More on this concert:  93-09-04 Contropotere – Herb Garden – Brawl – Bad Influence

Here’s a series of photographs taken and donated by Carla Oliveira (a Portugese interrailing through Europe at that time):

‘Contropotere’

‘Brawl’

This was the last ever gig at the Kiekenmarkt 7 (original address of the Vort’n Vis) before saying goodbye on May 12th 2001 and moving to a new location… Some of the same people who played at the first gig (12 years before) did so here…

Drummer David Stubbe (drums) & bassist Karel Busschop joined ‘Thee Plague Of Gentlemen’ (sludge/doom band from Ghent) when ‘Holefiller’ quit. On the band’s first release (a split-7″ with ‘American Heritage’ released in 2000), the line-up was ‘x4’ (drummer Xavier Benoit), Paul Lamont (bass; also ‘Nahende Vernichtung’ & ‘Hitch’) and Steve W. (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Neuthrone’).

‘5 Day GetAway’ was ‘Blindfold’ directly after they’d split up, without Hans Verbeke and Mich Decruyenaere: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar), Jan Maelfait (bass), ‘Chatn’ Sacha Baelen (drums), with the addition of Vincent Maes (vocals; ex ‘Instinct’, also ‘The Deal’ bassist). Discriptions of their music went from “melodic/rockin’ HardCore” to “emo with a punky old school touch”. There was a (6-track) self-titled CD released in 2001 that was distributed through Genet recs and they had a song on the The Crossroad Project compilation-CD.

‘The Deal’ was with Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes (bass; ex ‘Instinct’) & Bjorn Dossche (vocals; One Step Down zine) who had been in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ together. The others were Christophe Vandenberghe (guitar; later ‘Lockstitch’; Cedric ‘Cete’ Goetgebuer joined later), Pedro Tallieu (guitar, ex ‘Instinct’ bassist) and Bruno Tallieu (drums). This was probably their first concert in Ieper. They did a demo (rehearsal-tape) and Hans Verbeke released their (self-titled) debut EP (on his label SoberMinds recs). They were featured at the fest that year (2001-08-17).

‘Kingpin’ – Sim Meerseman (guitar; also ‘Spirit Of Youth’), ‘Vinnie’ Vincent Merveillie (drums; singer of ‘Spirit Of Youth), Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (bass; ‘Natural Order’, ‘Congress’); Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, ex ‘Spineless’) & Joost Noyelle (vocals; ‘Congress’/‘Liar) – had also appeared in the V.V. before. They played “groovy and catchy New York HC” (references to ‘Cro-Mags’, ‘Leeway’, etc.). In 2000 they recorded a 5-song demo. Hans Verbeke would release their 10″ Bad Habits Die Hard on his label Pyrorex in 2002.

‘Sad Origin’ (a death-metal band from Dendermonde) played a few times in Ieper aswell, being a band that released material on Genet recs. Playing for the band: Robin (bass), Wim Aerts (drums), Wes(ley) Steels (guitar) and Hans ‘Link’ Teirlinck (vocals).

Brob

The ‘T.P.O.G.’ line-up (the second one) that I was in was just Xavier, Steve and myself. We split up ón (!) stage in l’Escalier in Liège. Xavier and me had enough, called it quits when Steve left mid-concert…

Paul Lamont

I can remember ‘Kingpin’ playing; they did a tight set. ‘Fifi’ on guitar, Joost doing vocals. I was a fan of that band, with their New York grooves, actually. ‘5 Day GetAway’ was a project where Vince, our (‘The Deal’) bassist, was singing. They did stuff in the style of ‘Dag Nasty’. Their music was very well put together but the band didn’t last long. ‘Thee Plague Of Gentleman’ was from Ghent. A bit of an outsider-band on this bill.

Pedro Tallieu

Not sure who organised this but I have a stronh hunch that it was Frederic Driessens. Attending the bar that night (according tot the V.V. notes): Steph Quintens, Michael Maes & Inge Cappoen.

‘Natron’, “the godfathers of death-metal” was a band from the deep south of Italy (Bari in the Apulia region – the ‘heel of Italy’); with Max Marzocca (drums), Lorenzo ‘Fünj’ Signorile (bass/vocals) & Domenico Mele (guitar). On their debut CD Hung Drawn & Quartered ‎(1997) there was a guy named Trevor ‘Sadist’ who did guest-vocals. Mike Andriani sang on their demo A Taste Of Blood (recorded in ’96).

Playing “symphonic” death/black-metal: ‘Mharbh’ (Bari, Italy); with Francesco Simone (bass), Antonio Tafaro (drums), Dario Nitri (guitra/vocals), Luca Loreto (vocals) & Nello D’Innocenzo (keyboards). They had released a tape entitled When God Sleeps..;

The death-metal band ‘Serial Butcher’ still exists but back then they were: Nico Veroeven (drums), Hendrik Dobbelaere (guitar), Bob D’Hondt (bass) and Steven De Craeker (vocals; later Kurt ‘Monie’ Termonia). They had a demo out and would record their mini-album Exhumed Rotting. They were decribed as “a more brutal version of ‘Cannibal Corpse’…”. I believe the “H8000 Ringmaster” Nicolas Malfeyt was in the band at one time too.

‘Damn Nation’ played death-metal/grindcore and were from Lille (France). They had a demo, entitled A Hated Life, out in ’97. The people in the band were Franck Camus (drums), Jocelyn ‘Virgil’ Quesne (guitar), Yvan Debuck (guitar) and Nicolas Willaert ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’ (vocals).

Brob

I was singing in a (very bad) band called ‘Dam Nation’ that was (trying to) play somekind of death/grind back then and we did indeed play a show at the V.V. with ‘Natron’.

Here’s a kind of ‘fun fact’: after the soundcheck, while waiting to start the gig, someone was playing In The Bondage Of Vice, by ‘Dead’. That’s how I “discovered” them. Last year, I re-issued their debut You’ll Never Know Pleasure on my label Xenokort precs…

I also did Agony’Zine (2-3 issues) but then decided to sign ‘Goden’ (The Netherlands), one of the artists I reviewed stuff of. The label was named Agony recs and the zine was renamed Suffer! (that was given away with mailorders). I did something like 10 issues before the label folded and it became what was most probably one of the very first webzines on the internet in the late ‘90s (before it stopped alltogether before the change of millennium).

I don’t remember much about the gig itself besides the fact that we were very bad (especially that night) and I became so bored that I left the stage in the middle of a song; and that was our final gig. ‘Serial Butcher’ were quite good at what they were doing. Cool they’re still around!

De Vermis Mysteriis stands for The Secrets of the Worm(s?) in Latin. It didn’t mean much but for some reason I wanted to use a pseudonym and since was a big fan of Lovecraft, I took this from one of his novels… Franck relocated to Québec and still drums in some death-metal band); Yvan, I believe, is playing in a pop/reggae band (with his girlfriend) and Jocelyn became a stripper and later the promoter of the largest erotic fairs in France). We didn’t have a bassplayer back then.

I don’t remember how we ended playing but I loved the atmosphere and the place. Sadly, because of my eyesight-problems, I never had a driving-license and hence no real opportunity to visit the Vort’n’Vis

Nico(las) Willaert

Steven De Craeker joined ‘Putrid Inbred’ but I wasn’t in the band yet then. But probably attended the gig…

Kurt Termonia

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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

pics taken (99-08-20) and donated by Ivo Lozej (Slovenia)

Here’s a report (part 1) about Ieperfest 99 from the Slovenian zine 13.Brat #7 written by Valter Cijan [bassist of the Slovenian bands ‘Man In The Shadow’ & ‘Entreat’]:

After a long time I’m getting back to writing. I will try to describe a short excursion to Belgium. The purpose of this trip was to attend the three-day hardcore festival ‘Hardcore: The Next Generation’ in Ieper (and we succeeded).

We took off on Wednesday (August 18^th) in the morning (not too early, because we are lazy) around 10 a.m.

The crew consisted of Seba Kanauc – the driver and owner of the Citroen CX Prestige, which was our vehicle (why a vehicle? drive it once and you’ll know) to Belgium and back (I guess), ‘Mikla’ the axeman of ‘Entreat’ and the main ‘casanova’ [Dejan: irony] in Vipava [town in Slovenia], Radovan [Lozej] the axeman of ‘Low Punch’ [HC band from Ajdovščina], Ivo Lozej [bassist of ‘Low Punch’], an honorary member of the windmill crew and my little darling, the biggest fan and director of the Slovenian windmill crew.

Seba picks up ‘Mikla’ and me in Nova Gorica, and then we drive to Ajdovščina to pick up the other two. And so begins our journey towards Belgium. Before Vrhnika, I start to feel sick so that we have to stop for ten minutes to take an anti-nausea pill (that’s what happens when you’re too tired). The road to Klagenfurt is going well, there we met Hannes (singer from ‘Animotion’). After an hour and a half we finally find it. Hannes shows us the citycentre. At 19:00 we sail from Klagenfurt towards Germany. To avoid the tunnels (we are too stingy to pay for them), we go over two passes which are about 1.700m high. We take a short break on the second one and find out that the temperature is around 10 degrees. As appropriate, we walk around in shorts, and the rest of the tourists in jackets (find out who’s the bigger moron). The ride continues without incidents but not for long. Immediately after Munich, it starts drizzle. We stop at the first gasstation and decide to continue our journey in the morning. So we had a very comfortable night: imagine sleeping with five in the car, three of them are vegan and emit unique smells. A gas-bubble of some kind. I wake up in the morning feeling like I’ve been run over by a bulldozer, a little morning exercise and a Nutella breakfast. I take over the piloting of the vehicle, somewhere around Stuttgart we accidentally come across a shoppingcentre that had food at very reasonable prices. There we arm ourselves with food (me with a new jar of Nutella), take a short break for lunch and continue our journey towards Belgium. We arrive in Luxemburg around 5 p.m. We spend almost an hour trying to find a parkingspace. We go for a walk around the city, we soon realize that we won’t stay too long because of the excessive crowd in the streets and the uncomfortable feeling. Prestige-stores, showing off luxury cars and other crap. I hope that it is not the same in the other parts of Luxembourg and that it’s only in the capital, because the landscape really charmed me and I hope that I will have the opportunity to see it better.

At 19:00 we are already on our way to Ieper. We arrived in Ieper around 10 p.m. without any major complications, only got a bit lost before Kortrijk. People help you with directions without any problems. The thing is that they can only speak French, which fortunately is a little like Italian.

So finally we arrived at the promised paradise. Seba inquired at the Vort’n Vis (alternative cultural centre) if it’s possible to pay for an overnight stay. We find out that it is fully occupied, only Seba and Radovan find an empty corner, and the other three sleep in the car. It turns out that it’s quite comfortable like that. Before noon, we settled in a very nice campsite, which was also very cheap and only a five-minute walk from the concert-place. There we also found Miran [Rusjan], the main person of Choose Life recs, who’s also the guitarist of the popfunk band ‘Man In The Shadow’ and his girlfriend Špela. And us, mere mortals, got the honour of being able to eat together. Truly something unique. This year the festival took place in an open, pleasant schoolyard, whereas in other years in was in the Vort’n Vis. The entrance-fee for three days was 4.500 SIT [Slovenian Tolar; less than 20 Euro], which isn’t much for 36 bands.

I will try to describe the bands that performed, although it’s almost impossible to watch and remember everything. The concert started at 1 p.m. on Friday. The Belgians of ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ were the first to perform, as far as I remember they played emo with screaming vocals. I don’t think it was anything special. The Norwegian ‘JR Ewing’ directly surprised with excellent emocore mixed with an ‘Unbroken’ style; their 7” sold out in an instant. The Belgian band ‘Once…Never Again’ followed, I recall it was very metal and boring. Phew, then it was ‘Redemption’ (from Rome) ’s turn. Never mind, I won’t waste any words on them. I just know that they were very proud to belong to some unknown straight-edge legion and that the singer was very funny. We took advantage of their performance to get lunch and thus missed the ‘Timebomb’ concert (also from Rome). I remember the Belgian band ‘Hebriana’ superficially, I have this image in my head that they played calm emocore. ‘Heaven Shall Burn’ from Germany played with as many as three guitarists. I thought it was going to be a blast but it turned out that it was all bland. They played a mix of black/death-metal and hardcore, boring. ‘Discount’ from the U.S. played melodic punkrock with female vocals. It wasn’t bad, it’s a shame they had a bad sound. Oh and then it was Belgium’s ‘Sad Origin’s turn. Very metal and stupid stuff. During their set I got to witness how that most follish and violent windmill dance is performed. We noticed that the audience didn’t like this way of dancing, except for the couple of idiots who did it. Windmillers are instantly recognisable: almost all of them are wearing baggy sweatpants, flashy one are preferred. They were only present during concerts when a band was playing that you could throw their fists around. Thank god there were few such bands. What I was most looking forward to that evening was ‘As Friends Rust’, who hail from Florida. I was pleased with their performance, a really good mix of melodic hardcorepunk and emocore. Then it was the turn of the Dutch old-school attraction ‘Mainstrike’. They didn’t convince me too much, especially because of the singer’s statements. Most of the audience was quite enthusiastic about their performance though. At the end of the first night there was ‘Hot Water Music’, from the same town as ‘As Friends Rust’. I had heard only good things about them and the CD I had listened to, was quite good. Live, however, they are a totally kicking ass. Kind of a mix of punk and emocore with very catchy, singalong choruses, hard to describe it because they are too…

The first day ended and we all went to the campsite in good spirits. The night was quiet, damp and cold. I slept worse because I was still quite chilly. In the morning, I defeated my sleepiness with a Nutella-based breakfast and thus regained my energy for new HC adventures.

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‘As Friends Rust’: Damien Moyal (vocals)

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Roland ‘Big’ Roland Roller

Johnny van de Koolwijk (bass) & ‘Beertje’ Jeroen Vrijhoef (guitar)

‘Mainstrike’

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‘Hot Water Music’

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

pics taken (99-08-21) and donated by Ivo Lozej (Slovenia)

Here’s a report (part 2) about Ieperfest 99 from the Slovenian zine 13.Brat #7 written by Valter Cijan [bassist of the Slovenian bands ‘Man In The Shadow’ & ‘Entreat’]:

On Saturday, it all started at noon. The local ‘Ochtenddauw’ were the first to perform. They had a very funny singer who looked more stoned than a straight-edger, as he kept laughing. Mainly a new-school joke, nothing special. Old-schoolers ‘H-Street’ from Austria followed. They wouldn’t have left that bad an impression if the guitarist didn’t dedicate every song to some American band and force himself up their ass. Then the Belgian ‘Stroke of Grace’ were up: quite an interesting affair, a bit of metal guitar, melodic parts and good singing. I don’t know why but they reminded me of ‘Dag Nasty’ in a modern version. A band drops out and in their place the local ‘LifeCycle’ appears on stage: a girl on vocals who gave her best and also sang something to the music that reminded me of ‘Purusam’. The French ‘Ananda’ didn’t convince me too much with their noisy, heavy metal HC à la ‘Acme’. They sounded boring to me, to be honest. The Germans of ‘Sabeth’ play a pretty decent metal version of HC. I had a nice time with them. They were followed by Dutch emo-metallers ‘Reveal’; a very good performance. The audience went totally crazy during the last song. Chaos on stage and in my head too. The Americans of ‘Bloodpact’ were the biggest crap at the festival. Boring and pointless old-school with an big and stupid singer. During their gig, we walked from one distribution to another and on the poster we read that another band has been added for today: ‘Mörser’. Crazy, we’re almost choking with joy. We’re still waiting for the Italian ‘Product’. We find it boring old-school and go to brunch. We come back in the middle of the concert of the Belgian ‘Spineless’. Classic H8000 metalcore. This was supposed to be their last concert. And finally ‘Mörser’: great grindcore with three singers, two bassplayers, a guitarist and a drummer. The audience went wild, they weren’t allowed to leave the stage. A really explosive and crazy performance. Saturday ended with good bands. Old-schoolers ‘Thumbs Down’ from Belgium, followed by the metal-HC mosh of ‘Pray Silent’ from Switzerland. A bit similar to early ‘Integrity’. And last: ‘Ensign’ from the U.S.; for me not that bad on CD but they weren’t that good live. In the middle of ‘Ensign’s performance we left to the campsite, shower, then sleep. The night was chilly again, so I covered myself with all the clothes in my backpack over the sleeping-bag. A little better but I was still cold.

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‘H-Street’: Dan(iel) ‘El Toro’ Braaf (guitar), Georg Ondrak (guitar), Thomas ‘Tom’ Krutzler (vocals), Rob(ert) (drums), Mario Schöbinger (bass)

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Sofie Vantomme surrounded by guitarist Karel Deweerdt & Steve Noyelle

Sofie

Peter Leuwers

Vincent Tetaert

‘Lifecycle’

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‘Mikachu’ Michaël Clergeot

Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly

Thomas ‘Tom’ Guillanton

Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe

‘Ananda’

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‘Sabeth’: Felix Böhlken (guitar/vocals), Thomas Hahn (guitar), Carsten Pflugbeil (bass)

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‘Reveal’: Maarten van Oers (drums), Mischa van Rodijnen (guitar), Geert van Hoesel (vocals), Dave van Beek (bass)

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Sven Seelkopf

Sven Nienaber

Denny Schmidt – Björn Schmidt

Daniel ‘Grabi’ Grabowsk – Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne

‘Mörser’

x—x

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

pics taken (99-08-22) and donated by Ivo Lozej (Slovenia)

Here’s a report (part 3) about Ieperfest 99 from the Slovenian zine 13.Brat #7 written by Valter Cijan [bassist of the Slovenian bands ‘Man In The Shadow’ & ‘Entreat’]:

Sunday, the last day of the festival, we’re all a little tired and fed-up with everything, we miss the first band: ‘Instinct’ from Belgium – old school HC. ‘Point Of Few’ from the Netherlands surprise me with a nice old-school that borders on power violence – interesting. They’re followed by the highly praised German ‘True Blue’. We attend just two songs that are NYHC style like the ‘Cro-Mags’. Not very interesting for me, so ‘Mikla’ [Miloš Milošević; ‘Entreat’ guitarist] and I go for a short walk around the town, which is very pleasant and beautiful. Then it’s ‘Jane’s turn, also from Germany. They surprise me with excellent screaming chaotic metal/hardcore, as only Germans can do. Poland’s ‘Sunrise’ play an interesting version of melodic death-metal hardcore. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay much attention to the concert because after three days everything seems to sound the same. I couldn’t bear to watch the old-schoolers ‘Reaching Forward’ from the Netherlands anymore. Miran says it’s not that bad. I think I will have the opportunity to see them in Ajdovščina [Slovenia]. We’ll see if they get my attention. ‘Leiah’ from Sweden immediately grab me with their very calm emocore. The singer was very emotional. The Belgian band ‘Vitality’ interrupts this beautiful chanting with straight-up silly mosh-metal. This band also encourages windmilling. Our dear ‘Mikla’ had enough of this violent dancing and gave one of the windmillers a good punch in the ribs. Good thing it was on his left side [Dejan: being a guitarist]. The British ‘John Holmes’ performed a shredded version of HC à la ‘Reversal Of Men’, ‘Botch’. It wasn’t bad. The penultimate to take the stage were the Belgian ‘Facedown’ with their nice new-school HC; it reminded me by times of ‘One King Down’ mixed with early ‘Snapcase’. To conclude, ‘The Get Up Kids’ from the U.S. appeared on stage with excellent emocore. The whole audience was singing the choruses, everyone’s swaying and dancing, there’s total euphoria in the air. Two boys dance on stage in boxershorts. To top it off, the audience carries a table and a guy surfs on it. Very crazy and unforgettable. We all leave the concert full of energy, re-infused with the last band…

After two cold nights, ‘Mikla’ and I decided to sleep in the car. We woke up in the morning, bough food and slowly headed home. The journey took about 17 hours. We stopped in between and practiced all the windmill-tricks with Ivo [Lozej; bassist of the HC band ‘Low Punch’] so that he doesn’t forget them. We had a great time and I hope we will have a good time again next year.

P.S.: I saw around 12 bands per day and judging objectively is impossible. If you were to listen to each band individually, you would definitely get a different view.

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‘Jane’: Matthias Drost (guitar), Mike Masurczak (guitar), Marc Hess (drums), Thomas Kuhn (bass), Markus Hohn (vocals)

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‘Sunrise’: Patryk Bugajski (vocals), Daniel Kryj (guitar), Marcin Podsiadły (bass), Maciej Mazur => Piotr Grabinski (drums)

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