Metal, hard rock, whatever term you chose to call it, is a genre that often deals with extreme sounds, but it is also a very broad church, allowing the smart music maker to reach into neighbouring genres to help the creative process and forge new sounds. The Dead Hearts are indeed smart and innovative music makers, and although “No Way of Healing” has no shortage of big riffs and driving drums, driving basslines, and soaring vocals, it has so much more to.
It has a great dynamic, for one thing, an appealing sonic shape that sees it ebb and flow between sky-searing crescendos and spacious lulls, a balance of intensity and artistry rather than the unimaginative blend of volume and velocity that defines a lot of the competition. It cleverly balances punch and power with poise and poignancy, and in doing so isn’t far removed from many contemporary progressive rock, certainly those found in the heavier fringes of their own genre.
But more than anything, it is articulate—not only sonically eloquent but also lyrically honest, coming from a place of personal pain that only a parent can know—and it is a tribute to all those who chose to help others selflessly.
Yes, “No Way of Healing” is a big song, but it’s also a clever one. It doesn’t just rely on inttensity but also on artistry; it has something important to say, something relevant yet timeless, about the human spirit, empathy, understanding and love. And in a musical genre where most of the competition are writing ham-fisted lyrics about taking rings to Mordor or just treading the boards for purposes of self-aggrandizement, the band prove to be anything but dead of heart.
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