The Handshake Murders – Usurper

The Handshake Murders
Usurper
Goodfellow Records
9/10




A bitter, pointed jab of skin-piercing aural amplitude makes the music of The Handshake Murders the sonic equivalent of eating barbed wire (or as the album cover indicates, puking screws).

Rat-maze rhythms and suffocating contortions of sound are to be found in bountiful quantities throughout “Usurper,” as The Handshake Murders makes their move in redefining the clever, ear-bending insanity delivered by comparison acts like Coalesce. “Painted Contortionist” offers a unique twist on homicidal intelligencia, churning and fashioning sonic structure into knots.

Meanwhile, “Messenger” melds gruff battery with rubber-band riffing and virulent, violent tonal abstractions. Meshuggah devotees will find a new sort of kick upon amidst the hoarse screams and warped licks of the suitably jagged “Mind Bender,” a cut that slices the air like softened butter and repeatedly thumps like a busload of steel-toed boots.

There’s still room enough amongst the pack of bizarro metal bombardiers for the sort of abstract creative binge that The Handshake Murders has undertaken. Followers of tech metal will discover that “Usurper” gives a whole new meaning to the words “Do the twist.”

By: Musclehead