THE HEARTLAND was the second release by Grand Rapids MI-based GRiM Records (cat. # GR002). As with the legendary first GRiM product (a vinyl EP with the catalog number memorably misspelled as “GRool”!), the artist was Zyklon.

In a more easily imaginable parallel universe Zyklon would have followed up their first vinyl release with a second, more polished *single* showcasing their unsettlingly strange audience favorite “All Night War Film,” b/w “Amtrak” or “No Mexiko.” Instead, they perversely did the opposite: Having first released a single that most listeners thought sounded like a demo tape, Zyklon honed their studiously rehearsed ultimate product into a cassette album recorded / mixed live on 2-track reel tape in a cable TV studio.

Engineered by Jon Koeze (a supernaturally gifted supporter of “alternative music” before that term was invented -- Dutch West Michigan’s answer to Martin Hannet?), HEARTLAND was released in late 1981, and immediately picked up for distribution by ROUGH TRADE USA. The new, definitive recording of “Gary IN” was eagerly accepted for inclusion on SUB POP 7.

Overnight GRiM was fielding calls from concert promoters interested in booking Zyklon as a support act for Japan ... and DAF.

They were too late. 

The title of the last track on HEARTLAND, “Zerfallen,” is a German word for disintegrate. 

The cover art (top of this page) was an “art school” exercise titled “revel in decay” -- tongue in cheek enough. But somehow Zyklon always ended up one last laugh ahead of just about everyone.

The band members saw the beauty and terror of rust belt ruins on a fairly nuanced level. But no one at GRiM Records, or in Zyklon, had attended art school.