Heimat-Los | tl

HEIMAT-LOS (also spelled Heimatlos on the last two records) was a hardcore punk band from the outskirts of Paris, France (active from 1983 to 1988). They formed with the intent to play as fast as possible and with as much pure energy as they could muster, but at the same time they managed to write tuneful thrash songs. At the core of their distinctive sound was the bass player's unique power strum which was a novelty at that time. So in the 80s many French punks discovered hardcore music through Heimat-los recordings and concerts.

Another specificity of Heimat-los was to sing in several languages : they had songs in English, German, French, Spanish, Finnish and Swedish, plus the chorus of "Varsovie" (French for Warsaw) which was sung in Russian.

The term "heimatlos" is German for "stateless person".

Heimat-los recorded two EP, one split EP and one split LP (both of them with their friends Kromozom 4. They only performed live in France, Belgium and Germany.

In 1985, Heimat-los wrote a one second-long hardcore song made of 8 barred chords : "La Seconde Nécessaire de Léon Zyklon" (Leon Zyklon's necessary second). It was most probably the shortest at that time (and approximately two years before Napalm Death's first album).

When Heimat-los broke up in September 1988, three of them formed Tears of a Doll which later change their name into Tear of a Doll with then only one original Heimat-los member left : François a.k.a. Naing Naing.

Heimat-los vocalist Norbert has formed Trigger, a short-lived hip-hop band using samples of the likes of 2 Bad or Voivod and which recorded a rap cover of Trust's Antisocial on which Trust guitarist Nono played.

(See also Heimatlos and Heïmat-los. This is the same band) .