Reviews

The second full length from england’s the hurt process is better than its predecessor, but still has a few harsh flaws. Like the first effort, “drive by monologue,” which I panned in a review for this site not too long ago, “A Heartbeat Behind” is a genre straddling, dynamic album, jumping from hardcore and metal to emo and pop punk. Unlike the first cd, this effort manages to blend the styles much better. It is still a meshing of mainly two different styles, each one isolated and without too much influence on the other; the combination of metal and emo that spawned hideous names like “screamo” and “emo-core.”  The metal parts, though, have become much better. The breakdowns are heavier, the harmonies are tighter, and the triplets are structured and crisp, and although sometimes it sounds like some riffs have been lifted from iron maiden and unearth, for the most part it is very good. 
 
The problem that killed the last album and makes this one less than epic is the emo singing voice. The melodic voice is painful sometimes when it centers the song, especially on songs with little or nothing going on in the background and no metal breakdowns, like the acoustic “the night before the morning after” or the standout worst track “a mind with two faces.”  The lyrics are not bad, but not anything special, and the melodic voice, while trying desperately to croon with emotion, sounds terrible most of the time. 
 
Fans of From Autumn To Ashes, Funeral For A Friend, and other genre straddling bands will probably like this, and the metal parts will appeal to a lot of hardcore/metal fans. It is improved and often times very good, but I fear that many people, like myself, wont get by the crooning enough to make this a standout release.