[Review] Heavy America – Proud Shame

Heavy America’s ‘Proud Shame’ is a mellow and spacious piece of music, showcasing a simple riff that hits with impact within itself, and that also creates a relevant level of space surrounding the leading vocal – so those lyrics and that emotion come through in a very genuine and intimate way at first. The music soon picks up, but never really seeping into the world of heavy or hard rock. The intensity is there for certain, this is something that builds and builds throughout, but it’s merely the added touch of distortion, the increasing detail of the drum pattern, and the rising passion in that leading vocal that do all of the work.

Structurally the band’s music always follows its own creative path, and that means it’s impossible to predict where any given song will head off to. This is true once again with ‘Proud Shame’, as the evolution from the somewhat organic and almost acoustic introduction soon evolves into a slightly heavier and more striking hook section, which then later evolves into a notably epic, spacious yet mighty cavern of audio as the final few moments unfold.

The musical work throughout is simple yet brilliantly effective. There’s a story and sentiment at the heart of the song, and this seems to drive every instrumental part and every moment that passes within. The introduction to the song sets a certain ancient or cult-like ambiance that draws your attention and leads you to believe something interesting and unique will follow, so you pay attention much more intently to the upcoming lyrics. The lyrics that do follow fortunately provide the unpredictable story telling and imagery that is required to make this something special. There’s consistently an air of mystery and intrigue, and still there are questions left unanswered, but that only makes you want to hear the rest of the album.

By Rebecca Cullen

Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing