It’s always interesting to come across a promising new band with very few likes on Facebook. With less than 400 fans on Facebook (currently), Heavy Hearted is a pop punk/post-hardcore band from Santa Rosa, California that is destined for great things. Their new EP entitled When You Were Home, which was released on October 16th, lured me in within the first 20 seconds.
After a brief soundclip from what sounds to be a Super Nintendo game, the gang vocals of “back on my feet” cues the ‘easycore’ instrumentals in “Anchors Up”. Almost everything about Heavy Hearted reminds me of older A Day To Remember (For Those Who Have Heart/Homesick), especially the clean vocals of Sam Hammond. Sam’s cleans sound like Jeremy McKinnon’s so much that there were times where it felt like I was listening to unreleased A Day To Remember material.
The majority of the album sounds a lot like A Day To Remember, especially “Daggers”, “Miles Away”, “Heavy Heart”. The final track on When You Were Home, “Daggers”, is my personal favourite. It’s extremely catchy from start to finish, the drumming is impressive, and the gang vocals and harsh vocals in the second half of the song are spectacular. “Miles Away” could also be called “NJ Legion Iced Tea 2.0” because it has a similar intro. Every time the first verse starts, I hear “Get up, get out/This is your wake up call” in my head even though those aren’t the correct lyrics. It’s a decent track, but it’s not nearly as catchy or strong as the others. “Heavy Heart”, probably the heaviest track on the album, is very reminiscent of A Day To Remember’s “Fast Forward To 2012” with its similar guitar riff and upbeat drumming after the intro, and buildup before the breakdown.
After “Heavy Heart”, the acoustic ballad titled “Sleeptalkers” graces the listener’s ears. Heavy Hearted makes good use of catchy hooks, solid chords, and a female guest vocalist on “Sleeptalkers”. With that being said, the track would fit much better with the rest of When You Were Home if it closed out the album rather than being sandwiched between the heaviest (“Heavy Heart”) and strongest (“Daggers”) tracks.
Although it may seem like Heavy Hearted is a poor man’s A Day To Remember, that’s not the case at all. They produce very catchy and fun music that most fans of pop punk and ‘easycore’ will be thrilled to listen to, and they shouldn’t lose any credibility just because they sound like a very popular band. If anything, sounding like A Day To Remember should help Heavy Hearted reach a wide fan base in no time. 
Links: Facebook
