Hangman's Knot

The Hangman's Knot are a Brunanter music band, based in Carrington. They play stoner metal, as well as sludge metal and southern metal.

Founded in 1999, Hangman's Knot are considered the top metal act of Brunant and they are referred to as one of the Carrington's Big Two, alongside 9mm. Their lyrics deal with many aspects of life, including social struggles, war, drinking and sex. Their leftish political views are expressed in many of their songs; thus they are sometimes pejoratively called Dolmatoff's children.

Early steps
The band's beginnings can be traced back to 1995 when Willem Spronk, Yorick Bezuidenhout and Jimmy Coburn formed a local band called Black Mamba, which eventually changed its name to Hangman's Knot. For many years Hangman's Knot went through numerous line-up changes and this instability essentially kept the band on an amateur level. The band's professional career began in 1999, when Tommo Bevis was added as the lead singer and guitarist.

The band signed to Acid Drop Music and released Hangman's Knot in 2000. It was an instant success, the first metal album to chart in Hit Parade 20. According to Spronk "it was a rather unexpected hit". This album is considered decisive in the spread of metal music in Brunant.

Hangman's Knot were chosen as the supportive act to Veldwachter's farewell tour, in 2001. The next year, they released You'd Better Run, which was successful, too. With this album, the band found its distinctive sound, greatly influenced by AC/DC and Eyehategod. ¡Hasta Siempre! (2003) is undoubtedly the album mostly expressing the members' leftish ideology. Even though it was met with poor critic, it was hailed by people of the same political views. On the other side, Sofia Andersen called it "a disgusting noise, dangerous for our youth".

Funny Funeral and The Dancing Cobra
In 2005, Hangman's Knot released Funny Funeral. It reached #9 at Brunanter charts. The band went on a tour, giving two performances in each town or city. In 2006, they relesed their first live album and also participated in the Metalheart Concert, a show with many Brunanter and European bands.

The Dancing Cobra (2007) was more successful, reaching #7. It is thought to be a little softer in sound and was described as experimental by Bevis.

Hiatus
In late 2007, Spronk announced that the band would go on a short hiatus, due to personal reasons of him. Indeed, Bevis left for Australia, where his father was suffering from cancer. In the meanwhile, the rest of the members gave some performances in Koningstad and Carrington.

Upon his return, Bevis announced that his father was alright and the hiatus was "a disturbing, music-less break". The 2009 10 Years Alive was named in his honour and part of the revenues were donated to Brunanter Cancer Society.

Recent years
All last three albums of Hangman's Knot, reached #6 at Hit Parade 20. Since 2011 there were rumours supporting that the band would go through line-up changes, but both Spronk and Bezuidenhout denied that. As of 2013, the band released Old Year's Eve (EP) on January 2.

Studio albums

 * Hangman's Knot (2000)
 * You'd better Run (2002)
 * ¡Hasta Siempre! (2003)
 * Funny Funeral (2005)
 * The Dancing Cobra (2007)
 * Please Wait (2009)
 * Sun Burns my Skin (2010)
 * Smoke Signals (2012)

Live albums

 * Funny Funeral Live (2006)
 * 10 Years Alive (2009)
 * Smoke Signals Tour (2012)

EPs

 * Mandrake (2004)
 * Please Wait (2009)
 * Old Year's Eve (2013)