Truthless Heroes

Album Review

While most metal bands who supposedly "rage against the machine" deliver little more than a few fist-pumping choruses, Project 86 savagely attacks the hypocrisy of the music industry on Truthless Heroes. A Christian band making a significant statement on the state of musical integrity? Sure enough, this biting concept album is a no-holds-barred deliberation on the state of modern music that points fingers at the corporate machine, clueless musicians, and even fans who take part in the process. Instead of coming off as bitter, they almost seem to be warning listeners against buying into the hype surrounding most popular music. Lines like, "I don't even like the taste of blood/But it was all they had for sale today" are an example of how the band approaches the topic, discussing the way bands are bought from the underground and sold to the public in a clever manner that takes the listener by surprise. Musically, the group can be somewhat generic, but in a backwards twist their passionate lyrics salvage the weaker material and keep the material interesting. When the music matches the words, like on "Another Boredom Movement," the result is an immensely powerful treatise that stands on a molten mass of discordant guitars and screamed vocals. A hollow life under the corporate microscope is no place for this band, and no proof is more powerful than what Truthless Heroes offers. By pulling no punches, Project 86 has crafted one of the most topical metal albums of the turn of the century. Good for them — someone from the outside had to do it.