I reviewed Heights’s 2009 debut EP “The Land, The Ocean, The Distance”. This work of Post Metal orientated “Hertfordshire Hardcore” is still on my playlist. It was therefore with great interest that I received “Dead Ends”.
It’s clear from listening to this album that Heights have been exploring the musical possibilities more deeply. All the elements of the debut EP are there too. With its big lines, “Dead Ends” is anthemic and highly charged. A modern version of Hardcore anger mixes with nerve-jangling emotion. The band themselves refer to their “emotive music with crescendos of building noise and minor melodies”. The opposite of a mindless assault would be an intelligent and thoughtful one, I suppose, and that’s what we have here. There’s a careful balance between deep-chorded Cult of Luna style Post Metal, occasionally thrashing Hardcore and even a Black Metal sounding riff on the title track “Dead Ends”. Meanwhile the vocalist roars and rams a series of bleak adages down our throats, reinforced now and then by the band in unison: “The people we used to be are dead ends”. At the same time the album’s majestic nature pulls us in.
We get a taste of it all in the first 5 minutes. If you’re sitting down, you’ll be bolt upright when you get a blast of “We Live Alone”, before a novel technical and thrashy beat heralds in “Eye for an Eye”. It slows down. Forceful Hardcore attitude meets an all-embracing rhythm of gloom. “Oceans” is belligerently heavy. The vocalist is giving it a good pasting. The Hardcore chorus “Remember my name, remember my face” rings aggressively across the track which ends with another deep, dark passage. The overall mood changes with a trio of personalised songs in the mid-section. I’ve never had occasion to use the term Post Metal Hardcore ballad before but “Letting Go” is just that. It starts slowly and grimly with a mechanically pumping drum and serenading guitar. The key message lies on this darkly threatening, deeply anguished and rousing track in the lyric: “I hope you realise that you meant everything”. The growls make it slightly comical, given the subject of the song, but the structure is excellent. It has great power, the tone’s right and the instrumental support is suitably sombre and sensitive. After “The Lost and Alone”, another aggressive Hardcore plea, is the equally harsh and grim “Forget”. The lyrics cover normal everyday troubles with a common touch. “I will forget you” reminded me as a lyric of The Anti Nowhere League’s “We will not remember you”. Here the style is deep and dark. The beat is steady. Like “Letting Go” before it, there’s a lot going on instrumentally in the background of this layered track, which ends unusually with a growled acapella. The vibe changes again as the sweeping sounds of sadness move in on “Beneath the Skin”. Its brief intensity sets us up for my favourite track “Dead Ends”, which follows. The hypnotic and heavy build up is the foil for sad but punishing strains. The development onto a higher planetary level and repetitiveness of the Hardcore chorus is steady, powerful and reflective of an anguished mind state. “Endings” is a continuation of this eternally dark mood. Bass and rhythm guitars combine to create an electrifying sound. The drum is authoritative and hypnotic. It stops. We are implored. The track continues in its customary chunky and mechanical fashion but injected into it is a flamboyance which you might not expect on an album of such weightiness. The album ends with “…. And That’s How We Die”. For one last time we stand in the middle of a scene of ringing darkness and listen to harsh exhortations. It’s thunderous, and, as ever, it’s epic.
“Dead Ends” is a distinctive album. The constituent parts are not unusual in themselves, but the combination of them is. My only small criticism of it is that the overall continuity and flow didn’t seem quite right, a bit like a band’s live set list which doesn’t seem complete. But like their EP “The Land, The Ocean, The Distance”, this work is one of utterly impressive quality. Maybe I just wanted more to indulge in. Welwyn Garden City’s Heights are a hugely talented band. They are also ambitious, judging by the fact that that their tour schedule has included Thailand. I should add they are also due to play in Milton Keynes and Nottingham, amongst other venues in the UK. I suspect they are a very powerful live band. I really think Heights have got something exciting and original going on here. To experience it at home, I recommend that you get hold of “Dead Ends”.
http://www.weareheights.com
http://www.myspace.com/weareheights
Andrew Doherty
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