Genre(s): Hard Rock, New Wave of Classic Rock
Recommended Tracks: None
Label: Eclipse Records
Rating: 1.5 out of 5.
Review: Hearts & Hand Grenades are a Buffalo New York based hard rock act that built a strong local reputation playing hard hitting covers of classic rock songs. After catching the attention of local rock hero John Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls fame during a local charity event, Hearts & Hand Grenades were given the opportunity to utilize Rzeznik's studio to put together a collection of original songs. The effort eventually culminated in this year's Turning to Ashes, the band's debut record.
Whatever this group's merits as a live cover act, their original songs sound exactly like what you would expect from an old timey rock band playing tunes at your local pub: colorless, entirely beholden to their influences, and saturated in comical genre clichés. As an example of these clichés, take front-woman and bassist Stephanie Wlosinski's enunciations on the track "Adrenaline." The "shun" sound at the end of words like "solution" and "confusion" are warped into "solushiaaaan" and "confusiaaaan," you know, to get that awesome kick-ass rocker feel going! It's enough that I can almost feel the flannel shirts and smell the aroma of Bud Light of a dimly lit bar on a Tuesday night...
Look, I know how hard it is to be a competent and respected cover band. I pray to God my high school band's recordings of Led Zeppelin songs remain buried so as not to reach the cruel clutches of YouTube content curators. But, as Turning to Ashes has so expertly demonstrated, being competent performers does not guarantee success in writing original compositions.
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