House of Heroes - Colors (2016)
Fast forward to today, and House of Heroes is releasing their latest effort and first "official" concept album, Colors. A completely fan-funded record (that I got the privilege to support a couple of years ago), this is a new chapter for the band's evolution, both musically and lyrically.
That being said, musically this effort is not always far off from the classic "House of Heroes sound" that fans have come to know and love. Lead single "Colors Run" as well as "Pioneer" and "Feel" definitely fit into the high-octane rock the band is known for, while "We Make Our Stars" is cut from the same cloth as "God Save the Foolish Kings" with its emotional yet still intense balladry. However, the best moments musically on Colors are the ones that are unexpected and new. "God" is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs House of Heroes has ever recorded both because of its lyrics (which we'll talk about in a bit) and its music. It shows a great control of dynamics from the band and also has this eerie feeling to it because of the less distorted guitar parts during the verses. "Crash" also shows these same elements, but to a lesser (yet just as effective) extent. Towards the end of the album, the music loses a lot of its intensity and replaces it with emotion as the album's story comes to a close. Beginning with "Shots Fired," Colors becomes somewhat apologetic in nature, and the music nicely reflects that shift. There's only a couple songs that lag behind the rest, and that's mostly because they are surrounded by more experimental and adventurous songs that overshadow them. Overall, musically this is a stellar record.
Surprisingly, I do have some slight problems with Colors lyrically. It has nothing to do with the quality of the lyrics or their content or anything like that. I actually really enjoy the poetic nature of most of the songs on this album, especially the aforementioned "God," in which the album's main character makes analogies for God using some haunting and eerily familiar descriptors: "Maybe God is a rich man / Who saved up his money and moved out the city / Then settled in the suburbs / And built up his fences to protect his possessions / And nobody sees him." These lyrics, as well as many others on this album, are some of the more poetic ones House of Heroes has ever written in their career.
Unfortunately, the poetry present doesn't make the album's story very apparent. Colors is intended to be a concept album, and while I can see some semblance of story through the album on its own, I still don't understand the plot and characters from just listening. The band has released some material for either viewing or watching that explains the story better, but that shouldn't be entirely required to fully enjoy an album like this. I get that House of Heroes wants to be artistic, poetic, and adventurous in their career, and I'm all for that; it's just that I'd prefer the story to be both more apparent through just the album and a little simpler in nature than this. That being said, this doesn't diminish the quality of the album as much as it might seem, mostly because it's still a well-written album even with its lack of a comprehensible story.
Overall, Colors is a very adventurous effort for House of Heroes on several levels. Musically, it pushes the boundaries of their sound in new directions that work nearly perfectly (and actually make their classic sound seem boring by comparison). Lyrically, the band attempts to write a grand concept album for the first time; unfortunately, the story becomes lost in the midst of the record's incredibly well-written and poetic nature, defeating the purpose of even writing a story for the album. That being said, for both longtime fans of the band and new listeners this is an effort worth listening to from a band that has reached a point of refinement in their more than decade-long career.
Rating: 4/5
Best tracks: "God," "Colors Run," "Crash," "We Make Our Stars"
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