Album Review: The Heroic Enthusiasts Bring Forth Indie Grunge

Nowadays there seems to be and “indie” or “alternative” version of everything. Even lies are running with a new title, “alternative facts”, just to sound friendlier. Yet, The Heroic Enthusiasts’ indie-grunge sound takes the smut and solder of grunge and twists it with stiller chords of pain in their self-titled record.

Grunge is known for it noise and raucous portrayal of isolation, while “indie” always seems to be a hushed, more experimental version of an original. Thus, The Heroic Enthusiasts feel like they are taking loneliness and rage, and quietly going down its spiral to find its root. “Better Crazy Than Boring”, “The Object Jealousy”, and “New York Made Me” are like fleshed excuses for why we choose to self-destruct. As everyone knows, when you destroy yourself, you destroy the meaning and moves you make upon others lives, but such a role takes responsibility and self-work that you may not want to claim. Self-awareness is great, but self-sabotage is really easy, and The Heroic Enthusiasts makes that abundantly clear. From “When The Deal Is Done” to “Software of Souls” you feel human insecurity beacon outward like fire coming from the earth’s core, and pushing through its soil. Yes, that has never happened, but it sonically did in this album. The Heroic Enthusiasts still capture the gnawed, clawing chords and chugged drums of grunge, but replace its blazing volume with inquisitiveness. It is as if they are Nirvana meets Weezer with lead vocalist James Tabbi appearing like an 80’s post-punk revolutionary. He simply annunciates and promulgates his verses with an 80’s undertone for drama, which amps The Heroic Enthusiasts manifesto-verse on feeling lower than dirt, but hoping that means you can still bloom like a flower.

Yes, even a flower has to go through dirt to blossom, and, in many ways, The Heroic Enthusiasts have created an album that surprisingly shows that. For however much, their songs cater to feeling and living in your lowest, they also show that bad choices happen because we do not feel like we can do better. Yet, we always hold out hope that we can. For More Information On The Heroic Enthusiasts And Their Self-Titled Record, which will be released on October 20 Click Here.