Chain Reaction

11 years ago, in February 2010, I booked Rise & Fall in Athens, Greece; undoubtedly one of the coolest shows that I’ve ever booked, with the band being on the peak of their career, 3 local bands that kicked ass (Endsight, I Want You Dead & Ruined Families) and AN Club being on fire on a Sunday night. After ups and downs, new bands forming and quitting etc., most of the R&F members are still involved in the scene, and 2 of them play in the brand new Belgian band called Chain Reaction, along with ex-Spirit Of Youth, Congress & Kingpin members! These old heads managed to release a 12” that drew the attention of the worldwide hardcore scene in the end of 2020. I had a nice talk with Bjorn about Chain Reaction, the Zotte Sfeer scene of the mid 00s and Belgian (not French!) fries. Sit comfortably and read!

Pictures by Kevin Vankeirsbilck (@kevienpictures)

www.instagram.com/chainreactionbelgium chainreactionbelgium.bandcamp.com

Hey Bjorn! Hope life is treating you well! How do you deal with the age of quarantine in Belgium?

I’m good my man. Hope you are too. Dealin’ with it the best I can, I guess. Basically working a lot, trying to get outside often enough to run, hike or grab a coffee somewhere. I try not to get caught up in the constant stream of information and the constant what ifs. Taking it day by day and hoping everyone keeps their head up until we get out of this mess.

Chain Reaction is a kinda new band but you all are old heads being active in tons of other bands / cool stuff in the past? Who’s in the band? Give us a short CV of each member!

It’s true that all of us have been around for a while now, so that means we’ve all done a bunch of bands too. I’m not going to bore you with every little detail and I honestly always try to keep the ex-members thing low key anyway, but here’s some insight. So, we’ve got Murph on drums. He used to sing in Spirit Of Youth in the

late 90s, then went on to drum in Kingpin and Rise And Fall, amongst other bands. Sim plays guitar, he played bass in Spirit Of Youth and then guitar in Kingpin. He was also in Voices At The Front, a rather obscure straight edge band from the mid-90s that put out an awesome demo. Clovis plays bass, he was in Kingpin and also played in Congress where he replaced the original bass player UxJ and stuck with the band until the end. I sing and I used to be in Rise And Fall.

2020 was the year of the release of ‘Figurehead’. Many scenesters included your record in their top 10 / 20 of hardcore releases of all year! How do you feel

about this? Are you satisfied with the final outcome? How did the collaboration with Atomic Action Records happen, besides working with Control Records, too?

I’m still very happy with how the record came out. I think it looks and sounds awesome. Obviously, it’s been great seeing “Figurehead” pop up in people’s Best Of 2020 lists, it’s a super rewarding feeling, especially for a small band like ours. When we got the final mix, we knew we had something really good in our hands, but you never know how the response will be or if people will pick up on it or not. We’ve been working with Control since day one – which was the demo – but we wanted to get a US label involved too this time to broaden our reach. I had worked with Atomic Action before when I was in the short-lived White Jazz, through which I met Brian and we stayed in touch ever since. I wasn’t sure if Chain Reaction would be his thing, but he was down right away. Dude’s a lifer and a legend, so to have him involved means a lot to me.

It’s been a while since a European hardcore band drew attention from overseas and Chain Reaction did so. What’s your opinion about this? Overhyping US bands was always (or at least it is so the last 2 decades) a thing in hardcore, but I believe that there’s a lack of really good hardcore bands coming

out of EU lately. Do you also share this feeling?

This topic is as old as hardcore itself and I always try to be approach it in a nuanced way. Thing is, hardcore as we know it is an American phenomenon through and through, even though European and especially English bands were crucial in its evolution. That being said, the US is such a huge country, with so many thriving scenes in different cities and areas, so many bands all over the place, so it’s kind of logical that they don’t look across the ocean to get their fix. On the other hand, Europe (and the same goes for Japan and Australia to a big extent) has always been very US focused too, so it’s kind of weird to be throwing stones. Then again, when things get really good here, we’ve had bands and scenes that make waves worldwide. It’s not a constant thing, but not that rare either. You bet that the mid-80s UK scene (Heresy, Ripcord, Napalm Death etc.) made an impact over there, as did the mid-90s H8000 scene in Belgium (Congress, Liar, Blindfold, etc.) and the Swedish scene from that same era (Refused, Abhinanda, Shield etc.). Later on, of course the Belgian / Dutch Zotte Sfeer bands (Dead Stop, Justice, Restless Youth) had that same effect and for the last 7-8 years or so it’s been the NWOBHC scene that started with Violent Reaction and brought us Big Cheese, Arm’s Race, Stages In Faith, etc. So, I do think Europe

has often had its glorious moments too, but it ain’t easy to get the attention of Americans, even though touring there does help a lot, as most of the aforementioned bands will confirm (whether they’ve been there or not).

So, almost a year after the split 7” with Spark, you unleashed ‘Figurehead’. How did you come with a 6-song 12” EP instead of a full-length record? Did you prefer to choose 6 banger songs instead of risking to include fillers? To be honest, most new full-length records bore me after a while…

Well, you probably answered your own question there. I don’t think any band willingly records filler songs, but it’s just a fact that harder, aggressive hardcore works best in smaller doses. For a band in our style and of our size, I think the EP is the best format. I don’t think we’ll ever do a full-length actually. We kind of wrote the split 7” songs (“Who’s The Fool” & “End On End”) in between the writing we did for “Figurehead”, because the idea for the split came unexpectedly, but it worked out well. It allowed us to further work on the dynamics of our songs and spice ‘em up here and there. I’m glad to hear you dig those songs!

After playing with bands like Rise & Fall, touring the world and almost fulfilling every hardcore musician’s dream, what’s still motivating you to do a band, play shows and tour again? Isn’t hardcore a teenager’s thing?! Are you that weird guy that is over 25 and still care about hardcore?!

I just love it, so it would be weird turn my back on the scene I grew up in and that shaped me. I think that goes for the rest of the band too. We still love writing music and being involved. I think the two crucial elements here are the fact that this band allows us to still be creative and have a good time while doing so, plus it also enables us to be active participants in hardcore 2021, right next to younger and older or bigger bands. I definitely agree that youthful rage and energy are a huge part of what makes hardcore such a great thing, and I’m confident that we still have enough of that and enough good riffs

and ideas to earn our little spot in today’s scene. Definitely not here to be that jaded old weirdo, but to give it the best we got, together with people of different generations.

Do you still care about straight edge and vegetarianism / veganism? It seems that the latter is getting more and more popular while straight edge is kinda dying or at least there’s not many outspoken bands / persons nowadays and usually whoever is edge is for himself, period.

I’ve been straight edge for a quite a while now, but it’s something I usually keep to myself. It’s become so ingrained in me that I don’t even think about it that much. Plus, I’ll honestly say that a lot of overtly straight edge bands are just super cringey to me. But I care for sure and think it’s important that the straight edge idea is passed on to younger generations. Some of the other dudes in the band are vegetarians and – even if I’m not – it’s plain to see that in the grand scheme of things that is the more important issue.

I can see there’s a big 90s hardcore revival, both musically and aesthetically. What do you think about this? Top 3 hardcore albums of the 90s? Top 3 shirt designs?!

I was asked a similar question in another interview recently and as you’ll know, this is type of question that makes one’s brain melt. Let me cheat a little and give you a US and a Euro top 3 when it comes to actual albums (not 7”s or demos):

90s US: 1. Quicksand – “Slip” 2. Integrity – “For Those Who Fear Tomorrow” 3. Madball – “Set It Off”

90s Europe: 1. Blindfold – “Asteroid 164” 2. Congress – “Blackened Persistence” 3. Abhinanda – “Senseless”

Shirt designs? You’re a wild man. The Burn long-sleeve with the TV for sure, the Quicksand “Slip” promo shirt with the divers (someone get me that one!) and the black Merauder shirt with the weird ninja skull they have. You know what I mean.

How’s the scene in Belgium nowadays? The glorious days of H8000 and, later, the Justice, Dead Stop, Powered Records, Rise & Fall etc. era seem to be over or am I wrong? What about the new generation? Any standout bands / labels we should check out?

Those days are over for sure. Scenes like that evolved organically, usually inspired by a couple of great bands and other factors like time and place. I would say that the closing of the legendary Lintfabriek venue marked the end of the Zotte Sfeer era (that you’d associate with Dead Stop, Justice, Restless Youth, Powered, Complete Control etc.), since then we definitely have had some really good bands, but things haven’t evolved into a bigger wave so far. Personally, I love Mindwar and I think they can be the band to light the fuse again. They’ve been a band for 5 years now, keep getting better and they always bring it live. Some of their shows already get quite wild. Their singer Anthony does guest vocals on “Certain Death” by the way. Other than that, in the heavy department, we’re all still waiting for that Redemption Denied LP. Not sure if Absolve is still a band at this point. If you like your hardcore raw and dirty, Belgium’s the spot. Reproach is still active and still kicks ass, then of course there’s Blind To Faith who got out a rippin’ new album last year, plus newer bands like Raw Peace (with Reproach, Blind To Faith & Rise And Fall members), Haemers, Instructor, Permanent Debt, Hetze and I’m probably forgetting some.

A silly question. What’s the story between France stealing the trademark of your fries? I must admit that Belgian fries are way better than the French ones.

Fools weren’t satisfied with their wine and cheese, so they tried to claim our fries. No one with a brain believes that shit though.

That’s all I guess. Any plans for the future? Last words are yours!

Thanks a lot for having us! Shout out to the labels that helped us get “Figurehead” out there; Control, Atomic Action & Life.Lair.Regret – you all rule. Hit us up if you want to see us play your city. Take care out there everyone. Peace.