ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB, THE

Band: THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB

Genres: Punk / Metallic Hardcore / Black-Metal / Thrash / Experimental
Related artists: Karenza, Spread The Disease, Cunter, Mindbender, Bad Touch, METZ and Hunter.
Country: Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Years Active: 2000-2005
Song: "Elvis Presley's Rock and Roll War Effort"
Album: "The Initial Confessions of..."
Year: 2001
Label(s): Self Released / Init Records / Abacus Recordings / Hydra Head Industries / Controlled By Robots / Double H Noise Industries / Century Media / Speedowax Records / 
This post's artist is from the October 2014 Mix. This is track #7.
You can download the October Mix#10 right here or get the new November Mix#11 here.
For fans of: Uziel, Curl Up And Die, The Great Redneck Hope, Botch, The Catalyst, The Minor Times, Cassilis, Seventeen Again, The Avenging Disco Godfathers Of Soul, Lavotchkin, Engineer, Achilles, Canyons, The End, The Sheer Force Of Inertia and Converge.

You want a hidden gem...encrusted in aggression, violence and dirt? Here ya go. THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB played breakdown-laden, thrashy, mathy, metallic hardcore and hailed from Toronto, which I only found out recently as the they disbanded almost a decade ago and therefore I wasn't watching the scene in the area at that time. If you really like the early Curl Up And Die stuff like the 'The Only Good Bug is a Dead Bug' EP, catchy/heavy hardcore like Uziel as well as a slower, heavier and Botch-ier The Great Redneck Hope all mashed together with Horse The Band, you may accidentally try to make babies in your underpants, or if you are female just have an all around good time.

'The Initial Confessions of...'s "Elvis Presley's Rock and Roll War Effort" at 0:56 will make any pacifist want to punch someone random in the face as they mosh to these breakdowns. Many of the tracks on the band's initial EP, 'The Initial Confession of...' have a strange, eerie, bouncy rhythmic pulse to them. "Consensus Emptiness and the Never Encore Obsession" is a prime example of this. With the use of well-placed synth-sounds, the band manages to make the songs come apart at the seams as they pummel the listener with abrasive, experimental, metallic hardcore topped with a synth/sonic assault. "The Failure a Posteriori" puts this to the test and rips the songs apart just to piece it back together a few times, most notably at 2:33 but the few times before are pretty sweet also.

The posthumous LP 'Aloha Cocksuckers' was never officially released, but I acquired the mp3s and they are more math-metal influenced and less experimental. This time around the vocals opt for much more of a Minor Times-esque hardcore scream, and drop the crazy Curl Up And Die/Great Redneck Hope style - both of which I thoroughly enjoy. I really like this album, but their first EP is where it's at for me because it's so weird. This LP doesn't hold a candle to Botch or The Minor Times, but it's still really fucking good.

Random note, I found it unnerving to see that they listed their band members as "Terry Tittyfuck" and the like in the liner notes of their first album, even though I'm sure it's a joke. You can read up on a fair amount of the band's history here by clicking the "read more" link in the profile section, ya numbnuts. I've also posted the very rare download of their apparent discography here!

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DISCOGRAPHY
Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

2001 - The Initial Confessions of... cd/7"EP

2002 - Live on the CIUT 89.5 cdEP

2003 - Mutation compilation cdLP (contributed "Experimenting with Maturity")

2004 - Aloha, Cocksuckers! digitalLP

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(2001) THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB - "Elvis Presley's Rock and Roll War Effort" (from 'The Initial Confessions of...')

(2001) THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB - "The Failure a Posteriori" (from 'The Initial Confessions of...')

(2003) THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB - "Theme Song From The Film Noir Volatility Perversion" (from 'Where is My Robot?' comp)

(2004) THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB - "Metropolitan Sentences" (from 'Aloha, Cocksuckers')

(2004) THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB - "Admissions of a Sale Clerk" (from 'Aloha, Cocksuckers')

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THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB out of print mp3 discography download

(download here)

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ISCARIOTE

Band: ISCARIOTEGenres: Punk / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal / Hardcore / Thrash / Doom / Grunge / Sludge

Related artists: N/A.
Country: Yverdon-les-Bains SWITZERLAND
Years Active: 2000-2004
Song: "Soleil Thahi"
Album: "Envy split"
Year: 2002
Label(s): Shogun Records / Heroine Records / PurePainSugar / Last Day of June Records / Molaire Industries / Code of Ethics / Salvation / Oto Records
This post's artist is from the October 2014 Mix. This is track #13.
You can download the October Mix#10 right here or get the new November Mix#11 here.
For fans of: Gantz, Envy, ∞ (aka Eight), Evylock, Curl Up And Die, Ken Mode, Light Bearer, AmenRa, Botch, Tetola93, Knut, Kowloon Walled City, Mono, Angel Eyes, Helmet and White Zombie.

I was introduced to ISCARIOTE through the Envy split cd that I picked up right after hearing 'Dead Sinking Story', as I was craving (that's putting it lightly) more Envy. I'm certainly glad that I picked this up because this band has a few really good songs and the albums are dark and brooding. Imagine Envy if there were less pretty stuff, way more sludge and an unsettling, dark ambiguity that shrouds many of the band's songs.

The Envy split is the superior release, in my opinion. ISCARIOTE starts out with "Soleil Thahi" which begins with an beautiful/eerie, spacey and dreamy intro that soon builds into a sludgy, grungy mess littered with scathing screams and breakdowns. The crazy riff that they bust out at 3:12 is unreal and my personal favourite of the band's. "Meanbeam and the Dark" has a great closing riff that leads into another great track, "Auto-Pilote" which is kind of a mix between AmenRa and Akimbo which is really cool.

The album has a few decent cuts but certainly doesn't draw me to it the same way as the split. "Kraj! (Old Jebi!)" is a great example of the band nailing their sound. There's the Japanese-esque soaring vocals (Evylock, anyone?) over anguished screaming, all packaged nicely with an epic Gantz feel to it. "Des Cheveux Noirs Sur la Paleur de Son Visage" has another dirty and grating , especially within the guitar sound, which isn't far off from heavy Helmet and White Zombie stuff with the chugging. The vocals bring Envy and ∞, and Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket and there's even some nice violin work that complements everything very well.

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DISCOGRAPHY
Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

2001 - Iscariote 7"EP

2002 - Envy split cd (download here)
2002 - Overmars split floppy disk

2003 - Complete split 7" (download here)

2004 - Necropole Trauma cd/12"LP (download here)
2004 - Genese Et Agonie: 2000-2004 cd discography

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(2002) ISCARIOTE - "Soleil Thahi" (from 'Envy' split)

(2002) ISCARIOTE - "Auto-Pilote" (from 'Envy' split)

(2004) ISCARIOTE - "Un Pas De Plus Vers La Grace" (aka "One Step Closer to Grace") (from 'Complete' split)

(2004) ISCARIOTE - "Kraj! (Old Jebi!)" (from 'Necropole Trauma')

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ISCARIOTE out of print mp3 discography download / additional links

(download here)

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KNUT

Band: KNUT

Genres: Punk / Rock / Post-Rock / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal / Sludge / Hardcore / Thrash / Doom
Related artists: Impure Wilhelmina, Macadam Pale Horses, Prejudice-GVA, Mumakil, Nostromo, Bliscappen Van Maria, Nebra, Vuyvr, Ananda, Finger Print, Jasemine and L'Invention de Morel.
Country: SWITZERLAND
Years Active: 1994-2010
Song: "Fallujah"
Album: "Terraformer"
Year: 2005
Label(s): Self Released / Hydra Head Records / Snuff Records / Ronald Reagan Records / Chrome Saint Magnus / Bone Tone Records / Vicious Circle / Molaire Industries / Mosh Bart Industries / Division Records / Double H Noise Industries / Conspiracy Records
This post's artist is from the October 2014 Mix. This is track #5.
You can download the October Mix#10 right here or get the new November Mix#11 here.
For fans of: Botch, Iscariote, Bleeding Kansas, Isis, Shoto, Zozobra, (old) Cave In, Engineer, Achilles, AmenRa, Trainwreck, Hexis, The End, Mare, Rorcal, Converge, Swarm Of The Lotus, Ken Mode, Tigershark, Perth Express, Llynch, Anodyne, Canyons, Officer Jones And His Patrol Car Problems, Pelican, Mutoid Man, The Minor Times, White Zombie and Intronaut.

How the fuck do you say this name, anyways? "Kay-noot?" said my friend. "nut" says my wife. I don't fucking know. I do know that KNUT played a riveting and sonically overbearing style of math-metal/hardcore. If you liked Botch (how could you not?), wanted a faster and more technical Isis or are in need of more Shoto-heavy mayhem, look no further. ....

The self titled EP 'Knut' is a very acidic listen. If metal/hardcore could eat through chest armour (Hicks, I'm looking in your direction) then this is the album for you. I would call this "noise laden". I don't care for the sound as much on this, as it sounds like a scratchy/muffled and early Converge.

The 'Challenger' album is much of the same with caustic metallic screaming with a heavy emphasis on hardcore. Still, songs like "Ice Will", "Repressed" and my favourite track "Bite the Bullet" are all fantastic.

'Terraformer' is the album that boasted the production the band needed and comes across more like Mare and Botch on speed. This full length captures what I thought KNUT was capable of and then some. The band expertly mixes their Botch influence with their Neurosis/Isis love and create a myriad of songs, structures and sounds. They confidently shy away from conventional structures, for the most part, and delve into mostly instrumental romps followed by long, expansive meanderings with way more vocals than I would have expected after hearing so little on the amazing shorter/faster songs, such as "Seattle" with a Cave In/Mutoid Man-esque thrash riff, "Genoa" blasts through with sludgy, Tigershark-esque riffing and "Fallujah" has a pummeling beginning that turns into a palm-mute fan's dream before exploding with the only vocals in the entire song - a howling scream, at 1:24. They do have some more basic songs, such as "Wyriwys" which could be mistaken for Swarm Of The Lotus and Iscariote pretty much any day of the week, as well as "Kyoto" which barrels through the speakers like an expertly trained army attacking, screaming, hacking and downright disemboweling the listener's ears before a lulling outro. Oh, and I love the cover art.

It's no wonder that 'Wonder', the band's final studio output and subsequent full length, isn't far off from 'Terraformer' territory. It has that massive, mathy, sludgy thrash/hardcore/metal feel to it but the songs don't grab me the way the aforementioned LP do. I'm nitpicking though, because this is a great album as well, with the standout tracks being "Suckers", "Calamity", "Fast Forward Bastard" and "Lemmings".

Grab the partial discography I've posted, as I need to complete my collection, as well.

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DISCOGRAPHY
Click )==>here<==( to download the about half of the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

1994 - Knut 7"

1996 - Ishma split 7"

1997 - Leftovers cdLP

1998 - Bastardiser cd/12"LP (download here)
1998 - Tantrum split 7"

1999 - Ordeal 7"

2000 - Botch / Ananda split 10"

2001 - Untitled cdEP (download here)

2002 - Challenger cd/12"LP (download here)

2005 - Terraformer cd/12"LP (download here)

2006 - Alter cdLP

2010 - Wonder cd/12"LP (download here)

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(2005) KNUT - "Fallujah" (from 'Terraformer')

(2005) KNUT - "Seattle" (from 'Terraformer')

(2005) KNUT - "Genoa" (from 'Terraformer')

(2001) KNUT - "You Deserve Me" (from 'Untitled EP')

(2002) KNUT - "Bite the Bullet" (from 'Challenger')

(2010) KNUT - "Calamity" (from 'Wonder')

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KNUT Dave's selected semi-discography mp3 download

 (download here)

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