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From left to right on the above picture you see the following singles:
- Wheel Of Progress “It’s Alive”
- Rise Above “Beat It”
- Love, Truth & Honesty “The Impossible Dream”
Rise Above were Belgium’s first straight-edge band. The Beat It single was recorded in November 1989. And later released by Punk etc. who also did Zyklome A’s “Made In Belgium”. Members include Hans Liar, Steve Slingeneyer (now in Soulwax) and Ed Goodlife. Musically they draw influences from DC bands around 1980, while creating an atmosphere of their own, especially in the song Beat It!
Love, truth & Honesty “The Impossible Dream” was released on Machination Records in 1992.
They were as a matter of fact pre- Spirit Of Youth. The band lasted no more than 6 months (from 02/92 till 08/92 to be more precise). Because later the brothers Dominiek and Frederik started under a different banner called Spirit Of Youth. The sound of L,T&H brings to mind Dag Nasty and 411 but also Minor Threat in the “Out of Step” period.
SOY were in the beginning 100% a pure oldschool band. You can’t imagine how their sound evolved through the years. Especially under the influence of metal.
Wheel of Progress “It’s Alive” was recorded in spring ’93 and later released in the same year on a Canadian label called “rank & file”. This an important and embryonic release because it hold the core of the Belgian (and European) hardcore to come.
The band members were Rob from Born From Pain, who has now a release on Reaper Records. They are labelled by the American Label as Europe’s hardest.
Another notorious band member in Wheel Of Progress was Hans, who played and still plays in Liar. Together with Congress, Liar are the godfathers of the H8000 Edge-Metal sound.
Speaking of Congress; Josh the mastermind of Congress also played in this band. Josh also did his time as guitarist in Liar.
In 1993 the H8000 crew wasn’t called that way, it was simply called 8000-crew. 8000 is the number of the regions in West-Flanders. Wheel of progress were based in Roeselare, this is a town of West-Flanders.
The first song of this 7″ is called “Circle Of Blood”, who was later rerecorded by Liar on their second release “Invictus”.
4 responses to “Belgian sXe Hc History”
That Rise Above EP was the shit….. i got it from hans as a present, but somehow lost it over the past 20 years….. the lyrics to Beat It could have been written today…timeless, I miss those days man!!!!
Thanks for your contribution Edward, I said the main influences were early DC bands but obviously I dug to deep.
Dennis, thanks for the compliment, i wrote all the lyrics for Rise Above.It’s true that they still hold relevance to this day…When the 7″ came out, it was completely bashed by the mainstream music mags – clueless then, clueless now.I would say our main influences were Youth of Today, 7 Seconds and Uniform Choice/Unity andthe early Boston bands, SSD, DYS, Negative FX,Slapshot, etc.Rise Above eventually morphed into Nations On Fire, taking a more political approach whileremaining a 100% sXe band…Edward
Circle Of Blood staat op Invictus, niet op Falls Of Torment.
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