H8000 Or Fuck Off
The H8000 scene is one of the most
well-known music scenes for both metal and hardcore, as well as one of the most
influential. It is geographical sound heavily pioneered by bands Congress
and Liar by taking cues from the likes of Slayer, Morbid Angel and Master,
before their local contemporaries, Deformity and Sektor took their sound to
limit by being much heavier and faster (which in the end pioneering deathcore
before the genre got fucked to oblivion) – providing the groundwork for a lot of European metalcore bands such as Arkangel, Length of Time, Ashlar, Sentence,
Reprisal and XRepentenceX to emulate.
The term "H8000" is strictly used
to refer Belgian metal/hardcore bands hailed from the province area of
West Flanders. The letter "H" signifies hate as the scene had
received disdain for their strong commitment on straight edge. Liar guitarist
Matthias Halsberghe explained: "[It’s for the] hate towards all ignorant
bastards who make fun of us and call us dumbasses and stuff," though in a
cheeky way he further added: "maybe it is just a tough-guy thing."
The four digits at the end however represent the postal codes in West Flanders;
the band Liar for example originated from Kortrijk, so the city's postal code
would be 8500. The term was initially coined in 1992, though, originally it was
simply known as "8000" before Josh Fury (guitarist for Wheel of
Progress, Congress, and Liar) added the letter H roughly a year later.
Let it be clear H8000 does not simply
limited to metal as some of the earliest bands within the scene were pretty
much channelling Boston and New York hardcore bands. This is especially true in
the case of Rise Above as members of the band admitted they were influenced by
SS Decontrol, whose vegan straight edge ideology went hard in their records.
Rise Above was crucial in the development of this scene as most if not all of
the members went and form the first H8000 bands: Spirit of Youth, Blindfold,
Nations on Fire and Shortsight. One of the members also established Good Life
Recordings, a label that helped push H8000 as a force to be reckoned with.
Wheel of Progress - It's Alive (1991)
Proto-Congress and Liar. While Congress
effectively solidified "edge metal" (a term to denote brutal
metalcore bands that abode straight edge and nods towards H8000) Wheel of Progress essentially laid
out its first blueprints of the sound. Indeed, this short-lived project gave
H8000 its first glimpse of a hardcore and extreme metal fusion. Quite an
important oddity as this release was one of the first metalcore recordings to
exist. Its raw and somewhat underdeveloped, which is expected since this being
some sort of a prototype for edge metal. There's noticeable death/thrash metal
riffs being sprinkled here and there backed by some basic drumming and angry
ass hardcore vocals, which Josh Fury described as a "rather new sound for
that time" – he was right.
Regression - Heartless (1996)
Regression is a metalcore band that stood
out quite highly in the scene for paying homage to their New York brethren
Earth Crisis and Stigmata, by plodding through groovy and heavy as fuck riffs
instead of opting for faster extreme metal styles à la Liar or Sektor, which is
both dope and refreshing. (Though, there's a bit of
Liar's sound in this record: see "Retaliation" and "As We
Speak.") As expected, their downtuned chuggy guitars gave them that
signature thuggery and heavy sound, making this 15-minute extended play full of
fat riffs aiming to knock your teeth out. Unfortunately after this release
Regression disbanded, leaving this album the only stuff in their discography.
Unfortunate, because it would've been great to see if they continued their
sound. Oh well.
Blindfold - Asteroid 164* (1996)
This is kinda pushing it because this
record sounded sonically closer towards actual post-hardcore with some
metalcore influences, especially at first glance. Blindfold was always pretty
left-field with their music, alongside with H8000's finest Spineless (whose
emotive sound alternating with brutal metalcore was something else, I might
add) and Lifecycle. "Asteroid 164*" sounded like Blindfold playing a
slowed down version of Antioch Arrow and messed around with metalcore, at least
that's how I see it. (Which, come to think of it reminded me on how bands under
labels like Three One G and Ebullition kinda blurred the lines for
post-hardcore during that time since how metallic it was.) This record is
pretty good considering how experimental and artsy it was, though I wouldn't
see myself revisiting it often.
Actually, I take that back. This is an
excellent album.
Liar - Invictus (1997)
Alongside with Congress, Liar's obvious
thrash and (lowkey) death metal influences pretty much changed the landscape
for H8000. Their debut was solid, though it was the release of
"Invictus" where their signature sound was formed to its fullest
potential. Featuring ex-members of Wheels of Progress, Liar's musicianship is
tight as both the drums and guitars are on point, and the impeccable songwriting
delivered this album as a punishing, fast-paced record that should be
frequently talked about by both metalcore *and* thrash metal fans. (There's a
reason why I included this album in my Metalcore for Thrash Fans blog some
months ago.) This is a very essential release.
Sektor - Human Spots of Rust (1997)
Basically a heavier and tougher version of
Liar, and that's a great compliment. Liar's influence isn't really coincidental
since Sektor was signed under Sobermind Records (founded by Liar's vocalist
Hans Verbeke.) Some zine called them an "extreme death metal" band,
which isn't that entirely wrong considering they got strong death metal riffage
and drumming in their material, though calling them deathcore is much more
accurate since they are much rooted in metalcore as well.
Solid - Darkside Moments (1997)
After Spirit of Youth disbanded brothers
Dominiek ‘Dompie’ (guitars) and Frederik Denolf (drums) formed Solid in circa
1994 with fellow like-minded musicians Kris Casier and Giovanni Debruyne on
bass and vocals respectively. However unlike their previous band Solid
displayed a strong death metal influence, musically aligning themselves with
their local fellow contemporaries Sektor and Deformity.
Congress - Angry with the Sun (1998)
Arguably *the* band when it comes to H8000
and edge metal in general. Apparently according to an interview Congress took
influences from early New York Hardcore, Clevo hardcore (which is interesting
since the band did collaborated with Dwid Hellion of Integrity) and extreme
metal (death and thrash being the most obvious). Their furious and hateful
sound proved to be influential as tons of European metalcore bands took a lot
from them, and H8000 is no exception. Being the first band to sign under Good
Life Recordings, they are also instrumental for helping the label to gain the
attention of various hardcore-adjacent metal scenes worldwide through their
albums, which are often considered as classics in the realm of '90s metalcore.
Deformity - Murder Within Sin (1999)
One of the first bands under the scene that
fused a considerable amount of death metal influence into their sound, to the
point they became a pioneer of deathcore (before the genre got fucked by kids
who listen to Slipknot, Korn and Suffocation, for better or worse of course).
For some reason they tend to be overlooked when compared to the other bands in
this list, which is odd considering all of their records are essentially
flawless when it comes to making hateful, brutal ass metalcore/deathcore. Very
early on Deformity already started flirting with death metal; their 1997
extended play "Misanthrope" rides the line between metalcore and
death metal satisfyingly well. However it wasn't until in this album they
decided to flesh out their death metal influences hard, to the point for the
average listener it's hard to discern it as deathcore at first glance. Quite an
essential release for this canon, easily.
Spirit of Youth - Colors That Bleed (1999)
Very, very good artsy metalcore that I
really shouldn't ignore in the first place. Took me a while to get around this
album because I once thought Spirit of Youth was alright since I was listening
to their 1997 debut. Apparently I was wrong. So damn wrong. Because after
trying this album out shit changed. What's great about this album is Spirit of
Youth managed to turn a lot of riffs that you can find in Congress & co.
and somehow, made it sound incredibly fresh. I don't even know how to explain
it. I believe this band went disbanded for a while and some members went
forming Solid. They got good songwriting on lockdown, I feel like they
meticulously arranged the songs in this album to make it flow well not to lose
interest, and flow well it did. I hate myself for sleeping on this one.
Legion - Embedded In Darkness (1999)
Old school deathcore that's on the same
level of quality of Deformity. Legion's case is similar to Regression:
information about them is hard to come by, and after the release of one album
(which in this case, this one) they basically went kapoof. Anyway, for a
18-minute record, this album is packed with fat riffs that would make even the
most lame-ass death metal bands being put to shame. The vocals were hard as
fuck, often utilizing screams instead of the usual gutturals you would expect
from death metal.
This RYM link will redirect you to a much more detailed list of
H8000 bands and its associated acts. It was made by me of course, since I'm a
damn nerd for this type of stuff.
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