A Review of Have Heart's Latest, Songs to Scream at the Sun

Hardcore is often an un-approachable genre for an outsider. Hardcore fans are hardcore fans, period. Well, the thing is that certain hardcore albums transcend their genre classification, and Have Heart's latest, Songs to Scream at the Sun is one such hardcore album. Sure, the basic hardcore elements are all intact here, you've got the crushing guitar tones, brick-wall smashing bass, severely beaten drums, a singer who yells more than "sings" and a sense of anger and aggression serving as the foundation. But Have Heart have stretched the boundaries of their genre by employing new and diverse songwriting approaches that make for a fresh and impassioned record.

While most hardcore albums are content to stew in a world of machismo and violence, Have Heart have penned an album that looks into other, often darks, areas of the human condition. This is not simply a "I've got your back, don't mess with me or my bros," type of record. Instead Have Heart delve us into a myriad of psychological battles, ones that touch on everything from paranoia and fear to loneliness and depression. What was once channeled as bitterness and venom is now channeled as desperation and confusion. What's interesting is that in order to obtain this fruitful goal, Have Heart only had to tweak the hardcore formula. You won't bizarre guitar tones, effects, cross-genre dabbling, or production tricks on Songs to Scream at the Sun, it is still most definitely a hardcore album.

The progressive sense of hardcore I've been describing can be felt as early as album opener "The Same Son." It is here over a building rumble of drum rolls, screeching guitar, and guttural chants that Have Heart make it clear you are in for an interesting ride. The song is a slow boil waiting for the heat to really kick up and it is this restraint that pays for the band. The listener is placed in an area of tension and waiting. "The Same Son" is the aural equivalent of sweaty palms and deep breaths before embarking on a life-changing experience.

"Bostons" is also an atypical hardcore anthem, one that works in a much different way than "The Same Son." The verses use palm-muting and well placed drum accents to strike at the listener like a steady stream of fists before barreling into the uplifting chorus. Still, it is the song's well-crafted breakdown that truly stands out here. Vocals belt over the silence "So I could be the boy you couldn't be and the father you couldn't see." When the music kicks back in it is a slow and powerful plod that emphasizes the trials the vocals articulate. Family expectations and disappointments are called into question via a bellowed shout and brutal guitar work.

Standout track "Pave Paradise" comes next and again offers a lesson in restraint. The verses are served up with a pensive drive before a chorus that utilizes a screaming build and pounding backing vocals. It is here that the band show they've been listening to Modern Life is War as they demonstrate the power of simple and powerful guitar work and shouted melodies.

"On the Bird in the Cage" may be the most generic hardcore song on the album thanks to its galloping drums and, crunchy breakdown, and speedy guitar work, but "Brotherly Love" soon follows with the albums slowest, churning moments. It is here that the vocals turn from screaming in the face to argumentative disgust. They are toned down to match the bass-driven, note picked verses. Even when the chorus comes crashing in, it keeps things relatively subdued tempo-wise, choosing instead to be propelled by force instead of speed.

If you were looking for the melodic track, look no farther than "No Roses, No Skies," while "The Taste of the Floor" is another experiment in empty space and its inevitable shattering by way of massive guitars and pummeling drums.

"Hard Bark on the Family Tree" presents the band's most rhythmically interesting song thanks to a jagged in and out guitar attack and fractured drumming. This is followed up the album's closer "The Same Sun." Like the album's opener this song plays with the idea of a song as a constant build, only instead of hitting a crescendo at its close we are treated to a complex and overlapping vocal performance while feedback hums in the background. This may be the most complex vocal arrangements you've ever heard form a hardcore and the results are magnificent.

Like I said, there is nothing shocking or taken from left field used over the course of this album, Have Heart have merely found a way to play with hardcore convention and add diversity to a genre that often is content with repetition and stereotypes. The result is a fantastic and finely-tuned hardcore album that should come as a new standard for the genre.