VISIONS OF WAR

 Visions Of War are great crust band from Belgium with an interesting story behind them.. actually they are one of my favorites crust band right now.. the first time I was heard for them was some 3 years ago at 1st Balkanika Core festival on which they was the most interesting band to me.. they've played this year at Monte Paradiso festival too, but I spend the time of their performance outside standing in the line to buy ticket..bad luck..
here is their biography taken with permission from their my space page..

This is a big piece of totally non relevant history , but for who'se got the nerves to read it all be our guest,answered by Lolo......
Well,first I've been democraticly delegated to write down a boring biography of VISIONS OF WAR, in order to offer you something more clear.so here we go!! VISIONS OF WAR was formed october 96 (it's such a long time ago !)in the flemish part of hellgium (dutch speaking part) with the following line-up : Davy : bass,Filip : drums,Stef : guitar,Steffen : vocals.

Shortly afterwards Steve joined the band , after attending a rehearsal and offered to shout a bit with them,as 2nd vocalist , and a 10 song demo was recorded in april 98,then a second one in december 98 (after an offer to do a release for filth ear records),5 songs where 3 where used for the split EP with OKOTTA (Hellgium) in 2000 (now you can find the full second demo as a bonus on the split CD/K7 with MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS).After around 15 or 20 gigs,and when a few members where supposed to join the band , VISIONS OF WAR had a break (a split-up if you want) in may 2000.But the nightmare started once again,exactly 4 months later with a brand new line-up in september.

When Davy and Steffen left the band , Filip,Stef and steve kept their instruments , 3 (not so) sexy boys joined the crew : Arno from the french part of Hellgium as 2nd guitar player,Lolo from France-id as 2nd sinker,and Tom from Flanders as bass-tard player.But this last one left the band in october 01 after a few tours in France,Germ-money,Hole-land and Hellgium.unfortunatly nothing has been recorded during this line-up.Immediately after Toms departure ,Boris "Gro",from Wallonie (frenchspeakin' part of Hellgium) full-time wife of Arno and V.O.W.-groupie,took the bass. Then back on the road for lots of small tours,and finally recording in april 2002 in A'doom by DEJAN M.O.K. at the "Kaptain Kaos Studio"! From this recording ,a part was remastered and taken for a spli lp with OLHO DE GATO in 2003.
Later the losers where ready for a tour in Germ-money,Switzerland when Boris announced the day before leaving he was too sick to tour (he really was!!!). Our friend Gork was coming along with us ,and he could play bass , so he learned the songs in the van on the road and managed to play with us!! But bad luck and a doom cloud kept hanging above our heads,Filip had to stop drumming with the band in march 2003 shortly after a tour in Hole-land,Germ-money and Denmark coz his ears where getting pretty damaged because of the noise we played (tinnitus strikes again). Than Dejan from OLHO DE GATO accepts to be the new (temporary)drummer!!Despite the impossibility to rehearse (Dejan lives in A'doom ,which is quite a while from Liege),the tours kept going on,but without new songs.At the end of 2003 ,VISIONS OF WAR (except Dejan) are embarked on a new (fun)project:PISSEDCHARGE,which was a DISCHARGE cover band ,using only songs from 80-82.We took Azill (who played drums ) as d-beater , then the massacre:14 hits from the dudes from Coke-On-Trend,and PISSEDCHARGE ,which was supposed to be a "one show band"followed VISIONS OF WAR for 2 short tours (Alkmaar,Utrecht,Liege and Leipsig,Potsdam,Berlin).After the last show in Kopi , Azill was asked to join VISIONS OF WAR as the new drummer since it was easier to practice with him living in Liege.The dude agreed since he had no other band to play drums in,and in february 2004 he's an official loser like the rest of us. Then again new songs (finally) and tours came it was time to drown PISSEDCHARGE,the last gig was in Liege,april. During that year ,2004,we played several countries (Luxembourg,Holland,Hellgium,Germ-money,Denmark,Sweden,Tsjechia,England) and record in september 12 songs with Zeff in a schoolbasement in Liege. The session appears on a split lp with MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS from Tsjechia and a split 12" with dear friends COP ON FIRE from Spain,Suisse and the U.S. ,both in 2005.The split with MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS was put out on tcd and as we speak tape with unreleased bonus tracks from both bands.The cd , just out now ,with our split with COP ON FIRE has COP ON FIRE's first lp as bonus and our side from the OLHO DE GATO split. In 2005 we played a bit less and toured in april/may,9 dates in Hellgium,Germ-money,Switzerland and France. Than we recorded again with "M.O.K." Dejans studio 5 songs for a new 7",but this one we have to go back for since we where doomed again,so still have to play solos and do the vocals again (they sounded friggin' death-metalish). Still in 2005,after a few month break (vacation time),we played London and Bradford after that an extensive almost all weekend gigs for 2 months from Hellgium to France and Germ-money .........

Let's try to continue the history despite the fucking bad memory, we'll write the rest of it in short... After other exhausting tours in all over Europe in 2006 and 2007, Arno left the band in the fall of 2007 after 7 yars of madness, quickly replaced by Bis as second guitar. At the meantime Azill el loco drummer felt more and more pain in one of his arms, the doctor gave his verdict : chronical tendinitis, so our d-beater had to leave the combo as well, which has been done in february of 2008 after 4 years spent with us. By the way we wish the best to Arno and Azill, thanx and more for these years of nightmare. Our new drummer was found : Yvan. After a few practises, we started again on touring in several countries. Stick, after had been one time interim for a tour in France because of Azill's cancellation, took his tools back for one european tour in the summer of 2008. Then Lölö had to be operated for a serious intestinal disease, so the band played a few gigs without him, and toured Italy, without Lölö and with Stick again. At the same period, 9 songs are recorded in Hellgium, they were supposed to be used for a 4 bands LP + 2 splits 7", but of course, once again, all of these projects will abort. It's already 2009, after some gigs, Steve told us in june (and in Holland) he would leave the band soon. We played less in the second part of 2009, and the farewell gigs from Steve took place in january in the UK and february of 2010 in Germany.

After a few weeks of doubts, the band raised again with Willy who took the second mike to help Lölö in his throat crusade. In april the first practices are done. First gig with Willy is planned at the end of june in Hellgium, but he can't make it, so Steve is back for a last farewell ! Then a tour is made in Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and France, 9 dates with Vavane behind the wheel (thanx again). But it's time to play at the Monteparadiso fest in Croatia in the beginning of august. Shortly after, Willy decides to leave the band while a tour is going on in september. So, Steve, pleeeease, can you appear again behind the mike ? The deal is done. some gigs from the end of the tour has been already canceled so we decide to make it shorter. But after only 4 gigs (we were supposed to play 6 or 7), Boris has a fuckin' pain in one eye, decides to go to the hospital. Verdict : he has to be quickly operated in Dresden, ex-east Germany, and he will stays there something like one week, so we cancel the rest of the tour and some of us come back the same day in Liège...
The black cloud stroke back. But now it's time for making new songs, so we'll take it easy for a few months with gigs, also coz' Steve is now an interim in the band and we should find a new vocalist. About our 9 songs recorded in 2009, they'll appear soon thanx to a cooperation between french (and friends) labels as a 12". greetings to all these persons who give us help !!
Last words, Visions of War has something like 250 gigs in his sack'o'shit today, in all over Europe.

RELEASES:
U.P.S. the record 7";1 song (totally wrong mastered ,not by us!!)with BOYCOT.SIN DIOS,SHEARS,P.C.P.,POINT OF FEW

VISIONS OF WAR/OKOTTA split 7"
VISIONS OF WAR/OLHO DE GATO split lp
VISIONS OF WAR/MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS split lp/cd/tape
VISIONS OF WAR/COP ON FIRE split 12"/CD

http://www.myspace.com/deadnothing