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 vocals, his brother Jay Galbraith on drums and Nathan Obonsawin on guitar. This was a sort of Toronto side-project idea for the band members, after Jay and Ken broke up Katja and Nathan had quit Arkata. Additionally, Jay had never played drums in any band before, but he learned so quickly that by their first show, no one would have guessed. The line-up was...
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 “Habitat 67”, which came out in late 2011. Keep checking back for more news.
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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 did a small amount of local touring, gaining some moderate attention at the time. I tracked down drummer Dale Hussey for a look back almost 30 years in the past.
Basic starter question – who was in the band and how did it all start? What year would this have been?
The band was my brother Dan on vocals, Jeff Tarka on guitar, Steve Ellis on bass 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 featured musicians and collaborators. Alexandre Julien is quickly breaking the trend of ambient and shoegaze by appearing in various interviews and making himself a recognizable target, sporting his 1940’s style fedora hat and overcoat. Jeremy Roux made makes the video as picturesque as the imagery created by Vision Éternel’s music.
Don’t...
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 out!
Both albums can be heard in full streaming on our Bandcamp page and directly on the individual album pages right on our website. If you love the bands, let them know by donating some money when you download the albums!
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After taking a few years to carefully prepare their 4th EP, Vision Éternel finally unveils “The Last Great Torch Song”. This brilliant album is another new step for the band, in a way that they have completely changed the listening experience of their releases. The first two releases, “Seul dans l’obsession” and “Un automne en solitude” on Mortification Records were rather straight forward ambient, while their last EP “Abondance de périls” started to mark a change. This release finally brings this band forth on the new level.
This EP...
“Past Changing Fast” is Kailash’s second album. Originally released in 2009 on Frostscald Records, but the band wasn’t satisfied with the production. Two years later they completely re-mixed the album and Abridged Pause Recordings is proud to present to you the new version: “Past Changing Fast: Faster Ahead”. This new version also features alternate artwork originally created for what was to be the Abridged Pause vinyl version of the album in 2009. This is a beautiful math-metal album with intelligence written all over it.
Kailash explains the reason for...
New website, new releases
Welcome to the new Abridged Pause Recordings website! This is the second version of the website, once again brilliantly designed by Jeremy Roux. This new version features high resolution pictures of all the bands and releases, and updated information and integration of our releases into the website (thanks to Bandcamp).
We have 2 new releases coming in March 2012, and we think they are the best offerings by each band yet!
First of all the Kailash album: “Past Changing Fast: Faster Ahead”, which is their second album, completely remixed and remastered...
Abridged Pause Recordings signs Kailash!
Kailash becomes part of the official Abridged Pause Recordings roster!
Kailash has been part of the guest Abridged Pause Recordings roster since 2009, with the inclusion of their song “Past Changing Fast” on the first Abridged Pause Recordings release “Diluvian Temperals”. At the time the song was exclusive to the compilation, before it was intended that Abridged Pause Recordings release the 12″ colored vinyl version of their album of the same name, in 2010. After that plan fell through, Kailash will be re-editing the...
Abridged Pause Recordings is an independent Canadian record label based in Montreal. Founded in February of 2008 by Alexander Julien, it has brought forth a multitude of independent avant-garde artists. Releasing music in such genres as post-metal, post-black metal, atmospheric black metal, psychedelic black metal, sludge metal, sludge-core, atmospheric sludge metal, screamo, avant-garde metal, math metal, math rock, post-rock, experimental post-rock, ambient, dark ambient, black ambient, shoegaze, melogaze and artbient.
While originally created with the purpose of releasing any music, the...
My Talking Pua is an Italian band that mixes dark indie rock, trip-hop and dream pop with distorted, improvisational, avant-garde/math metal. Based in Soriano nel Cimino, it was founded in the summer of 2011 by multi-instrumentalist twin brothers Andrea Basili and Marco Basili (both from Abridged Pause Recordings’ roster band Kailash) and vocalist Maria Livia Nicotra.
Six songs were recorded in the fall of 2011 for a planned extended play, which will finally see the light of day through Abridged Pause Recordings in the spring of 2012. The band is already at work on five more new songs...
Fear the Setting Sun is the leading post-metal band in Australia at the moment. Abridged Pause Recordings is working on a follow-up compilation to “Diluvian Temperals” and Fear the Setting Sun will be taking part of it. Keep checking back for more news.
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Burst of Silence was formed in the later part of 1991 with Ryan Hollingworth on vocals, Zak Husted on bass, Sam Mamone on drums and Christian McMaster on guitar. They formed from different circles around the city of Hamilton, but they all went to the same highschool, Hill Park Secondary (with the Chokehold guys); Ryan lived with Zak, who knew Christian. Ryan was also friends with Sam, so they all got together, jammed it out and tried writing. In the beginning their influences ranged from Black Flag, Crass, Gorilla Biscuit, Youth of Today, Agnostic Front, Sick of it All to Pantera, Slayer...
Valleys of the Living is a brilliant new project by Howard Change, composer/director. Howie was previously associated with Arcanum, Throne of Mortality, Funeral Junkie and Black Albatross. He has also been a featured guest on “The Last Great Torch Song” by Vision Éternel. A plan to release the “Lucid Dreaming in New Jersey” film and its soundtrack are in the works. More information coming soon!
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System Overload were a hardcore/punk band from Halifax, NS during the mid to late 80’s. They were also the first punk band I ever saw live at a free outdoor show in downtown Halifax. As well, I got to see their last show in 1989. I recently got a hold of their singer John Vine for this brief interview that will hopefully give you a little peak into this under rated band that remains one of my local faves to this day!!
What years was the band around and who was in it?
System Overload was founded in Dartmouth, NS in the summer of 1984. Bjarni (Dave) Schandall and I founded the band...
One Day Savior Recordings is actually a New York-based record label, but Christopher Tzompanakis has worked with quite a few Canadian bands so I wanted to interview him and talk about his encounters and relations with Canadian hardcore. It is one of my favourite record labels so it was a pleasure talking with him!
In all the label worked with six Canadian hardcore bands through eight different releases. Here is the rundown:
ODS001 1998 – Ignorance Never Settles – Within the Vast Realms of Dying (split with Incision) 7″
ODS003 1999 – Confine – The Beginning of...
Redstar Records was a record label operated by Brendan Munn and Paul G. from Hamilton, Ontario. Their best remembered release was the Confine/Avarice split CD, but everything they put out was amazing and did really well in hardcore (as you will read). After trying to trace down either of the owners for nearly two years, I finally got to talk to Paul, and he had some tremendous information to give about each releases! Redstar Records would for sure have become a top Canadian hardcore label had they stuck around for a just a few more years. I hope you all enjoy these great memories!
The Redstar...
Editor’s note: this interview was conducted on September 23rd of 2011 for the Abridged Pause Blog.
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Loveless .1. (pronounced “Loveless One”) was Chris Gray’s solo band’s name. It is perhaps one of his most obscure endeavors. The name was used briefly from 2001 to 2002, between periods when Chris Gray performed under his own name. I unfortunately don’t have all of Chris Gray’s demos, but I do have a few of them. Since this post focuses on Chris Gray, let’s review his career.
Chris sang in Solace (1993-1994), New Day Rising (1994-1997, 1997-1998, 2000), Montgomery 21 (1995-1997), The China White (1998-2000, 2001), Zyon (2000-2001), Loveless .1...
Say No More was a band that anyone could have easily passed by. But I hope to change that. Louis-Pierre Parenteau and his brother Marc-Olivier formed the band in 2002 after the first Shark Attack 7″ came out, and they became influenced with Negative Approach and Agnostic Front. Louis was originally on drums with his brother playing guitar, but when a few songs were composed, they recruited Marc-Olivier Dion on drums and and Jean-Francois Landry on bass. They chose the band name from a song by Faith (the Dischord Records band). They recorded their first demo in 2002. This was followed...
Structure Records was a short lived record label operated out of Hamilton, Ontario, by two notorious hardcore personalities; Jeff Beckman and Chris Logan, two members of Chokehold. They put out three releases and abruptly ended but those records are still talked about and considered gems by hardcore fans of the era. This interview was conducted solely with Jeff Beckman, as Chris Logan initially refused to answer it. After seeing this interview published he did send in some answers but they differed little from what Jeff had said. Hopefully he won’t ignore the Goodfellow Records...
Orpheus is a British atmospheric and progressive rock band based in Bournemouth, England. It was founded in 2008 by James Young and Thomas Vallely, already established on Abridged Pause Recordings’ roster with his other project Omega Centauri. Matt Morum has recently joined the band.
Orpheus originally self-released its debut album “Philosopher of the Sublime”, digitally in July of 2009; but it was picked up and re-issued on compact disc through Paradigms Recordings, and made available to the public in May of 2010. The band’s sophomore release, “The Mind’s...
Neighbourhood Watch were from Fredericton, New Brunswick and existed between 1985 and 1988. They released a 7″ EP called Death At The Hands Of Time on Real World Records based in Durham, UK. There were a few other bands with the same name, though these guys used the Canadian spelling of neighbour with the “U” in there. It was no small feat for a band from eastern Canada to have a record out during this time period. In fact I would say this is the first punk 7″ from this entire area. The following is an interview I did in Febuary 2011 with their vocalist Grant Forsythe...
The Chitz were a punk/hardcore band from Halifax, Nova Scotia and were around from 1994-1998. Drawing influence from a wide range of bands such as The Exploited, Agnostic Front and even Ramones-y pop punk, the band released an LP, split LP, 2 split 7″s and appeared on many compliations. They were considered one of the premier bands from Atlantic Canada at the time. As with most bands from that area, touring was difficult and they never received too much international exposure. Here is their story.
In the far off time of 1994, Derrick Hiltz and Mike Brygyder wanted to start a new band...
This was a great little record label based in Campbellville, Ontario in the mid 90’s to early 2000’s. They were known principally for giving Grade their debut release, as a split with Believe (later repressed as the split with Incision). But the label also worked on multiple releases with The Jazz June, released the only 7″ by Union Young America and put out great records by Jersey, Franklin and Mid Carson July. Mike Wessel is a great dude and here’s what he had to say about his days operating the label and his implications in the hardcore scene.
Here is the complete...
The Asexuals were a Montreal punk band that started in 1983. They went on to release several records but due to personal bias were are just going to talk about their good stuff. The original line up was John Kaster, Sean Friesen, T.J. Collins and Paul Remington. They released an EP entitled Featuring: The Asexuals in 1984. The next year they put out what most would say is their best record – Be What You Want – on Pysche Industries (originally on First Strike Records who didn’t what to repress it). Later in 1985 they released another LP called Contemporary World. They toured...
This bio was sent to me exclusively for this blog by band founder Paul Schedlich. I doubt I could have written a better one on this fantastic midwest emo band from Pickering, Ontario. I don’t find many Canadian bands with this specific midwest sound (Shoulder did it quite well), but I would love some suggestions of more bands from here in these veins.
“Right after we got home from that ill-fated 2 Line Filler tour in June of 1994 it was obvious that this incarnation of Two Line Filler was finished. We were getting offers to do other tours and shows and eventually were offered a...
Guilt Parade were a punk hardcore band from Fredericton, New Brunswick from the mid 80’s. They self released 2 demo tapes and then moved to Toronto where they put out an LP on Fringe Records. An often overlooked band when it comes to Canadian punk history, but never the less an important one which still has influence today. The following is a recent (Nov 2010) interview I conducted with Jeff Beardall – the main songwriter and vocalist for the band. As he stated to me…this looking back 25 years so some of the details may be a bit fuzzy. Complete discography at the end...
Marc Stonestreet, Tyler Smith and Stephen McIntyre had all been friends since elementary school. In 1994 while they were in ninth grade, they got together with their first instruments and started learning how to play. Marc actually got lessons from Stephen’s brother, Jim who played in Blake. It took them a long time to write the material for what would be known as Seer. On December 2nd 1994 they played their first show with Blake and Mr. Penny. The name “Seer”, was chosen last minute before a show. Stephen suggested the idea of the word, “being one who sees”...
Crisis of Faith was notorious for their short association with Chokehold, but they were really an entire band apart, with completely different beliefs. Guitarist Adam Payne and drummer Paul Abrash formed the band in early 1990 as a “side project” to the already serious band One Blood. They had previously created “Civilizing Influence” with Scott on vocals, Adam on bass, Brian Tait on guitar and Paul on drums, but the band only lasted for a few shows in late 1989.
Crisis of Faith was created to do a Bad Religion type of hardcore, as they were really into...
Formed in 1998 by Eric Neufeld, Engage started out as a 4 piece with Ben on vocals, Dave Pifco on guitar, Eric Gaudet on bass and Eric Neufeld on drums. The band played regularly with other local band Notoriety. After building a good following, Engage decided they needed a second guitar player and brought in Judd Asoyuf to fill this roll. At the same time Ben left the band and Eric took over the vocals. To fill in the roll as drummer Engage brought in Dave C. The first first show with this line up was at the As We Once Were demo release party in the summer of 1999. Shortly after this Engage...
Dirge was an early to mid-90s metalcore band from Ontario, which eventually became Day of Mourning. At first they were almost what you now call nu-metal, though a lot heavier. But their later material became just like DOM.
Dirge formed in 1994 with Dominic Romeo, Jason Kehoe, Fudd Bokhari and Greg Rodriguez, who all lived in Malton. Jay and Dom were in a band called Creed that were highly influenced by Jane’s Addiction, but wanted to do something in the veins of Sepultura and Biohazard, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Madball, Pantera and White Zombie. Fudd had a brother who went to Morning...
Two Line Filler (or 2 Line Filler) was one of the best appreciated and most successful emo bands to come out of Canada in the 90s. And everything they did was amazing! Every release was a masterpiece. I wouldn’t say this band was underrated, because they got a load of attention back then, but they surely are forgotten, and that shouldn’t be.
Two Line Filler formed in the summer of 1991 from two members of the band Just Another (Matt White and Kevin Mellors) who wanted to do something a little more Fugazi/7 Seconds type hardcore. They recruited Paul Schedlich on bass, and he came...
Editor’s note: this interview was originally conducted on October 10th of 2010 (with modifications provided on November 1st of 2010) for the Francophone metal website WTF Metal Music, and was eventually published on November 1st of 2010.
-Peux-tu me parler de ce que sont tes anciens et récents projets en gros?
Bon, mon premier groupe était The Slopin Fairy 7. C’était un genre de rock avec des riffs mexicains, pas mal influencés par la chanson « Pay The Man » de The Offspring. C’était très basic comme groupe. Mettons que je ne m’en vante pas… et ceux qui ont encore...
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted on October 13th 2010 for The Inarguable webzine. We have decided to repost it here for archival purposes and because it is truly an amazing read.
-What are the origins of Vision Éternel?
Vision Éternel formed in January 2007 almost by pure experimentation accident. I discovered the power of reverb in the middle of a depression caused by a breakup, and right away took to recording exactly what I felt in late moments of those January nights. At first it wasn’t anything I planned on continuing with as it was hidden in my many “visions”...
These guys were amazing! I always found they were the equivalency to Morning Again in Canada. Unfortunately they were always evolving and changing members which were slowing them down and preventing them from getting as big as they should of been. Had this band not been hit by ill omens, they would of been as big as Chokehold.
This all started in late 1993 when Mike Charette (guitar) founded Unheard. They would play with different members during this time but would it would result in having Mike on guitar, Ian Pryde on vocals) and Ryan Hunter on bass. Unheard was a different band but by the...
Confine formed in early 1997 as one of southern Ontario’s (Oakville) most aggressive and chaotic hardcore (without being screamo). The original line up was Rob Blakely on vocals, Neil Hamilton and Gordie Ball on guitars, Mike Earp on bass and Darryl Ware on drums.The band wrote two songs and Rob (who wasn’t very fond of the heavier hardcore they were doing) left and in comes Ian “Sparkie” Clarke. They released a four song demo tape that year and almost immediately OneDaySavior Records (then called The Godlike Communications Group) tried to get them for a compilation...
After Chokehold had broken up, Chris Logan, Matt Beckman and Josh Fletcher continued to rehearse together. Influenced by such bands as Drive Like Jehu and Hoover, but in a more straight hardcore fashion. They named themselves SeventyEightDays (sometimes spelled 78Days or 78 Days), after the Native American standoff in Oka, Quebec, which lasted 78 days. Matt Jones from Grade would come in as bassist to complete the line-up.
The band took a little while to get their new sound together, and their first recording was released on Logan’s own label, Goodfellow Records. The...
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted on September 21st 2010 for Abridged Pause Recordings Blog. We have decided to repost it here for archival purposes and because it is truly an amazing watch.
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I don’t know what took me so long to get this post started… One Eyed God Prophecy was one of the most influential screamo/grindcore/crusty emo bands from Canada, and are still one of the most respected. And they are definitely the ones that put Sherbrooke, Quebec on the hardcore map.
This five-piece formed in 1995 and practiced in guitarist Ugo Desgreniers’ shed, where they would also play their first shows. Dominic Poulin was on vocals, Sébastien Philibert on guitar, Alexandre Bibeau on bass and Jean-Pierre Dionne rounded up the band on drums. The idea of the band was very...
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted with Will McEvilly of Castevet (CSTVT) in May of 2010. It was originally published on Sadness By Name, which was merged with Abridged Pause Blog in 2013.
-Alright so Castevet started when exactly, and how did you all meet each other? And what bands or projects had each of you done prior to this masterpiece?
Castevet started about three years ago with me and Nick writing out like a seven minute long version of “Beating High Schoolers at Arcade Games”, and Ron joined like two days after to play bass after we played the song for...
Spread the Disease was an extremely black metal influenced metalcore band, a genre that later became known as noisecore. They were fierce and unholy without being corny like most black metal acts of the 90s. This band formed out of Karenza after a vocalist switch up and a three month “no name band” change. They also briefly used “Her Severed Head” as a moniker. By the time Spread the Disease was titled in February 1998, the line up featured Ben Pobjoy on vocals, Dave Buschemeyer and Trevor Dykstra on guitars, Stu Brown on bass and Shawn Butchart on drums. The last...
Karenza was formed in late 1996 by Dave Buschemeyer (Bushman) on guitar and Trevor Dykstra (T-Bone) on bass after leaving behind the broken up New Day Rising (they would reform). The initial line up also featured Dave Johnston on drums, and Stu Brown (Stu-Dog) on vocals. In April ’97 Shawn Butchart (Docta’B) replaced Dave on drums. They proceeded to record their first demo, which was eventually released as their self-titled ep on (Rosepetal of) Sun and Moon Records. Summer came and a whole US tour was planned, but an accident in upstate New York totaled the van and prevented them...
New Day Rising was huge. And I think that there are still a bunch of people getting into them these days. Even if the band has been broken up for over a decade, a bunch of blogs still talk about them and Eulogy Recordings still manage to profit off their releases.
New Day Rising formed in August 1994 with members that somewhat all knew each other. Dave Buschemeyer had been in Face Down and Sun Still Burns with Tim Dywelska, and met Oliver Nacinovic from school and Jamie Webster from around Mississauga. Chris Gray was recruited because of his skills shown off in Solace. The band played their...
This label was very special, so I did a special type of interview. It was more in the sense of a conversation with Chris Iler. It was great to do and the guy is a dictionary of knowledge of the whole Canadian scene. This label really helped a lot of smaller bands be remembered thanks to his compilations. Over the years Chris has played drums with Ten Dead Men, 26 Letter Prison, Bag of Nines and Velvet Claws.
You may contact Chris about getting what’s left of the label’s releases at [email protected]. The list of left overs is at the end of the interview.
Here is the...
Eliot Rosewater was a short lived band from Mississauga that was only around from December 1995 to October 1997, though they managed to record a great deal of material, and apparently had written over 50 songs. It featured Ian McPhedran on bass and vocals, Dan Zabawa on guitar and vocals and Ryan Kennedy on drums. In early ’96 the band recorded their first album at Rumenal Records Studio. This was released on tape (and is pretty much lost, that’s why it’s not included in the discography zip. but if you have it, send it to me!!!). There were about 100 copies of the first...
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted on March 18th 2010 for Sadness By Name magazine. We have decided to repost it here for archival purposes and because it is truly an amazing read.
-Hello Alex, can you introduce yourself and let everyone know what your musical repertoire is?
Hey! My full name is Alexandre Julien. I’ve been playing guitar since 2002, starting my first band in 2003 (a band which I don’t actually care to discuss much because looking back on it, it was pretty corny). My first serious band was Throne of Mortality in 2005. I then had short stints with a...
Ache Hour Credo is what came between M Blanket and Breakwater (for Dave Wenger at least). It was fairly short lived, of about 1994 to 1996. Some say that the first unofficial song from this band was the last M Blanket song recorded, “Kid Collision”. They recorded an eleven song demo that wasn’t very circulated and only two songs were officially released (both on compilations). Of course this is still remembered as another Dave Wenger band, and just by reputation you know what you can expect. This really should have come out on Slow to Burn Records or Fans of Bad Productions...
Tough guy metalcore was all over Quebec in the early to mid 2000s (right after that ended, our whole scene ended). The Payback is another band from that scene and genre that came from Trois-Rivière. And I wasn’t able to find much on this band, it was suggested to me by email. They released their first demo in 2003, followed by a second demo in 2004 and a promo. The only compilation they appeared on was the Quebec Punk Scene Vol. 1 in 2005. Kyril Ducharme went on to play in A Perfect Murder and now Aces & Eights.
The Payback Discography
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This was originally the very first post. It has since been edited, ameliorated and reposted, with much more material in the download link (thanks to Ryan Moon and Doug MacGregor for all the help). So I am proud to present one of my absolute favorite bands, and all time favorite emo band, Shoulder. This band was from London, Ontario from 1994 to 1997. Bryan Webb (guitar, vocals), Chris Irwin (bass) and Doug MacGregor (drums) started jamming together in the fall of 1994, highly influenced by bands such as Fugazi, Hoover and Jawbox. During late 1994, Bry joined As We Speak to replace their...
