With Dead Hands Rising Behind Inquisition

Okay, my first thoughts when inserting this disc into my CD player were “This has gotta be grindcore!” Why would I pose such a question to myself Well, the band has long song titles, yet the track listing on the back of the CD is printed in such a way that it looks like there’s double the amount of songs. Does this all matter in the grand scheme of things No. But I mention it because I went into the record with a preconceived notion, and came out with a different appreciation, and that’s one of life’s most precious surprises when it comes to music! With Dead Hands Rising isn’t grindcore. They’re more of a death-metalcore mix. And as soon the music filled my apartment, I said to my roommate, “Dude, this sounds a lot like Burnt By The Sun.” That’s because singer Colin Strandberg abuses his throat in much the same larynx-destroying manner as BBTS’s inimitable Mike Olender. On record, and in this case, "Behind Inquisition," Strandberg positions himself as a rather formidable frontman. His death growls are the centerpiece of the music, which is pretty standard metalcore: riffs fired off in machine-gun succession with strategically placed breakdowns ripe for moshing. "Behind Inquisition" sounds like the kind of hardcore you hear at a Sunday matinee at a VFW hall somewhere in New Jersey, with 50 bands playing on the bill that day. With Dead Hands Rising pack a lot of bark and a lot of bite into their album, and it needs to be played at full blast to be thoroughly enjoyed. “Tourniquet Girl” posts the most feral of breakdowns near the end of the song, while “A Ghost For The Broken Hearted” toes the line between death metal and hardcore without a net. For a brief second, this song reminded me of Bleeding Through. After two listens to this record – back to front- I found myself saying, “I have heard this style so many times, but it’s done well by these guys.” I guess I’m just a sucker for a barrage of brutish guitars. Regarding the layout and lyrics… the CD booklet comes on this impressive hard stock paper, and the internal photo of the band isn’t very clear, which I like, because it casts a shadow on the individual member’s faces and you can’t see them clearly. The lyrical content spends more than a few fifty-cent words and turns of phrases, but it all comes from a well-thought out place. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that With Dead Hands Rising is smarter than your average bear. Bottom Line: That said, if you like Evergreen Terrace, Unearth, Burnt By The Sun, and Bleeding Through, then you should be satisfied with With Dead Hands Rising. They’re metal. They’re hardcore. They’re good. But then again, so are a lot of bands these days.