Win Tickets To See Some Heartless Bastards

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 29, 2009 4:30PM

It would be easy to start a review for The Heartless Bastard's new album The Mountain with a metaphor like "with this album, the band scales new heights!" but that simply isn't true. Instead the album finds the band exploring new territory and employing a new sort of balancing act as they continue their development.

The band gained our notice with the gloriously noisy and messy sprawl of their debut, but they won our hearts with the distinctively smoky wail of singer Erika Wennerstrom. Their latest finds them reigning in the volume in favor off tighter and blusier compositions and the results are highly pleasurable if not as viscerally engaging as the band's earlier work. This refinement finds Wennerstrom's vocals dominating the songs like never before and this re-balancing is what gives The Mountain its true thrust.

While the new disc is slightly subdued, we expect their live show is still just as explosive as ever, with the power trio set-up pounding the audience's lizardly brain-lobes with sheets of volume and raw emotional delivery. And guess what? We have a pair of tickets to give away to a lucky Chicagoist reader for the show they're playing this Saturday at Martyr's! Enter after the jump for your chance to win. Contest closes at 5 p.m. today so hurry up!

Heartless Bastards play this Saturday, January 31, at Martyrs, 3855 N Lincoln, $15; 21+

Photo from the band's MySpace page by Vivian Sachs