Ohio trio Heart Attack Man get comfortable with their inner critic and embrace the uncomfortable emotions that come with growth...
Have you ever asked 'why am I like this?' 'Cause so have Heart Attack Man, and they want you to know its okay to not know what the fuck you’re doing with your life. On Freak Of Nature, the pop-punk trio embrace their inner critic, and normalise the ugly emotions that come with being made to feel an outcast.
Although Practiced In the Mirror makes a slow start for the album, the title-track soon sees tight and snappy guitar work wrap itself around lyrics like, ‘I kinda like the way they’re staring at me / Like I’m somewhere I shouldn’t be’. It’s a comforting anthem for anyone made to feel out of place that embodies “like I give a fuck” energy.
Late To The Orgy addresses that creeping inner feeling that everybody secretly hates you and pokes fun at feeling behind (‘Everybody came, and I’m late to the orgy’), and Stick Up is the most simple yet effective of the record, with its looping melody and chunky bassline.
Slapping drums from Adam Paduch and full-force vocal runs from Eric Egan make perfect sense for a track named after an explosive on C4, and as things come to a close with See You On The Other Side, an impressively charismatic and moody riff snakes throughout the track. It builds us up and up, waiting for something big, but doesn’t quite satiate our desires on the other side of its peak.
This album is fueled by the staple guitar sounds of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. The tracks showcase strong and honest lyricism, but some experimentation and more creative risks could have taken it to a whole upper level. Mashing palm muted guitar verses with earworm melodies and sulky lyrics, Freak Of Nature is an album for the self-critical, the underdogs, and the cynics.
Score: 3/5
For Fans Of: Sum 41, Neck Deep, The All-American Rejects
Freak Of Nature is self-released on May 26
