The melding of hardcore and rock-n-roll seems to be quite the rave as of late. So when you have a sudden influx of bands taking aim at a new look of an established genre, you are going to get the full spectrum. That is to say you'll get everything from fantastic to downright horrible. With their self-titled release, Dead Hearts find themselves just above the middle crowd.
Dead Hearts begins in typical hardcore fashion with an intro/sing-along track before busting into "Breakdown." Here the band's formula is displayed upfront, combining fast paced hardcore, likely inspired from the mid-90's youth-crew revival, and blazing rock-n-roll riffing. Hell, they even throw in a guitar solo. This is a very crucial jam, not too shabby so far. The next couple of tracks follow in typical fashion, but I can't say there is anything spectacular about them.
"Dear Jane Letter," one of the tracks from the band's demo shows why State of Mind picked the band up. The track gives Dead Hearts a moment outside of the one dimensional hardcore world. The song makes use of melodic guitars throughout, but they are especially present in the beginning sequence; reminded me a bit of Lifetime. The song concludes out with a nice sing-along for those kids that long for pile-ons. I wish the rest of the album was filled with tunes like this, but it's not.
The last three tracks fly by in a little over five minutes and I found them to be tedious. Sure they were fast and energetic, but they lacked character and ended up being nothing more than a blur to me.
Overall, Dead Hearts lacks the ability to distinguish themselves enough from the hordes of other hardcore bands venturing down this musical path. But if the band can take constructive criticism, perhaps they can apply this feedback and produce some new tunes that will help distinguish their sound from the crowd.
