Heroes Wanted

The second album by Swedish pop-punk trio Neverstore sounds very much like what would happen if a generic mall punk band in the Fall Out Boy tradition hired a drummer who had previously been in a lot of Scandinavian-style speed metal bands. The only particularly distinctive aspect of Heroes Wanted is that even on slower songs like the power ballad "Hold On" and the quasi-emo "Run and Hide," drummer Eric Lantz bashes away like a man possessed; even on the string-driven "Waiting," their attempt at something akin to Green Day's "Good Riddance," he comes storming in. On the faster stuff, like the breathless opener "Rockthefool" and the jittery "Over and Out," the blastbeats come double-time at least. Unfortunately, the drumming is mostly notable because otherwise, Heroes Wanted is utterly ordinary pop-punk that's downright boring in its entirely adequate competence. There's nothing wrong with Heroes Wanted — just about every song on the album would sound just fine in the background of an episode of The Hills — but it's hard to remember anything about it half-an-hour after the album is over.