Labels: Standard Form
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Here’s one that has been sitting in my pile for more months than I care to count. Which is absurd, because this seriously, fucking rules. Place Hands is pure Canadamo – think Mach Tiver, Beaumont Hamel, Shotmaker, Blake, Griver… or to cross the border for a moment, REDS, especially in the male vocals. This is mid to fast paced, loud emo – hefty riffs and tight grooves, with a little math to vary the tone. The vocals are boy-girl tandem, both getting desperate and heart felt, working perfectly together. Opening track “Detroit Heap” sets the pace and things go on from there, as it has me shaking in my chair to the groove. Spot on. Things just spiral on from there. Songs tend to build to climaxes, piling the guitar and the vocals on in a careful fashion, and before you know it each song has reached it’s peak and careened on into the next one. This album never really lets up, it’s a tightly wound ball of concern and emotion, always focused and expectant. The moments of pause are few and far between, and it is all the better for it.
8 songs, most of them at least 4 and a half minutes long, this isn’t an album for those bereft of attention, but when Place Hands are nailing their sound, they are doing as good a job with it as you’ll have heard in a while. Get your chest tap warmed up, this album is intense.