Canadas Fifth Hour Heros second full-length, Not Revenge Just a Vicious Crush play music like its their lives. The good. The tragic. Ugliness and pain. The beautiful and delicate. Grit. All together. The best music is cartography of the heart. Its a treasure map to pure awe. Music, when played purely, is an unashamed celebration. It covers all speeds. It doesnt have one sound, but a soul. Quebecs four-piece Fifth Hour Hero play driving-spirit, often-tragic punk melodies that are so big, they seem to be scratching the sky. Catchy but not poppy. Anthemic, yet personal.
Not Revenge isnt just the result of band going into a studio, hastily hammering out a batch of songs, and rolling out on an endless tour. Its a story about a band thats seen its share of van transmissions failing at the worst possible times, about eating peanut butter sandwiches three meals a day in order to afford gas to the next show, about duct-taped sneakers up on the dash of a cracked windshield after a border crossing and watching the sun rise. Its about a band that hasnt forgotten any of the anxietyand fun and tendernessof being a group of DIY musicians, and forging that experience into their best record yet. Its about shaping and smoothing songslike rocks to gemstonesto their highest luster without betraying their initial beauty. Not Revenge was recorded by Ronny Cates (of the Rec Room) and Derron Nuhfer (bass player of Gunmoll and saxophone player of Less Than Jake) and refined at a friends studio (Beaudet of The Sainte Catherines).