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Tag: Everyday Hero

Everyday Hero-Tonight We Dance

everydayheroEveryday HeroTonight We Dance

Self-released

As much as people want to say that guitars are rock’n’roll, it’s really drums that make rock’n’roll what it is. The guitars can scream, pound, thrash or wail as much as they want, but if the intensity isn’t matched in the drums, the whole thing loses its potential. In short, drums carry the adrenaline.

It’s this idea that makes Everyday Hero the anomaly they are. While both bass and electric guitars draw heavily from emo, hardcore and punk moods, the drums are firmly planted in rock. It’s not even four-on-the-floor, crush-em-all snare-and-bass mashing either – it’s even-tempered, well-paced drumming that never relies on double pedal or undue speed for effect. Drummer Colin Coogan actually relies a lot on the well-timed space between his hits – an unlikely and uncommon choice in emo/hardcore/punk. It keeps the songwriting of Ian Coogan and Brian Hamilton in check, as the sound is never allowed to go overboard into meaningless speediness. It also never goes into an all-out assault, which can be seen as a problem, but it definitely delivers something different mood-wise to the scene.

The aforementioned guitars are firmly rooted in the emo/hardcore/punk tradition – and while they do deliver some good riffs (the end of “The Sixth Man to the Left Isn’t Real”, “Everything’s Falling In Line”), for the most part they don’t deliver anything new to the scene. It’s pleasant retread, but a lot of it is retread.

The vocals are difficult to stomach as well, as the tone falls somewhere between a snarl and sung vocals that just sounds forced. It’s not menacing enough to be effective as a snarl, and it’s not melodic enough to be taken seriously as sung vocals. Of all the pieces of the Everyday Hero puzzle, this is the one that needs the most work.

Even with all of the work they need to do, there is still hope present on this disc. “Everything’s Falling in Line” features the best of all possible Everyday Hero configurations – the most menacing vocals on the disc, dark, melodic guitars, hardcore breakdowns, interesting rhythms, well-timed drums. It sounds really good.

Everyday Hero has a lot of work to do, but they’ve embedded their CD with little pockets of good ideas that tell me they can improve. With some work and maybe a new member or two, they could be something interesting.

-Stephen Carradini

IndependentClauses@hotmail.com