One of the most prominent 'new school' hardcore bands in the Netherlands during the '90s was Reveal. Reveal started out under the name S5 with a different guitarist and drummer. Singer Geert and bassist Dave were around from the start right up until the end of Reveal. Based in a small town called Dongen in the south of the Netherlands, they quickly managed to start a local hardcore scene and crew of friends called the DongArmy. With S5 they used to do a cover of 'California Dreaming' (The Mama's And The Papa's) with the girls from the DongArmy on backup vocals, which was always a highlight of their live sets. After a while they felt the name S5 didn't fit the band anymore, and they were also having some line-up issues. For a short time they were called Strident, but after settling on a stable line-up with drummer Maarten and guitarist Mischa, they found a solid bandname in Reveal.
With the name Reveal they didn't record any demo, but merely based on their solid live-performances and the quality of their songs, Reveal managed to get signed by Good Life Recordings out of Belgium (and later by Genet Records, also out of Belgium), released 3 CD's and played many shows with bands such as Kindred, Driven, Facedown etc and toured Europe with Catharsis... Because of the Good Life connection, their musical style and the bands that were on this label at the time, some people thought Reveal were a straight edge band. However, apart from drummer Maarten who was sXe, the Reveal members were far from straight edge, they drank and really loved to smoke pot. Not that it mattered, they were really cool people, their live-shows were always great and their records amazing. They also used to set up shows in their hometown Dongen. They set up the first ever show of my old band Disdain there, but also set up shows for touring bands such as Indecision and Boy Sets Fire.
In 2000-2001 the members started to drift in different musical directions, and the band decided to call it a day. In 2001 they played their farewell show in their hometown Dongen, with the singer being brought to the stage while crucified on a cross. A memorable show, and for the first time in years, they played 'California Dreaming' again.
Included with this post are the S5 'Broken' demo (unfortunately no scans of the cover or a track-listing as mine's a mere copy) which shows a way more straight-forward hardcore band, it also has their infamous 'California Dreaming' cover on it, and a CD-r with a variety of live-recordings that was only sold in a limited run (I have #61 of 90) at Reveal's farewell show. Their regular albums can be downloaded
here although they shouldn't be too hard to find. A few years ago a small but interesting documentary was made about Reveal. Even though it's in Dutch, maybe some readers will enjoy it. It can be watched
here.
Geert now sings in a 3-man electronics band called
Linked. Dave has played bass in a number of bands since Reveal including
Transmission0 and his current band,
Hooghwater. Guitarist Mischa played in Transmission0 as well as a more grungy/indie The Void. Maarten was part of the initial line-up of Transmission0 but he left before the band gained any traction and played in The Void as well, and then played in a glamrock band called
H.O.T.T..
S5 - 'Broken' demo
Reveal - 'Unrevealed '96-'01 - The Complete Live Collection' CD
Collateral Damage - s/t [1994 - Indecision Records]
My all-time favorite band from Belgium is Kindred. However, all good things come to an end eventually, and Kindred was no exception. Shortly after Kindred's demise in late 1997, a couple of Kindred members got together with some friends and formed the first line-up of a new band, called Enemy Of The Sun. Things didn't work out however, and quickly the band folded again. A few months afterwards all 4 Kindred members got together again, added a 2nd guitarist and started working on Enemy Of The Sun material again, and this time things did work out. The band went into a different direction compared to their Kindred past and incorporated more noisy influences, different song-structures and ditched the metalcore. They released 2 records, the self-titled CD I posted here and a 3-song EP called 'Eclipse' (available here, also the person who requested this post). While I was personally not into EOTS the same way as with Kindred, EOTS certainly was a good band. After EOTS folded, singer Eric and bassist Walter formed a new band called troubleLOVESus, which took the experimentation level even further. I don't know what the members are doing currently, but I'm sure whatever they're doing, it will be good.
This Belgian H8000 band is mostly known for their contribution to the Animal Truth compilation from 1998. Their song on there, 'Fight For Existence', is often ridiculed as one of the worst songs in vegan sXe hardcore history. And the band was not taken too seriously either during their short lifetime. However, I've always loved that song, and the band was decent to good the few times I saw them. I still have one of their 'straight edge militia' t-shirts with the camo Natural Order logo, see the pic above. Their singer was this vegan sXe kid with a hardline tattoo in his neck. He was a really nice & cool kid, unfortunately when I talked to him about 4-5 years ago he was smoking a cigarette, not sure if he's vegan still.
Someone requested this comp on the xStuck In The Pastx forum, so here it is. This is the second installment, out of three, of the East Coast Assault compilations. This is a 2 disc compilation with 17 bands each contributing 2 or more tracks. Stylistically it is quite diverse and the same can be said for the quality (unfortunately). I've never been into Commin' Correct for instance, old 25 Ta Life is where it's at if we're talking Rick Ta Life. And while Andrew over at Aversionline loved the Struggle Within and Rainmen tracks, they don't do a whole lot for me either. However, there are also plenty of quality bands on here, some that I feel are underrated like Enrage, Cease and Innerface besides some fairly well-known great bands such as Indecision, Stigmata and All Out War. Anyways, I'll keep this quite short. All in all it's a worthy successor to the first East Coast Assault compilation, even if it doesn't come close to the overall level of the original (but few compilations have been able to). One major complaint, and this goes for the 1st installment as well, is that the insert only lists contact information for the bands, and nothing else. This is a little scarce to put it mildly. But oh well... Let the music speak for itself I guess.
an Hourglass / New Day Rising test press on Moo Cow Records (1 of 5)
Burst of Silence - Unreleased LP
One of the most prominent 'new school' hardcore bands in the Netherlands during the '90s was Reveal. Reveal started out under the name S5 with a different guitarist and drummer. Singer Geert and bassist Dave were around from the start right up until the end of Reveal. Based in a small town called Dongen in the south of the Netherlands, they quickly managed to start a local hardcore scene and crew of friends called the DongArmy. With S5 they used to do a cover of 'California Dreaming' (The Mama's And The Papa's) with the girls from the DongArmy on backup vocals, which was always a highlight of their live sets. After a while they felt the name S5 didn't fit the band anymore, and they were also having some line-up issues. For a short time they were called Strident, but after settling on a stable line-up with drummer Maarten and guitarist Mischa, they found a solid bandname in Reveal.
Photo taken by Dan Rawe
![Mayday - Victim [demo 1993]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNu1BD8eki-O6k8I4pN5KD6E73RK9aq7z4l4BQs8qSGNa6AB4OhbO-u9ACy-gWD_cwSmLJUqY_l8FtIzl0dYgpxhNH_55rrU5fDoHK9ggKrl4rw_j0Xk4-wMmszw-wokfmB9b1xnOqcB74A_9P2gmv1isDkT0J4jPFGnCnPnVMrVW2MpjPRsPWnMkgORk/s72-c/cover.jpg)
