InsideMattStanleysHead - Heroes Die Too - Women and children first

Matt Stanley reviews the italian stallions - Heroes Die Too : On the aggregate-review website ‘Metacritic’ the director John Carpenter has received 45 out of 100 as an accumulated score for his career as a director. In fact, the only film to score above 54 is his debut ‘Halloween’. So why, before they even treat us to a riff, do Heroes Die Too ask whether this gentleman should be the director of this life? It’s a bizarre, yet darkly humorous rhetorical question (at least in a metaphorical sense), that does a great job of cementing the attitude you should expect from this mini-album of melodic skate-punk from the land of pizza and grand gesticulations. If your order of the day is super-fast technical punk with a cheeky pinch of fun then this record is definitely for you. If you also have a penchant for interesting lyrical Canapes then you really are onto a winner. Continuing with the gastronomic theme, you receive a healthy portion of both with opener ‘In Real Life’. Like a guy juggling chainsaws on a unicycle, the track opens with a sort of ‘yeah-I-could-do-this-with-my-eyes-closed’ technical finger flexing that forces you to pay attention. Musically the song chops and changes between tempos, but so seamlessly that you never really sense that it slows down. It has a really ‘fun’ sound to it as well that makes me wish I was a lot younger as I tend to leave mosh pits with sore knees these days. Lyrically, it uses horror movie cliches to describe the macabre world in which we live. Us being the clumsy footed victim trying to escape its relentless lumber. I have to admit that I wasn’t initially won over by the vocals – being a fan of a much more aggressive sound – but the music really benefits from the melody that they deliver. As I listen to ‘Women and children first’, influences from two bands spring to mind. The first being ‘Illusion of safety’ era Thrice, especially when it comes to melodies, and it is with these that Heroes Die Too really win me over on this record. This is executed to great effect in easily the slowest track ‘Wishlist’. A song with a clear point that sheds the speed and intricacies for three and a half minutes so you have no choice but to listen to what they have to say. The song pretty much carries the same tempo throughout, but its brilliant composition prevents it from ever becoming flaccid, using changes in dynamics for emphasis where it’s needed. The song shines through with thoughtful vocal melodies that create an effectively poignant atmosphere, while the value of physical and mental wealth is discussed around us. It is worth noting here how generally great the lyrics are throughout this album. An impressive feat by any means, but even more so when you consider that Heroes Die Too are Italian singing in English. For most Brits the need to be fluent in a foreign language is an Alien concept. Weaving imagery into a natives head as if you were one however is a commendable skill. Hell! They use the word Bilious as an adjective for Chrissake?! Moving back to point from my digression however and its not difficult to find HDT suffering from a case of the Wilhelm Screams; though whereas AWS have a sort of classic, heavy-metal fusion to their punk-rock, HDT’s is a much brighter sounding beast. Poppier if you will, but not tacky or overproduced. For me, HDT are best when they are at their most passionate, with track ‘When 6 was 5′ really radiating this with conviction. The message is an important one, with the band venting the frustrations of a generation living with those who see the black shirted period of fascism as a time of efficiency and progress. The verses are barked with an operatic intensity over the trademark stampede of lightning fast drums and tight interesting riffs, that really go to cement in my mind why this band are so great. You always get the sense that their fret-wankery has a purpose instead of being self indulgent, and its this unpretentious method of song-writing that makes them an easy band to warm to. If only they hadn’t decided to use a fade out to end track six…! I’m excited about the future of Heroes Die Too. This debut record holds enough weight to sit alongside the giants of their participating genre in anybodies play list, and if they can find a sound that one could unmistakably identify as ‘them’, we could be looking at something very special indeed. Bappity Buppity Download their album here: https://heroesdietoo.bandcamp.com/