Heartless, “Heartless” 7-inch

cover-heartlessHeartless
Heartless
(Self-released)

After the first listen of this 7-inch, I was almost afraid to put it on again, for fear that my stereo would think I was punishing it. No, no – this self-titled release from Pittsburgh’s Heartless isn’t bad. It’s just that it’s one of the few releases that deserves the descriptor “brutal.”

Whomever mastered this record must have pushed the limits of what’s possible, because listening to Heartless’ pummeling hardcore is like repeatedly taking a two-by-four to the chest.

With track titles simply put – “Disgust,” “Concrete,” “Buried,” “Absent” – you know there’s no frills here, only music that penetrates to your very core and gets you up and moving. You know the way fight scenes are shot for movies, where it sounds like everything was recorded inside a mortar? That’s what Heartless sounds like: as if there were a war going on inside your stereo.

Download it yourself and take a listen. You can hear the sounds of battle for yourself, churned out with the machine-like precision that can only come from those who come from a factory town like Iron City. You can also buy it from Tor Johnson Records. It comes with a screened cover and the inserts are like handmade books.