Pittsburgh's Hero Destroyed will release their debut, "Throes," via Relapse on August 31. The band recorded in their native Western Pennsylvania and their music is an urgent, clangy, clattery collection of hair-curling noise with a whole mess of brains. Some song titles include 'The Last Upper,' 'That's An Axe,' 'Army of Draccoons,' 'Cerberus' and 'Dom Wampus.'

"This album is a complete collaboration with every member of the band," guitarist Zach Moore told Noisecreep. "I think we challenged ourselves creatively and technically and gave ourselves more freedom to experiment. We never worry about trying to make a song fit in a certain way. The only thing we try to do is make sure each song has its own tone or feel to it, so each song can stand on its own, but still sounds like us." Moore also said 'Throes,' comparatively speaking, "is heavier and smarter, in a sense" than their EP. "We're looking forward to letting people hear what we've been up to," he said.

Naming an album is never an easy democratic process. But when tossing around ideas for the album name, 'Throes' was actually at the top of everyone's short list. "It might have been one of the easiest decisions we've ever made. It just seemed to fit with what we are and what we've been doing," Moore said.

Hero Destroyed have been on a wee bit of a break from making music, but with good reason. "Dustin, our bass player, is in Alaska working on a fishing boat. He'll be back around the time of the album's release, and we'll start doing shows again," Moore said. Maybe he can make a seafood gumbo for fans. We kid, we kid.

Right now, Hero Destroyed's hometown is garnering its fair -- or not so fair, depending on what jock or diehard you ask -- share of attention for its fallen hero, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who received a six-game suspension for conduct deemed unbecoming an NFL employee. If you've ever been to Pittsburgh, you'll recognize (and fast) that the Steel City worships its sports teams. The dedication and devotion is iron-clad, so it was crucial to ask a local how the city is reacting now that the Stanley Cup champion Penguins were booted from competition just as their star quarterback was being vilified for his off-field actions.

"The Pittsburgh sports scene ground to a halt after the Pens were eliminated from the playoffs," Moore said. "The Pirates might never win another game, and who knows what the Steelers will bring with missing Ben for the first four to six games. People in Pittsburgh were very upset and were calling for Ben's release, but it seems everyone has calmed down now and put the pitchforks away. But he will have to do a lot of work to overcome his mistakes and earn any amount of respect with the fans. At least he made it on 'South Park.' That's gotta count for something."

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