Album Review: Half Breed Heroes - 'Brighter Sides'

How many punks could a pop-punk pop if a pop-punk could punk? Don’t bother answering that as you’ll exhaust too much energy, but now that your attention has peaked, you should go and give Half Breed Heroes a sly, sexy and totally inconspicuous look.

Hailing from Werribee, (you know, that place way down the end of the Werribee Metro line that you never ever want to go to unless you really fucking have to), this pretty young, pretty new band are pretty good…pretty. ‘Brighter Sides’, at its catchy but ultimately generic core, is a solid pop-punk EP. It’s kind of like a large sturdy shed in some random paddock in a rural Victorian town (God, that was a weird analogy).

The EP opener ‘On Our Own’ is arguably the strongest and most able offering of the bunch and that’s mainly because it’s the first catchy, anthemic song you’ll hear, and the remaining four just feel like second-best. But to the band's credit, all five of these tracks are solid. Like, rock solid. Though there hasn't been an instrumental pop-punk band because you're gonna need some words to go over that fucking repetitive template or it's going to be more painful than those 'My Name Is Jeff' jokes that everyone spouts like some fucking mantra. So on 'Brighter Sides', there's lyrics about mates, girls, some random stuff, life, motivation, feelings and...some more stuff that doesn't really register. It's definitely not gonna pull your ears in like The Wonder Years do for it's lyrical content, that's for sure.

However, one thing you’ll notice right away (unless your deaf, in that case, sorry) is that the vocals aren’t high and nasally like so many other acts, and for a lot of listeners that’ll be a definite positive. In terms of writing accessible, catchy songs and melodies and big choruses, the band has that shit more than down pat. But then again, so does nearly every other pop-punk band in existence (remember that fucking repetitive template?), so it’s really a matter of being that much better or different than the competition, but hey, let’s give Half Breed Heroes some time to get on their feet more and their hearts out on their sleeves like a *insert whatever band is trendy on Tumblr these days* record.

The EP was mixed by ex-In Elegance guitarist Mason Hine and that explains why there’s such a strong, churning low-end to the EP that makes it more beefy than most metalcore releases these days. On the topic of metalcore, the drumming is the shinning point of this release with plenty of well-planned fills and tight, punchy double kick patterns. Furthermore, the guitar riffs are chunkier than Heinz Beef and Vegetable soup, and hey, that's pretty commendable for a pop-punk band these days. Even if you don't like Heinz.

‘Brighter Sides’ is like that loud, energetic guy from your high school who you ultimately liked, but could never really bring yourself to say that you loved him. Hopefully Half Breed Heroes will grow and improve, and get that much bigger, unless they go missing and wind up dead in their shady, piece-of-shit hometown.

On Our Own

Southward

Harlot

Life Over You

Undefeated