Heartless Bastards Issue #29

All This Time (Fat Possum)

By Chris Pacifico
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

In 2005, Cincinnati trio Heartless Bastards came out of leftfield and released their solid debut, Stairs and Elevators, a greasy and grimy assortment of beefy and sometimes bluesy garage rock. Frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom proved to be a double threat with her guitar licks and sultry, soaring voice. It set the ambience most apt for a dingy and rowdy dive bar in the middle of nowhere, yet managed to abstain from sounding brutish.

Now the band has most assuredly taken their artistry a couple of pegs higher with All This Time, dodging the curse of the sophomore slump with a bit of a gloomy primer that is more enticing and haunting.

Bands tend to roll the dice of fan loyalty when it comes to their own creative evolution, but Heartless Bastards keep their grittiness in tact on tracks like the sprawling “Finding Solutions” and the road-trip blues sound of “All This Time.” Drummer Kevin Vaughn brings forth the delicately impending thunder through the album while Wennerstrom’s riffs are more elastic now than on Stairs, most notably on the drafty jamming on “Blue Day.”

To those who have never heard Heartless Bastards, the band may not be able to live up to their name. But once the tunes sink in, it becomes abundantly clear that they can still hobnob and mingle with those who are just what their name suggests.