Review Summary: Hand To Hand is set to be the next great band to explode into stardom from Lifeforce, following such bands as Between The Buried And Me and Trivium. They bring fresh dynamics into their base genre and expand them into something as masterful as this.
What do the bands Thrice, The Almost, Dredg, and Underoath have in common? Lifeforce Records listed Hand To Hand for fans of all four of those bands; Lifeforce goes on to say that the band blends elements of contemporary hardcore, rock and roll, and old school metal. Like all record label claims, you should be advised to take this with a grain of salt. The best way to label this band is either Post-Hardcore or Emocore, whichever you prefer. Hand To Hand, hailing from Orlando, FL, released their follow up to
A Perfect Way To Say Goodbye, which was followed by Alternative Press nominating them as one of their “Bands To Watch”,
Breaking The Surface on July 22nd. Is all the hype really worth it?
The album starts with a sample and a clean guitar riff that leads into blast beats behind it on “
Dufresne, Party Of Six”. The harsh vocals are some of the best vocals I have heard in the genre this year. The clean vocals are even better during the chorus and some of the verses. After the first chorus break there is a punk drumbeat. So far, the label has been spot on as far as the elements are concerned. The opening track shows why this band is being hyped in Outburn, Revolver, Decibel, AP, and AMP, and the rest of the album does not disappoint.
Another great element with Hand To Hand is the acoustic guitar strumming at the beginning of “
Shark Week”. They then toss in some psychedelic influence a bit further into the song. Hand To Hand has some great musicianship and pulls everything off really well. They also have a tact for writing wonderful lyrics. The only low point of the EP is the opening clean vocals on “
Paint This Town Black”; they just seem lackluster and unenergetic. The band regains itself and finishes the song off well with a technical guitar riff that leads into a relaxing mellow vibe.
Chalk up another win for the label with the classic rock vibe found on the opening vocals of “
Bullets For Teeth”. The label really got it right on this one; there are experimental elements from Thrice, mellow elements from The Almost, and the heavy elements from Dredg and Underoath. The final track, “
Romantic Comedy”, has this vibe at the beginning that is just wondrous but hard to explain. “Romantic Comedy” rivals only “
Dufresne, Party Of Six” as the best song on the album. The two songs do bookmark, however, a great listening experience as a whole.
Hand To Hand is set to be the next great band to explode into stardom from Lifeforce, following such bands as Between The Buried And Me and Trivium. They bring fresh dynamics into their base genre and expand them into something as masterful as this. There are a few flaws, beginning of “
Paint This Town Black” and the bass hardly being heard, but the good points in the rest of the EP outweigh them. The guitars and vocals are amazing, the drums have great timing and tact, and the bass is not really heard. This EP gives the listener a taste of their current sound as they eagerly gear up for their sophomore full-length release.
Recommended Tracks
“Dufresne, Party Of Six”
“Bullets For Teeth”
“Romantic Comedy”
