Hell is For Heroes - Transmit Disrupt

Genre rock Publisher Burning Heart Records External Links Official Hell Is For Heroes Website Official Burning Heart Records Website

I have seen Transmit Disrupt, the newest release from the UK rock outfit Hell is For Heroes, labeled as everything from alternative metal to alternative rock - and all I can think is, "Man, the term alternative sure meant something else when I was growing up." Of course the term has a much more specific history relating to independent labels and punk, but in a nutshell alternative music is called that because it suggests that the music labeled as such sounds different from what is considered mainstream.

So, to hear this music labeled as something different than what is popular seems strange because the twelve tracks on Transmit Disrupt couldn't sound more like so many other bands if they tried. Loud guitars? Check. Banging drums? Check. Lead singer who screams on key? Check. Absolutely nothing original going on lyrically? Check. Anything that seems to separate one song from the other? Not really. Every track sounds strikingly similar to the one before it: guitar intro, some yelling, soaring vocal on the almost-sung chorus, loud drum or guitar solo...you get the idea.

All the songs sound like they are supposed to be angry. The lyrics use abrasive language. Take for example the song from "Models From the Programme." "Taste of mercury/Needles in your eyes/Creating the need/Shaping hearts to kill." Not exactly lighthearted. The lead singer is going for anger when he starts shouting the lyrics, but does any song on the record feel authentically pissed off? No! And that is the major problem with this record as a whole. Nothing feels authentic. Nothing sounds like it's coming from the heart. Every song sounds like a bad rip off of another song by another band in this genre that wasn't that great to begin with.

Hell is For Heroes' debut The Neon Handshake was released on EMI, but due to what one can only assume was disappointment with the commercial performance, the band was dropped. Transmit Disrupt was recorded and released between 2004 and 2005 on independent label Captains of Industry. A deal was made with Burning Heart Records and Transmit Disrupt was re-released again in 2006. I'm not sure what Burning Heart Records was thinking when they went ahead with a re-release, but they must hear something on this record that I don't.