As I mentioned already a couple of times my favorite H8000 band has always been Blindfold. Second place has always been a tie between Nations On Fire and Shortsight. I love 'Cold wounds waking' and I especially love those first notes of the album. An album has to start good for me. A good intro or first song is very important and to me that's actually a craft that not every band masters. The kings of first songs is and has always been Fugazi. Every record starts with a banger.
But I'm getting off track here. Let's talk about Shortsight! They were actually a short lived H8000 band. They started in the early nineties with Hans Verbeke (Liar, Blindfold,...) on vocals. After the demo Hans' sister Saskia took over and they recorded a 7inch on Conquer The world Records and Machination Records called 'Why spend time learning...'. They also contributed a song to the infamous 'Regress no way' 7inch on Warehouse Records. In my mind this compilation is an as important document to the 8000 (and later H8000) scene as the 'Flex your head' LP is to the early DC hardcore scene.
The evolution of this band is pretty mind blowing. From the pretty basic but very good song 'On fire' on the 'Regress no way' 7inch to the four songs on the 'Why spend learning' 7inch to the fully grown and mature full length 'Cold wounds waking' cd on Goodlife Recordings (it's a pity I don't have the first demo). It's hard to describe the sound of Shortsight. The guitars are awesome. There's not a single bad riff on 'Cold wounds waking'. I still get amped when I hear the opening riff to 'Screaming trees' (which I first heard as a bonus track on the Green Leaf 'Best of Belgium' compilation). Josh Fury (of Congress, Liar and King Hiss) delivers an awesome acoustic instrumental track on 'Cold wounds waking' (something he continued to do on his own bands' records). Saskia's vocals are always on point and very catchy. I also love the drum sound on this record. Drummer Björn Lescouhier went on to play in Regression and became one of the best and most powerful drummers in the H8000 scene (he actually proved he still is very good on the Regression reunion shows a couple of weeks ago). The lyrics range frome very personal ones (like 'Father', written by Hans Verbeke) to environmental pollution ('Screaming Trees') to pretty original ones for a hardcore band ('Give him light' for example).
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| Inside of the 'Could Wounds Waking' cd. I have always been intrigued about the awesome show picture. Where was this? Looks like a bunker. Edit: I finally saw the extra's of the H8000 documentary dvd and know the story about this show. Check out the documentary! |
Edward Verhaeghe (Goodlife Recordings, Nations On Fire) said it best in the H8000 documentary: Congress, Liar and Shortsight each delivered their 'magnum opus' in 1995 and kicked off a crazy period in Belgian hardcore history. Because 'Cold wounds waking' sure is a very good record. Too bad Shortsight quit so soon. I'm sure they could have done more great things in the H8000 scene. It was awesome to see Saskia sing along to a song during the Nations On Fire reunion show.
To end this I would like to point out that I think Hans and his crew who made the H8000 documentary feel the same as I do about the intro to 'Feverchild'. The documentary starts with the very same notes that gave me goosebumps on that train ride home from work and actually gave me goosebumps again while watching the premiere of the documentary in a packed De Kreun in Kortrijk a couple of weeks ago. I also love every minute in the documentary about Shortsight and the interviews with Saskia and Bjorn. Very interesting and often times funny stuff! I secretly hope a vinyl release of 'Cold Wounds Waking' might be one of the next projects for Hans' FX7 Records label!
Listen to the 'Cold Wounds Waking' record here:
