The Combination

Dead Man’s Hand is on the tail-end of the popularity often associated with uncomplicated death metal such as The Haunted or something like “Slaughter of the Soul,” minus the quality or freshness one might expect from either entity. Their musical fabric represents an assortment of thrash-inspired death metal with palpable touches of melody, and “The Combination” is their average effort at equating these variables into a suitable package. Overall, I am not too fond by what I hear despite Dead Man’s Hand giving a semi-respectable take on the angle; a lot of stuff like this is horrendous, yet these dudes give modern metal a little justice, although it isn’t very satisfying. “Little justice is still justice,” said the wise man, right?

“The Combination” begins with “Capaci Bomb,” and immediately a red flag flies up: Dead Man’s Hand jumps into a pseudo-thrash/death metal riff with bass-snare percussion and your typical Scandinavian shout/screamer; nothing fantastic or original by any means. What will be now known as the Capaci Bug spreads throughout the remaining nine tracks like wildfire until every song has the same formula intact. On some of the longer songs, Dead Man’s Hand divulges into breakdowns or Pantera mimicry, which doesn’t do anything for the record’s instability in positive terms, because any form of neck-throbbing movement will suddenly stop for the banal structures, and furthermore slow down any progress “The Combination” has made thus far. There isn’t much to the record’s foundation either, because each song sways between two or three equally-standard sections before ceasing the sub-par attack. Call At the Gates and tell them Dead Man’s Hand isn’t putting their legacy in jeopardy. Yes, I’m certain.

In summary, I’d say “The Combination” isn’t a disastrous recording, but it certainly is not a good one. Everything is too generic, too bland, too predictable, and too void of substance. On the other hand, some of their clowning around turns out to be beneficial: good, thrashy riffs appear every now and then, a chorus emits positive catchiness, or the vocals give an assaulting edge to “The Combination,” for instance. As for standouts, “Bloodstained Hands” reminds me a bit of Metal Blade-era Impious based on the harsh riffing and overall tempo portrayed by their unrelenting violence, and I say it is the best track “The Combination” has to offer although Dead Man’s Hand remains paradoxically simple and instrumentally feeble as well.

Unfortunately, “The Combination” becomes predictably insipid and mediocre after “Bloodstained Hands” ends, so expecting another “Slaughter of the Soul” isn’t a recommended aspiration; the useless scheme jumpstarts shortly thereafter, and then the tepid assessments take total control over Dead Man’s Hand’s universe. Perhaps I am being quite harsh though, because Dead Man’s Hand pulls out a surprise or two unlike a lot of these poppy death/thrash bands with a melodic outlook, so you might want to give it a shot if you REALLY love The Haunted or similar bands. This reviewer, however, didn’t feel so blessed, and will probably never listen to “The Combination” again.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

This is the debut of the thrashing Norse death metal squad Dead Man's Hand. On offer are 10 tracks of mid to fast paced thrashing speed with some melodic death metal influence, in particular the vocal style of Dag Carlsen. While it's not quite impressive or original, the album is a solid enough fist to the face that fans of rocking bands like The Haunted, At the Gates, Carnal Forge or the more modern Slayer riffing will get some kicks from it.

The real focus here is the unending thrash onslaught of guitarists Jon Carlsen and Martin Kandola. They weave some fun rhythms during the faster material, though the breakdowns are often underwhelming. Some of the better songs on the album include "Capaci Bomb", "Hostile Respect", "Castigate", "Taste the Metal" and "Knuckledusted". I enjoyed all these tracks, but there others like the Pantera-styled intro of "The Last Stand" which were somewhat of a turn-off. Usually even these songs pick up for a few riffs though. I'm also not thrilled by the vocals, they alternate between a melodeath snarl and a straight up death growl. Neither of these is especially bad, but the vocal patterns don't really do a lot of justice to some of the tracks.

The album has a good tone to it with the crisp and cutting guitars. The bass hovers somewhere lower in the mix and isn't much of a presence for many of the songs. The band cites a pretty wide array of thrash and death metal influence, but I found myself associating this with a less exciting version of The Haunted or Carnal Forge. If you lap up releases by those bands, then you may want to give The Combination a shot, you'll probably get more out of it than I did. They're not a bad band by any means.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com