Dead Hearts
Self Titled EP
7.6
Yet more American Nightmare influenced hardcore from State of Mind, this time from Dead Hearts, a band based out of Buffalo who've recently signed to Ferret. While so many people will insist that all hardcore sounds the same, even though they share some of the same influences as the other band from this label just reviewed, This Is Hell, I challenge anyone to listen to them back to back and declare they sound the same. Using that same upbeat style with gang yells and occasional octave leads, Dead Hearts use more traditional "rock" leads, much in the same way as Suicide File.
The vocals are aggressive and pissed off as they should be, and there's a large variation of shouted vocals working alongside with the gang yells mentioned earlier. "In Our Hands" works as kind of an intro to the explosive song, "Breakdown", which has such a classic-rock vibe to it. "Small Town Tragedy", while not an unexpected departure from their sound on the previous songs, is more conventional and slightly drops their defining characteristic, yet "Heart Shape Coffin" picks it right back up. I'm left sort of bored by the beginning of "Dear Jane Letter", where there's kind of a sour-sounding riff that begins the album before the galloping pace picks up. "Forever" better achieves that anticipatory beginning that they were shooting for, and certainly doesn't disappoint once the song really gets in gear with giant mid-paced riffing. It's short, and straight to the point, and intelligently brings you into "Bright Lights, Burnt City", which uses some cool palm-muting to bring kind of a smirk out of me. The songs were recorded between two sessions, so there's a different sound midway through, but it's nothing I'd mark them down too harshly for. While there's eight tracks, as anyone with any idea what they're listening to knows, it's a relatively short release still. Often times I'm left criticizing bands for putting too much material on an album, but for some reason this is the perfect duration for an EP.
Dead Hearts are definitely going to be one of the bigger bands amongst hardcore fans embracing new acts, yet still holding on to their credibility. Solid both in their approach as well as their execution, it's hard to argue with all the praise they've gotten as of late.
