New Years Day
– Half Black Heart
Half Black Heart arrives as a full-length release in form, yet functions as a career-spanning set that gathers originals, re-recordings, and covers rather than presenting a single, unified studio statement. The Album features new material recorded with a reunited original lineup and including singles released over a couple of years, but it’s a cohesive album, not just a collection of past hits.
Best of…
Half Black Heart hits with clenched intensity and a sharp emotional edge. The album locks into modern hard rock through thick guitars, driving rhythms, and vocals that channel defiance with theatrical bite. Every song leans into pressure and release without softening the impact.
The production keeps everything forward and physical. Riffs strike with weight and clarity. Drums snap hard and steady. Ash Costello’s voice anchors the record, shifting between controlled menace and open-throated hooks that stick through repetition and force of personality.
Lyrically, the album circles obsession, rupture, and self-command. The writing favors blunt declarations and charged imagery, matching the music’s directness. Half Black Heart stays focused on momentum and mood, shaping a record that thrives on confrontation and catharsis.
A fierce, hook-driven rock record that thrives on pressure, attitude, and emotional grit.
Choice Tracks
Vampyre
Opener, tone-setter, and immediate shot of adrenaline. “Vampyre” comes barreling in like a bat out of a Hot Topic warehouse, full of dirty chugs and lyrics that straddle the line between comic book and confessional. Costello leans into her vamp persona with teeth bared, and the band backs her with relentless force. It’s loud, it’s fun, and it dares you not to take it seriously.
Half Black Heart
The title track opens with a grinding riff and a tense rhythmic pulse that sets the album’s mood. Vocals cut through with controlled fury, shaping a chorus built for repetition and release. The song stands as a mission statement driven by resolve and raw nerve.
Hurts Like Hell
An anthem in waiting. Crunchy guitars, a massive hook, and just enough pop shimmer to make it radio-friendly without neutering it. Costello’s voice carries a bitter edge here—half heartbreak, half threat. It’s the kind of song you scream in your car with the windows down, daring the night to look back at you.
Secrets
The tempo drops a bit, but the drama doesn’t. “Secrets” plays with restraint before exploding into a defiant chorus. It’s one of the more melodic tracks on the record, and it works because it lets the emotional tension simmer instead of boil. Gothic but grounded.
Fearless
Just when you think the album might start softening, this track throws a punch. It’s brash and muscular, with a swagger that recalls the band’s earlier material but sounds more assured. It’s not about being invincible—it’s about being sick of being scared. That’s a very human, very loud sentiment, and New Years Day makes it feel heroic.
Skeletons
This song leans into darker tones through crawling riffs and a heavy low end. The chorus rises with melodic force, driven by vocal hooks that linger. Its strength comes from balancing tension with release while keeping the emotional stakes front and center.
Half Black Heart delivers modern hard rock with force and focus, driven by thick riffs, pounding rhythms, and commanding vocals. New Years Day builds a record rooted in confrontation, emotional release, and hook-heavy intensity from start to finish.
Ash Costello isn’t trying to save rock with Half Black Heart—she’s trying to punch it awake with mascara-stained gloves and just enough pop gloss to confuse your local metalhead. The album wears platform boots to stomps all over your expectations. After a stretch of lineup changes and style pivots, New Years Day finally sounds like a band with something to prove and zero patience for decorum.
The production is slick without feeling hollow, and the riffs are hotwired straight from the early 2000s—but with better brakes. Costello’s vocals flip between siren and banshee with control that feels earned, not engineered. She’s singing about pain, vengeance, inner battles, and she makes sure you don’t mistake any of it for performance. Even when she dips into theatricality, there’s a grit underneath that saves the songs from sounding rehearsed. It’s emo-metal with a vengeance, glam-punk’s snarl caught in an industrial meat grinder.
There’s a balance here, precarious but intentional. Heavy without collapsing under its own gloom, catchy without pandering. You can hear echoes of Evanescence, In This Moment, and Halestorm—but none of those bands would’ve called a record Half Black Heart. That title alone tells you this band is still dancing with its inner demons, but this time they brought a mirror ball.