Review by Rachel Jablonski
Angels and demons, melodic and hardcore, beautiful and hideous. Think of a pair of polar opposites and there you have the debut full-length release, A Perfect Way to Say Goodbye, from Orlando, Florida’s Hand to Hand. Melodic hooks and upbeat riffs intertwined with heavy guitars, robust drums, and gruff vocals, Hand to Hand has created an album with well put together tracks entangled with others that are lacking in substance. Produced by James Paul Wisner (Further Seems Forever, 36 Crazyfists), A Perfect Way to Say Goodbye is a love/hate listen with songs both proficient, and deficient, jumbled throughout the release.
The album begins beautifully with a good tune called “Preamble.” One of the strongest songs on the album, “Preamble” displays the band’s capability of creating good and heavy guitar based tunes among both melody and screams. That day when angels did sing the verse proclaims, foreshadowing the song’s opposing track, the last and worst track on the album, “Confiding in a Whisper.”
“Confiding in a Whisper” begins innocently enough with the sweet sounds of an acoustic guitar. The track is completely instrumental and not too bad until in breaks the most horrific rendition of “O Holy Night” I have ever heard. One of my favorite Christmas songs, the singing of it is absolutely unbearable to listen to. I’m talking worse than bad, HORRIBLE. The singer of the song is not in the band, he is just some random person screeching and cracking all over the place. If you want a headache, listen to the song and if you don’t, don’t. Perhaps added to the end of the album as a humorous exit, the attempt is unfortunately ineffective at best. Other songs on the album, though none near as tasteless, tend to be borderline as well.
“Allude” is a song that sounds promising with a hard edge, but as it progresses the UMPH behind the sound is lost. The slight sing-song melody seems to weaken the track and as a whole the song simply is missing some needed element. “Predictable Gathering” has a similar effect. But continuing with the polar opposite trend of the album, along with the weak are the strong.
The extreme rock/metal guitar, double bass, and screams of “A Silver Medal” seem to better fit the band and in fact the track redeems the album. The band seems to let go on this song throwing it all out there. A darker feel is present rather than the more upbeat riffs that are more common on the release. As a result, the instrumentation flows much better. Along these same lines, “The Arson” and “Insult with Injuries” are also well put together songs with a mix of quick tempo verse and slower chorus. “In the Name” is a softer, slower song altogether with an overwhelming amount of singing. The song is very upbeat and incorporates involved drums that create an interesting addition to the sound.
When listening to A Perfect Way to Say Goodbye, the polar opposites involving song effectiveness stand out tremendously. Melodic and hardcore vocals, a mix of well done and less effective songs, and sometimes upbeat, sometimes darker guitars reveal an unstableness that is difficult to form a solid opinion about. A major frustration also stems from the fact that the music on the album is often good, but oftentimes the screams are distracting, taking away from the highlights of the guitar and drum sounds. I would assume any listener is sure to recognize some polar opposites both musically and lyrically in A Perfect Way to Say Goodbye, but I have found that the more the album is listened to, the more the melodic/hardcore debut can be appreciated.