Open Hand "The Dream" CD
[Trustkill]
This CD collects this California band's two EP's, "Evolutions" and "Radio Days" (originally released by American Propaganda Records), along with one extra track and a brand new layout and all that jazz. I will start out by saying that my only fault with this material is that the songs can tend to sound similar to one another in many instances. However, that being said, this band is insanely diverse in the styles that they flawlessly combine within each and every song. Be it melodic metal riffs, post-hardcore chord progressions, emo catchiness, acoustic guitars, samples, spacey effects that sound almost like synthesizers, amazing vocal harmonies, singing, screaming, detailed layering techniques... whatever. It's all here, and it's pretty damn impressive. The entire 45 minutes can get slightly tiresome at points, but it's still painfully evident that this band is amazingly promising. "Life as Is" immediately won me over with its semi technical riffing and gorgeous vocal harmonies, not to mention its infectious chorus. This one's a winner through and through, and easily the standout track of the album. "11th Street" is slightly more direct and catchy as far as the songwriting goes, "The Struggle" has some really interesting female background vocals with sort of an ethnic flare, and as "Never Alone" comes to a close there's a brief segment of silence before things fade back in with samples amidst ambient textures that sound like keyboards to me (though they could be heavily treated guitars). The production on the first five songs is pretty good. The drums are slightly rigid, and the guitars can be a tad thin, but the vocals sound great and the mix is really clear. I'd crank the bass up to add density to the middle and beef everything up, but that's really it (aside from warming up the kick drums and what have you). The production on the latter half of the disc isn't quite as bright, but it's still solid and I like the density. This thing has the craziest booklet I've ever seen. The whole thing is diecut so that each page is cut into a different size/shape and all three layers overlap one another and overlap the CD (for four overlapping layers total), creating a 3-D sort of popup book effect. Fucking awesome. The vibrant colors and crisply detailed artwork make things all the more interesting. There's not a whole lot of space, so of course the lyrics aren't included, just a band photo on the back of the booklet, and some small text tucked inside the booklet regarding the recording information and stuff like that. My prediction? This band will be on a major label and rather popular within a few years, complete with a super polished pristine recording and a set of songs that will probably blow these off the map. (7/10)
Running time - 46:55, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Life as Is, The Struggle, 626]
Trustkill Records - http://www.trustkill.com

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