The majority of Never A Hero’s photographs present us with dark clothes, leather straps and psychotic masks. However, once you look past what appears to be some mysterious bondage shoot, you realise you’re actually faced with five extraordinarily talented musicians.
After 2009’s critically acclaimed Socially Awkward EP, the lads set to work on their debut album with the aim to make it rise above the already sky-high bar they had set for themselves. At fourteen tracks long, Bleed Between The Lies has the potential to prove the band name wrong and help Never A Hero become musical…well…heroes.
Opener, Read Between The Lines, eases you into the album with a simple and playful electro rhythm yet the heavy riffs of Burning Skies soon burst this bubble plunging the listener out of the safety zone. The vocalists of Never A Hero are also forced out of their comfort zone as they experiment with brutal screaming and power-driven clean vocals.
Roses Are Dead sees Never A Hero revert back to their older and more familiar style yet the sound is now finely-tuned to the standard you would expect from a band with a few more years of experience tucked away under their belts. The Call proceeds to showcase the entirety of the band’s skills: old and new.
The guitar riffs in Screams Of Silence (quite the oxymoron) take you back to a time when big hair and muscles ruled over the pansies that plague today’s UK charts. By the time you reach track six, Days of Patience, the introductions to each song begin to sound all too familiar with their slow and haunting electronic feel. However, this trend is soon thrown off course by Vogue which demonstrates rock at it’s best throughout the whole three minutes and eighteen seconds.
The second half of Bleed Between The Lies throws us some real stunners ranging from the tranquil, easy-going samples of Between through to the diverse vocal skills demonstrated in Dreamcatcher. Never A Hero jump on the dubstep bandwagon for Hollow yet thankfully, they pull it off in small quantities.
Sunbeam and Stalked have elements comparable to those of Linkin Park and Never A Hero jump to claim the empty spot where Linkin Park resided when they were actually good (yes kids, a long time ago they were half decent).
The album is closed rather unusually with title track, Bleed Between The Lies. Classical piano and strings shine through in this track to calm your mind after the album has thrown you head on through the twists and turns of an epic electro-rock journey.
Although it has taken a little while to set the ball rolling since their formation, the guys have pushed the limits with their debut album and certainly pulled it off. If Never A Hero aren’t widely recognised within the next year or so, there is something seriously wrong with the music scene. Keep an eye on these guys; they’re going to be big.