The Handshake Murders
Usurper
Goodfellow Records
2007
Combining different puzzle pieces of Metalcore, Death Metal, and some
mathcore-esque breakdowns comes Arkansas' The Handshake Murders. These
guys bludgeon with monstrous stop and start riffs and pounding drums that have
all the subtlety of battering ram at the castle gates. Meaty riffs and
galloping drums pound away at my flesh, especially on songs like Messenger and
Mind Bender (my favorite track). The guitars coil and unfold before
contorting into another blood drenched transmutation all the while the drums
bounce up and down with the intense thump of the double bass. This is an
effective combination at first but after awhile though the constant stream of
changing riffs and over the top brutality cause the songs to blend together and
the whole album seems like one continuous 32 minute long song. Another
aspect I could do without is the constant Korn inspired guitar squeals that have
been proliferated throughout the album. Usurper contains a lot of really
powerful mosh breakdowns which would go over like a storm in the live
environment. And this is where I think this album wears its heart on its
sleevel because it feels like and sounds like an album designed for the mayhem
and chaos of the pit and the cavernous acoustics of a packed and sweaty concert
hall. Usurper has a really thick sound to all its instruments but they
have sort of an organic feel to them almost like the audio impression of Clay:
heavy and thick, yet malleable. The Handshake Murders sound to me like
Destroy the Machines era Earth Crisis would if they had been raised listening to
Meshuggah having a guitar battle with Malevolent Creation. They have
ratcheted up the brutality of their peers and laid a top rope smack down on the
metalcore scene. Like a baseball bat with nails embedded in it, They'll
smash in your face and "Rip your throat out."