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(Nov 30, 2004)
Hawthorne Heights: Silence in Black And White
Rating - *
The Hawthorne Heights page
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Usually I can smell a lousy CD by close inspection of the package, even with the
shrinkwrap still on it, but every so often one comes along that is so slickly
packaged that it fools even a seasoned chiseler like myself. The Silence
in Black And White, the debut (and hopefully final) release Hawthorne
Heights is such a CD. Neatly packaged with a phantasmagoric front and
back cover, interesting song titles, and a sticker with gushing reviews from
a couple of nameless music business whores who better never show their faces
when I'm in a record store from now on.
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Hawthorne Heights is one of those bands with dual vocal tracks. This
works roughly as follows: one set of vocals is sung by somebody with
a normal voice. Then the other set is sung by someone who barks out
an echo of the words in a very hoarse, distorted voice. Under Oath
is an example of a band that did it with one vocalist singing both parts
and using overdubs, but Hawthorne Heights has two separate singers
sharing the honors. A search on Google for a name for this genre
turned up the word "metalcore", but I am going to suggest a more
descriptive one: "Village Idiot" rock.
Picture the following: the band scours the town and handcuffs the
local village idiot, bringing him in the back of a van to the venue
and into a holding pen on stage. This particular type of village
idiot has no thoughts of his own and only repeats what he hears, and
only in small snatches. Plus his voice is very rough from years of
smoking cigarettes and shouting back insults at the local children. And
he is shaking in terror and anger by this point. And he probably
smells to high heaven, but that's beside the point, if there is
one. Anyway, here he is on stage, and the song starts, and one
of the roadies stands by with a 220 volt cattle prod, and every time
the lead vocalist finishes a stanza the roady hits the village idiot
with the cattle prod and he screams out the last two words he heard,
but in a distorted, slurred, almost incomprehensible fashion. If you
can imagine all that, you will have a good idea of how Hawthorne Heights sounds.
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I actually think Village Idiot
rock can be good in the right hands. But the songwriting here
is so bland, so forgettable, so boring, that after repeated
listenings the songs fail to make any impression or differentiate
themselves one from another. Save your money, and remember to
visit the CD listening stand next time you are in your local music store.
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