Louis Mistreated was an incredibly melodic emo band from Mississauga, Ontario that somehow escaped the radar of mainstream popularity. But I really feel like they belong up there with Christie Front Drive, Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas Is the...
Intention Records was a really awesome independent record label from Florida that released some very well remembered records. Those bands include Morning Again, Culture, Reversal of Man, Holocron, Roosevelt and Afterall. The person to thank...
The Association of Welterweights Records was a short lived record label from Ojay, California that existed from 1998 to 2000. Throughout it’s existence it worked with A Sometimes Promise (members of Embassy, Ochre, Stratego, Manumission...
The Separation Suicide formed in January of 2002 as a “best of” band from members of Avarice and Confine. Most members were living in the Hamilton/Oakville/Toronto area of Ontario and came together when Gordon Ball left The...
To me, United Edge Records was one of the record labels that I could pickup anything from and know that it was going to be quality metalcore. Same thing for the post-hardcore fad during the mid-2000’s that was practically held up with...
Before Kenobi started, Andrew Tweedy, Peter Read, Stephen Martin and Gunars Kazaks were in several teenager bands that made up the early years of the 90’s. Those included “Twerp”, “Mush” and “Joyjuice”...
Ellington was one of the most talked about band during the early 2000’s but also one of the most unfortunate and forgotten. Luckily, just enough material was recovered to be able to document this band properly. Ellington was formed in...
Editor’s Note: This interview was submitted by long-time fan, supporter and friend, Joanna Marinova in 2013. The answers were completed in February 2014 and is now published on the Abridged Pause Blog. -Hello Alex! Let me introduce the...
It’s almost halfway through February now and I’m just getting to the news update for 2014. Most labels hurried up and got their first label post in the first week on January, but here at Abridged Pause, I’ll take the blame for...
To the Lions was probably the epitome of Ontario’s 2000 chug-core revival. They were based in Burlington and featured some all-star cast. A while after Grade broke up, Matt Jones and Shawn Magill went to a Bane show on September 11, 2004...
Trevor Dykstra (bassist) and Lee Shepard (guitarist) went to high school together and were always close friends. They started out a band together in 1995, each playing their instrument and signing dual vocals. They went to a lot of shows and...
John Ouellette and Brendan Munn met in the summer of 1997 at an Ignorance Never Settles concert. After some talk, they decided to form a straight-edge band together and started jamming in the Munns’ basement in Hamilton, Ontario. They...
Stephane Fania and Robert Kourie met each other in 1986 at CEGEP (College) St. Laurent in Montreal, Canada. Bob played guitar, Steph played keyboards. In the next year and a half they played in two bands together, one was a progressive metal...
Funerary was a metalcore band from Hamilton, Ontario, active for a little under a year in 2000. In late 1999, Chris Logan quit SeventyEightDays. Prior to that, he had played in Chokehold, Burst of Silence, Prayer for a Fallen Angel, Crumble...
Blundermen was a punk band from the Toronto region active in the early 1990’s. I touched up on them briefly when I did the Ragamuffin Soldier Records and Fans of Bad Production Records interviews, but it was time that this band get some...
Abridged Pause Recordings is proud to finally release it’s eighth and ninth releases, Soufferance’s “Bonjour Tristesse” EP and “Adieu Tristesse” LP. Both releases have been four years in the making and...
“I spent some time dealing with depression in hospitals. It was surrealistic. A lot of people make these albums about mental illness or asylums. It seems to be a trend in dark ambient. But none of them have actually ever been in one or...
“I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me. And I lived a few months while she loved me”. This short but heartfelt phrase is the way Alexandre Julien chooses to describe this new Soufferance album, appropriately titled...
This compilation could have been a landmark for Canadian hardcore, emo and metalcore of the 1990’s. “Could have been” because it was never released. The fact is no one really knows how close it came to coming out. Usually...
The last line-up of Burst of Silence featured Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Chris Ansley on guitar, Jamie McGinnis on drums and Mike Presseiary on bass. That line-up changed name to Sinsick in late 1995. Jamie and Mike ended up leaving the...
This band was pretty obscure under the radar of Canadian metalcore, although their name and members would make you think otherwise. Some of the members have been in quite important bands and I think this one is no different. Fawad Fudd Bokhari...
In This Defiance, from London, Ontario, formed in March 2005 with Ken Montville on guitar, Matt Bouchard on drums and Ben Kaye (from Clear a Path) on bass. Later that month they were joined by Steve Parkhill on second guitar, who was at the...
Jonah was one the cult hardcore bands from Quebec in the mid 90s. They certainly hold their place in the top most important Quebec bands and I’m happy to finally shed some light on this gem. Jonah was formed in autumn of 1995 with Simon...
Jude the Obscure had a very comfortable place in the Ontario math-core/noisecore scene throughout its existence. I believe they were the first to be called “chaoticore”. Prior to the forming of this band, Grant Freifeld...
Acrid was a sludgy/doomy/grindy-metalcore band from Mississauga that was initiated by Neil Rodman on vocals, Jeff Almond on guitar and Dave Buschemeyer on drums. This was in November of 1995, right after Jeff Almond had quit Ignorance Never...
Unheard was a Canadian metalcore band from Mississauga, Ontario, founded by Mike Charette and his friend Dave Buschemeyer, after Dave was kicked out of Sun Still Burns in September 1993. The duo recruited Ian Pryde on vocals and went in to...
-The Formation Montgomery 21 was a Canadian brit-pop influenced emo band from Mississauga, Ontario, known for featuring (and mostly made up of) members of New Day Rising. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Gray formed the band in the fall of 1995...
-Face Down (Spring 1993 – September 1993) Face Down was a hardcore band from Oakville, Ontario. No doubt that you will recognize the names of many of these members, as they would go on to great fame with their later musical endeavors...
Gates of Dawn is one of the obscure bands from Ontario that just doesn’t seem to have reached anywhere to be remembered. I had to dig far to get info from this band out. This band was fronted by Nat Coté with Adam Bratt and Paul...
-Chapter 1: From “Boize” to “Emissary” (May 1993 – July 1993) Emissary was a bluesy heavy metal band from Montreal, Canada. Founded in June of 1993, the band was a direct continuation of Boize, whose final line-up...
Jonathan Thomas is a bit of a forgotten gem in the history of Ontario emo hardcore. In late 1994 Kyle Bishop was singing in Grade but felt that it wasn’t enough, so he bought his first guitar and started writing a couple of songs. At the...
-The Foundation (May 1989 – December 1989) Boize (pronounced Boys) was a heavy metal band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, founded by guitarist Robert Kourie (aka Floyd Harem), and bass guitarist and keyboardist Stephane Fania (aka Zany Shultz)...
This interview was conducted with Alexandre Julien for the Abridged Pause Blog on August 30th of 2013. -Hello Alex. Thank you for taking the time to answer these few questions. First of all, what has been happening with Vision Éternel since...
We just filmed a quick video to show you what the new Soufferance “Travels” boxset looks like. Yes there are pictures already but this is better! And besides what more can you ask for than the artist talking about his work, right...
Since this blog mainly concentrates on band and label posts, I found it hard to include various artists compilations. Here is where they will be posted. These will be compilations released by Canadian record labels or compilations that feature...
Due to Bandcamp restrictions, you must visit our Bandcamp page to purchase the boxset. When we found out from Soufferance that their fans had trouble getting their hands on their CDs, we set ourselves the goal to do something about it. The...
We are proud to officially announce our first real news of working with dark ambient project Soufferance. Soufferance has been making music since the summer of 2006 and has always been very impressive with each of their release. Not only has...
Soufferance is the artbient project founded by Alexandre Julien in September of 2006. Obsessed by the film noir genre and determined to self-deteriorate himself further with each new release by a concept analysed to perfection. The goal is to...
Oceanus is an absolutely mesmerizing post-black metal band from the UK. Alexander Fawcett has been a close collaborator of Abridged Pause Recordings and it is with pure delight that Oceanus will be featured on the “Diluvian...
Firestorm was one of the early “all-star bands” that formed in Southern Ontario. Matt White (from Two Line Filler) used to go down to Hamilton during his summer vacations. In late 1992, he hooked up with Ryan Hollingworth, Christian...
I would like to officially announce that a new various artists compilation is in the works at Abridged Pause Recordings! After the immense success of our last compilation, “Diluvian Temperals”, (which was also our very first release...
Černá is one of the most brilliant post-black metal acts out there at the moment. Abridged Pause Recordings is working on a follow-up compilation to “Diluvian Temperals” and Černá will be taking part of it. Keep checking back...
Brainscan started out in the summer of 2012 as an extension for Eliminator to pursue more politically touchy subjects. This change also welcomed a new sound, including shoegaze and dream pop. The term “dream thrash” was coined by...
Citadel Swamp was an international atmospheric dark ambient project founded in October of 2010 by Canadian musician Alexandre Julien. At the time the project consisted of Alexandre Julien (who also played in Vision Éternel, Soufferance...
Wavre is the newest venture from Garry Brents, this time teaming up with Dominique Patton. The duo was immediately approached by Abridged Pause Recordings to release their first album, as well as feature them on the follow-up compilation to...
The origin of Raise Them and Eat Them, as an idea, could have begun as early as 2002 (as some sources claim). But the band didn’t actually come together until January of 2004. The initial line-up featured Ken Galbraith on bass and...
Canada was long known for its post-rock scene, but with the arrival of Seven Nines and Tens, the focus might switch to the post-metal scene. Abridged Pause Recordings will release their first EP, and most recent output since their first album...
Slow Death were a punk/hardcore band from Summerside, Prince Edward Island circa 1984. Arguably, they were the first straight edge band in Canada and certainly the first punk or hardcore band from PEI. They released one demo tape in 1985 and...
Alexandre Julien, the man behind Vision Éternel, filmed a promotional video last night with the help of Jeremy Roux (our fabulous web designer). The short film introduces the new release “The Last Great Torch Song” with its...
New Kailash and Vision Éternel albums are out! We are really happy to announce that the new Kailash album “Past Changing Fast: Faster Ahead” and the Vision Éternel EP “The Last Great Torch Song” are now officially...