Last week I went to Kortrijk in the south of West-Flanders to see the reunion show of Liar and Sektor, they both played amazing sets, more on that later. It was also the date of launch of the H8000 Book which they sold there in two versions. The book and the show is what this post is about.
“The Story Of H8000 Hardcore” is a book that has countless testimonials of people who are involved in coming and the being of the H8000 Hardcore scene. Those people were carefully chosen and picked by Hans Verbeke, the vocalist of Liar and guitarist of Blindfold. This approach of letting multiple people write their own story from their own point of view makes this books autobiographical. It’s not a one man story as the cover might suggest, because numerous people give their view upon the Hardcore scene. This is what makes it interesting.
The book’s storytelling is chronologically and starts in 1977 with the Belgian Punk scene and later with Zyklome A and the Repulsives. The next chapter starts off with Rise Above, the first Belgian Straigt-edge band and then the 8000 Crew bands, Nations On Fire, Shortsight, Blindfold and Spirit Of Youth. To finish it off with the biggest and most renowned chunk of the H8000 era from the mid-nineties to end year 1999 where the book ends unfortunately. With bands like Congress, Liar, Regression, Sektor, Vitality, Spineless, Lifecycle, etc. all present. Also lesser known bands who only did a demo are discussed what makes the book very complete.
And last but not least I would like to say that I have contributed to the book as well and got and honorable credit for it on the last page. Parts of the interviews I did with Josh Fury and Ed Good Life were used, also some photo’s and I also scanned the tapes and 7 inches for the discography. So yes, there is a H8000 Hardcore discography in it as well in the last part of the book. It was made by Lode Belcollect and features the LP’s, 7 inches, tapes and CD-only releases of many H8000 Hardcore bands and releases.
Here’s a video I made to get a glimpse at the book guided by music of the Invictus record:
You can buy the book online at the H8000 Book bigcartel store. And I still need to tell the story of the reunion show. It started on 4 o’clock in the afternoon with a meet and greet. I spoke to Edward, Hans and Lode Belcollect. And the early birds who wanted to buy the merchandise were there to. Besides the book there was a reissue of the “Falls Of Torment” LP in two versions. There was also a tape version of “Falls Of Torment” made by Kick Out The Jams. A Liar skate deck and shirts by Liar and Sektor were also sold.
After that the first band Devour started; a Limburg Straight-Edge band that plays metallic Hardcore. After that came Crowsview to warm up the place. They brought a Kickback cover which brought many people into the pit. After that I met some guys from Oostduinkerke (ODK) I knew from the nineties. They pointed out to me that Steve and Bob from Vitality were also attending the show. I went to speak to them and it was great seeing them back. Sektor started playing and did a great set, gave me shivers. Every song is classic and was perfectly and tightly executed by all. They worked eight months for it. The show was also interrupted by the vocalist Jeroen who saw a lad being too violent in presence of a girl next to him. He made the lad apologize to the girl and everything went on again.
After that Liar introduced themselves with the Star Wars theme. And as soon as Hans and the rest of the band appeared on stage the place exploded. They played songs from the first three LP’s (Falls Of Torment, Invictus and Deathrow Earth). The mosh pit was huge but respectful. I didn’t went in it at first but when I saw Steve from Vitality entering the pit, I followed. Moshing with Steve when Liar played was a first time and magical experience for me. I also did a singalong to “Grief”, so yes they did Congress songs also.
You can still read the entire interviews on this blog to:
www.hardcorepunk.wiki/category/interviews
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