Day: July 25, 2017

Feasting On Dark Intentions is the title of the debut album by the interesting Hands Of Thieves: originally released as a tape version last year (Transylvanian Tapes), it was first re-released on vinyl (Baneful Genesis Records) and finally in this month of July on CD (Hellthrasher Productions). The band from Portland has two musicians that we have already crossed in Ephemeros (funeral sludge band author of the excellent All Hail Corrosion in 2013) in the persons of vocalist Josh Greene and guitarist Jesse Dylan Aspy: in this case the sound shifts decidedly towards a harsh black doom, in which a sludge component is always present but is effectively counterbalanced by the harshness of both vocals and sound approach, raw and wild as often, across the ocean, can offer in the best way. The work, as you can guess, is not stuff for refined palates, as the four tracks, on average quite long, oscillate between black outbursts and muddy slowdowns that repress at birth any melodic temptation: it follows that, in both phases, the sound is quite direct and compelling, although far from catchy. The first and the last track (Wrath Weaver and Conduit Of Grief) are the two episodes that most favorably impress, also for their rhythmic alternation that finds its trait d’union in the deaf rage that hovers over the whole work. Not bad at all this first step of Hands Of Thieves, and after all sometimes you need to let yourself be shaken by someone who doesn’t go too much by the wayside, as these guys from Oregon do.

2017 – Hellthrasher Productions / Transylvanian Tapes / Baneful Genesis Records