Hands Like Houses - Dissonants

Post-Hardcore over the last few years, with its combination of electronica and emo metal, has quickly taken over the music scene. Bands who perform in this genre are face being a rash: sometimes so unbearable, you have to scratch the painful irritation. Other times, you find your shot in the dark and get a pleasant itch in, relieving you from your struggle. Hands Like Houses find themselves in the middle of this spectrum with their new album, Dissonants.

Hands Like Houses blend a variety of sounds into their third record. Opener track ‘I Am’ opens the album strongly, having strong choruses with lots of great background details that make them even more monumental. The lead guitar work is pretty good in this song; nothing too flashy, but adds a strong melodic element to the song that intensifies it. A thriving djenty section comes in near the end and brings the song to its epic climax. ‘Glasshouse’ is similar in its hugeness, having a massive breakdown and powerful vocals. These two songs are on a whole different level of the album, while most of the other tracks stand at a pretty level tone. Most of the album gets pretty bland as isn’t far too interesting. The song ‘Degrees Of Separation’ is the final highlight that gives the album one more big moment, along with a sweet message, but other than that, there’s nothing much else to the album. ‘Motion Sickness’ edges the Thirty Seconds To Mars/Bring Me The Horizon influences that found it’s way on the latter’s That’s The Spirit, albeit, in a less cohesive way. The album has a lot of sweet endings to songs, such as the end of ‘Stillwater’, but that doesn’t stop ‘Momentary’ from being a single delay pedal away from being the intro riff for a U2 song.

Dissonants isn’t the strongest album of the year, but it’s still a good one. The album has some sour moments and is overall nothing too special. Each track kind of blends into the next and there’s no clear change of pace, save a few moments, and it really brings the album down. 

Favorite Tracks: Glasshouse, I Am, Degrees Of Separation

Least Favorite Tracks: Stillwater, Colourblind

Rating: 7/10