Infinite Shuffle

I first heard House of Heroes a couple of years ago when I still had my little, portable XM player and would constantly record hours of programming from the XMU/SiriusXMU station.

I eventually downloaded The End Is Not the End, their third full-length album, at some point in early 2009. But I never gave it a proper listen until now.

I immediately remembered which song first stirred my interest in the quartet from Columbus, Ohio.

House of Heroes – If

When I started doing research on the band, I was disappointed to see that they’re often considered a Christian alt-rock band. While there’s nothing wrong with that, as an atheist, I’m usually immediately turned off anytime I hear a band described as “Christian.”

As far as their actual sound, you wouldn’t necessarily know they have any particular religious leanings. While listening to them, I just kept imagining them up on a stage at the Warped Tour — since they sound like any number of the modern emo-punk bands that are out and about these days.

Of the “related artists” listed by Amazon.com, I’ve only heard of a few of them, and I don’t really know much about them other than that they would fall into the aforementioned Warped Tour genre.

According to drummer Colin Rigsby, some of House of Heroes’ influences are The Beatles, Queen, Muse, Bruce Springsteen and The Clash. Personally, the only band I could detect in their music was the occasional grandiosity of Muse.

If my less-than-objective review hasn’t turned you off of the band, go check out their MySpace page.

They’ll be releasing their fourth album, Suburba, on Aug. 3 of this year.

I may or may not check it out.