As we move towards the end of 2011, here’s a worthy record that we overlooked the first time around earlier this year. Lovingly pinched from Lurker: Our daily lives are awash in seas of egoistic, materialistic, ideologic-less whisperings. We are slowly but surely destroying the earth.

Religious fundamentalists are sharpening teeth. Consumerism is destroying society as the channels of power narrow and suffocate. Insignificance ignored. Self destruction assured. A large chunk of black metal offerings revolve around some childish denial of the world they inhabit. Shadowy figures of melancholy rage that hide in bedrooms on breaks between shifts at the local fast food joint.

For a brief moment, the depressive black metal paradigm offered a more honest kind of hate. DSBM acts flirted with the concept of acceptance. A difference cannot be made. Denial is not enough. Accept the fate we have borne. We are clumps of bumbling matter on a greater, less sentient clump of matter floating endlessly in a sea of faceless clumps of matter and we are destroying ourselves. If the cold war didn’t do it, our own goddamn greed and ignorance will. DSBM soon boiled out. Too much of feeling sorry for yourself is a bad thing.

Move is different. A meeting of aggression and self-surrender married beautifully under a post-punk, industrial monicker. All the influences from Famine are still there. Intensified perhaps. Birthed a uniqueness Hateful Adandon can call their own. Vin and Swine walk the line. The music on offer plays on this combination of sincerity in acceptance of fate and an unwillingness to submit.

Listen to those bellowed, enraptured vocals and tell me they don’t believe. Trace the faint, melancholy keyboard arrangements that appear throughout the album. Then focus on the hatred. The pissed off momentum at the heart of the title track ‘Move’. Or the industrial hymn of ‘Spies in the Wires’. Move is incredibly varied, with Vin’s versatile voice and the bands ability to move with ease between genres and melodies as the focal points.

http://www.roadburn.com/2011/12/album-of-the-day-hateful-abandon-move/

Misanthropically dark pop music filtered through the dirty lenses of Godflesh and a slew of post punk bands, Hateful Abandon’s second album sees them at full potential. Gone are the nods to black metal that were present on their debut and its place comes a much more focussed beast that loses none of its oppression and bleak world view. This is the soundtrack to a million heroin ridden tower blocks, empty housing estates, broken Britain. It’s ugly, dark and oppressive but at the same time, to those like me, utterly compelling and comforting to know that there is finally a band making the soundtrack to my journey through this…

http://www.roadburn.com/2011/12/roadburn-hq-favorite-albums-of-2011/

” …what puts this over the edge – and even more so than the very-not-inconsiderable Famine – is the absolutely engaging, engrossing songwriting; when it comes down to brass tacks, whether it’s dark post-punk or dark heavy metal, that’s ultimately all that should matter. And across that exemplary standard of songwriting are writ a relatively vast variety of textures, each one a key to another corridor of your psyche, your soul, wherever you wanna go. It’s time to Move: fucking right. ”

…I have to hand it to them; Move is one of the most impressive post-punk, or even rock albums I’ve heard in a long time. I don’t even know where to begin with this album; it’s absolutely fantastic. Hateful Abandon has been able to tone down their influences outside of post-punk to a degree where they’ve lost that “wobbling” effect of Famine to create something much more concrete and stable, but with enough zest from, say, black metal or older industrial music, to really make it special.
Strong, concentrated, adamant, and powerful are all adjectives that come to mind upon listening to this courageous venture as a post-punk band in a black metal world. Chock full of nods to the greats, from Cabaret Voltaire (“Spies on a Wire” is a cover of their song of the same name) to Burzum, though the latter is more slight and textural. An exercise in the complexities of a single emotion, being anger, of course, Move has proven itself to be one of the much stronger releases so far this year. Hats off to you, Hateful Abandon.

Read the full review at The Inarguable!

Hateful Abandon - Move

Out Now on CD: Hateful Abandon – Move

We were always going to get darker. It’s been the plan all along.

Move is the long anticipated follow-up to 2008′s Famine. The music is darker, the lyrics are bleaker. The planet is dying, they’re printing money to burn it. Forming single-file into the abyss. They are trying to slow the inevitable; this is the sound of acceptance.

Hateful Abandon present their despondent and angry reaction in Move. The sound remains uniquely their own, but progresses with new techniques and a harder attitude. A strong leading bass, twisting and ambient guitars, the percussive backbone from Swine, new electronic prominsence and the soulful roar of V/M!

Influence remains from seventies and eighties visionaries Killing Joke, Public Image Ltd, Dead Can Dance, Joy Division, The Cure; and a background in Black Metal, though these are only pointers to the distinctive sound Hateful Abandon have managed to refine on Move.

Lydon wailing like a Gull in my ears, E. Smith grunting-ah, Lemmy purring…Brindley and Price smashing lager and smoking the bass.

1. The Way it Ends
2. Human Clockwork
3. Copper Foundation
4. Poundland
5. Buried
6. Spies in the Wire (CD EXCLUSIVE)
7. Hive Mind
8. The Lost

Track-by-track

1. The Way it Ends – A song about what is happening around us now, the weather is screwed, natural disasters riddle the Earth, culture is dead and everything is full, bloated, dying. The worst thing is, it’s too late. You can be as ‘pro-active’ as you like, try and reduce your ‘carbon footprint’, recycle etc. All you are doing is slowing down by the tiniest degree the death of a planet that is already on life-support. Enjoy what you are doing now and watch it collapse. It’s better to come to terms with it. The track begins with the sound of a credit card we taped to a large industrial fan and continues into a grinding hypnotic dirge, highlighted by melodic synth and a sea of wailing guitars. I was genuinely livid when I recorded the vocals and I think you can hear that immediately.

2. Human Clockwork – This is about a man who wakes up one morning and realises how controlled he is by everything. His life seems planned out. He starts to feel like a robot, and after a while becomes convinced he is one. He becomes obsessed with the nagging feeling that he is not a real human being. He opens himself up, only to find that he is human after all. Any amateur psychologists in the house? This track is one that has been hanging around in one form or another since 2009. It was great to go back to it. Note the anti-crescendo at the end of the song.

3. Copper Foundation – A song about self doubt. This is one of the first tracks we did after ‘Famine…’ we wanted to break the mould we had created a bit. Another hypnotic dirge. Again, with this track I was so angry when performing I didn’t even follow the lyrics.

4. Poundland – This fucking Country. When they aren’t counting coppers they’re wasting it on crap. Blindly spending money they don’t have on shit they don’t need. Ok, we all do it to a certain extent (actually, no. I need records and books to live damn it…). Don’t get me started on the Royals. We actually wrote this track last, didn’t take us very long really. The ‘whooshing’ sound you hear before the verses is a drill pounding into the studio wall.

5. Buried – A song about being rotten. Having a rotten soul and mind and keeping that a secret. It’s about taking yourself apart bit by bit and examining the contents.

6. Spies in the Wire – This is a Cabaret Voltaire cover. A different mix than you may have heard already. Thanks to Todestrieb for working hard on licensing the song.

7. Hive Mind – Hive mentality, people who can’t see outside their little niche really get to me. Blinkered fools who judge without thinking. Quick to accuse the little bastards are. Connoisseurs will note the sample from Charles Bronson towards the end of the track.

8. The Lost – This has a similar message to the first track on the album. The most ‘pop’ song on the album and this will probably be the last time we sound as such. Never say never though.

We were always going to get darker. It’s been the plan all along, that and experiment more. The album you’ll (all five of you) be exposed to in the next couple of weeks has been a long and convoluted process. You may have read about a change in our sound or a change in direction, that’s not strictly true, it’s just what has come next. The true follow up to ‘Famine…’, a band that has grown up together and got used to each other and become a unit working 50/50 as opposed to two people playing their instruments in their own little corner.

In the middle of 2010, when half the album had already been written, we had the urge to play live, obviously without splitting ourselves into four people this was never going to work. So we looked at alternate ways of conveying our message. One thing we learnt is that whatever we do and however we do it, it still sounds like HA. And THIS, my friends, is the second step on the ladder to a further evolution.

Listen to as loud as you can, preferably on headphones whilst stalking the streets and looking directly into people’s eyes. A few pints won’t hurt either.

Read the full post here.

Move final tracklist:

1. The Way it Ends
2. Human Clockwork
3. Copper Foundation
4. Poundland
5. Buried
6. Spies in the Wire (Cabaret Voltaire cover)
7. Hive Mind
8. The Lost

The official website was updated recently. Poundland is available to hear on youtube, more samples will be available soon.

New promo video for Poundland, taken from the forthcoming album ‘Move’ due for release Summer 2011.

Bristol’s Hateful Abandon are one of the most exiting and unpredictable bands in today’s underground, and 2011 may well be their biggest year yet. After 2008′s genre-despising masterpiece Famine (Or Into the Bellies of Worms) (Todestrieb), the band laid low for a while, but are now resurfacing with two new albums and some live performances in the works. We caught up with frontman and multi-instrumentalist V/M to find out a bit more about what’s in store.

You’ve been speaking prophetically about a complete change in direction for Hateful Abandon. How would you describe what you’re trying to do as a band in 2011?

We’re just going to be doing what comes naturally, not really changing direction as such. We always said that it would be great play live if we could find a way and always looked to find other people to fill our vacant positions on stage (E.g. on ‘Famine’ there was 2 guitar parts, bass, keys, vocals and drums). So we’ve had to find a way of playing HA with just the two of us. One way of doing this and keeping it ‘live’ was to strip our sound down to keys and vocals. We’ve been playing ‘live’ in the studio for about 9 months or so now and it really works as a two-piece. It feels really fresh and exciting, so the album after the new one will be written entirely like this in order to play the songs live.

I had the impression from your updates last year that you’d got quite far with a follow-up to Famine…, called Money Bastard Soul. Is that all completely scrapped now? Is any of the recorded material (like ‘Buried’, which is still on your myspace page, or the Cabaret Voltaire cover) ever going to see the light of day?

Yep. We’ve done a 360 on this one. We’re going to be releasing that album this year (very soon hopefully) under the name of ‘Move’. Sometimes when you write music it can a get a little stale and you become detached from the message and the sound. We were so excited about the new way of writing we just thought ‘Fuck it, let’s scrap that bastard and write a new album.’ Late last year I was pissed and stuck on the demos and it blew me away. Tom mailed me the next day and said he’d done the same. It really is a great great record and we now can’t wait to release it. ‘Money Bastard…’ will be the name of album number 3…hopefully out Autumn 2011.

Your sound on Famine felt as if it had developed organically, rather than a conscious attempt to blend genres. How did the new one come about? Are there any artists in particular that have influenced it?

‘Famine’ was pretty much improvised/jammed in 3 sessions. No direct influence as such, just ‘photosynthesis’. Obviously some other influences bled in more than others. You know which track I mean (Painters Rope *cough). I find it a little bit embarrassing to be honest. BUT FUCK IT. It’s a good song.

What kind of subjects have you been exploring in the lyrics to your new songs?

The can of worms. Decay. Apocalypse. Money money money. Poundland. Streets. Dust. Dying culture. Wires. People. Slums. Farmers. Work. Pain. £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££
£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

How has it been taking Hateful Abandon to a live stage? Have you had a good response from audiences?

I think the audience was pretty scared to be honest. Well, at least shellshocked. I got pretty angry/worked up. I thought I’d ruined it to be honest because I just can’t pretend everything is nice and we’re going to play some nice music for folk. Fuck it, it was what it was and what will be. We’ll be playing in London with Urfaust this Autumn.

Are you playing anything off Famine, or is it all new material?

All new brother. That’s the plan. I’m thinking of trying some old tracks though. We’ll see.

From the live video of ‘There will Never be Peace’, you can definitely still hear a bit of metal in there, at least in the vocals. Do you guys still listen to much metal? What modern metal have you most enjoyed lately?

Yeah, I listen to a ton of Metal. Not really fussy about genres to be honest I just like music. It just came out Metal because I was angry. It wasn’t like that in the studio.

Modern Metal? Ugh, Dunno……dunno.

Between the two of you, you’ve covered a fair bit of musical ground in the different projects you’ve been involved in. How does it feel listening back to the stuff you’ve done in the past in Abandon, Basilisk and Swine? Do you feel any continuity between your past and present music?

V/M – I only listen to HA and Tom’s projects. Don’t listen to Basilisk and Abandon. Hard times mate. I was in a bad way really. Too difficult.

You said in an interview that you always used to get drunk before recording stuff for your past projects. What role does intoxication play in the writing and recording of material for Hateful Abandon?

We get drunk yeah. I don’t think it’s important as such but more because we’re having a good time doing HA and we want every session to be a celebration. We’ve done literally hundreds of cans these last couple of years.

The photography in the artwork for Famine captures the feel of the music perfectly, especially the front cover image. Where was it taken/where did you find it? Can you divulge any plans for the next record’s artwork?

That was taken by Håkan Jonsson of Total Holocaust Records of a pier in Sweden. The loneliness of the piece really struck me. Bleak as Hell. Next artwork…ooh you’ll have to wait and see. It’s one of the most powerful images ever…not going to ruin it now though. Wait.

The lyrics are a huge part of what you do, and I’ve always wondered what your song ‘Painter’s Rope’ is about. Would you be willing to shed some light on that?

V/M – I had a dream where I was responsible for painting the night sky black by heaving a pulley for 7 hours as punishment for my earthly sins.

When can we expect a new release from Hateful Abandon? And do you have plans for some more live shows soon?

I Would like to say Spring/Early Summer. Fingers crossed…we have a couple of shows pencilled in like the once with Urfaust in October. But nothing else written in stone. Keep an eye out!

Finally, in interviews you both come across as huge music geeks (like us…) Please could you recommend a few records you love that we’ve probably never heard?

You may have heard these, I’m not the one for obscure records anymore.

Killing Joke: – Everything up to and including Extremities.
Suicide: Fuck it – everything.
Pil – Metal Box/Flowers of Romance.
Vangelis – Bladerunner Soundtrack.
Autechre – Chiastic Slide.
Bosse – Echoes of the Forgotten.

I can’t go on…I have maybe a list of 200 favourite albums…

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Sorry for the wait. It takes time to Hate.

The working title “Next Question?” has been changed to “Move“.

In discussing his band’s inclusion in this week I insisted that their origination in black metal and development through post-black metal 80′s x-wave/post-punk bands out to their current sound made their inclusion essential as an example of the kinds of developments the genre is capable of producing, specifically within the UK.   Here comes Martin’s response:
I have spent the better part of an hour looking at your questions and deciding how to answer them, the reason for my difficulty lies in how we are represented (now globally, because of the internet). A lot of people that have heard of us have done so because of either the debut album “Famine…” or because they know of our past, and in Tom’s case other present, band/s (Basilisk, Swine and Salute respectively). The obvious ties to Black Metal are present for all to see.

However, H.A. (Hateful Abandon) is a different beast entirely, the reason I feel that I need to make the difference plain is both out of respect for Black Metal and also H.A. as an entity.

You see, we have been ‘lumped’ into a sub-sub-category of music that neither of us are happy with. That is to say ‘Post-Black Metal’. It’s easy to see why this is a simple, almost lazy way to describe our music. Our debut album has a very real influence that most would agree has stemmed from our Black Metal past projects. You see, the first record is a cathartic brain-fart of all the ideas, both lyrically and musically, I’ve been unable to do recording on my own from the last 15 years. Some of the lyrics, for example, are very personal. Being inspired by at last having someone I could work with that totally knew how I wanted to express myself was, and continues to be, overwhelming. The result is a mishmash of half improvised, half jammed music that simply came from within.

We didn’t think about ‘genre’ once during the recording process and let the album just naturally bleed itself out.  So, on the debut we have a lot of songs with half snatched riffs, a backbone of spiky bass guitar and lilts of tone similar to what some would call ‘post-punk’. In reality, far from this being planned it was just the most basic way to work fast and keep the emotion intact.

So, the record came out 2 years ago to this very day and we have grown as a unit since, with both members now fully committed to writing. We have now ditched the ‘guitar’ completely, and have forged a new sound that is neither ‘this’ nor ‘that’. It is bound to confuse and confuddle the lazy journalistic types and frustrate the weekend warriors into a state of brow-knitted frenzy. We hope it entertains and delights as many as it disgusts. Nothing has been released yet, but you’ll see us on the road next year. It’s a new start, as they say in the Independent Sunday supplements.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Appalled to see we are mentioned alongside the new ‘shoe-gaze Black Metal’ movement. I’ll make this simple, we are absolutely appalled. I don’t understand why nowadays music HAS to be ‘Something Black Metal’ or ‘Something Punk’etc. Why can’t it simply be an influence? I would HATE to think of H.A. being associated with a watered down crossover version of Black Metal and another form of music. That’s how I see this up and coming trend, as two types of music watered down. If you’re recording Black Metal, do it pure. Do something new by all means, but play Black Metal.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That kind of segues nicely into another question you asked me, about UK Black Metal. I have to be honest; I’m out of the loop. I know what I like and I know what I don’t like, but that’s not much use to you. I will say this, it’s far better than it was when Basilisk started back in 2002. There was literally nothing around then at all. If I have to namedrop, I’ll say whatever state UK Black Metal is in, it’s made infinitely better by the existence of Caina and Instinct. But I fear I do them a disservice by attaching the stigma of ‘UK’ to describe them, they deserve much more than that. Also, with both of these projects I hear a lot more going on in the sound to describe it as simply ‘Black Metal’. I think Black Metal, and actually Metal in general, has lost not only its soul, but its shock value and ability to provoke as well, unless you’re in an environment that is very naive and religious nobody seems to bat an eyelid. I am certainly now totally desensitized to its provocation; maybe I’m the naive one…?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your question about environment is interesting, with H.A we are constantly inspired by the old disused warehouses, dilapidated wastelands and cracked pavements of the United Kingdom, it clashes beautifully with the green, leafy, twee idea of England that most people seem to have. Ok, that England does still exist (for now) but look hard enough and you can see the decay. Civil unrest, the credit crash, and the approaching end of the World are other constant muses for H.A 2010. Don’t try and save the World, it’s already dead! Sit back and watch it decompose with H.A as your soundtrack!
So, what is the point of this whole piece? H.A is not a Black Metal band. What are we? Come see.

Interview by Not for Resale blog.

HATEFUL ABANDON (UK, Unconventional
genre defying Post-Punk /
Black Metal / Dark Pop)

http://www.myspace.com/hatefulabandon

http://label.todestrieb.co.uk/artists/hateful-abandon/

CLOACA
(UK, Experimental / Ambient / Metal)

http://www.myspace.com/cloacamusic

SHARP TEETH!
(UK, Hardcore / Punk / Metal)

http://www.myspace.com/wearesharpteeth

LIFE IN THE DARK
(UK, Down-Tempo / Shoegaze / Metal)

http://www.myspace.com/lifeinthedarkmusic

SLEEPING PEONIES (UK, Black Metal /
Shoegaze)

http://www.myspace.com/sleepingpeonies

Date: 12th November 2010

**LINE-UP CHANGE: unfortunately MATHS will no longer be able to play on the 12th November however good news as SHARP TEETH! are now confirmed for the line-up of this event !**

Venue Details:
The Marquee,
25 Cattle Market Street,
Norwich,
UK

Doors 7:00pm
Estimated Times:
7:00pm – 11:00pm
You will also be able to buy merch at this gig from the awesome zine / label / promoter WHAT WOULD HENRY ROLLINS DO? !
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW FROM
THE UEA BOX OFFICE!!
http://www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk/events/hateful-abandon-presented-by-illaetabilis-art—promotion-.aspx
01603 508050

All change on the HA front; It looks likely that the 2nd album may slip into early next year with the rehearsals for HA Mark II keeping us pumping until the end of this annus horribilis. It is with a slight trembling motion that I have to admit we have changed quite a bit from the first record. Although I’m sure most t…hat can appreciate the old will appreciate the new record and the style moving on to HA Mark II next year. The good news is that we are working on material for HA Mark II a lot quicker, so recorded output should be a lot more frequent.

November 12, 2010
The Marquee
23 Cattle Market Street
Norwich (MAP)

Doors: 7.00 |

Headlining
Hateful Abandon

Support Bands
Cloaca
Life in the Dark
Sleeping Peonies
Maths

Related show

• Artist: Hateful Abandon
• Date: Friday, November 12th 2010
• Time: 7:00pm
• City: Hateful Abandon in Norwich
• Venue: The Marquee
• Address: 23 Cattle Market Street
• Venue phone: 07909228373
• Country: United Kingdom
• Admission: £5.50
• Age restrictions: Over 18
• Box office: 01603 508050
• Notes: Support Bands: Cloaca, Life in the Dark, Sleeping Peonies, Maths
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

UPDATE: The album title has been confirmed: MONEY BASTARD SOUL

Video from Hateful Abandon’s debut live performance is available here.