Hero of a Hundred Fights -The Remote, The Cold - Divot

Review by: Jennifer Perkins

My boyfriend and I have a tradition, about getting packages in the mail. Whether they be addressed to me, him, our label, the zine he gets to open them because for whatever reason the kid loves to get stuff in the mail. On one particular day we were going through our routine of him opening the packages and describing the contents of each to me over the phone while I am at work. Even though this is an every day occurrence the day the Hero of a Hundred Fights CDEP The Remote, The Cold arrived I remember clearly.

He was naming off all the bands that had come in the mail that day then he got to Hero 100 and said it is definite metal music and the cover art is done by the same guy who does the artwork for Danzing. For whatever reason I got all offended and asked how he could judge a book by its cover and assume that this band was metal/harsh/abrasive based strictly on cover art.

I ate my words when I got home from work and we popped the CDEP in. No, the cover art was not done by Giger but it sure looked like it or at least something that Glen Danzing and Ridley Scott for that matter would approve of. As for the "metal" part, well metal was not an adjective I would completely exclude when describing Hero 100. My first impression was that this was herky jerky, chaotic boy music. For God's sake the guys old band was called Brass Knuckles for Tough Guys.

Hero of a Hundred Fights sound is constantly teetering on a fine line between brilliance and muddy confusion. The songs are complicated, heavy and intense. Each of the 5 songs on the The Remote, The Cold seem to have 12 different parts to it each representing a different music type. I would have loved to have seen these guys try and pull this off live, its almost like each song has too many parts to be memorized. Unfortunately, according to the rumors they have already disbanded.

The bands influences range from the Emo sounds of Braid to the noodley metal guitar licks of Steve Vai. All the while reminding me of long gone DC music makers Circus Lupus and still having a distinct "math rock" feel. It's a sound beyond comparison and pigeonholing. Try and find another band that sounds exactly like Hero of a Hundred Fights, I dare you. These guys have managed to step outside the typical boundaries within the "scene" and pretty much create their very own genera.

Besides the smooth production, thanks to one Mr. Steve Albini for the most part listening to Hero of a Hundred Fights is like riding a roller coaster and is a pretty rough ride. And yes my boyfriend was right, a roller coaster with metal music as the soundtrack. Between all the starts and stops and getting tossed about you are a little discombobulated when the ride and The Remote, The Cold are over. Your head is spinning and you are not real sure what just happened, but you know you liked it and you know you want to hear it/ride it again.

Read where Hero of a Hundred Fights got their name from here.

Read where Divot got their name from here.