Review Summary: Bear with me, whilst I get through my Hawthorne love.
Hawthorne Heights are nothing more than a meme band. This is true if you go back to 2004, when we all heard Casey (RIP) awkwardly scream ‘Cut My Wrist and Black My Eyes’ the cringe was real. People were disgusted at this boy band attempt at Post-Hardcore. At the time, I listened to Good Charlotte and Rancid, so I was not a fan of this screaming, and my elder brother who was into various black metal projects was DEEPLY mortified. What were we all to do when confronted with such an absurd attempt at a genre that demanded respect??
Embrace it. Love the change and accept it as a chance for the genre to grow and expand. Hawthorne did this. Laugh at me, I know it’s crazy, but Hawthorne were a
special band for a certain period. You could not escape them if you followed the whole ‘Warped/Victory’ scene. ***, they even got on Nighttime Talk Shows and performed quite badly but proudly.
That sums up the Hawthorne Heights of this period, not very good, but incredibly passionate and proud about what they do. Hawthorne have grown into a band I respect due to their output being much less
cringy whilst still maintaining the whole ‘emo’ thing. They have developed a more mature approach to it all, in 2004 however, this was not the case.
‘The Silence in Black and White’ begins EXACTLY how you would anticipate a Post-Hardcore album of this time to start. A chugging Riff mixed with dueling unclean and clean vocals. That old tried and tested formula is strangely not as prevalent as you would expect on ‘TSIBAW’. Hawthorne fall back on the layered vocals of JT, with unclean vocalist Casey having some strong moments throughout but merely coming across as more of an afterthought and a reason for Hawthorne to get that post-hardcore
tag that they so desperately needed.
With THREE guitarist you would expect there to be a bit of variance and interest in the guitarwork, and there is. Picking apart their tracks there is quite a bit going on. Micah is a very
smart lead guitarist, his licks are constant as he moves all over the fretboard. Some of his leadwork in ‘Dissolve and Decay’ and ‘Nikki FM’ standing out as quite juicy. The LOUD vs soft dynamic is all over ‘TSIBAW’ instrumentally with all guitarists switching between clean and distorted channels like they were all inspired by Tom ‘Pedalhead’ Morello.
The greatest downside to ‘TSIBAW’ are the lyrics, which I
love. Its easy to look at them as a person well into their life journey and think… damn. If you will, take a step back to when you were 13/14/15 and remember when you hated life? I do, although I had a great childhood, I still managed to get heartbroken and found plenty of reasons to rebel against my parents who loved me, and I felt alone. Hawthorne felt the same and despite me cocking my head at ‘Ohio Is for Lovers’ when I was surrounded by people I knew, there were times when I was alone and I
felt them instead.
‘TSIBAW’ set Hawthorne up for a very hard musical journey. The critics hated it and called it ‘generic and formulaic’. It seemed disingenuous and a poor attempt at fitting into an ever-changing scene fueled by Victory Records. This isn’t true, ‘TSIBAW’ is about as honest and genuine as you will find. You know how I know this? Because 20 years later, these dudes are still making the same damn music, admittingly a lot
better but God damn it JT still goes on about the same old stuff, and the screams are awkward and sometimes out of place but they
mean it and they
meant it back in 04.
