I was asked to 'try' to do a scene report on the H8000 scene. Since I never did such a thing before I'll just give it a shot and try to make the best out of it...:)
The scene report is all about the scene situated in Belgium, more precisly the area called -Westvlaanderen- (free translated it is the -westflemish- area. Spoken language: 'flemish' haha...Main language: dutch, but I think you poeple allready know that. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce myself a bit too huh. Well, my name is Matthias, I am 21 years young, I live in Kortrijk. Somewhat one of the bigger cities in West-flanders. I am active
in two bands at this moment. First there is my own band (my own, I mean, I started it myself) called Slow Burning Fuse and besides that I am active as guitarist for one of the more legendary bands in H8000: Liar! I used to be
guitarist in Empathy, we are no longer existing now. Well, that is it very shortly concerning myself. If there is something that you think there is wrong in my scenereport, DON't hesitate to contact me at . All comments are welcome! Now up to the real stuff:
Why the -H8000- word? Well, maybe you do or maybe you don't know this term. It is how we call our scene overhere. The H for the hate towards all ignorant bastards who make fun of us and call us dumbasses and stuff (maybe it is just a tough-guy thing :)) could well be hehehe), and the 8000 stands for all the postall codes that start with an 8000. for example, the postalcode for Kortrijk is 8500...simple as that, nothing more nothing less. First things first: the H8000 scene is still a very active scene if you compare it with other european scenes, know this might sound very chauvinistic but hey...things are just what they are haha!!! It had his serious ups and downs like anywhere but it still managed to survive and has now a couple of bands that are still around since the very beginning powered with the assistance of several young new bands with new enthousiastic kids taking over the arms of the (pardon me the word) 'older kids'. H8000 was the home and soil for several wellknown bands like Congress, xLiarx, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Shortsight and much more...Unfortunatly only the first two bands of these big ones are still around, nevertheless none of 'em still carries the same lineup as back in the days.
As I wasn't there at the very beginning of it all it wouldn't be appropriate to make a scene-history coz I don't know everything for 100% sure and I want this scenereport to be correct you see. So I start when I came in. It must have been like a small five years ago (yeah yeah I know I 'm not 'that' veteran but hey, you got to start somewhere huh pal). the first show I can remember was a very wild one, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the violent moshpits
evolving in front of the small stage the gig was taking place on. The bill was, as I remember well: Liar, Spineless(one of their first shows), Firestone (they just released a demo back then I think), Regression was there too and an English band Stampin' Ground (still 'around' now). This show was like a goldmine for me, all these crazy bands on stage and this cool team spirit-like atmosphere. I was sold at once! this must have been around 1996, winter. I can remember myself getting me one of those congress shirts at the goodlife distro. Congress just released or was about to release their 'other cheek' MCD. They where the thing in those days. At least for me. That brings me to the rest of the bill. Regression was a very cool band, straight edge lyrics and heavy moshable downtuned metalcore. They brought out a classic MCD on goodlife recordings called Heartless and an even heavier split MCD with Breach. Plus a demo I never heared till the day now (shame on me!!). Besides Congress and Regression, other hot acts back then where Liar (they still are now), Spirit of Youth bringing supergroovy metalcore with screaming vocals over it, too bad they called their quits at the new years eve fest 2000 half year ago. Spineless was a quite new band then. they played a very strange mix of noisy emo with your alldays moshparts in it. They always where a very popular band and always one step ahead when it came to originality in sound and lyrics. Firestone is a difficult band, they used to play metalcore with agressive vocals but they evolved into some kind of emo metal. very melodic stuff. With female vocals now. They are still around right now and that deserves all respect! Emo-core like Blindfold was very cool too and very popular, they still are now eventough they quitted. 99% of all these bands where full on straightedgebands, I say where coz now most of em lost the edge. Another hot act was Sektor, heavy stomping metalmosh with an ultrabrutal screaming vox. they band isn't around anymore. They shared drummer with Liar.
All mentioned bands come out of the Kortrijk area for the bigger part. Some of the members came out of the Roeselare area, a town near Kortrijk, and the whole place around Kortrijk. With Kortrijk as the center. Homebase of Goodliferecordings. Goodliferecordings bared the responsability for bringing bands out like Congress and Liar and making them who they are today. Other H8000 bands on this label where Shortsight, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Deformity (playing a brutal death metal version of the H8000 edgemetal sound)...Another well known label out of the city of Kortrijk is Sobermind records. A small but total straightedgelabel runned by Hans (singer of Liar, former
bassplayer of Blindfold, Spirit of Youth, Rise Above (one of the first if not the FIRST H8000 band and Nations on Fire...plus several other bands I think..:), former singer of Shortsight, Drummer in Wheel of Progress (early Liar, featuring Rob 'Born from Pain' on vocals). Sobermind always stayed small and brought out the Sektor stuff, the Firestone MCD, the Vitality 'bloodlines' MCD, Spineless both MCD and full length...several other stuff...New H8000 band on SMR is Lifecycle, playing a mix between Iron Maiden and shortsight!! As for the veteran labels this is quite it. New small labels right now are Seasons come to fall, run by Jeroen, drummer for Minotaur and Archao. Two H8000 bands that play brutal metalcore, mix inbetween Regression and Deformity. Together with the start of Minotaur my band history starts too. In that same period they started of, I started Empathy. We first had a sound and style between NYC band ProPain (yeahheah) and evolved later on to a mix between Liar and Hatebreed. Heavy stuff with two singers, downtuned and heavy doublebassdrumming. We never got further then releasing a demoCD, still available for the diehards...)) Out of the ashes of Empathy, a new straightedge band was born recently, called Slow Burning Fuse. Playing a combination of Helmet and Length of time. Still fully in growth so expect more from them later on.
As I was talking about Hatebreed I should not forget to mention the legendary ODK crew scene. A part of the H8000-crew situated at the coastline of Belgium. Carying bands like Vitality, started out as one of the promising bands, playing a more moshy version of Congress and evolved in a brutal clone of Hatebreed. they are still around eventough they lost their edge. ODK-crew was another band from the...ODK-crew...:)) Not around anymore, featuring the drummer of Congress, Guitarist of Vitality and some more scenestars who's name I can't rmember. They brought out a 7" on Sobermind rec's too. The music was a mix between oldschool and new school. Another legendary band I mustn't forget to mention is Nations on Fire, a real allstar band featuring Hans sobermind and Edward Goodlife. They splitted up some years ago but did two reunions, now they are like non active again. Featuring Spirit of Youth drummer and guitarist, the legendary twin Fr and Dompi there was this band called Solid. They brought some kinda deathmetal influenced metalcore with an ultra brutal and heavy wall of guitars. Later stuff was inspirated by bands like At the Gates when they got Wulf (Deformity) on vocals. Nothing much to hear about them nowadays, a shame...
Like I said, all these bands are more or less the bands that highlighted a period of diehard-hardcore-straightedge attitude that made the H8000-scene famous all over the globe. We are known as a violent scene...true, but right now, not as much as it used to be. Most of the violence stayed inside the pit area. Violent dancing never was a big issue till couple of years, we got invaded by some french bands like Kickback and Stormcore. They brought us heavy moshitup hardcore and with it the KDS (karate dance style) that became really popular. In the end, all that it brought with it was issues and problems between people pro and people contra violent dancing. It was a real plague, windmilling was cool in the beginning but in the end it was like, hundred people standing around watching one guy windmilling, not that much fun as screaming along the lyrics on a huge pileup in front of the stage. Luckilly these days are coming back...the oldschool spirit revived. A big fall downwards was the loss of certain bands that sold out on their ideals, gave up the spirit...almost all bands named higher on quitted after losing the edge...a pitty. Only a few remain...well, lets say one or two. Liar is still around after all the years, is still going 100% vegetarian-vegan-drugfree...and even Liar isn't in the original lineup anymore. Guitarist and cofounder Josh left the band for Congress. He was replaced first by Christophe (came out the Grindmetal band Aborted and emo-noise Allignment). He joined Lennard Firestone, the guy that was added to Joshes side. Lennard left and got replaced by Matthias (Empathy).
Congress remained but got trough a storm of lineupchanges. First the guitarist Michael got kicked out, with him UxJ left the band. Pedro, formerly guitarist of Spineless and Natural Order (straightedge militia project with guitarist and drummer of spineless and lenny from sektor on 2ndguitar, Ronald on vocals and Vez on bass) joined Congress on second guitar; together with Vez on bass. After this big change, Pierre, the singer got his ass kicked out and got replaced by Tom, former singer of Family of Dog (metalcore outta the Ghent area).
Spirit of Youth was also a strange case...as the lineup wass for a big part the same as for Solid, these two bands changed all of the time from active to non active. In the end, none of em remained. Regression ended up a couple
of years ago after all giving up on the straightedge, the guitarist is still active in Deformity as singer. The drummer was the one who drummed in Shortsight too. Coz of a muscle disease, the drummer stopt playing and shortsight ended too (that is at least ONE of the reasons). An illustress band is Hitch, they brougth out an MCD on goodlife and are still around. they lean more towards a noisy-rock crossover style of hardcore and play almost no shows within the HC scene anymore. After Spineless broke up, some smaller bands grow out of the remains. there is Allignment, featuring the bassplayer on drums. They used to have Christophe Liar on guitar but he left coz he had it too busy with Aborted and Liar. Later on he quitted Aborted too. Amon Ra is a new project with Collin (singer) and Ture (guitar), also teamed up with Jan (ex blindfold). That same Jan from Blindfold now plays in a band called Five Day Gettaway together with all remaining blindfold members minus Hans. Ture Spineless played in a band called Lordz coupla a years ago. A moshcore band in the vein of old Biohazard with Jeroen (ex sektor) on vocals. Lordz didn't last long and together with the Lordz drummer Ture is now in Each Day, a fairly new band that just started playing out live. Other small bands that weren't around that long are DSA, an oldschool band. Powers of Discipline, featuring the bassist of Minotaur and Archao. Edge of Life was a project with Lenny Sektor on guitar and Kathy 187 on vocals, they played out with a drumcomputer and sounded fairly heavy. 187 is still around but ain't that active anymore. Inside was an emo band linked with people out of the first lineup of Minotaur, they are not around anymore, some of the remaining members do all kind of small bands now we don't hear that much off 'em....Ignominy was a shortliving all veganstraightedgeband, the guitarist is now in Firestone as a replacment for
Matthias (the original firestone guitarist that left the band).
Started out as a heavy NYCstyled moshband in the vein of Next step Up was Outcast. They still play but with a different singer and totally deathmetal now. They used to be an all straightedgeband, featured a guitarplayer of Sektor. The situation anno 2000 is pretty much ok now. there is a sort of revival of the old H8000-crew feeling, not as big as it used to be, mostly new people, few of the original ones are left active. Smaller...There are a few new bands around like some of the previous mentioned: Each day is new, Five Day Gettaway and Amon Ra are new. Error is a new band that plays emo-core somewhere between morning again and something else...Slow Burning Fuse, featuring the drummer and singer of Empathy, the guitarist of Empathy and Liar, Kingpin is an allstarband
featuring the legendary Josh (ex liar, congress) on vocals, Vez and pedro congress on bass and on guitar, the singer for Spirit of Youth is on drums and the second guitarist of Spirit of youth does the guitars too for Kingpin. A mix between Spirit of Youth, CroMags..., Bloodshed is a quite new band too playing a more agressive version of firestone with moshy parts l Spineless.
Well, guess this is it as for the H8000story...could well be I overlooked some of them...but I dare to say that it is quite up to date :))
Then not to forget the numerous zines made during the years, one issue zines are too numerous to name. Zines that are around for quite a long time are the Ugly Duckling, Semtex, the legendary Yoda zine, the paper, some i-net zines...,xin these timesx, ... Well, hopefully I succeeded in my test for 'first scene report' :))
If so, let me know, if not...let me know too!! Criticism makes men wiser...
Matthias
I was asked to 'try' to do a scene report on the H8000 scene. Since I never did such a thing before I'll just give it a shot and try to make the best out of it...:)
The scene report is all about the scene situated in Belgium, more precisly the area called -Westvlaanderen- (free translated it is the -westflemish- area. Spoken language: 'flemish' haha...Main language: dutch, but I think you poeple allready know that. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce myself a bit too huh. Well, my name is Matthias, I am 21 years young, I live in Kortrijk. Somewhat one of the bigger cities in West-flanders. I am active
in two bands at this moment. First there is my own band (my own, I mean, I started it myself) called Slow Burning Fuse and besides that I am active as guitarist for one of the more legendary bands in H8000: Liar! I used to be
guitarist in Empathy, we are no longer existing now. Well, that is it very shortly concerning myself. If there is something that you think there is wrong in my scenereport, DON't hesitate to contact me at . All comments are welcome! Now up to the real stuff:
Why the -H8000- word? Well, maybe you do or maybe you don't know this term. It is how we call our scene overhere. The H for the hate towards all ignorant bastards who make fun of us and call us dumbasses and stuff (maybe it is just a tough-guy thing :)) could well be hehehe), and the 8000 stands for all the postall codes that start with an 8000. for example, the postalcode for Kortrijk is 8500...simple as that, nothing more nothing less. First things first: the H8000 scene is still a very active scene if you compare it with other european scenes, know this might sound very chauvinistic but hey...things are just what they are haha!!! It had his serious ups and downs like anywhere but it still managed to survive and has now a couple of bands that are still around since the very beginning powered with the assistance of several young new bands with new enthousiastic kids taking over the arms of the (pardon me the word) 'older kids'. H8000 was the home and soil for several wellknown bands like Congress, xLiarx, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Shortsight and much more...Unfortunatly only the first two bands of these big ones are still around, nevertheless none of 'em still carries the same lineup as back in the days.
As I wasn't there at the very beginning of it all it wouldn't be appropriate to make a scene-history coz I don't know everything for 100% sure and I want this scenereport to be correct you see. So I start when I came in. It must have been like a small five years ago (yeah yeah I know I 'm not 'that' veteran but hey, you got to start somewhere huh pal). the first show I can remember was a very wild one, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the violent moshpits
evolving in front of the small stage the gig was taking place on. The bill was, as I remember well: Liar, Spineless(one of their first shows), Firestone (they just released a demo back then I think), Regression was there too and an English band Stampin' Ground (still 'around' now). This show was like a goldmine for me, all these crazy bands on stage and this cool team spirit-like atmosphere. I was sold at once! this must have been around 1996, winter. I can remember myself getting me one of those congress shirts at the goodlife distro. Congress just released or was about to release their 'other cheek' MCD. They where the thing in those days. At least for me. That brings me to the rest of the bill. Regression was a very cool band, straight edge lyrics and heavy moshable downtuned metalcore. They brought out a classic MCD on goodlife recordings called Heartless and an even heavier split MCD with Breach. Plus a demo I never heared till the day now (shame on me!!). Besides Congress and Regression, other hot acts back then where Liar (they still are now), Spirit of Youth bringing supergroovy metalcore with screaming vocals over it, too bad they called their quits at the new years eve fest 2000 half year ago. Spineless was a quite new band then. they played a very strange mix of noisy emo with your alldays moshparts in it. They always where a very popular band and always one step ahead when it came to originality in sound and lyrics. Firestone is a difficult band, they used to play metalcore with agressive vocals but they evolved into some kind of emo metal. very melodic stuff. With female vocals now. They are still around right now and that deserves all respect! Emo-core like Blindfold was very cool too and very popular, they still are now eventough they quitted. 99% of all these bands where full on straightedgebands, I say where coz now most of em lost the edge. Another hot act was Sektor, heavy stomping metalmosh with an ultrabrutal screaming vox. they band isn't around anymore. They shared drummer with Liar.
All mentioned bands come out of the Kortrijk area for the bigger part. Some of the members came out of the Roeselare area, a town near Kortrijk, and the whole place around Kortrijk. With Kortrijk as the center. Homebase of Goodliferecordings. Goodliferecordings bared the responsability for bringing bands out like Congress and Liar and making them who they are today. Other H8000 bands on this label where Shortsight, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Deformity (playing a brutal death metal version of the H8000 edgemetal sound)...Another well known label out of the city of Kortrijk is Sobermind records. A small but total straightedgelabel runned by Hans (singer of Liar, former
bassplayer of Blindfold, Spirit of Youth, Rise Above (one of the first if not the FIRST H8000 band and Nations on Fire...plus several other bands I think..:), former singer of Shortsight, Drummer in Wheel of Progress (early Liar, featuring Rob 'Born from Pain' on vocals). Sobermind always stayed small and brought out the Sektor stuff, the Firestone MCD, the Vitality 'bloodlines' MCD, Spineless both MCD and full length...several other stuff...New H8000 band on SMR is Lifecycle, playing a mix between Iron Maiden and shortsight!! As for the veteran labels this is quite it. New small labels right now are Seasons come to fall, run by Jeroen, drummer for Minotaur and Archao. Two H8000 bands that play brutal metalcore, mix inbetween Regression and Deformity. Together with the start of Minotaur my band history starts too. In that same period they started of, I started Empathy. We first had a sound and style between NYC band ProPain (yeahheah) and evolved later on to a mix between Liar and Hatebreed. Heavy stuff with two singers, downtuned and heavy doublebassdrumming. We never got further then releasing a demoCD, still available for the diehards...)) Out of the ashes of Empathy, a new straightedge band was born recently, called Slow Burning Fuse. Playing a combination of Helmet and Length of time. Still fully in growth so expect more from them later on.
As I was talking about Hatebreed I should not forget to mention the legendary ODK crew scene. A part of the H8000-crew situated at the coastline of Belgium. Carying bands like Vitality, started out as one of the promising bands, playing a more moshy version of Congress and evolved in a brutal clone of Hatebreed. they are still around eventough they lost their edge. ODK-crew was another band from the...ODK-crew...:)) Not around anymore, featuring the drummer of Congress, Guitarist of Vitality and some more scenestars who's name I can't rmember. They brought out a 7" on Sobermind rec's too. The music was a mix between oldschool and new school. Another legendary band I mustn't forget to mention is Nations on Fire, a real allstar band featuring Hans sobermind and Edward Goodlife. They splitted up some years ago but did two reunions, now they are like non active again. Featuring Spirit of Youth drummer and guitarist, the legendary twin Fr and Dompi there was this band called Solid. They brought some kinda deathmetal influenced metalcore with an ultra brutal and heavy wall of guitars. Later stuff was inspirated by bands like At the Gates when they got Wulf (Deformity) on vocals. Nothing much to hear about them nowadays, a shame...
Like I said, all these bands are more or less the bands that highlighted a period of diehard-hardcore-straightedge attitude that made the H8000-scene famous all over the globe. We are known as a violent scene...true, but right now, not as much as it used to be. Most of the violence stayed inside the pit area. Violent dancing never was a big issue till couple of years, we got invaded by some french bands like Kickback and Stormcore. They brought us heavy moshitup hardcore and with it the KDS (karate dance style) that became really popular. In the end, all that it brought with it was issues and problems between people pro and people contra violent dancing. It was a real plague, windmilling was cool in the beginning but in the end it was like, hundred people standing around watching one guy windmilling, not that much fun as screaming along the lyrics on a huge pileup in front of the stage. Luckilly these days are coming back...the oldschool spirit revived. A big fall downwards was the loss of certain bands that sold out on their ideals, gave up the spirit...almost all bands named higher on quitted after losing the edge...a pitty. Only a few remain...well, lets say one or two. Liar is still around after all the years, is still going 100% vegetarian-vegan-drugfree...and even Liar isn't in the original lineup anymore. Guitarist and cofounder Josh left the band for Congress. He was replaced first by Christophe (came out the Grindmetal band Aborted and emo-noise Allignment). He joined Lennard Firestone, the guy that was added to Joshes side. Lennard left and got replaced by Matthias (Empathy).
Congress remained but got trough a storm of lineupchanges. First the guitarist Michael got kicked out, with him UxJ left the band. Pedro, formerly guitarist of Spineless and Natural Order (straightedge militia project with guitarist and drummer of spineless and lenny from sektor on 2ndguitar, Ronald on vocals and Vez on bass) joined Congress on second guitar; together with Vez on bass. After this big change, Pierre, the singer got his ass kicked out and got replaced by Tom, former singer of Family of Dog (metalcore outta the Ghent area).
Spirit of Youth was also a strange case...as the lineup wass for a big part the same as for Solid, these two bands changed all of the time from active to non active. In the end, none of em remained. Regression ended up a couple
of years ago after all giving up on the straightedge, the guitarist is still active in Deformity as singer. The drummer was the one who drummed in Shortsight too. Coz of a muscle disease, the drummer stopt playing and shortsight ended too (that is at least ONE of the reasons). An illustress band is Hitch, they brougth out an MCD on goodlife and are still around. they lean more towards a noisy-rock crossover style of hardcore and play almost no shows within the HC scene anymore. After Spineless broke up, some smaller bands grow out of the remains. there is Allignment, featuring the bassplayer on drums. They used to have Christophe Liar on guitar but he left coz he had it too busy with Aborted and Liar. Later on he quitted Aborted too. Amon Ra is a new project with Collin (singer) and Ture (guitar), also teamed up with Jan (ex blindfold). That same Jan from Blindfold now plays in a band called Five Day Gettaway together with all remaining blindfold members minus Hans. Ture Spineless played in a band called Lordz coupla a years ago. A moshcore band in the vein of old Biohazard with Jeroen (ex sektor) on vocals. Lordz didn't last long and together with the Lordz drummer Ture is now in Each Day, a fairly new band that just started playing out live. Other small bands that weren't around that long are DSA, an oldschool band. Powers of Discipline, featuring the bassist of Minotaur and Archao. Edge of Life was a project with Lenny Sektor on guitar and Kathy 187 on vocals, they played out with a drumcomputer and sounded fairly heavy. 187 is still around but ain't that active anymore. Inside was an emo band linked with people out of the first lineup of Minotaur, they are not around anymore, some of the remaining members do all kind of small bands now we don't hear that much off 'em....Ignominy was a shortliving all veganstraightedgeband, the guitarist is now in Firestone as a replacment for
Matthias (the original firestone guitarist that left the band).
Started out as a heavy NYCstyled moshband in the vein of Next step Up was Outcast. They still play but with a different singer and totally deathmetal now. They used to be an all straightedgeband, featured a guitarplayer of Sektor. The situation anno 2000 is pretty much ok now. there is a sort of revival of the old H8000-crew feeling, not as big as it used to be, mostly new people, few of the original ones are left active. Smaller...There are a few new bands around like some of the previous mentioned: Each day is new, Five Day Gettaway and Amon Ra are new. Error is a new band that plays emo-core somewhere between morning again and something else...Slow Burning Fuse, featuring the drummer and singer of Empathy, the guitarist of Empathy and Liar, Kingpin is an allstarband
featuring the legendary Josh (ex liar, congress) on vocals, Vez and pedro congress on bass and on guitar, the singer for Spirit of Youth is on drums and the second guitarist of Spirit of youth does the guitars too for Kingpin. A mix between Spirit of Youth, CroMags..., Bloodshed is a quite new band too playing a more agressive version of firestone with moshy parts l Spineless.
Well, guess this is it as for the H8000story...could well be I overlooked some of them...but I dare to say that it is quite up to date :))
Then not to forget the numerous zines made during the years, one issue zines are too numerous to name. Zines that are around for quite a long time are the Ugly Duckling, Semtex, the legendary Yoda zine, the paper, some i-net zines...,xin these timesx, ... Well, hopefully I succeeded in my test for 'first scene report' :))
If so, let me know, if not...let me know too!! Criticism makes men wiser...
Matthias
I was asked to 'try' to do a scene report on the H8000 scene. Since I never did such a thing before I'll just give it a shot and try to make the best out of it...:)
The scene report is all about the scene situated in Belgium, more precisly the area called -Westvlaanderen- (free translated it is the -westflemish- area. Spoken language: 'flemish' haha...Main language: dutch, but I think you poeple allready know that. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce myself a bit too huh. Well, my name is Matthias, I am 21 years young, I live in Kortrijk. Somewhat one of the bigger cities in West-flanders. I am active
in two bands at this moment. First there is my own band (my own, I mean, I started it myself) called Slow Burning Fuse and besides that I am active as guitarist for one of the more legendary bands in H8000: Liar! I used to be
guitarist in Empathy, we are no longer existing now. Well, that is it very shortly concerning myself. If there is something that you think there is wrong in my scenereport, DON't hesitate to contact me at . All comments are welcome! Now up to the real stuff:
Why the -H8000- word? Well, maybe you do or maybe you don't know this term. It is how we call our scene overhere. The H for the hate towards all ignorant bastards who make fun of us and call us dumbasses and stuff (maybe it is just a tough-guy thing :)) could well be hehehe), and the 8000 stands for all the postall codes that start with an 8000. for example, the postalcode for Kortrijk is 8500...simple as that, nothing more nothing less. First things first: the H8000 scene is still a very active scene if you compare it with other european scenes, know this might sound very chauvinistic but hey...things are just what they are haha!!! It had his serious ups and downs like anywhere but it still managed to survive and has now a couple of bands that are still around since the very beginning powered with the assistance of several young new bands with new enthousiastic kids taking over the arms of the (pardon me the word) 'older kids'. H8000 was the home and soil for several wellknown bands like Congress, xLiarx, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Shortsight and much more...Unfortunatly only the first two bands of these big ones are still around, nevertheless none of 'em still carries the same lineup as back in the days.
As I wasn't there at the very beginning of it all it wouldn't be appropriate to make a scene-history coz I don't know everything for 100% sure and I want this scenereport to be correct you see. So I start when I came in. It must have been like a small five years ago (yeah yeah I know I 'm not 'that' veteran but hey, you got to start somewhere huh pal). the first show I can remember was a very wild one, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the violent moshpits
evolving in front of the small stage the gig was taking place on. The bill was, as I remember well: Liar, Spineless(one of their first shows), Firestone (they just released a demo back then I think), Regression was there too and an English band Stampin' Ground (still 'around' now). This show was like a goldmine for me, all these crazy bands on stage and this cool team spirit-like atmosphere. I was sold at once! this must have been around 1996, winter. I can remember myself getting me one of those congress shirts at the goodlife distro. Congress just released or was about to release their 'other cheek' MCD. They where the thing in those days. At least for me. That brings me to the rest of the bill. Regression was a very cool band, straight edge lyrics and heavy moshable downtuned metalcore. They brought out a classic MCD on goodlife recordings called Heartless and an even heavier split MCD with Breach. Plus a demo I never heared till the day now (shame on me!!). Besides Congress and Regression, other hot acts back then where Liar (they still are now), Spirit of Youth bringing supergroovy metalcore with screaming vocals over it, too bad they called their quits at the new years eve fest 2000 half year ago. Spineless was a quite new band then. they played a very strange mix of noisy emo with your alldays moshparts in it. They always where a very popular band and always one step ahead when it came to originality in sound and lyrics. Firestone is a difficult band, they used to play metalcore with agressive vocals but they evolved into some kind of emo metal. very melodic stuff. With female vocals now. They are still around right now and that deserves all respect! Emo-core like Blindfold was very cool too and very popular, they still are now eventough they quitted. 99% of all these bands where full on straightedgebands, I say where coz now most of em lost the edge. Another hot act was Sektor, heavy stomping metalmosh with an ultrabrutal screaming vox. they band isn't around anymore. They shared drummer with Liar.
All mentioned bands come out of the Kortrijk area for the bigger part. Some of the members came out of the Roeselare area, a town near Kortrijk, and the whole place around Kortrijk. With Kortrijk as the center. Homebase of Goodliferecordings. Goodliferecordings bared the responsability for bringing bands out like Congress and Liar and making them who they are today. Other H8000 bands on this label where Shortsight, Spirit of Youth, Regression, Deformity (playing a brutal death metal version of the H8000 edgemetal sound)...Another well known label out of the city of Kortrijk is Sobermind records. A small but total straightedgelabel runned by Hans (singer of Liar, former
bassplayer of Blindfold, Spirit of Youth, Rise Above (one of the first if not the FIRST H8000 band and Nations on Fire...plus several other bands I think..:), former singer of Shortsight, Drummer in Wheel of Progress (early Liar, featuring Rob 'Born from Pain' on vocals). Sobermind always stayed small and brought out the Sektor stuff, the Firestone MCD, the Vitality 'bloodlines' MCD, Spineless both MCD and full length...several other stuff...New H8000 band on SMR is Lifecycle, playing a mix between Iron Maiden and shortsight!! As for the veteran labels this is quite it. New small labels right now are Seasons come to fall, run by Jeroen, drummer for Minotaur and Archao. Two H8000 bands that play brutal metalcore, mix inbetween Regression and Deformity. Together with the start of Minotaur my band history starts too. In that same period they started of, I started Empathy. We first had a sound and style between NYC band ProPain (yeahheah) and evolved later on to a mix between Liar and Hatebreed. Heavy stuff with two singers, downtuned and heavy doublebassdrumming. We never got further then releasing a demoCD, still available for the diehards...)) Out of the ashes of Empathy, a new straightedge band was born recently, called Slow Burning Fuse. Playing a combination of Helmet and Length of time. Still fully in growth so expect more from them later on.
As I was talking about Hatebreed I should not forget to mention the legendary ODK crew scene. A part of the H8000-crew situated at the coastline of Belgium. Carying bands like Vitality, started out as one of the promising bands, playing a more moshy version of Congress and evolved in a brutal clone of Hatebreed. they are still around eventough they lost their edge. ODK-crew was another band from the...ODK-crew...:)) Not around anymore, featuring the drummer of Congress, Guitarist of Vitality and some more scenestars who's name I can't rmember. They brought out a 7" on Sobermind rec's too. The music was a mix between oldschool and new school. Another legendary band I mustn't forget to mention is Nations on Fire, a real allstar band featuring Hans sobermind and Edward Goodlife. They splitted up some years ago but did two reunions, now they are like non active again. Featuring Spirit of Youth drummer and guitarist, the legendary twin Fr and Dompi there was this band called Solid. They brought some kinda deathmetal influenced metalcore with an ultra brutal and heavy wall of guitars. Later stuff was inspirated by bands like At the Gates when they got Wulf (Deformity) on vocals. Nothing much to hear about them nowadays, a shame...
Like I said, all these bands are more or less the bands that highlighted a period of diehard-hardcore-straightedge attitude that made the H8000-scene famous all over the globe. We are known as a violent scene...true, but right now, not as much as it used to be. Most of the violence stayed inside the pit area. Violent dancing never was a big issue till couple of years, we got invaded by some french bands like Kickback and Stormcore. They brought us heavy moshitup hardcore and with it the KDS (karate dance style) that became really popular. In the end, all that it brought with it was issues and problems between people pro and people contra violent dancing. It was a real plague, windmilling was cool in the beginning but in the end it was like, hundred people standing around watching one guy windmilling, not that much fun as screaming along the lyrics on a huge pileup in front of the stage. Luckilly these days are coming back...the oldschool spirit revived. A big fall downwards was the loss of certain bands that sold out on their ideals, gave up the spirit...almost all bands named higher on quitted after losing the edge...a pitty. Only a few remain...well, lets say one or two. Liar is still around after all the years, is still going 100% vegetarian-vegan-drugfree...and even Liar isn't in the original lineup anymore. Guitarist and cofounder Josh left the band for Congress. He was replaced first by Christophe (came out the Grindmetal band Aborted and emo-noise Allignment). He joined Lennard Firestone, the guy that was added to Joshes side. Lennard left and got replaced by Matthias (Empathy).
Congress remained but got trough a storm of lineupchanges. First the guitarist Michael got kicked out, with him UxJ left the band. Pedro, formerly guitarist of Spineless and Natural Order (straightedge militia project with guitarist and drummer of spineless and lenny from sektor on 2ndguitar, Ronald on vocals and Vez on bass) joined Congress on second guitar; together with Vez on bass. After this big change, Pierre, the singer got his ass kicked out and got replaced by Tom, former singer of Family of Dog (metalcore outta the Ghent area).
Spirit of Youth was also a strange case...as the lineup wass for a big part the same as for Solid, these two bands changed all of the time from active to non active. In the end, none of em remained. Regression ended up a couple
of years ago after all giving up on the straightedge, the guitarist is still active in Deformity as singer. The drummer was the one who drummed in Shortsight too. Coz of a muscle disease, the drummer stopt playing and shortsight ended too (that is at least ONE of the reasons). An illustress band is Hitch, they brougth out an MCD on goodlife and are still around. they lean more towards a noisy-rock crossover style of hardcore and play almost no shows within the HC scene anymore. After Spineless broke up, some smaller bands grow out of the remains. there is Allignment, featuring the bassplayer on drums. They used to have Christophe Liar on guitar but he left coz he had it too busy with Aborted and Liar. Later on he quitted Aborted too. Amon Ra is a new project with Collin (singer) and Ture (guitar), also teamed up with Jan (ex blindfold). That same Jan from Blindfold now plays in a band called Five Day Gettaway together with all remaining blindfold members minus Hans. Ture Spineless played in a band called Lordz coupla a years ago. A moshcore band in the vein of old Biohazard with Jeroen (ex sektor) on vocals. Lordz didn't last long and together with the Lordz drummer Ture is now in Each Day, a fairly new band that just started playing out live. Other small bands that weren't around that long are DSA, an oldschool band. Powers of Discipline, featuring the bassist of Minotaur and Archao. Edge of Life was a project with Lenny Sektor on guitar and Kathy 187 on vocals, they played out with a drumcomputer and sounded fairly heavy. 187 is still around but ain't that active anymore. Inside was an emo band linked with people out of the first lineup of Minotaur, they are not around anymore, some of the remaining members do all kind of small bands now we don't hear that much off 'em....Ignominy was a shortliving all veganstraightedgeband, the guitarist is now in Firestone as a replacment for
Matthias (the original firestone guitarist that left the band).
Started out as a heavy NYCstyled moshband in the vein of Next step Up was Outcast. They still play but with a different singer and totally deathmetal now. They used to be an all straightedgeband, featured a guitarplayer of Sektor. The situation anno 2000 is pretty much ok now. there is a sort of revival of the old H8000-crew feeling, not as big as it used to be, mostly new people, few of the original ones are left active. Smaller...There are a few new bands around like some of the previous mentioned: Each day is new, Five Day Gettaway and Amon Ra are new. Error is a new band that plays emo-core somewhere between morning again and something else...Slow Burning Fuse, featuring the drummer and singer of Empathy, the guitarist of Empathy and Liar, Kingpin is an allstarband
featuring the legendary Josh (ex liar, congress) on vocals, Vez and pedro congress on bass and on guitar, the singer for Spirit of Youth is on drums and the second guitarist of Spirit of youth does the guitars too for Kingpin. A mix between Spirit of Youth, CroMags..., Bloodshed is a quite new band too playing a more agressive version of firestone with moshy parts l Spineless.
Well, guess this is it as for the H8000story...could well be I overlooked some of them...but I dare to say that it is quite up to date :))
Then not to forget the numerous zines made during the years, one issue zines are too numerous to name. Zines that are around for quite a long time are the Ugly Duckling, Semtex, the legendary Yoda zine, the paper, some i-net zines...,xin these timesx, ... Well, hopefully I succeeded in my test for 'first scene report' :))
If so, let me know, if not...let me know too!! Criticism makes men wiser...
Matthias
