House of Heroes – Self-Titled

Buying a CD based solely on the release of a brand new, catchy single is always a dangerous risk. Sometimes the album will blow you away and you will be glad you bought it; but other times (like Vendetta Red‘s Between The Never And The Now), you will listen to it and immediately regret buying the CD. The single is amazing, but the rest of the album just plain sucks. So when I heard House Of Heroes’ first single off their Self-Titled release, Serial Sleepers, I wasn’t sure what to think.

The song had a catchy chorus and some heavy hitting sections; but at the same time, it had some weak verses and really mellow parts to it too. All of that in one song made for a weird single choice, but it was still enough to convince me to give their Self-Titled release a listen; and really, the single had a great predication of the entire album.

Just like Serial Sleepers, the rest of the album is full of its ups and downs. There are the catchy choruses in songs like Make A Face Like You Mean It (Vampires), Friday Night, Suicide Baby andMercedes Baby. Even without the lyrics booklet, some of the vocal harmonies get stuck in your head almost instantly. While some heavier and quicker sections of pop-rock tinged with a dash of alternative or indie, there are some songs that are much more slower and moving, – somewhere in the vein of Muse‘s Absolution – like Metaphor In Parentheses, Angels In Top Hats, Pulling Back The Skin and the short instrumental of The Bois D’arc Circus.

Oddly enough, these quick changes seem to somehow fit together quite well. It does become a bit obnoxious, but nothing to overpowering that makes you feel the need to skip them. Sure, you can skip them without missing anything, but it doesn’t hurt to play them all the way through. The only sad part is that, at times, the slower sections seem to be really lacking something to make them really worth the time it takes to play them. They are missing that kick and the catchy chorus that makes the harder songs like Vampires stand out. But still, for an album built of pop-rock melodies melded with some slight alternative or indie sounds, House Of Heroes’ Self-Titled effort isn’t completely horrible, just not all that great either.