Valiant Hearts take us over "Yonder" with new record

“Yonder,” is the newest full-length by Russian-Australian duo Valiant Hearts. The band features Tom Byrne on vocals and the visual arts side as well as Igor Serovasha covering the instrumentation. It’s their third record and first I’ve ever heard but myself as well as readers of this blog are likely familiar with Byrne’s other band, Galleons, who put out top five albums for me personally in 2020 with Metropolis, then again just last year with their self-titled record. All that out of the way, though, as I said I had never heard any Valiant Hearts material other than the couple of singles at the tail end of 2021 but got a similar vibe to Galleons so I was pretty excited to get into this.

The opening moments of the record on “Elysium” are fairly back and forth and a good sign of what’s to come. When you hit play on the record you’re greeted with this guitar riff that they bring back later as an outro and I do appreciate it there but as an opener feels like an instrumental half thought. The electronic bits that follow and lead into a bigger reintroduction make for a really diverse and compelling ride. The first line on the whole project;

“Everyone thinks they don’t belong, then they realized they did all along.”

Sets the song up to be just a normal hopecore message but Byrne does get introspective here too. We do get a bit more detailed with lines like;

Walking through the snow my footprints ought to show where I’ve been and where I’ll go.”

It’s clear it was written with at least somewhat a personal experience in mind but crafted so that you can draw your own inspirations from it. Speaking of delivery, the pre-chorus here in a lot of ways is more catchy and infectious than the chorus, I was singing along to that “everyone thinks they don’t belong” section by about the second listen. Instrumentally it’s a strong lead too especially at the two and a half minute mark where we show some beautiful and intricate guitar work.

While the chorus on “Deadlus” would have felt right at home on that Galleons self-titled release,  there’s two distinct properties to the track the solidify Valiant Hearts as its own entity from this point forward. First off there’s sections here where Byrne is rapid-fire spitting to the point he’s almost rapping as opposed to his normal soulful delivery. Then there are passages on this track that aren’t afraid to get just heavy, bordering on straight metalcore with vicious screams and fast-paced instrumentation. Speaking of intensity, there's something to be said about Serovasha’s use of it, or rather where they do not. For example when they use a kick pedal they teeter on it coming in and out as opposed to it just being a constant factor beating you down on a given part of a song. This makes it so you’re more drawn to the heavy parts as you aren’t getting what you expect every time.

“Banshee” is a pretty standard post-hardcore song but what really makes it stick out is this feature from Yosh of Survive Said the Prophet and the Final Fantasy VII Remake theme fame. What makes this such a stand-out feature is that it actually doesn’t stand out at all. I didn't really notice a second voice until I did the notes taking listen through of this record but I mean that in the best way. The dynamic between these two is similar to ways I’ve seen people talk about Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie of Underoath in that the two of them sound so much like they’re on the same level that their voices match right up with each other. You know it’s there if you look for it but if not you get the same energy.

Right from the beginning, “Elevated Being” earns its title with its soft vocals leading light programming followed by a colossal, almost nu metal reintro. For a core song to clock in at four and a half minutes it has to really warrant it’s run time and this so does, we go through quite the journey for the entire thing. The hook;

“I’m everywhere and nowhere all at once.”

Later;

“I’m everything and nothing all at once.”

Feels like it should really start to overstay its welcome with the amount of times it's used but it's placed in all the right ways. The mid section of the track progresses into a totally different song, which, gets heavy, approaches a breakdown but never quite gets there and leaves you suspended in that moment. A moment which has lasting impact in yet another positive use of negative space, it's what isn’t there that makes you really feel the moment. It never arrives at peak intensity but the quality is there. This, for sure, is the strongest song on the record and could have easily been the opener.

On “Floraison,” I like that Byrne is bringing back that rap-like delivery, it’s a stand out feature on the project that keeps things fresh. Not that their usual soulful delivery isn’t beautiful just as a listener I want a bit more variety. That being said, on the pre-chorus;

“The sun has set so fast, the day has all but passed, the sky turns to overcast.”

He’s so over delivering that his voice almost cracks and between that and the very strange forced-rhyme scheme it just comes off as awkward. That being said however, I’m liking the intro with it’s far off scatting and peaceful instrumentation. Instrumentally, Serovasha brings one of his strongest workings on the record as a whole right here. It’s laced with brilliant guitar work and everytime that vocal is over delivered, right in the background you’re hearing some of the best post-hardcore you’ve heard in a long time. That and it’s impressively diverse every moment feels like a totally new song yet it all weaves together so cohesively.

There is another standout feature on “Karma” in joeytyl3r of VRSTY. This is a more classical feature in terms of this music scene where he just has a verse but delivers it so well with that same energy he takes to his own project. On Byrne’s end the rapid-fire delivery is once again present but joey matches him beat for beat. There is a masterfully-crafted instrumental frame built around the;

“Not everyone can be a butterfly when you’re the same inside. You’re still the same person you’ve always been and I know that I will die.”

Line and the delivery itself that makes me nostalgic for a certain era of scene features.

“Unrequited Love” is a beautiful track that I truthfully sort of wrote off on earlier listens. At five minutes a track built upon one instrumentation and vocal melody can seem a bit like a lull passively but given my full attention a lot of the repetition started to go away. It has some wonderful keyboard work as well so many nice little intricacies hidden throughout what I think is a beautiful narrative. The song has really won me over as a favorite on the album.

If you want to start anywhere on Valiant Hearts, I’d actually recommend “Supernova” over any of the singles. This song is a showcase of all the best pieces that make up this band in their strongest showing. There is an incredible chorus as well as Byrne being his most quick and on point lyrically and yes, he does spit some rap-like vocals again. Serovasha is on fire instrumentally and delivers some real swancore-like intensity in terms of never turning the shredding off, he even delivers a guitar solo on this one. The programming and production aspects are all calculated and placed in the perfect places. The outro too, as someone who hates fade outs, becomes distant and descends while still having a sense of closure. The entire song does nothing of real innovation but shows this band at their absolute summit.

The beginning of “Welcome Oblivion” has a different vibe than the rest of the songs that I can’t quite put my finger on. That isn’t the only thing Valiant Hearts mixes up on this cut though, as it has the record's only true breakdown, which reminds me of another band. I don’t mean to use this review to point fingers and I’m in no way accusing anyone of copyright, this is more an open point of discussion. The breakdown on this track sounds like a variation of “Define Alive,” a single by a metalcore band that was once local to me, A Faylene Sky. On the Galleons self-titled there was a track or two that made me think this family of musicians was in tune with that band and given their sound and influence; that would make sense. That comes from a very specific MySpace era of the scene. I always thought it to be total coincidence but now with another similar sound that’s more of a variation I really wanted to talk it out.

“Vertigo” uses a strategy similar to “Elevated Being” in that we have a string section that transitions away into a huge post-hardcore intro but we keep bringing that string section back in interesting ways. The chorus and mid-sections both use those strings at new speeds and productions that it always feels fresh despite it being new notes. Overall, this is another peak performance on the band’s part. There is another guitar solo, this time a bit on the progressive side with some pedal effects kicking in. Lyrically we’re exploring the feeling of being lost in space and having no one be able to help you from floating forever, which is obviously a metaphor but God if Byrne doesn’t sell it like he’s been through it. That and it’s another one of these moments on the record that are in a way long but earn the entire run time.

“Yonder” closes us out and might have my favorite opening moment of any other track. The song begins with this very lo-fi and chill vibe then becomes post-hardcore but not quite heavy. Every element presented on the album before this is here again, only now they feel very much like a finale. We also bring the Galleons connection full circle with a Phil Bayer feature who featured on a single off the self-titled record I’ve referenced before. Similar to Yosh before him, Bayer really blends in with Byrne and I think the dynamic really works.

I think the criticism of this record I’ve seen most of all, that I didn’t really touch on, is that it feels bloated but no one knows what they would cut. I 100% agree, it does feel bloated but I know exactly what can go. Note I totally skipped over “Windwaker” and “Phaedra” in my track-by-track walkthrough. Those two songs are good, yes but they also sort of just blend in with the scenery and at an almost hour runtime we can’t really afford any dead weight. Without those two we’d be in the forties for minutes and it would feel fine. I can also understand why people don’t know what songs don’t quite fit in as it didn’t hit me until I listened with the intent of finding them.

Overall, this record sort of feels like two musicians throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and a whole lot of it does. Even though I feel there is fat to trim, I find this to be another win from this family of bands. That and with two Galleons wins in a row and now this record to feed off of right from the start of the year, maybe I’m satiated off of this group of artists for awhile. Though with the work ethic they’ve demonstrated I’m sure some other record will be out before new years. All that aside, it’s a record I like more and more the deeper I explore it and I’m sure it’ll stick around for most of this year.

Follow Valiant Hearts on Twitter

Follow me on Twitter

2022 Release Radar