Tag: Ieper Hardcore Fest

Crowsview – Interview Ieper Hardcore Fest 2018

Crowsview are a five piece metal/hardcore inspired band from Roeselare, deep in the Belgian H8000 territory. They have been crushing stages for a couple of years with their brutal sound inspired by H8000 bands, Kickback and Arkangel to name a few. Ieper Hardcore Fest also must have noticed the hard working ethos and talent of Crowsview. They were invited to open the Main Stage on Friday. RMP Magazine caught up with guitar player Bart to discuss their upcoming release of their abum Lost Resistance and more.

On September 8th you’re releasing your new album, Lost Resistance. Congratuations. Featuring 8 songs and a release show in De Verlichte Geest, Roeselare. Tell us why everyone should be present?

The choice for De Verlichte Geest was obvious. Most of our band hails from Roeselare and have been going over there and seeing shows for years. We’ve worked really hard to get our album ready in time and so we hope to make it a great party. We’ve chosen for a diverse line up and after the show me and Dieter intend to deejay some records to keep the party going.

Lost Resistance is self released?

There have been some vague talks with a few labels but in the end we decided to release it ourselves. This way we could keep better control of everything and it enabled us to release the album a lot faster. It’s quite a complicated process, as we’ve experienced, to get all the paperwork done but we’ve learned a lot along the way.

The artwork for Lost Resistance is pretty dark in a way, it features a winged Madonna bleeding from the eyes, holding a goatheaded child amidst bones below. Not an everyday image, what motivated this artwork?

Jeroen was knew of the work of CLLK artwork. Pretty quickly we agreed to let him design something for us. We all agreed that it needed to be quite dark. We are really pleased of his work. Totally our style.

On Lost Resistance you’ve worked with two guest vocalists. Namely Ché Snelting (Herder) and Ross Demon (Length Of Time). How was the collaboration?

It went great. We’ve known Ché and Ross for quite a while and next to being talented vocalists each of them are also awesome guys. We’ve contacted them and they were in it for it immediatly.

They came down together to the Hearse studio and everything was recorded pretty fast. Afterwards we’ve went to go eat some fries and had an amazing night witht them. Ché also was really hungry that night.

Things are going fast for Crowsview, you’ve recently played a show opening for Agnostic Front and Merauder, what’s next?

It was quite an honour for us. They’re not the leastest of bands to play with. When i’ve learned about Agnostic Front in my younger years i never could have imagined that one day i’d be playing with them on the same line up and definitely not in Roeselare. It was an amazing night. Really nice people too.

Crowsview hails from Roeselare, H8000 area. How big of an influence was the H8000 scene to Crowsview?

For most of us it all started with the H8000 bands from when we were younger. Bands like Congress, Liar, Sektor, Spirit Of Youth, Deformity and many others have certainly inspired us musically. But those aren’t the only bands that have inspired us,

You’ve all played in different bands before and earned your stripes, Core Of Anger, Victim Eyes,… But what was the motivation for the formation of Crowsview?

I missed performing and creating music, so i persuaded Pieter to have a jam session. The song The Proposal pretty quickly came out of it. After a few rehearsals Jeroen and Dieter joined and we started writing songs. After a difficult search for a fitting vocalist we’ve found Kevin.

If you had to set a goal for Crowsview, where would you want to see the band go in the future?

We just want to play a lot of great line ups on shows and festivals to amuse ourselves. Just playing with awesome bands and playing fun locations.

Any other local bands we need to check out?

The Curse Of Millhaven, Senter, Lost Baron.

Last words or thanks you’d like to share?

Big thanks to everyone that collaborated on our album. The people setting up all the shows and last but not least all the people coming down to our shows.

 

Crossface – Interview Ieper Hardcore Fest 2018

Today you’ve played the Trench stage at Ieperfest. How was it?

Very good, We thought that we would play for some friends, maybe some people would be interested but when we started it was quite full actually.

Crossface has been a band since a few years, you’ve started for the love of it and playing Ieperfest was one of the main goals you wanted to achieve. Today you’ve succeeded. What’s next?

We’re playing Sunday 26th of August in Kavka, Antwerp with Merauder and Harm’s Way. That’s something that came up. Playing the mainstage at Ieperfest someday would be nice too.

Last year Stijn joined the band on guitar duties. A breath of fresh air into the band?

Some people gave us advice for a second guitar player. We’ve had like two or three people asking to play or try out but we were always like no. We’re like a bunch of friends playing, we want to improve ourselves but it has to be fun. I knew Stijn from the scene. He asked, he’s a really dedicated hardcore kid, to put it like that. He can try out for me, no problem. The rest shared the same idea, so one year later was playing with us. He added some little things to the sound of Chedli’s and actually it’s yet another great friend who joined the band. So it’s still a lots of fun and that’s really necessary for us.

You released an album last year, Kayfabe Is Not Dead on Dust & Bones Records. In the meantime you’ve played all over Belgium. How was the album perceived by the crowd?

We printed 300 copies and split it with Freddy (Dust & Bones Records), each 150 copies. A year later we’ve got 8 CD’s left and he’s got about 50 or something, i’m not sure. But he’s quite happy with the sales. We never thought of it, 300 was like the minimum, so let’s just go for it. And now it’s almost sold out. Like i said, we amaze ourselves every time that it’s all going so well. A lot of people here today on Ieperfest come up to us and say that was a really great show.

The album title Kayfabe Is Not Dead refers to one of your passions, wrestling which seems to flow throughout the artwork. The word Kayfabe comes from wrestling, could you let us in on what it means?

Wrestling is my passion from like ten years old. We were looking for a name, i’ve put Crossface out there. It kind of stood on itself. The cover of the album is a wrestling picture, that was not my idea. But it worked out great. Kayfabe really stands for as a wrestling term that means pretend. Most people will know that pro wrestling is staged. A Kayfabe is like when two wrestlers are having a feud with each other. Battling each other but actually they are friends or colleagues. That’s the term Kayfabe, it’s not real. That’s why Kayfabe Is Not Dead is the album title, not being real is not dead.

With Crossface you’ve choosen for old school hardcore. 90’s H8000 bands seem to be a big influence, what other influences makes Crossface into it’s own?

I think it’s all old school, like Merauder is an influence, Slayer of course. But mainly early Hatebreed, for the vocals and lyrics. Mainly it’s H8000 influenced. We really love Congress, Vitality and Regression and so on. That’s really the main influence.

As you just mentioned Vitality, you’ve worked with AK (Vitality) from the Off The Moon studio to mix and master the album, a well known name in H8000. Why this choice?

He’s a friend, a friend of mine and Chedli’s. We often go there, twice a year, when he’s at home. Because he works for Slayer and Carcass as well. He’s not at home that much, but if he’s at home we like to go there for stories. We’re not only wrestling nerds but we’re also music nerds. We like to know what’s going on with this and that band. So we’re friends and he told us if we needed his help we should come over. We are very lucky to work with him. He helps us out a lot. He even came over to our rehearsal to tune the guitars. He helped us with mixing and mastering. He told us where to go to record. You just need to ask and he knows that we’re not taking advantage of him. It’s really another hardcore friendship experience.

On live shows you often play a cover by Vitality, namely Slaughterchambers, a song against vivisection and animal abuse. Any particular reason this song was chosen?

The lyrics does not pose a problem because i’m a vegetarian. We are with three vegetarians in the band. I always think that when you have straight edge / vegetarian lyrics, the one that sings them has to be like be it. Otherwise it’s like not real. Apart from that, Chedli and i were very ODK crew, Vitality minded. Chedli has that sound, if he plays the guitar he just has that sound. It was like a natural thing, when we started playing we didn’t have enough songs so we were looking around. Congress, Liar, it’s also difficult but it’s well known to say so. Why not play a Vitality song, because AK helps us out a lot, the rest of the Vitality guys know we play it as well, they love it when we do. Why don’t we play that and it also fits with our sound. There have been talks about not playing it anymore because we have enough songs now but we love that song so much it stays in there.

To quote one of your song titles, Anger As Fuel. Is this one of the main drives for your music?

It’s a part of the message. There’s a lot of stuff going on in hardcore and the world that dislikes us.

You have to use that anger as fuel to keep pushing forward. It’s like a positive message. You can look at it as violent but we are not about that.

Another track where the title sort of speaks for itself is Nature’s last laugh. What’s your vision on the current state of nature?

It’s about that subject, i love to read about it a lot. That’s also why i’m also a vegetarian, not only for the animals but also for the environment. What can we say about it, it speaks for itself. It’s sad and it’s true. What i wrote is about my personal view of things, i’m not really relaxed about it. When everyone tries their best, at least i do or we do that’s what the song is about.

Any last words or even some fresh bands we need to check?

We really have to thank a lot of people, Laurent helps us out with the pictures. Freddy who believed in us since day one. All the friends that come out to shows and some of them became friend through that. Steele Justice, Five Across, Sore, Today’s Illusion, Farsight, Makasrr, Minded Fury are some of the bands that we like to play with…But really: a big thank you to the people who support the underground scene in any way, let’s keep it alive.

 

 

Ieper Hardcore Fest 2018

Ieper Hardcore Fest has become a legendary name in the underground DIY festival circuit. With visitors from all over the globe coming over for the weekend to a small historical town in Flanders Belgium, Ieper Hardcore Fest grew into a three day happening of worldwide hardcore. Following the DIY ethic the festival is held for the 26th time in 2018 and all thanks to the hard work and dedication of the originators and their legion of helping hands. What started as a small festival in a local youth club grew into this yearly collaboration of two DIY collectives hailing from the Ypres region bringing together an impressive roster of bands to perform over the weekend.

And once again 2018 holds some true gems in it’s lineup. Whether you like your hardcore old school or you’re more into the more heavier sounds, Ieper Hardcore Fest will cater your needs.

Kicking off on Friday 10th of August a diverse selection of bands grace the different stages with their performances. Local Flemish rippers such as Crowsview and Maudlin are present to rip you a new one amidst legends such as Discharge, Doom, Oi Polloi and of course headliner Shelter that are playing one of three shows planned for Europe this year. A chance you can’t miss.

Saturday 11th of August the feast continues and Ypres will tremble once again under the thundering sounds of Belgian mincecore godfathers Agathocles. If they haven’t destroyed all then local H8000 bands as Crossface, Turbowarriors Of Steel and Headshot will gladly gather their hordes of followers to finish the job. If anything left Wisdoms In Chains is waiting on you to present their new album or what about Jasta to end of your Saturday at Ieper Hardcore Fest.

On Sunday 12th the gathering reaches it’s final day with another series of killer acts, a few personal favorites to see are Vonnis, Merauder, Comeback Kid, Coffins, Darkside NYC and festival headliner Converge.

Quite an impressive lineup but that’s not all, Ieper Hardcore Fest is More Than Music, there’s also the delicious vegan food provided by the Ieper food team, homegrown and made with tons of love and of course the fourth stage, The More Than Music tent where several ngo’s and others man the stands to inform the public about different topics. Ranging from veganism to more political, the MTM tent is open to all to discuss their thoughts or to find knowledge on many topics be it by pamphlets, speakers or just supporting a cause by signing a petition. Ieper Hardcore Fest has it all and is inviting you to join in, the music may be loud but the crowd isn’t.

For the complete lineup and more info visit www.ieperfest.com