When I was a teenager I was not into hardcore (gabber house)… not at all… the first hardcore music which found its way into my stereo was most like the dj Dano remix of a Fear Factory track… that was 1997… already quite late for the true Dutch hardcore scene… and dj Dano was from Amsterdam of course and not from Rotterdam… not a minor detail when it comes to hardcore music… also I heard some Ultraviolence some years earlier but was not impressed with that project back then… and still not…
And in some ways the Covenant track “Edge Of Dawn” features elements from hardcore… and this piece is from 1994… so from the same era as the first wave of hardcore…
Only more recently I got more interested in this music… because of its loudness, it roughness and simply because it is so extreme… even compared with some industrial techno from the today… still I prefer the truly dark and twisted stuff… not when it becomes “funny” with vocal samples and stuff…
Anyway… I saw a great documentary a few years ago about the scene… both musicwise as when it comes to the subculture this film is a true document… you can see this film “Gabbers” with subtitles below (as it is a Dutch production of course) … and below that is another documentary on the scene with a focus on the Energiehal in Rotterdam (now demolished and also with English subtitles)… which was a special place for the parties of thescene in the first part of the 1990’s… enjoy!
Onmens is quite a new outfit from Belgium… last year they released two albums… of which one, entitled “Witruimte”, is also available on vinyl…