NAME: Heights
E.P: The Land, The Ocean, The Distance
YEAR: 2009 (September 21st)
LABEL: Self Released
RATING: 3/5
FIVE WORD REVIEW: Ambitious Sounds from Hardcore Quintet
LOCATION: Welwyn Garden City
LINE UP: Thomas Debeare (Vocals), Dean Richardson (Guitar), Tom Green (Guitar), Andrew Moulder (Bass), Tom Hutton (Drums)
WHAT’S THE STORY?: Hertfordshire upstarts give a fair go at expanding the hardcore template.
SOUNDS LIKE: These lads attempt a genuine stab at developing new sonic atmospheres within the hardcore sound. Opener ‘Empires’ begins with a sparse, spatial texture; pummelling in its musicianship, effortless in its style. The track loses confidence and resorts to some fairly derivative discord riffing, never gaining pace and progressing. Things are redeemed towards the end however with an epic and involving conclusion. ‘Paint the Sky’ is more challenging though sometimes fails to truly excite. Again the choruses/instrumentals are where these guys truly let rip, an explosion of wall-of-sound guitars and some sublime melodies. ‘Worlds Apart” is more electronic in feel, with cavernous ambient sections of crushing drums, belly aching bass and lifting guitar lines, both calming and arresting in their ease. At six minutes though they could have explored the track deeper as it starts to drag towards the end. This lot have the right ambitions, the right swagger, and the tightness to boot, but sometimes this suffers under weak song writing. Being young though (having only formed this year) they have plenty of time to experiment and develop within the sonic backdrop of their sound and this is the sign of interesting things to come.
YOU’LL LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKE: Heavy-as-fuck breakdowns, soundscapes, youthful energy, An open outlook on hardcore
LINKS: Official Website // MySpace
– David Gullon
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