Live Review: Ieperfest 2013

Ieperfest is known for its green status, the vegan lifestyle and of course the great line-up they have every year. This year was no different. The minute I arrived it was sorting your thrash, eating vegan food and listening to some good music.

Friday:

Get Wise was packed with energy and bringing the early mosh they went hard! They played a Chain Of Strength cover which made it even better. Hessian was dark and atmospheric, very vicious too. It was an impressive live show. Full Of Hell was pure chaos and noise. The vocalist made facial expressions I thought weren’t even possible to make. It was a great set with some nice noisy intro’s and interludes, the crowd loved it. Code Orange Kids was energetic and aggressive, the three vocalists came out great. Reba sounded really good live. Adolescents was insanely fun. It was fast, it had energy. They played all the classics and so many punk kids started pitting, it was a whirlwind of mohawks and dust, it was really cool. Jello Biafra & The GSM were even better than Adolescents. Also a group of old timers but they know how to party! Playing classic Dead Kennedy’s songs, Jello doing spastic stuff on stage and stage diving in to the crowd it was a performance I won’t soon forget! Black Flag, ah how sad I was about Black Flag. They’re one of my all time favorite old school Hardcore Punk bands ever and they played all the classics but boy it sucked! Ron Reyes sounded dull and uninspired and his voice gave up half the times (or at least it sounded like it did). The fact that they’re old timers could’ve been an excuse to justify this, but after seeing Jello and Adolescents it’s an excuse they can’t get away with.

Saturday:

Magrudergrind was packed with energy and aggression they know how to give a show! It sounded nasty and violent and caused a mass movement under fans. The band was very well received and they deserved the positive attention. Oathbreaker was just like Hessian which isn’t weird seeing they’re all Church Of Ra bands. Atmospheric and dark. It was a whirlwind of hair and smoke. Municipal Waste was just all fun and chaos. The crowd was one big circle pit. The band made the show really fun with their jokes and energy. I’ve seen so many people and things fly through the air it was just mental. On top of that the band played all the songs everybody wanted to hear which made it one of the best performances I witnessed. Culture was so good especially because it was their first show after 16 years. They played all the best tracks and the crowd loved it. Deforestation kicked in and the crowd just started pilling up including me. Napalm Death was intense and played the perfect mix between old and new songs. Cro-Mags was amazing, they kept us waiting in the cold for a while but when they came up, they killed it from the start. Playing classics like ‘Malfunction’, ‘Street Justice’ and ‘Crush The Demoniac’. They also played two Bad Brains covers and a Leeway intro. It was the perfect ending of the day.

Sunday:

Grieved played a strong set. They didn’t get much time which is a shame, because they deserved more than just 25 minutes. Revenge was pure pissed off heathen chaos. I stood in front of the stage for the whole set even when it started raining like crazy. I was soaked but the performance was worth it! What a good band. Wolf X Down was strong and played loads of new stuff which sounded amazing live, so obviously there was moshing involved. Integrity was something I was really looking forward to and they delivered! The band didn’t interact much but they played all the best tracks. I expected them to play the new record which I wasn’t looking forward too, but to my surprise (and liking) they only played one song of the new album. Amenra was impressive. They did not speak a word, they played their amazing setlist and left without a single word. It was a wall of sound and mist and it was extremely good. The screen with video material was a nice bonus. Madball the strong NYHC band was scheduled to play until 22h00 but they played almost half an hour longer and nobody seemed to mind. It was a strong mix between old and new material and the vocalist was very enthusiastic about being on Ieper so it was a very cool experience and perfect ending to a solid Hardcore weekend.