The Columbus, Ohio alt-rockers started out as a punk band called Plan B in 1996, when lead vocalist/guitarist and bassist AJ Babcock was in high school. Nate Rothacker was the band’s first drummer. Colin Rigsby replaced Rothacker on drums in 1998, and the band changed their name to No Tagbacks. The band released their only album as No Tagbacks in 2001, Ten Months, with the label Four Door Entertainment.

In 2003, they changed their name once again to House of Heroes, and released their first album under their current name, What You Want Is Now, with Vanishing Point Records. The band signed with Gotee Records soon after, and went on to release five full length albums, 3 EPs, and a B-sides album with Gotee and its imprint Mono Vs Stereo, from 2005-2013. Over time, the band went from the punk sound that they started out with to a more pop-rock sound.

After the release of B-sides album The Knock-Down Drag-Outs, the band left Gotee Records and released a solo EP, Smoke, in 2014. In July of 2016, the band released an independently crowdsourced concept album, Colors. They partnered with BadChristian Music for the distribution of the album.

The current members of House of Heroes are Tim Skipper (lead vocals/guitar), Colin Rigsby (drums/vocals), Eric Newcomer (guitars/vocals), AJ Babcock (bass/vocals, studio only), and Matt Lott (bass/vocals, live only). Twenty One Pilots drummer Josh Dun toured with the band from March-October 2010, during the Awake Tonight tour with Skillet and TobyMac.

House of Heroes' influences include The Beatles, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, and Muse.

Although they spent a majority of their career on a Christian label and have received airplay on Christian radio, the band does not consider itself to be Christian. Tim Skipper stated in an interview:

We’re Christian people, and we play rock and roll music.

In an April 2016 interview with BadChristian, Skipper said that the band never set out to be Christian, and that not everyone in the band currently is Christian.