Modern Metal act Heart Of A Coward was started in 2007. Hailing from Milton Keynes (situated some 80 km NW from the center of London, and about smack in the middle of Oxford and Cambridge - in the 1960's, the British government developed several housing projects in England's South-East to accommodate an ever-growing population; originally having a population of around 53,000 for the same area of ca 89 km² in 1961, the town which took its name from the existing village by the same name now houses around 200,000 people, making Milton Keynes the biggest of the so-called "new towns"), and going through several line-up changes, the band currently consists of lead singer Jamie Graham, guitarists Carl Ayers and Steve Heycock, bassist Vishal "V" Khetia, and drummer Christopher "Noddy" Mansbridge.
Taking influences from the likes of Deftones, Meshuggah, Vision Of Disorder, Blood Has Been Shed, Pantera, Aftershock, The Acacia Strain, Karnivool, Textures and Crowbar, the band also went through a self-induced "cleansing" process, during which they learned that melody and good songmanship are important in bringing across whatever message you wanna bring. As time passed on, and the line-up stabilized in the current one, the band eventually recorded a full-length's worth of material, which they self-released in 2012 with the title Hope And Hindrance. It not only brought the band some deserved critical acclaim, but also possibilities to confront somewhat bigger audiences than before, and those present at Ghostfest 2012 or at one of the gigs of the Metal Hammer Razor tour of 2012 (which also billed Devil Sold His Soul and Heights) were said to be left speechless by the band's indisputable ferocity of their chaos-filled live shows!
According to the band itself, their debut album got a response which they themselves did not expect, but it also made 'em realise that when they put more attention to the arrangements of their songs, and concentrated more on “traditional” song structures, they could achieve higher goals. That such is true, is proven by the fact that the band is now signed to Century Media, thé label which has recognized more latent talents in the past! For their second album, the band first recorded the instrumental parts with their good friend Acle Kahney (member of TesseracT, who are also part of the Century Media roster) at Brighton's 44 Studios, and then took those recordings to Justin Hill (Sikth) at Fortress Studios in London, where not only all of Jamie's vocals were recorded, but also Hill's guest vocals on the track “Distance”. Another vocal guest role was set aside for yet another friend and Century Media label mate, Bleed From Within's Scott Kennedy (in April 2013 the bands were touring the UK together), whom wrote his own parts for the song “Psychophant”. Mixing duties were performed by Will Putney (check Suicide Solution's No Time To Bleed, and recent work by Demoraliser and Thy Art Is Murder, among many others).
With very little ways of extracting info from the Internet about these guys (only found info on the label's website and on the band's facebook page) you, dear reader, will be limited to listening to songs off the debut album posted at the “BandPage” section at (www.) facebook.com/heartofacoward, or to the 30-second samples usually provided by your trusted online sales websites (iTunes, Amazon, etc...). If however you're interested in “Modern Metal” (which not only includes the use of elements from Hardcore as well as from Groove Metal, but also find the lead guitarist playing some awefully great stuff), and vocals which are for the most part scream-shouted with the occasional growled inclusion (Hill's clean vocals being the exception to the rule, as are some very rare instances elsewhere – check album closers “Mirrors”, ”Desensitise” and “Severance”, as well as in “Prey”), then by all means check things out. You might even find the band interesting enough to go watch 'em play live, eh? And the possibility to see the band in Europe is very real, as the guys (who already did a UK headliner tour with Malevolence and The Charm The Fury as supports in November of last) will be out touring in Germany with Thy Art Is Murder from January 15 on, and on their way back to England will be passing through Belgium (playing in Brussels) and France (show in Paris).