HE STRETCHES OUT THE NORTH OVER THE VOID AND HANGS THE EARTH ON NOTHING

The Third album of Handwrist starts differently from the previous two: the opener doesn't have the heavily distorted guitar which is in almost all the tracks of the first two and also in many tracks here. Well, there's a bit here too, but the remarkable thing is that with just two major chords and a slow crescendo of the percussion volume, "Northernmost" can mantain the listener's attention for the first half of the track. Then the lead guitar is added with a bit of the usual distortion. I have compared Handwrist with SENMUTH already. They use similar sounds, sometimes close to industrial metal. On is side HANDWIRST doesn't have the dark esotheric obsession for ancient civilizations, obscure knowledges as the Russian has. So the Portuguese is allowed to put clean guitar riffs in his songs, like on the final part of this track.

I imagine the "Limbo" as a quiet place. The second track features the distorted guitar I mentioned before, in alternance with more calm sung parts. Also the voice is distorted by an effect. It's a good song, with long instrumental parts changing from melodic to hard and back. The way he can integrate the screaming into the melody is remarkable. I feel a post rock vein, more than psychedelic, but when it slows down to give the lead to a bluesy clean guitar, it's psychedelic enough.

"Bones" is another bluesy song, quite 70s oriented, but with the distorted guitar in foreground. I remind a similar mood in some tracks of BEVIS FROND, but the repetitive base gives it also a Krautrock flavor. A very interesting song.

"Lull" is an appropriate title. There is industrial noise in background, a nice melody, drumming in post-rock style and a clean lead guitar with a bit of reverb. Things come and go in the first half, then a rock interlude transforms it into a sort of death metal scream. Disorienting. Like passing from Neal Morse to Arcturus.

The title "Void" recalls the biblic album title, but unfortunately I can't catch the lyrics because of the distortion on the voice. The choice of sounds is very important for this artist. The same tracks would sound very different without the effects used. I'm not very familiar with the screamo, even if I personally know some singers doing it, so what to me appears original may be normal instead. I mean superposing screaming to melodies. Anyway, also in this song there's a strong metal element which united to the psychedelic efforts of the lead guitar creates a very singular mix.

"Nothing" is again part of the biblic sentence which gives the title to the album. It's opened by what I call "industrial noise". It's very close to the SENMUTH's style, but this kind of sounds can be found also on ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE. At least until drums, bass and guitar enter after 3 minutes and half, when the reference to Senmuth is no longer valid.

The last track "River" opens Floydian. After the keyboard intro one could expect to hear Gilmour. What follows is not so floydian, instead. It makes me think to a lot of things, so there's no sense in mentioning other artists. The first three minutes are very good. I would have liked to have more of this, but there's a sudden change into a darker realm leading back to another melodic section, just darker than the initial one.

A very solid release.