The Smoking Hearts - Pride Of Nowhere

 

You usually know you're in for a good time when an album of the punk/hardcore ilk clocks in at less than half an hour - a potential short, sharp blast of pure brilliance. Unfortunately Pride Of Nowhere - the first full length from London-based punks The Smoking Hearts - fails to conjure such excitement. Its 29 minutes of sleazy punk n' roll are oddly sterile and fall short of very obvious touchstones like The Bronx or Gallows in terms of balls-out velocity. Even the guitar screeches that filter through the album's intro sound like the 'hearts don't want to wake their parents. Perhaps this is merely a result of putting it on record and maybe the band's live presence will go some way to actually kicking one's ass - occasional little belters like Give Em The Suit and One Eyed Drunk certainly point that way - but the jury's still out. [Ryan Drever]