REVIEW: Heights – Old Lies For Young Lives

May 30th, 2013

Kriston McConnell

Artist: Heights
Album: Old Lies For Young Lives
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Transcend Music

Heights have been together going on four years now. They’ve had a few lineup changes in that time, including kicking out their lead vocalist in 2012 and replacing him with the bassist. That caused a bit of an uproar amongst fans, as the band had seen such huge success with their debut album, Dead Ends. Monty had a lot to live up to, and the band got to work on their sophomore full length after releasing a few singles.

When the first track, “The Best Years,” starts playing, you can tell immediately that this is going to be an entirely different music experience from Dead Ends. The song sounds more technical — the instruments are in a higher key and the vocals are, as you would expect, different. One of my personal favorite songs is “March 1964.” Its intro has a “call to arms” sort of feel to it, and it maintains a catchy, fast-paced beat.

“The Noble Life” is one of the best songs on the album. It showcases the best of the intricate guitar parts, the vocalists’ screams and clean vocals. It starts off with a drum and guitar solo, which lasts about the first 40 seconds, then quickly launches into the high energy screaming vocals. The song slows down a bit, giving Monty the chance to sing softly for a few verses. The band takes a little bit of a breather with “Windowless.” It’s definitely a much slower track, though is still packed with plenty of passion and emotion. There is a point where they transition into a piano part, which takes quite a lot of time to get to. It’s a great song, but maybe it would have been better to make the last portion of the song into a separate track.

Another one of my favorite tracks is “Wake Up, Fall Asleep,” particularly because of the intro. The song starts off with the vocalist singing the following lyrics along with a couple of guitars: “I can’t get any sleep / I’m pulling out my hair / It was grey, now it’s gone / That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there / I’m scared of failure, scared of success / Living life with a noose around my neck.” Then the drums come in, and he finishes the song screaming along with the full band.

If you were a fan of the band’s brutal sound before, there’s a chance that you might not like the way they sound now. They’re a little bit more upbeat, and the guitars aren’t the same low, slow chugging machines they were before. This is still a solid album, and while it might not see the same success as their previous release, there’s no reason to look down your nose at it. I recommend picking it up, or at the very least, check it out on Spotify first to help make up your mind.

SCORE: 8/10
Review written by Kriston McConnell