Thriftex #2 - Hero Destroyed - Hero Destroyed (2008)

Ears Destroyed

There’s a Canadian record store chain called Sunrise Records. They started in the 70s and spread across Canada (especially the English-speaking parts). Like you would expect from a chain record store, most of the stuff they carry is new, label-released stuff, and stuff that doesn’t sell probably gets sent back. In the sleepy suburban town of Coquitlam, British Columbia, where I went to high school and my parents live, there is also one of their chains in every big mall. I first walked into it during my senior year of high school, after I realised my Christian parents did not give a shit about me listening to metal. Wanting to make up for lost time, I tried to look for any metal albums that I couldn’t find pirated online. At the time (2018), the storefront was about 45% vinyl (all very basic stuff, 45% CDs (which actually had interesting stuff – for some reason Willowtip distributed there) and 10% pop culture bullshit.

Every year when I come back to see my parents during the summer or during Christmas, I take some time to hang out with old high school friends. Being in suburbia, malls are third spaces, and so we go window shopping quite frequently. Every time, my high school friends and I poke our heads into the local Sunrise to see what it’s like; every year, the percentage of actual music goes down and the percentage of pop culture bullshit goes up. As of now, they’re no real different from a Hot Topic; vinyl and CD add up to less than 50% of their storefront space.

So anyways; in 2024 my friends and I were at the Metrotown shopping center in Burnaby, and I decided to take a peek at the Sunrise there. My buddy Liam rolled his eyes because he knows how this goes – I spend 40 minutes staring at the punk and metal sections, say “man this suck”, and leave without buying anything, while they stand around bored. I promise them I wouldn’t stay long. Compared to 2018, the CD shelves were barren of basically anything remotely underground – it seems this store never carried Willowtip items, and all the Candlelight stuff I was able to find via them before disappeared. I absentmindedly looked through the shelves getting ready to go window shopping at the manga store when I see a lone digipack CD that catches my eye:

Now that’s some good-ass art. I had never heard of this band, and the wear and tear on the digipack suggests this was either a second-hand copy or had been on this shelf for years. $7.99 CAD – far cheaper than anything current. No other text on the cover or spine, I flip it back and get only a track list. “Relapse 2008” it read, and my interest had been definitely piqued. The aesthetics of the album art pointed towards some kind of grind/mathcore, although the horses also reminded me of Mastodon’s Remission. Rather than search then and there, I decided to buy the CD out of impulse – 8 bucks Canadian isn’t very much anyhow. I get home and try and find the album on streaming, but to my surprise (and delight) it isn’t available on any major streaming services. (There is a Bandcamp page now, but back in 2024 I wasn’t able to find anything.) Their only full-length, Throes, was on streaming, however; and I gave it a listen and confirmed it to be decent if unremarkable mathcore. Not having a CD player at my parents’ place, I shrugged and tossed it into my bag, thinking that I’ll eventually rip it one day. Throes being forgettable ensured that after I got back to my place and ripping it, the files sat disused on my computer, and I eventually even forgot that I had them – until Tarbs started this project, of course.

Onto the music: Hero Destroyed (2008) is overall a better release than 2010’s Throes, if for no other reason than the fact that it’s shorter. Vocalist Pat McNicholas has an extremely monotonous tough guy bark – if you’ve heard any hardcore or metalcore past the year 2000 you’ve likely heard it. Instrumentally, it’s heavily influenced by the technical metalcore/not-quite-mathcore that was briefly in vogue during this time, recalling early KEN mode, The End, or The Esoteric. Hero Destroyed steers clear of full-on mathcore, avoiding rapid tempo shifts and overt grind explosions. The 22 minutes coasts along at a comfortable mid pace that recalls earlier ancestors such as Deadguy and Rorschach more than their contemporaries in The Red Chord or DEP. The production by Scott Hull of Agoraphobic Nosebleed is pleasingly clear, emphasizing the bass work and giving the drums ample space in the mix.

The instrumentals are quite good – intelligently repeating short phrases just enough for them to stick in your head but before things get monotonous. The band had been playing together for a long time before releasing anything, and it shows in an effortless tacitness in the way the band plays off each other. The instrumentals are written to complement vocalist Pat McNicolas’s very monotonous cadence and delivery, the drums shifting between different fills and odd rhythms while his vocals maintain a steady staccato. Unfortunately, this covering for the vocals also limits Hero Destroyed’s range – his voice lacks the power for Gaza-esque sludge/grind tempo shifts and freakouts, Daughters/KEN mode styled noise rock detours, or DEP’s shifts between vocal and instrument-led sections. While the short 22 minute runtime allows Hero Destroyed to essentially do only one thing very well for the entire duration, the lack of variation holds it back from being a true gem.

Unfortunately, Hero Destroyed were never able to overcome that weakness, with the longer Throes suffering for the one-note nature of the vocals, and the band breaking up shortly afterwards. Sometimes bands fizzle out before they get to release a masterpiece – merely good releases that have people nodding their head in approval before moving on to the next new thing. Hero Destroyed might not be as weird, bad, or out-there as people expect from this project, but it is a comforting reminder that even if your art doesn’t end up changing someone’s life, some 15 years after your band disbands, a random teenager window shopping might pick up your music, listen to it, and think: “Hey, that’s not bad at all.”

And there are surely worse ways to be remembered, no?