We came back to the Vort’n Vis in 2000 [2000-08-18&19&20]…

Paolo Riscica

I was there on Sunday. My friends told me you, Brob, left on Saturday…

Albert Cheong, Barcelona

One of the best shows I saw at the V.V.: ‘Swing Kids’

Cathy Bennett

I was there with Daniel Eberharter and Melanie Friedl (Smart Cookies Collective), also Birgit came with us! I can remember that I enjoyed the bands and the ‘Swing Kids’… I thought that ‘Swing Kids’ were playing naked then but it could also have been another band [Brob: It was ‘Saidiwas’.] at that festival…. Memories fade…

Manuel Harand

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

During ‘Swing Kids’s set Joeri Hoste was standing upfront, next to Jürgen Desmet. I can’t remember where I was standing. I saw back them again in Hamburg in 2011. With another guitarist, the original one died. José was one of themost fantastic drummers in HC/punk-land; the only one that can play the ‘swing’ rhythm. Justin remembered this painful concert in Ieper, they split right after. The guys are embarrassed for their behaviour then: they had a raw.

Peter Puype

‘Stampin’ Ground’ was basically inspired into life when we had a night off during the 1994 ‘Decadence Within’ Polish tour and we took a trip across to Leipzig to see ‘Snapcase’, ‘Earth Crisis’ and ‘Refused’… What a show! We knew we wanted to do something much more heavy and intense than ‘D.W.’ that very night!

Ian Glasper

Vique Martin stepped in and really helped save what was, for a variety of reasons, a poorly planned tour for us… And along the way, she snapped quite a few photos. I made some friends there who I am still in contact with today and although it was probably the best show we played of the entire trip, the thing that stands out the most for me is meeting those friends…and there are a couple of others with whom I wish I had not lost contact.

John Brady, ‘Swing Kids’ bassist

My friends Andrea Marra [bass] and Cristiano ‘Orco’ Fini [guitar] (also ‘Concrete’) played for ‘Bruma’… They sucked if you ask me. Eva Falomi was the singer and as far as I can remember there was another girl playing probably second guitar, not so sure about it. I think ‘Concrete’ played probably the same year ‘Comrades’ did [1995]. I do remember Bruno wanted an Italian invasion there for a couple of years…

Paolo Petralia, SOA recs (Rome)

‘Bruma’ was Eva on vocals, Cristiano (‘Concrete’, ‘Comrades’) on guitar, Andrea (‘Comrades’, ‘Anti You’) on bass, Valerio on drums and Olga on second guitar. My band ‘This Side Up’ and ‘Bruma’ toured together in 1996… This here was probably their only appearance outside Italy (in addition to the tour). I think the band disbanded very shortly after our European tour…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

Going to the festival (I was the only driver) we totally broke the engine of our car 1.000 km away from Rome, so it seemd like the festival was over for us. But then…

Valerio Borgianelli, drummer of ‘Bruma’

Miss going to the Vort’n Vis fests, sleeping outside by the canal, fun times!

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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

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

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

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Mathieu Vandekerckhove (guitar; replaced Koen Sandra – ex ‘The Jedi’ – in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96), Hans Verbeke of SoberMind recs released the Painfields 7”/CD (presented here). The album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album would follow the next year (Presentation at the V.V., 98-04-26). They also performed on the Fest in August that year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frederik Vanhee (pic courtesy of Karel Deweerdt)

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

Brob

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

Pieter Desmyter, ‘Sorehead’ guitarist

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

Iris Walgraeve

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

Ward Dufraimont

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

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

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

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’ bassist

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

Dominiek Denolf, ‘Spirit Of Youth’ guitarist

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

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

additions wellcome!…

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!…

 

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)

99-08-20&21&22 Ieper HC festival

(ieperfest.com)

‘Mörser’ (from Bremen, Germany) played unannounced (as did probably some more bands; e.g. the local ‘Lifecycle’)…

‘Lifecycle’ (pics courtesy of Frederik Severijns)

This August fest was the 1^st time outside the Vort’n Vis premises (start of a new era ?) so I guess that’s why it’s sometimes referred to as Ieperfest. I had already parted with the event a few years before (because of the commercialism, violence, homophobia, sexism, etc. – see 96-08). Below are a few impressions of people who attended…

Brob

>> The leading European hardcore festival, the Vort’n Vis Fest in Ieper had to move to a bigger location. The festival was no longer in the ‘big’ barn behind the Vort’n Vis venue but was now held on a school playground. It was open-air and I thought that was odd as hell. A hardcore show in open air. I think this was the beginning of the end of the, once cool, festival. A lot of poseurs had shown up already and in the years to come things would get worse. These days the festival is fucking stupid and most of the bands playing suck. In 1999 only a few cool bands would play. Things I still remember from the ‘99 Vort’n Vis Hardcore Festival is ‘H-Street’ playing and getting a massive response to covering ‘Token Entry’s The Edge (a song that was one of my favorites that summer), being handed Like An Arrow issue #1 by Erik Tilburg, ‘Bloodpact’ being boring as shit and ‘True Blue’ playing a weird show. […]

I think this was the first time I saw ‘True Blue’ live. I was looking forward to seeing them live, but I was a bit let down that I didn’t see 5 dudes in ‘Cro-Mags’ or ‘Chain’ shirts jumping around like idiots and being as straight-edge as can be. What I saw instead were two longhairs with rings playing guitar, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and a singer with unposi leg tattoos featuring skulls and post-apocalyptic scenes. I was a bit baffled at first but eventually stuck around and started enjoying the show. I think a lot Ieperfest attendees were a little let down by this sight and performance as well, because the playground emptied pretty much after two songs that sunny summer afternoon. it must have been the lack of political statements. This proofs again that ‘True Blue’ was far from a popular band. There were only a few dudes moshing and I might have done the same had I had a clue as how to mosh (to ‘True Blue’), but the only true moshers doing their thing were Mark Stroeken, Pieter SDC and Erik ‘Arrowman’ Tilburg, all three ‘True Blue’ Army. Mark was dancing like an asshole, like he always did, and probably still does, Tilburg brought his signature ultra-classic T. mosh and Pieter SDC was doing something between clumsy and cool. Other than that BXL Crew jerk Bayram was bashing some innocent bystander’s head in on the tunes of ‘God Of Wrath’ (PK mid-breakdown quote “Relax buddy” addressing some Bayram pit/pit-side beef, can still be heard from time to time during ‘Rise And Fall’ shows when some pit-shit hits the pit-fan) and I think Diamond Dave was just standing in the middle of the pit being hard. Other than that there was a big horseshoe in front of the stage. ‘True Blue’, the band that gets jocked so much and would get a huge pit-response these days, brought the greatest mosh-parts of Ieperfest 1999 and no one cared. Besides the ones I just mentioned. I remember seeing my (then soon to be) homeboy Bjorn Dossche (who was in mosh-tirement from 1997 till 2000) chilling on stage next to Jan ‘Blindfold’ behind some amps and thinking “If these dudes are checking out this band they must be cool.”. […] <<

Comment by anonymous: >> The Vort’n Vis Festival in 1999 took indeed place in a somewhat odd location, and it was the last time I visited the festival. I don’t remember all the bands. ‘Mainstrike’ were at their peak. ‘Ensign’ – whom everybody seems to have forgotten – played a crazy show with a huge circle-pit. ‘Bloodpact’ were originally not scheduled to play; I liked their set a lot at the time, they played a ‘Man Lifting Banner’ cover and I bought their split LP with ‘Varsity’. Not too sure, if I still like ‘Bloodpact’. Haven’t listened to them in many years. ‘As Friends Rust, ‘Get Up Kids’, ‘Mörser’, ‘Spirit 84’, ‘Liar’, ‘Arkangel’, ‘Reaching Forward’ and many other bands were playing; but most of those bands didn’t leave much of an impression. ‘H-Street’ were indeed playing as well: they played this curious mix of rock’n’roll and youth-crew. They were nice guys…not sure what they are up to nowadays.

If I remember correctly, ‘True Blue’ were not scheduled. They played in the early afternoon and virtually less than a dozen people were moshing; there was a big empty space in front of the stage. I was also surprised to see a long-haired metal guy on stage. I kinda liked their set, but – as you rightly said – it would have been a killer show if it would have taken place a few years later. At the time, very few people cared. When the 7” came out, I felt that it was a bit of a letdown; I have rarely listened to it. There was a peculiar aura surrounding that tape that could not be replicated. […] <<

lionsandcheetahs2011.blogspot (2011-05-14), by Bart De Duytsche (Crucial X Culture zine)

I made the trip to Ieper from Switzerland mostly to meet friends from around Europe and to possibly enjoy some music from the few good bands booked that year. The festival of the Vort’n Vis was like a punk Mecca, it really had a certain mythical appeal to it, although in reality the punk factor wasn’t shining terribly bright, with all these atrocious moshcore bands wearing Nike and Lacoste sweaters. I remember Christophe from Stonehenge/ ‘Fingerprint’ even boycotting that year’s edition and selling his records on the floor right outside the main entrance. The whole thing was very clean, very safe and overall not very exciting. Well, ‘Mörser’ from Bremen did play a surprise gig if I’m correct; that was fun. But I never came back.

Vincent de Roguin, Genève

I remember there were massive circle-pits during ‘Ensign’ :-)

Michael Kopijn, Groningen

Personally I think this was the last cool Ieper festival. Small bands still had the change to play there. Nowadays it sucks totally. I’ve been there two or three times after that but the old comradery is gone. It’s just a mere festival. ‘True Blue’ was really great, I bet people were shocked. They were ahead of their time. ‘Mainstrike’ rocked the show, I think they just came back from their American tour and it was their second to last show before they split up.

Peter Hoeren, Crucial Response recs

review in the Swiss Evil zine (#2); courtesy of Vincent de Roguin

Photos courtesy of Vincent de Roguin:

Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Royers (‘Rubbish Heap’ guitarist), Joris De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) & Tom Verstraete

Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef (‘Mainstrike’ guitarist, Coalition recs)

Markus Haas (Per Koro)

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

Fabien Thévenot (Molaire Industries, ‘Iscariote’ vocalist)

‘Sabeth’; L=>R: Sebastian Busch (friend), Felix Böhlken (guitar/vocals), Thomas Hahn (guitar)

attentive audience (L: Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’ bassist)

Portugese crust vegan edge Rafael Brazuna, cooking macrobiotic in the old Vort’n Vis’ yard

The V.V. fest was outdoors for the first time and I couldn’t care less about most of the bands that played – a  shitload of sXe bands; just remember enjoying ‘Mörser’ & ‘John Holmes’. Still it was a nice trip with friends (Guilherme Charters, Afonso [Afonso Cortez Pinto; Freedom distro] and Hugo ‘Mosgo’ – the singer of ‘Simbiose’). The four of us drove from Lisbon to London by car to stay with some friends. We passed through Belgium for the fest and before that we stayed a couple of days at Jaak [ex ‘Nations On Fire drummer] ‘s house, which was fucking cool since he lived just above his health-food store, vegan paradise!

Rafael Brazuna

additions wellcome!…

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

99-08-20: Hundred Years Of Forgetting (Bel), JR Ewing (Nor), Once Never Again (Bel), Surface (Ger) Hebriana (Bel), Tumult (Ger), Heaven Shall Burn (Ger), Discount (USA), Sad Origin (Bel), As Friends Rust (USA), Mainstrike (Nl), Hot Water Music (USA)

99-08-21: Ochtenddauw (Bel), H-Street (Öst), Stroke Of Grace (Bel), Redemption (Ita), Ananda (Fra), Sabeth (Ger), Product (Ita), Mörser (Ger), Reveal (Nl), Spineless (Bel), Bloodpact (USA), Thumbs Down (Bel), Pray Silent (Swi), Ensign (USA)

99-08-22: Instinct (Bel), Point Of Few (Nl), True Blue (Ger), Jane (Ger), Sunrise (Pol), Reaching Forward (Nl), Leiah (Swe), Vitality (Bel), John Holmes (UK), Facedown (Bel), The Get Up Kids (USA)

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

pre-posters

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

photo: Roel Brals

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

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

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

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

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

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

the marketplace… :-(

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

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

the international crowd… :-)

even the local girl-scouts visited…

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

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

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

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

additions wellcome!…