The Handshake Murders - Usurper
Style: Technical Metalcore
Running Time: 32 Minutes 20 Seconds
Label: http://www.goodfellowrecords.com
As innocuous as Metalcore is these days, very few bands can honestly put out an effort without it being rife with absolute stagnation for the genre. Is it a dead genre and are people beating a dead horse ? Thats for you to decide in all honesty. Every year there are more bands playing the same breakdowns and same open D's everyone has become pretty used to by now. Some bands break the molds and unfortunately for The Handshake Murders they aren't doing anything too spectacular on this release. 32 minutes of Meshuggah-esque stop and start riffage with little to no real innovation or change to the pattern. These songs feel like they would be right at home on the next A Life Once Lost record, with very little change and who knows maybe ALOL heard this and went 'Shit they stole our gig...' But I digress, the music is rather uninspired end of story.
There are more than a few times on "Usurper" where The Handshake Murders display a rather uncanny knack for sheer aggression within their music. To be quite honest the entire album is heavy as a really heavy thing... but when The Handshake Murders entire rhythm section syncs up and the albums intensity is at its height you can't help but at least bob your head a little to the beat. For as stale as the riffing is there is no real fault in displaying your influences on your bands collective sleeves. However relying too heavily on your predecessors musical inclinations rather than creating your own will site a bit of fault in most peoples eyes.
Not much can honestly be said about this release its fairly repetitive throughout and honestly I made it through the album three times in a row thinking i was listening to three or four songs. It gets rather boring about four to five songs in and though the intensity is still displayed from time to time, it's just not enough to save the sinking ship that is The Handshake Murders first full length album "Usurper".
Score: 4.5/10
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