Hearts Over Rome "Everybody, Everybody" CD
[Undecided]
Despite the fact that the artwork on this thing makes it look like some sort of screamo/indie kind of record, this band cranks out some vicious rhythmic metalcore that's chock full of raspy screaming vocals and chunky chord progressions with a little dissonance, a little melody, etc. I'm not blown away by it but it's not half bad either. As is often the case with bands of this nature the songwriting kind of jumps from riff to riff and offers a lot of changes within compact two- to three-minute timeframes, but since their style is generally moderately paced and not overly chaotic or technical it tends to carry itself well. I also like that the screaming vocals occasional let up to more of a shouted or spoken style, which adds just a touch of variety. "American Women Act and Dress" messes with the time signatures a little more and lets the dissonant melodic chords play a larger role, and I really like those aspects of the song a lot; while "In Heaven, There Are Only Green Lights" briefly flirts with straightforward hardcore (as does the at times borderline punked out "A New Nightmare"). None of these songs fall into what I consider to be a moshy area, though of course there are some heavier breakdowns and stuff like that, but this shouldn't be confused with that whole style. The feel is a little different what with subtly rocked out tracks like "Leisure Giants" offering unexpected twists. "Theodore is Not Fit to Join Our School" is another strange one, bringing in a great post-hardcore sensibility to the verse passages while coming across sparser and indie-ish elsewhere with some unusual shifts in dynamics. "Bury Me at Makeout Creek" is the only bad song herein. Terrible, in fact. Out of nowhere the band breaks out generic melodic Swedish riffs and sloppy pull-off runs that are completely irritating and powerless. I was honestly gonna go ahead and give this disc a 7/10 until this song came on, at which point the disc's momentum took a huge dive. Some of that same style seeps into the following "The Songs We All Know" to more effective degrees, but they still need to drop all that shit immediately because it's totally tired and they're not even very good at that style - despite being pretty damn efficient with everything else. After a few moments of silence the entire disc plays back through backwards, track by track, at the end of the CD, so... yeah, they did that for some reason. The recording's solid. I think the guitars should be thicker and more in your face, as sometimes the chunkier picking just doesn't feel dense enough. But the rhythm section sounds great. I really like the basslines and the well rounded bass tone really helps the playing come across fluidly, and the vocals sound cool as well. The drums are a little flat but get the job done, so with a more intense guitar tone I think some of this material would hit a lot harder. The design consists entirely of shades of brown with some high contrast images and weird patterns, with tiny text in long single lines for the lyrics. It actually looks pretty hideous. Not as far as quality, just as far as actual color and arrangement - as if it were purposefully made to look pretty nasty or something, I don't know. Trying to read the lyrics gives me a headache, and at a cursory glance they seem like boring personal stuff that doesn't grab me, so I'm sparing my eyesight on this one. Not bad overall, though. I think they need to push a little harder to really nail it, but I bet this band's gonna completely win me over in the future. A harder hitting recording would probably do the trick with this one, but if they can reach their more creative and forceful side in a larger number of songs they'll turn a lot of heads. (6/10)
Running time - 28:54, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: American Women Act and Dress, In Heaven, There Are Only Green Lights, Theodore is Not Fit to Join our School]
Undecided Records - http://www.undecidedrecords.com

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