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Hand To Hand
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A Perfect Way To Say Goodbye
Lifeforce Records
Release: 2/22/2005
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Rated:
Review by:
Morley Seaver
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Wow. What a surprisingly great debut for a new band. This
record has it all - great vocals, some screamo vocals for the
kids, melody up the wazoo and solid production. Oh yeah,
and great songs.
Hand To Hand hails from Orlando, Florida and is made up of
Robert Kellom (vocals), Brock Berryhill (guitar/vocals), Jay
Vilardi (guitars), Steve Martin (bass), and Zach Swain
(drums).
While the first 15 seconds or so of the record start off like
your average screamo fare, it quickly differentiates itself
from the pack. Clearly there's a lot going here. "Preamble"
kicks off this set with some throat shredding and a twin
melodic guitar combo. There's a killer chorus here that had
me singing along the second time I heard it. The band really
has an ear for walking that thin strip between melody and
heaviness. Amazingly, Robert Kellom does both singing and
the screaming and is quite adept at both.
"A Silver Medal" is one of the best cuts with a great hook
and the band sounding more potent as a unit than on any
other cut. "Bravo" features such wailing, it's a wonder
Kellom didn't disengage his lungs from their casing. "In A
Name" is a really great cut that stands out from the rest of
the set, more singing on this one than screaming.
While some of the cuts do possess a bit of the same
screaming/singing format that becomes a bit faceless
(especially in the first half of the record), each song has a
unique part to make it different. In the future, I think the
guitarists could be challenged a bit more. There's nothing
outstanding here, six-string wise, although they get the job
done adequately. Maybe it's not called for within the
material, but I think they show such promise that the next
record could be really special.
The boys show they've also got a sense of humour with the
inclusion of a rendition of "O Holy Night" (sung by persons
unknown) that brings to mind many horrible karaoke bars.
It's stuck on the end of an instrumental, which closes out the
record. While I'm sure it was put on there for a joke, I
strangely keep playing it. The crash and burn on the high
notes is extremely endearing. It pissed off a lot of people,
I'm sure. So it had validity, if only for that.
James Paul Wisner, who has also worked with Dashboard
Confessional and Underoath, produced the record. He does
a good job sound wise, except I would have cranked the
bass a lot more and the drums up slightly.
This is an extremely strong set of songs from a band that
has so much upside you want them back in the studio as
soon as possible. Start writing, boys. In the meantime, this
will get played - a lot. |
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