LoveHateHero
Just Breathe
Ferret Music
Two-and-a-half out of five stars
If you haven’t heard, LoveHateHero is coming to town the 23rd of May. How many of us care probably hovers around the same number?23.
Besides that, Just Breathe, the band’s new release, exonerates the year’s best trend in rock music?screamo! (Oh, I crack myself up). Yet, for all my jokes, LoveHateHero proves to be a band that deserves some credit.
Sure, their music is completely committed to the screamo genre, but that’s what makes it stand out: The guitars are screamo, the drums are screamo, the lyrics are screamo (e.g., “Nothing has changed / I’m void aren’t I? / So much happens to me!”)
There are tracks to bounce to, sections to head-bang to-basically, an entire album to cry and pull out your dyed-black faux-hawk to while you and your boyfriend buy fast food in Hurley and Hot Topic apparel.
It’s whiny, it’s lame?it’s sooo cool.
On the down side, it’s screamo.
The one curveball Just Breathe offers is the last track, which doesn’t play into the screamo guidelines. This track, in which LoveHateHero manages to create something more raw and hardcore, displays a style that, no matter how many times is beaten to death, still kicks the crap out of screamo. It is? fun.
However, the triumph of the aforementioned song is offset by a blooper/goof-off hidden track that immediately follows. Awful singing, phaser beams, and a one-way conversation that goes “I am not
God / You are God / I am not God / Look at your big beard / You are God” takes the cake as the worst hidden track in the history of music.
Frankly, this is the last time I ever want to have a glimpse of the frightening reality of what screamo kids do in their free time; but if you enjoy contemplating suicide in your posh suburban basement, this just might push you over the edge.
