Hitch was a band from the Lauwe area (a village near Kortrijk). They started out with a 7 inch on Machination Records. And also have a CD on both Good Life Recordings and Machination Records. That must have been released around 1997 (source: Discogs.com). Must have been one of the final releases on Jeroen’s Machination label. As I collected the vinyl records of Good Life, this CD stayed hidden from my radar. When I did discover it, bought it and heard it, I already knew three songs, as they are also on the 7 inch. As you might already know, there are many non-vinyl releases made during the the late 90’s and after. I am not a vinyl purist so I buy those CD’s also, for completion’s sake. I collect music on all formats.

The music is far more emotional than you would expect from the band related to the H8000 scene. Vocals aren’t screaming and the instruments play softer rock. It’s actually very surprising and hard to capture in written language. I would define it as post-H8000 Hardcore, although chronologically that is not correct. But there are elements such as certain riffs and gang vocals that remind me of Hardcore. The release was recorded at Midas, as many other H8000 bands of the moment also did. The songs “Too Much Pressure” has really agonizing screams in it, combined with the moaning guitars, it really gets to your inner self. Surprisingly there’s only one lyrics text mentioned in the booklet.

The song “Mind Pollution” is featured on the H8000 compilation volume one CD/LP. They seem to have survived the test of time and kept playing under the name Hitch and recorded music up until 2009. There is also a split 7 inch with Ghent’s  legends AmenRa. Music did evolve quite a lot.