Review / 200 Words Or Less
Defiant Hearts
Arlington

6131 (2007) Michael

Defiant Hearts – Arlington cover artwork
Defiant Hearts – Arlington — 6131, 2007

Massachusetts has pretty much been a breeding ground for hardcore bands since

well

hardcore started. Defiant Hearts is yet another in the long line of bands to come from the state, and they're armed with a new record.

From the get-go of Arlington with "Ghost" it is quite evident what kind of a record you are in for. "Ghost" is a fast-paced tune that draws from the likes of Dag Nasty and Gorilla Biscuits, but freshens it up with a heavier and more aggressive modern hardcore twist ala Comeback Kid and Verse. Defiant Hearts continues its aural assault with an arsenal of melodic hardcore. The music is upbeat and never really seems to take its foot off the pedal, constantly flooring it from start to finish. Defiant Hearts do pay homage to their influences with a hidden cover of Rites of Springs' "For Want Of," which they do an admiral job covering.

Arlington knows it target market and pretty much sticks to that realm. With a little more tinkering I feel they could really blow up and become one of the bigger bands in the hardcore music scene.

7.0 / 10Michael • March 3, 2008

Defiant Hearts – Arlington cover artwork
Defiant Hearts – Arlington — 6131, 2007

Related news

6131 Signs Defiant Hearts

Posted in Labels on December 11, 2006

Recently-posted album reviews

Cancer Bats

Give Me Dirt
Marshall Amplification PLC (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Bright Eyes of Gold”, “Give Me Dirt”, “Long Tooth”, “Fools Like You” Almost exactly two years ago, on 8th August 2024, Cancer Bats played Conne Island in Leipzig – a choice they would live to regret. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the centre had slowly become renowned for its radical politics and, more recently, the ban … Read more

Tyler Sonnichsen

The Dead Milkmen
J-Card Press (2026)

When I saw The Dead Milkmen at Toronto’s Diamond Club back in the late 1980s, the floor was a volatile, beautiful mess of colliding subcultures. It was like different species of house flies bumping into one another, wondering what the hell you were doing in the mason jar. You had suburban high school pocket-pen-protector pencil-neck nubile nerds, college radio snobs … Read more

Opus Kink

The Sweet Goodbye
So Recordings (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Come Over, Do Me Wrong”, “The Sweet Goodbye”, “I Have to Shine My Sunday Shoes”, “Crucify!” Opus Kink sound like nobody else. To call them “jazz punk” is to massively oversimplify it. In fact, there’s not much traditionally “punk” about them. If anything, it’s “noise rock”, but with traces of almost every other genre you could name. … Read more