Originally, the duo consisted of Anders Hagström and Yasmine Uhlin. However, she announced her surprise departure from the band in Hamburg at the last concert of the Out Of line festival tour 2008.
Anders and Yazmine met in November 2005 and, upon discovering that they shared the same musical vision, decided to form a band. Their collaboration soon came to fruition with the release of a 9 track demo entitled "Angora Overdrive" after a very intensive month in the studio.
The second four track demo, "Parliament of Rooks", which was finished in February 2006, had a more refined sound compared to their first offering. They decided to send it to a few select labels because the reaction they got to the first demo was quite overwhelming. Having sent the demos on Monday, Ashbury Heights was contacted and contracted by German Out of Line records on Wednesday, only an hour after the label had received the CD. This probably makes Ashbury Heights one of the fastest signings in history. Several other labels expressed an interest in the band, but there was no bidding war as Out of Line moved so quickly.
Although having signed the famous German act "And One" at about the same time as Ashbury Heights, which ate a lot of the labels' resources, Out of Line wasted no time. The legendary producer John Fryer was brought on board to produce the promotional single "Cry Havoc" in April 2006, something quite unheard of in the world of the electronic underground. Very few bands in the synth-genre get to release promo-CDs (if any), and certainly no other band in modern synth-history has released a promo-CD produced by a celebrity of the likes of Fryer.
John Fryer would eventually mix their first album "Three cheers for the newlydeads". Released in october 2007, the debut album was recieved with overwhelming optimism from press and audience alike proving once and for all that Ashbury Heights truly is a force to be reckoned with.
In 2008 Ashbury Heights returned with the "Morningstar in a Black Car" EP, containing five new songs and four remixes. The EP received good reviews and helped keep up interest for the band. A video was made for the track "Spiders", a low budget affair which nevertheless managed to project some of the bands unique flair.
Ashbury Heights, with brand-new female vocalist Kari Berg, released their new album 'Take Cair paramour' on the 2nd of july 2010. In 2010, following a long running dispute between Hagström and the record label Out Of Line the band disbanded. This dispute was settled in 2011, whereupon Hagstöm and Out of Line renewed their collaboration. However, it took until 2013 for Hagström to find a new singer. The new singer is Tea F. Thimé, the first female to co-write lyrics for Ashbury Heights.
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Decent Cancer
Ashbury Heights Lyrics
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It's lethal in size and it hurts like a thorn in my side
It's renowned far and wide as the name of our downfall
The name that will bury us all
It's a God among gods
It's a cancer within
It's the father of sin and of love and desire and jealousy
It's the sum of all parts and we call it the human heart
It doesn't know how I take my coffee
It doesn't care how I play my part
It doesn't care about truth or lies
And it never gives any good advice
It doesn't care if I'm suicidal
No consideration for my precious hind
Doesn't give a damn if I stand or fall
And it's got a beat that says it all
Still it's a decent cancer
That's keeping me alive
Eating me alive
There's a kindred of flames
A secret society of one
A spawn of the sun that burns like a candle behind my eyes
A searing light from which I cannot run
It's a thing of beauty and flesh and of stone
Like a castle
A throne
Where kings and queens were crowned to rot
It's the heart of it all and it's the only heart we've got
It doesn't know how I take my coffee
It doesn't care how I play my part
It doesn't care about truth or lies
And it never gives any good advice
It doesn't care if I'm suicidal
No consideration for my precious hind
Doesn't give a damn if I stand or fall
And it's got a beat that says it all
Still it's a decent cancer
That's keeping me alive
Eating me alive
The lyrics of Ashbury Heights’ “Decent Cancer” tackle the complicated and sometimes detrimental nature of the human heart. The song presents the heart as a kind of plague, a God among gods and a cancer within, that is both the source of our desire and love, as well as our downfall. It is a sum of all parts that is indifferent to the individual: it neither cares about the truth or lies, nor about our ups and downs. Despite its destructive tendencies, however, the heart is also presented as a necessary force that keeps us alive, which the singer describes as a “decent cancer”.
The song continues to explore the idea of the heart as a kind of fire that burns bright and is both beautiful and destructive. The heart is a secret society of one, a place where kings and queens are crowned to rot. It is a vital part of our being, but it is also an unsympathetic force that can devour us from the inside out. The song suggests that there is a paradox at the heart of the human experience: we need the heart to live, but it can also lead to our ruin.
Ashbury Heights’ “Decent Cancer” is a complex meditation on the human heart that balances the positive and negative aspects of this vital organ. It suggests that, despite its often destructive tendencies, the heart is a necessary force in our lives that we cannot live without.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a plague that goes on and on
A never-ending epidemic exists
It's lethal in size and it hurts like a thorn in my side
The disease is deadly and causes immense pain
It's renowned far and wide as the name of our downfall
This disease is recognized worldwide as the cause of our downfall
The name that will bury us all
This disease will eventually destroy us all
It's a God among gods
This disease is powerful and all-consuming
It's a cancer within
It's a disease that infiltrates and corrupts from the inside
It's the father of sin and of love and desire and jealousy
This disease is the origin of all sins and emotions
It's the sum of all parts and we call it the human heart
The human heart is the culmination of all these things
It doesn't know how I take my coffee
The human heart is indifferent to personal preferences
It doesn't care how I play my part
The human heart doesn't consider individual roles or actions
It doesn't care about truth or lies
The human heart is unconcerned with honesty or deceit
And it never gives any good advice
The human heart is not a reliable source of guidance
It doesn't care if I'm suicidal
The human heart isn't affected by suicidal thoughts or actions
No consideration for my precious hind
It doesn't factor in personal attachments or affections
Doesn't give a damn if I stand or fall
The human heart is indifferent to success or failure
And it's got a beat that says it all
The human heart's rhythm is a testament to its power
Still it's a decent cancer
Despite its destructive nature, the human heart is a force for survival
That's keeping me alive
Our human heart, flawed as it may be, is essential to our survival
Eating me alive
But it's simultaneously consuming and corrupting us from within
Contributed by Jake J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.