Heart Attack (France): U Jam?

Look up there at that pic of France metal quartet Heart Attack: Anything catch your eye? Do u see anything that indicates genius lurking beneath the surface? Or maybe a smoldering intensity that u just know will translate to awesome jamz?

Nope right? lol Well that’s so fitting: Heart Attack doesn’t appear to depart from the roads traveled by Machine Head, Gojira, and Lamb Of God. But, two things: One, their new album Stop Pretending (streams here) trumps standard macho-core via guitarist Chris Cesari’s love of Genesis, Yes, and Toto, masters of melody, structure, and subtle sophistication; there’s a loveliness, a swagger and rock n’ roll neatness, and each rescues Stop Pretending from indifferent production, genre ghettoization, and a few sloppy moments.

And two, the speed of sound is not always lower than the speed of light. That is, from France the members of HAttack are too distant and low-profile to mess up your experience of their music — while their genre-mates trip over themselves in a rush to say/tweet/scheme/preach some stupid shit just as u are trying to like them. So start at track one and let unfold the unassuming fun of Stop Pretending.