I was born and raised in Kortrijk, the mecca of H8000 hardcore in the nineties. H8000 hardcore was well known for its edge metal bands like Congress, Liar, Regression, Spineless,... that had a huge following, not only locally but also international. I was pretty young when all this happened and I was mostly interested in skateboarding, skate punk (I was a huge fan of Green Leaf Records, a subdivision of Goodlife Recordings, the label that released most of these edge metal bands) and chasing girls but I did attend some shows and bought some records.
My favorite H8000 band has always been Blindfold, who played more of a melodic and emo influenced style of hardcore. You can expect some Blindfold posts later on this blog.
Through the Blindfold 'world of fools' 7 inch I got to know Machination Records and through Machination Records I got to know more of those earlier bands when the scene was still called 8000 scene. Somehow those earlier days and bands interest me more than the more metallic H8000 scene (although Congress and Liar, the trailblazers of the H8000 scene were amazing off course). There were some awesome bands active and a couple of local labels: Warehouse Records, PMA Records and Machination Records. The motto of the scene back then was 'Positive, political, powerful', something I can totally relate to. The 'Regress no way' compilation 7 inch on Warehouse Records is a classic and has songs from the 4 most important 8000 bands: Nations On Fire, Blindfold, Spirit Of Youth and Shortsight.
Machination Records only released 7 inches, mainly of local bands (the awesome German band Acme being an exception) and they are all recommended. Even though these records are over 20 years old I still enjoy listening to them and this small label has always fascinated me somehow.
The Love, Truth & Honesty 7 inch was released in 1992 and is in my eyes a very underrated record. You can buy copies on discogs for only 1 euro. The band consisted of Edward (also in Nations On Fire and later of Goodlife Recordings) on vocals, the 2 brothers Dominiek and Frederik (of Spirit Of Youth, Solid, Blood Redemption, ...) on guitar and drums and Ignace on bass. These four songs were also on the Spirit Of Youth demotape on Warehouse Records, recorded by the same line-up a while earlier. So I guess Love, Truth & Honesty is Spirit Of Youth using another name for a short period of time.
The music always reminds me of Dag Nasty and later era Minor Threat. Good, fast and melodic hardcore. Lyrically two of the songs are in the same vein as the Nations On Fire ones and reflect the 'Positive, political, powerful' motto of the scene. Two other songs are more personal dealing with relationships and friendships.
I've always liked the lay-out of the Machination Records releases, they were always simple and to the point but nice to look at. This release is no different. I always wondered what the medieval looking illustration on the cover meant until Edward told me it was his hommage to a series of classical music compilation cd's that he was a big fan of. Nice anecdote and reference!
Get this record. Spend a euro wisely and remember: "Together we can turn the impossible dream into reality..."
Great record for sure!!!!
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